Rep. S. Chris Jones

Requires the Virginia Conflict of Interest and Ethics Advisory Council to meet upon the call of the chairman or when a majority of Council members request a meeting. Current law requires the Council to meet quarterly or upon the call of the chairman. This bill is identical to

Allows a parent or legal custodian of a minor to delegate to another person by a properly executed power of attorney any powers regarding care, custody, or property of the minor for a period not exceeding 180 days. The bill provides that a parent or legal custodian who is a service member, as defined in the bill, may delegate such powers for a period of longer than 180 days while on active duty service, but specifies that such a period is not to exceed such active duty service plus 30 days. The bill provides that any such power of attorney shall be signed by all persons with authority to make decisions concerning the child, the person to whom powers are delegated under the power of attorney, and a representative of a licensed child-placing agency that assists parents and legal guardians with the process of delegating parental and legal custodial powers of their children. The bill specifies that such licensed child-placing agency will be subject to background checks and must develop and implement written policies for certain services and provide staff and provider training. The bill further requires that any person to whom any such powers are delegated shall comply with background check requirements established by regulations of the Board of Social Services or otherwise provided by law.

Changes the requirement that the Governor submit certain bond bills concurrently with the submission of his Budget Bill, or his gubernatorial amendments to the Budget Bill, to require that the Governor ensure that prefiled bond bills are submitted to the Chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations and the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance for such bond legislation. Currently, the Governor is required to submit on the same day his Budget Bill or his proposed amendments thereto are submitted any bond bills authorizing additional indebtedness if the bonds are authorized under or are to be repaid from revenues or appropriations contained in his Budget Bill or his proposed amendments thereto. This bill is identical to

Authorizes issuance of bonds in an amount up to $17,500,000 for revenue-producing capital projects at institutions of higher education. The bill contains an emergency clause and is identical to

Prohibits localities from including areas designated as Resource Protection Areas in accordance with the State Water Control Board in a cluster zoning density calculation and provides that nothing in the statute shall require a locality to allow a greater overall density for a clustered development than would be required on a non-clustered development.

Prohibits any person from holding a handheld personal communications device while driving a motor vehicle. Current law prohibits only the reading of any email or text message and manually entering letters or text in such a device as a means of communicating. The bill expands the exemptions to include handheld personal communications devices that are being held and used (i) as an amateur radio or a citizens band radio or (ii) for official Department of Transportation or traffic incident management services.

Establishes the Commission on Student Behavioral Health as a legislative branch commission. The purpose of the Commission shall be to (i) assess the efficacy of developing and implementing a statewide behavioral health and suicide prevention hotline that students may use to report threats of violence or receive real-time counseling services; (ii) review the current school counselor-to-student ratio, and whether the realignment of counseling responsibilities proposed by the House Select Committee on School Safety is improving schools' ability to provide counseling services to students; (iii) review the current roles and responsibilities of school nurses, psychologists, and social workers in schools and determine whether a realignment of responsibilities could improve or streamline behavioral health services offered to students; (iv) evaluate the efficacy and costs of providing enhanced behavioral health services in schools delivered through partnerships established between school divisions and local departments of social services and community services boards; (v) assess the effectiveness of de-escalation and other alternative disciplinary policies when interacting with students suffering from behavioral health challenges; (vi) examine the value of additional teacher training requirements on student behavioral health, such as mental health first aid; and (vii) examine other topics related to student behavioral health identified by the Commission. The Commission shall consist of 12 members as follows: seven members of the House of Delegates, of whom two shall be members of the House Committee on Health, Welfare and Institutions, two shall be members of the House Committee on Education, two shall be members of the House Committee on Appropriations, and one shall be a member at-large, to be appointed by the Speaker of the House of Delegates; and five members of the Senate, of whom two shall be members of the Senate Committee on Education and Health, two shall be members of the Senate Committee on Finance, and one shall be a member at-large, to be appointed by the Senate Committee on Rules. The Commission may appoint, employ, and remove an executive director and such other persons as it deems necessary and determine their duties and fix their salaries or compensation within the amounts appropriated therefor. The Commission may also employ experts who have special knowledge of the issues before it. All agencies of the Commonwealth shall provide assistance to the Commission, upon request. The bill has an expiration date of July 1, 2021.

Creates the Commonwealth of Virginia Research Consortium Authority (the Consortium) to oversee and support research and commercialization in the Commonwealth. The Consortium will be advised by an Investment Advisory Committee and a Research and Technology Advisory Committee. Existing grant, loan, and investment funds currently administered by the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Investment Authority and the Virginia Research Investment Committee would be consolidated under the Consortium, and the Consortium would be responsible for the Commonwealth Research and Technology Strategic Roadmap. The Consortium would also be responsible for allocating research-related funds to the Virginia Biosciences Health Research Consortium and the Commonwealth Center for Advanced Manufacturing. The bill repeals the existing Virginia Research Investment Committee and the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Investment Authority.  The Center for Innovative Technology would move under the authority of the Consortium. A stakeholder group would be appointed to oversee the transition to the Consortium, and the Governor would be authorized to appoint an interim chief executive officer of the Consortium based upon the recommendations of the stakeholder group.