Criminal sexual assault; definition of intimateparts. Includes in the definition of "intimate parts," for thepurposes of criminal sexual assault, the chest of a child under theage of 15.
General Assembly meetings; streaming and recording. Requires the Clerk of the House of Delegates and the Clerk of theSenate to ensure that every (i) subcommittee or committee meetingof a standing committee of the General Assembly, regardless of meetingdate, and (ii) floor session of the House of Delegates or the Senate,including any joint session of the houses, is streamed with closedcaptioning, recorded and archived. The bill defines "stream" and specifiesthat a qualifying meeting is one the date and time of which havebeen scheduled on a public website of any agency of the General Assemblyfor at least one hour prior to the meeting and that takes place inthe State Capitol, the Pocahontas Building, or the General AssemblyBuilding in Richmond. The bill has a delayed effective date of October1, 2020.
Historical African American cemeteries; City of Chesapeake. Adds one cemetery in Chesapeake to the list of cemeteries for which qualified organizations may receive funds from the Department of Historic Resources for the care of historical African American cemeteries and graves. The cemetery is Cuffeytown Cemetery, containing 52 eligible graves. This bill was incorporated into HB 1523.
Virginia Diverse Educator Scholarship Fund and Programestablished. Establishes the Virginia Diverse Educator Scholarship Fund andProgram, to be administered by the State Council of Higher Education forVirginia, for the purpose of annually providing to each Historically BlackCollege or University in the Commonwealth (Hampton University, Norfolk StateUniversity, Virginia State University, and Virginia Union University) such sumsas are necessary for each such institution to annually provide scholarships ona competitive basis to no more than two students who (i) identify as AfricanAmerican, Asian, Hispanic or Latino, Native American or Native Alaskan, orNative Hawaiian or Pacific Islander; (ii) are accepted to or enrolled in suchinstitution's education preparation program; and (iii) are eligible for afederal Pell Grant to attend such institution. The bill provides that each suchscholarship would consist of the following sums: (a) the cost of tuition,mandatory fees, room and board, and textbooks at such institution; (b) therecipient's teacher licensure fees; (c) $5,000 toward teacher professionaldevelopment activities for the recipient, including coursework, seminars, andconferences; and (d) $10,000 toward mentorship of the recipient by anexperienced teacher who is deemed by the relevant school board to be highlyeffective and able to provide high quality mentorship. The bill requires eachstudent who is awarded a scholarship pursuant to the Program to agree inwriting to (1) teach in a public elementary or secondary school in theCommonwealth in which at least half of the enrolled students qualify for freeor reduced price lunch or are members of families whose income is below the federalpoverty guidelines established by the U.S. Department of Health and HumanServices upon graduation for a period that is at least as long as the periodduring which the recipient used scholarship funds to attend a HistoricallyBlack College or University and (2) be mentored by an experienced teacher, asdescribed in clause (d), during such period of employment.
Presidential electors; National Popular Vote Compact. Enters Virginia into an interstate compact known as the Agreement Among the States to Elect the President by National Popular Vote. Article II of the Constitution of the United States gives the states exclusive and plenary authority to decide the manner of awarding their electoral votes. Under the compact, Virginia agrees to award its electoral votes to the presidential ticket that receives the most popular votes in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The compact goes into effect when states cumulatively possessing a majority of the electoral votes have joined the compact. A state may withdraw from the compact; however, a withdrawal occurring within six months of the end of a President's term shall not become effective until a President or Vice President has qualified to serve the next term. This bill was incorporated into HB 177.
Virginia Information Technologies Agency; Cybersecurity Advisory Council created; report. Creates the Cybersecurity Advisory Council to (i) assist the Chief Information Officer (CIO)of the Virginia Information Technologies Agency with the developmentof policies, standards, and guidelines for assessing security risks,determining appropriate security measures, and performing securityaudits of government electronic information; (ii) make recommendationsto the CIO regarding strategies to strengthen the Commonwealth'scybersecurity; and (iii) analyze and investigate breaches of theinformation technology security of any independent agency or anyagency or other entity within the executive branch, legislative branch,or judicial branch of state government. The bill requires the Councilto submit an annual report to the Governor and the General Assembly.
Project labor agreements; public procurement. Authorizes any state or local government, when engaged in procuring products or services or letting contracts for construction, manufacture, maintenance, or operation of public works, to require bidders to enter into or adhere to project labor agreements on the public works projects. This bill was incorporated into HB 358.
Right to reproductive choice. Provides thatevery individual has a fundamental right to choose or refuse contraceptionand that a pregnant person has a fundamental right to choose to carrya pregnancy to term, give birth to a child, or terminate a pregnancy.The bill states that the Commonwealth shall not, in the regulationor provision of benefits, facilities, services, or information, denyor interfere with an individual's fundamental rights, including individualsunder state control or supervision. The bill states that any stateor local official who is charged with violating provisions of thissection shall be subject to an action in federal or state court forinjunctive relief and damages. Such action may be brought by any person or entity that may be aggrieved by such official's actions.
Cybersecurity; care and disposal of customer records; security for connected devices. Requires any business to take all reasonable steps to dispose of, or arrange for the disposal of, customer records within its custody or control containing personal information when the records are no longer to be retained by the business by shredding, erasing, or otherwise modifying the personal information in those records to make it unreadable or indecipherable. The measure requires any business that owns, licenses, or maintains personal information about a customer to implement and maintain reasonable security procedures and practices appropriate to the nature of the information in order to protect the personal information from unauthorized access, destruction, use, modification, or disclosure. A violation of these requirements constitutes a prohibited practice under the Virginia Consumer Protection Act. The measure also requires a manufacturer of a device or other physical object that is capable of connecting directly or indirectly to the Internet to (i) equip the device with reasonable security features, (ii) demonstrate conformity with industry standards for cybersecurity and resiliency, (iii) provide an opt-in forum or registration capability to allow consumers to know when a vulnerability or breach is discovered, (iv) make patch notification and end-of-life support events easily obtainable by registered users of the manufacturer's connected devices, and (v) when it is aware of existing vulnerabilities that put more than 500 users at risk, notify the office of the Chief Information Officer of the Commonwealth and provide remediation steps to consumers without unreasonable delay. The bill has a delayed effective date of January 1, 2021.
Children's online privacy protection. Prohibits any person who operates a website for commercial purposes and who collects or maintains personal information from or about the users of or visitors to such website or online service from releasing personal information collected from minors for any purpose, except where the personal information is provided to a person other than an operator that provides support for the internal operations of the website, online service, online application, or mobile application of the operator, excluding any activity relating to targeted marketing directed to minors, and does not disclose or use that personal information for any other purpose. The measure also requires operators to establish and maintain reasonable procedures to protect the confidentiality, security, and integrity of personal information collected from children. A violation is a prohibited practice under the Virginia Consumer Protection Act. The measure has a delayed effective date of January 1, 2021.
