Sen. John A. Cosgrove, Jr.

Commending the Virginia Beach Lifesaving Service.

Celebrating the life of the Honorable LinwoodA. Holton, Jr.

Celebrating the life of Colonel Edward DavidShames, USA, Ret.

Unemployment compensation; disqualificationfor benefits; misconduct does not include refusing COVID-19 vaccine.Provides that for the purposes of the Virginia Employment Commissiondetermining if an individual was separated or partially separated from employment for misconduct and would be disqualified for unemployment benefits, the term "misconduct" does not include an employee's refusalto receive or receive in part any primary series or booster shotof a vaccine for the prevention of COVID-19.

Commending the Honorable Paul S. Trible, Jr.

Commending the Spotsylvania American LegionPost 320.

School boards; school resource officers; employment;threat assessment. Requires each school board to enter into acollaborative agreement with the local law-enforcement agency toemploy at least one school resource officer in each public elementaryand secondary school in the local school division. The bill providesthat no school board shall be granted any full or partial waiverfrom such staffing requirements and that no school board that failsto fully comply with such staffing requirements is eligible for anygrant or waiver from the Commonwealth, Board of Education, or Departmentof Education. The bill also requires each division superintendentto include on the threat assessment team established for each publicelementary and secondary school in the local school division at leastone school resource officer employed in the school.

Historical African American cemeteries and graves; qualified organization. Amends the definition of a qualified organization authorized to apply for funds for the maintenance of historical African American cemeteries to include a locality in which such a cemetery is located. This bill was incorporated into SB 23.

Certain crimes committed while participating in a riot; civil action for damages caused during a riot or unlawful assembly; affirmative defense; reduction in law-enforcement agency operating budget; penalty. Creates a civil action for damages caused during a riot or unlawful assembly if a person with the lawful authority to direct a law-enforcement agency uses that authority to prohibit law-enforcement officers from taking action that would prevent or materially mitigate significant bodily injury, death, or damage or destruction of property caused by or related to a riot or unlawful assembly. The bill also creates an affirmative defense in a civil action for wrongful death or injury to a person or property that such action arose from injury or damage sustained by a participant in furtherance of a riot. If such affirmative defense is raised, the court shall, upon the defendant's motion, stay the proceedings during the pendency of the criminal proceedings.This bill also directs that any locality that reduces the operating budget of its local law-enforcement agency shall (i) receive no appropriation in the general appropriation act for highway system maintenance and operations or for maintenance and operation of roads; (ii) receive no allocation of highway funds for roads within such locality; and (iii) receive no payments for maintenance, construction, or reconstruction of highways.The bill also makes it a Class 1 misdemeanor to (a) electronically publish another person's personal identifying information with the intent to (1) incite violence or commit a crime against such other person or (2) threaten or harass such other person in a manner as to place the person in reasonable fear of bodily harm; (b) maliciously block access to any business; (c) maliciously obstruct a highway; and (d) injure, destroy, or tamper with a conspicuously marked law-enforcement vehicle. Additionally, this bill makes it a Class 6 felony to commit an assault and battery while participating in a riot and to interfere with a conspicuously marked law-enforcement vehicle occupied by a law-enforcement officer with the intent to prevent a law-enforcement officer from performing his official duties.

Real property taxes; rate of increase. Requires the governing body of a locality to hold a referendum before makingmost increases in their real property tax rate. Under current law,the governing body of a locality is required to limit their realproperty tax rate to a rate that would collect no more than 101 percentof the amount of real property taxes collected for the previous year.Increases above this rate may only be imposed if the locality holdsa public meeting. The bill replaces the public meeting requirementwith a requirement that any such increase be approved in a referendum.