Wage or salary history inquiries prohibited; civil penalty. Prohibits a prospective employer with 25 employees or more from (i) requiring as a condition of employment that a prospective employee provide or disclose the prospective employee's wage or salary history, (ii) attempting to obtain the wage or salary history of a prospective employee from the prospective employee's current or former employers, (iii) requesting a prospective employee to complete an application for employment that includes a question inquiring about the prospective employee's wage or salary history, or (iv) asking a prospective employee in an employment interview any question intended to obtain information about the prospective employee's wage or salary history. Violations are subject to a civil penalty not to exceed $100 per violation. This bill incorporates HB 326 and HB 802.
Sponsored bills
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.
Expungement of police and court records; misdemeanor convictions. Allows a person convicted of a misdemeanor to filea petition requesting expungement of the police and court recordsrelating to the conviction if (i) such person has been free from any term of incarceration, probation, and postrelease supervisionimposed as a result of such conviction for at least two years and (ii) such person has no pending criminal proceeding. The bill alsorequires the court to grant such petition for expungement of policeand court records if such petition is for a misdemeanor arrest, charge,or conviction. Currently, except in certain cases, the person isnot entitled to an order of expungement, and the court hearing thepetition must find that the continued existence and possible disseminationof such records causes or may cause circumstances that constitutea manifest injustice to such person before such an order will beentered.
Department of Corrections; earned sentence credits. Establishes a four-level classification system for the awarding and calculation of earned sentence credits. The bill requires the calculation of earned sentence credits to apply retroactively to the entire sentence of any inmate who is confined in a state correctional facility and participating in the earned sentence credit system on July 1, 2020. This bill incorporates HB 1370.
Possession of marijuana. Allows for possession of small amounts of marijuana for personal use.
Virginia State Justice Commission; purpose; membership. Renames the Virginia State Crime Commission as the Virginia State Justice Commission. The bill also expands the purpose of the Commission to include studying, reporting, and making recommendations in the areas of diversion, rehabilitation, reentry, collateral consequences of conviction, and equity and fairness in the criminal legal system. The bill reduces from six to three the number of House of Delegates members and adds to the Commission the executive director of the Virginia Indigent Defense Commission or his designee, the Superintendent of State Police or his designee, and one nonlegislative citizen member to be appointed by the Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security with an expertise in offender rehabilitation, reform, and reentry.
Maximum term of probation. Limits to fiveyears the term of probation for a person convicted of an offenseother than a violent felony, an act of violence, or an offense forwhich registration with the Sex Offender and Crimes Against MinorsRegistry is required.
Veterans and active duty members of the ArmedForces; teachers; credit for service. Requires each local schoolboard to give any veteran or active duty member of any of the ArmedForces of the United States or the Commonwealth who it employs asa teacher in the local school division credit for any time servedin any such forces in determining such teacher's step on the localschool division's teacher salary scale.
Health insurance; association health plans. Providesthat for policies of group accident and sickness insurance issued to anassociation, members of such an association may include (i) a self-employedindividual and (ii) an employer member (a) with at least one employee that isdomiciled in the Commonwealth or (b) that has a principal place of businessthat does not exceed the boundaries of a metropolitan area that is at leastpartially in the Commonwealth. The bill provides that for such policies issuedto an association that covers at least 51 members and employees of employermembers of such association on the first day of the plan year the policiesshall be considered a large group market plan and are required to meet variousprovisions in the bill. The bill provides that to determine the size of anassociation all of the members and employees of employer members are aggregatedand treated as employed by a single employer.The bill requires an insurer issuing a policy to anassociation to (1) treat all of the members and employees of employer memberswho are enrolled in coverage under the policy as a single risk pool; (2) setpremiums based on the collective group experience of the members and employeesof employer members who are enrolled in coverage under the policy; (3) varypremiums by age, except that the rate shall not vary by more than 5 to 1 foradults; (4) not vary premiums based on gender; (5) not establish discriminatoryrules based on the health status of an employer member, an individual employeeof an employer member, or a self-employed individual for eligibility orcontribution.The bill requires the Commissioner of Insurance to, within 90days of the enactment of the bill, apply to the U.S. Secretary of Health andHuman Services for a state innovation waiver under the federal PatientProtection and Affordable Care Act, P.L. 111-148, to implement the provisionsof the bill. The provisions of the bill regarding association health plans willbecome effective 30 days following the date the Commissioner of Insurancenotifies the Governor and the Chairs of the House and Senate Committees onCommerce and Labor of federal approval of such waiver.
Consumer lending. Replaces references to payday loans with the term "short-term loans." The measure caps the interest and fees that may be charged under a short-term loan at an annual rate of 36 percent, plus a maintenance fee; increases the maximum amount of such loans from $500 to $2,500; and sets the duration of such loans at a minimum of four months, subject to exceptions, and a maximum of 24 months. Short-term loan licensees are required to make a reasonable attempt to verify a borrower's income and may not collect fees and charges that exceed 50 percent of the original loan amount if such amount is equal to or less than $1,500 and 60 percent of the original loan amount if such amount is greater than $1,500. The measure amends the requirements for motor vehicle title loans, including requiring licensed lenders to use a database to determine a prospective borrower's eligibility for a loan and prohibiting loans to a borrower who has an outstanding short-term loan. The measure sets a 36-percent annual interest rate cap on open-end credit plans and allows a $50 annual participation fee. A violation of these provisions is made a prohibited practice under the Virginia Consumer Protection Act. The measure amends provisions of the Consumer Finance Act to, among other things, allow licensed lenders to use the services of access partners and establish requirements that loans be between $300 and $35,000; be repayable in substantially equal installment payments; have a term of no fewer than six and no more than 120 months; charge not more than 36 percent annual interest and a loan processing fee; and require licensees to post a bond. The measure prohibits credit service businesses from advertising, offering, or performing other services in connection with an extension of credit that has an annual interest rate exceeding 36 percent, is for less than $5,000, has a term of less than one year, or is provided under an open-end credit plan. The bill has a delayed effective date of January 1, 2021, and requires any person who would be required to be licensed under the provisions of the act to apply for a license by October 1, 2020. This bill is identical to SB 421.