Collective bargaining by firefighters and emergency medical services providers. Authorizes firefighters and emergency medical services providers employed by a political subdivision of the Commonwealth to engage in collective bargaining through labor organizations or other designated representatives. The bill establishes the Fire Service Cooperation Board to administer its provisions. The bill provides for the appointment of a three-member board of arbitration regarding any dispute arising between an employer and firefighters or emergency medical services providers. Under the bill, determinations made by such board of arbitration are final on a disputed issue and are binding on the parties involved. The bill has a delayed effective date of January 1, 2026.
Del. Alex Askew
Sponsored bills
Health insurance; coverage for breast examinations for high-risk individuals. Requires health insurance carriers to cover diagnostic breast examinations and supplemental breast examinations, as those terms are defined in the bill, based on sound medical practices for any high-risk individual, as defined in the bill, without cost sharing under certain insurance policies, subscription contracts, and health care plans delivered, issued for delivery, or renewed in the Commonwealth on and after January 1, 2026. The bill provides that such examinations include examinations using a health care provider's choice of diagnostic mammography, breast magnetic resonance imaging, or breast ultrasound. This bill was incorporated in HB 1828.
Transportation infrastructure and projects; noise analysis. Requires the Commonwealth Transportation Board or the Department of Transportation to begin a noise analysis within one year of receipt of a valid petition for a noise analysis. The bill also requires a noise analysis for any retrofit noise abatement project undertaken or considered by the Board or the Department.
Average teacher salary in the Commonwealth; national average. Requires the Governor's introduced budget bills for the 2026 and 2027 Regular Sessions of the General Assembly to propose funding for, and state funding to be provided pursuant to the general appropriation act enacted during any regular or special session of the General Assembly during 2026 or 2027 to fund, the Commonwealth's share of compensation supplement incentives for Standards of Quality-funded instructional and support positions sufficient to increase the average teacher salary in the Commonwealth to at least the national average teacher salary by the end of the 2026-2028 biennium and establishes a detailed timeline and process for satisfying such requirement.
Commonwealth Mass Transit Fund; Hampton Roads Transportation Accountability Commission. Creates a new allocation from the Commonwealth Mass Transit Fund for the Hampton Roads Transportation Accountability Commission, adjusts the amounts of certain other allocations from such Fund, and removes the light rail system operated by the Transportation District Commission of Hampton Roads from eligibility for funds from such other allocations from such Fund. The bill requires the Commonwealth Transportation Board to withhold 20 percent of the funds from such new allocation unless the Transportation District Commission of Hampton Roads submits to it certain information annually. The bill directs the Department of Rail and Public Transportation, for fiscal year 2027, to reserve and utilize certain funds in amounts necessary to provide certain supplemental operating assistance to certain transit providers that would experience a reduction in allocable funds due to the reallocations in this bill. The bill has a delayed effective date of July 1, 2026.
Emergency Response Exposure Grant Fund and Program. Creates the Emergency Response Exposure Grant Fund and Program to award grants to localities to support certain emergency responders who were exposed to a qualifying emergency, defined in the bill. The bill requires funding to be used for annual cancer screenings and health care expenses incurred by eligible emergency responders, defined in the bill, in the event such emergency responders are diagnosed with cancer from toxic material exposure. The bill permits funding to be used for out-of-pocket medical expenses not otherwise covered by insurance, workers' compensation, or other available funding. The Department of Fire Programs shall administer the Fund and Program.
Study; Department of Small Business and Supplier Diversity; small business set-asides; report. Directs the Department of Small Business and Supplier Diversity to study small business set-asides and their effectiveness in promoting the growth and economic development of small businesses through participation in government contracting. For purposes of the study, \"small business\" includes women-owned and minority-owned businesses.
Virginia Retirement System; enhanced retirement benefits for 911 dispatchers. Allows local governments to provide enhanced retirement benefits for hazardous duty service to full-time salaried 911 dispatchers. The bill provides that such enhanced retirement benefits apply only to service earned as a full-time salaried 911 dispatcher on or after July 1, 2026, but allows an employer, as that term is defined in relevant law, to provide such enhanced retirement benefits for service earned as a full-time salaried 911 dispatcher before July 1, 2026, in addition to service earned on or after that date. The bill has a delayed effective date of July 1, 2026.
Motion picture production tax credit. Increases the aggregate cap on the motion picture production tax credit allocated in each fiscal year from $6.5 million to $8.5 million beginning in fiscal year 2025.
Local anti-rent gouging authority; civil penalty. Provides that any locality may by ordinance adopt anti-rent gouging provisions. The bill provides for notice and a public hearing prior to the adoption of such ordinance and specifies that all landlords who are under the ordinance may be required to give at least two months' written notice of a rent increase and cannot increase the rent by more than the locality's calculated allowance, described in the bill as the maximum amount a landlord can increase a tenant's rent during any 12-month period, in effect at the time of the increase. The bill sets such allowance as equal to the annual increase in the Consumer Price Index or seven percent, whichever is less, states that such allowance is effective for a 12-month period beginning July 1 each year, and requires the locality to publish such allowance on its website by June 1 of each year. Certain facilities, as outlined in the bill, are exempt from such ordinance. The bill also requires a locality to establish an anti-rent gouging board that will develop and implement rules and procedures by which landlords may apply for and be granted exemptions from the rent increase limits set by the ordinance. Finally, the bill provides that a locality shall establish a civil penalty for failure to comply with the requirements set out in its ordinance.