Del. Kelly Fowler

Commending the Virginia Manufacturers Association.

Commending the Reverend Anthony Curtis Paige.

Study; Virginia State Crime Commission; hatecrimes and bias-motivated acts directed toward Asian Americans andPacific Islanders; report. Directs the Virginia State Crime Commission to study the increase in hate crimes and bias-motivated acts directedtoward Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the Commonwealth.

Administration of government; language accessequity; report. Establishes the Interagency Language Access WorkingGroup in the Office of the Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusionwith the following membership: the Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, the Director of the Office of the Children's Ombudsman, the Governor's Secretaries, and six nonlegislative citizen membersrepresenting organizations that represent individuals with languageaccess needs. The Working Group is established for the purpose ofmaximizing state policies, resources, technical assistance, and procurementpractices to further language access and equity in the Commonwealthand its state government agencies. The bill also requires each stateagency to designate a language access coordinator who will be responsiblefor the agency's annual language access report, the requirements ofwhich are set out in the bill. The Secretary of Administration isdirected to establish criteria for state agencies to procure languageinterpretation and translation services and to establish a policyfor compensating multilingual state employees who are required aspart of their job to provide interpretation, translation, or otherbilingual skills at least once a month.

Victim of sex trafficking; affirmative defense;writ of vacatur; minors. Makes changes to the definitions ofvictim of sex trafficking used for the purposes of the issuance ofa writ of vacatur and the affirmative defense available to victimsof sex trafficking to include a minor charged with, convicted, oradjudicated delinquent of a qualifying offense in the Commonwealthwho committed such offense while younger than 18 years of age.

Powers of local government; trees during development process; replacement and conservation. Expands to all localitiesprovisions that currently allow only certain localities to adopt anordinance providing for the planting and replacement of trees duringthe development process and adds more flexibility for implementationand management of tree canopy banks, tree canopy credits, and treecanopy requirements. The bill changes and updates standards, referencedocuments, and published reference texts, expands options for localitiesto disburse funds to charitable organizations, and adds percentage specifications for ordinances related to cemeteries. In addition,the bill removes the prohibition of invalidating local ordinancesadopted before July 1, 1990, the allowance of 10-year minimum requirementsfor pre-1990 ordinances, and the inability to invalidate an ordinanceadopted that relates to the replacement of trees during the developmentprocess in certain localities. The bill allows ordinances that havebeen made pursuant to the law prior to the effective date of the changes in this bill to not be invalidated by the changes. The billrequires the Virginia State Forester to create standards for treecanopy percentages and to select members for the Stakeholder Advisory Group, established by the bill to provide recommendations on suchstandards. Some provisions of the bill become effective on July 1, 2022, and some have a delayed effective date of January 1, 2023.

Elections; removal of officers; recall elections;petition. Provides for the removal of certain elected officersand officers appointed to elected offices by recall referendum. Thebill requires a petition for recall be signed by 30 percent of thetotal number of votes cast at the last election for the office forwhich a recall is sought.

Virginia Residential Property Disclosures Act;Real Estate Board; residential property disclosure statement form.Requires the residential property disclosure statement form developedby the Real Estate Board and maintained on its website to includea statement signed by the parties acknowledging that the purchaser has been advised of the disclosures listed in residential propertydisclosure statement. Under current law, the form that contains thestatement to be signed by the parties is not required to be includedwith the residential property disclosure statement form.

Provision of credit monitoring services to certain taxpayers; emergency. Directs the Department of Taxation to offer,free of charge, credit monitoring services for a period of 12 monthsto any taxpayer whose personal identifying information was erroneouslyprovided to a person other than the taxpayer on an IRS 1099-G form.The bill contains an emergency clause, and will expire on July 1,2023.

Sex Trafficking Response Coordinator; Human Trafficking Victim Support Certification Program; victim service providers. Requires all victim service providers working or volunteering for a treatment program for victims of human trafficking, including sex trafficking, to obtain a human trafficking victim support certificate through the Human Trafficking Victim Support Certification Program developed by the Sex Trafficking Response Coordinator within the Department of Criminal Justice Services and to renew such certificate through the Program every two years. The bill also provides that all treatment programs for victims of human trafficking, including sex trafficking, shall ensure that all victim service providers working or volunteering for such program obtain and maintain the required human trafficking victim support certificate and that any treatment program that is not in compliance may be ineligible for grants from the Commonwealth available for treatment programs for sex trafficking or any other form of human trafficking. The bill requires any person who is a victim service provider working or volunteering for a treatment program for victims of human trafficking, including sex trafficking, prior to July 1, 2022 to obtain a human trafficking victim support certificate by July 1, 2024. The bill requires the Sex Trafficking Response Coordinator to develop and oversee the Program and establish compulsory minimum training standards for such program.