Del. Sally Hudson

Celebrating the life of Paul Morton Gaston.

Celebrating the life of the Honorable GeraldL. Baliles.

Health insurance; mandated coverage for hearing aids for minors. Requires health insurers, health maintenance organizations, and corporations providing health care coverage subscription contracts to provide coverage for hearing aids and related services for children 18 years of age or younger when a licensed audiologist prescribes such hearing aids and related services. The coverage includes one hearing aid per hearing-impaired ear, up to a cost of $1,500, every 24 months. The measure applies to policies, contracts, and plans delivered, issued for delivery, or renewed on and after January 1, 2021.

Pipeline construction; certification requirement; minimum diameter; stop work orders. Reduces from 36 inches to 24 inches the minimum inside diameter of a natural gas transmission pipeline for which an individual Virginia Water Protection Permit, rather than a general permit, is required to conduct activities in wetlands or state waters or an additional upland activity certification is required to obtain a Clean Water Act Certification. The bill reduces from 15 percent to 10 percent the minimum grade of a slope on which any construction activities will trigger the requirement for such additional upland activity certification. The measure requires the Department of Environmental Quality, within five business days of the issuance of a stop work instruction, to notify the pipeline company of specific corrective measures that shall be completed and approved by the Department before any land-disturbing activity may be resumed. The bill authorizes the State Water Control Board, in addition to the Department, to issue such stop work instructions and adds requirements and restrictions on any further construction once such an instruction is issued.

Virginia Public Procurement Act; definitions; best value; clarification. Amends the definition of best value in the Virginia Public Procurement Act.

Study; Department of Rail and Public Transportation; Commonwealth Corridor passenger rail service; report. Requeststhe Department of Rail and Public Transportation to study the feasibilityof an east-west Commonwealth Corridor passenger rail service connectingHampton Roads, Richmond, and the New River Valley.

War memorials for veterans. Removes a prohibition on (i) disturbing or interfering with any war monument or memorial erected by a locality or (ii) preventing citizens from maintaining such monument or memorial. The bill authorizes a locality to remove, relocate, or alter any such monument or memorial on the locality's public property upon the affirmative vote of its governing body, regardless of when the monument or memorial was erected, and removes certain criminal and civil penalties for such removal, relocation, or alteration. The bill also restricts bringing a cause of action pursuant to such penalties to the attorney for the locality in which the memorial or monument is located. Current law authorizes any person having an interest in the matter to bring such action if no action is brought within 60 days of the violation. The bill repeals an 1890 act of assembly related to the placement of a statue in the City of Alexandria. This bill was incorporated into HB 1537.

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.

Possession of marijuana. Allows for possession of small amounts of marijuana for personal use.

Protective orders; issuance upon convictionsfor certain felonies; penalty. Authorizes a court to issue aprotective order upon convicting a defendant for a felony offenseof (i) violating a protective order, (ii) homicide, (iii) kidnapping,(iv) assaults and bodily woundings, (v) extortion, or (vi) criminalsexual assault. The bill provides that the duration of such protectiveorder can be for any period of time, including up to the lifetimeof the defendant, that the court deems necessary to protect the health and safety of the victim and may only prohibit (a) acts of familyabuse or of violence, force, or threat against the victim or criminaloffenses that may result in injury to the person or property of thevictim and (b) such contacts by the defendant with the victim asthe court deems necessary for the health or safety of the victim.The bill provides that a violation of a protective order issued uponconviction of one of the enumerated offenses is punishable as a Class1 misdemeanor.