Sen. Lamont Bagby

Removes the existing provision that a person's driver's license is suspended (i) when he is convicted of or placed on deferred disposition for a drug offense and (ii) for violations not pertaining to the operator or operation of a motor vehicle. The provisions of this bill that affect the Code of Virginia have a delayed effective date of September 1, 2017.

Requires certain call centers that intend to relocate operations from the Commonwealth to a foreign country to give the Commissioner of Labor and Industry at least 120 days' prior notice. An employer that fails to do so is subject to a civil penalty not to exceed an amount of $10,000 for each day of the violation. The measure requires the Commissioner to compile a semiannual list of all employers that relocate a call center from the Commonwealth to a foreign country and to distribute the list to state agencies. Subject to exceptions, an employer that appears on the list is (i) ineligible for five years for any direct or indirect grants of state funds, any loans guaranteed by the state, or any tax credit or reduction in tax liability and (ii) required to remit the unamortized value of such grants, loans, or tax benefits, or any other governmental support the employer has previously received, to the Secretary of Commerce and Trade. The measure requires new state agency contracts for the performance of state business-related call center and customer service work to provide that such work shall be performed entirely within the Commonwealth. Finally, the measure requires that, to the extent permitted, (a) state contractors who perform state business-related call center and customer service work outside the Commonwealth under an existing contract perform such work entirely within the Commonwealth by July 1, 2019, and (b) any new customer service employees hired to work under an existing contract be employed within the Commonwealth.

Declares eligible for in-state tuition any individual who (i) attended a public or private high school in the Commonwealth for at least three years; (ii) graduated from a public or private high school in the Commonwealth or passed a high school equivalency examination approved by the Board of Education; (iii) registers as an entering student or is enrolled in a public institution of higher education; (iv) provides an affidavit to the public institution of higher education in which he has registered as an entering student or is enrolled stating that he has filed an application to become a permanent resident of the United States and is actively pursuing such permanent residency or will do so as soon as he becomes eligible for such permanent residency; and (v) submits evidence to the institution at which he has registered as an entering student or is enrolled that he, or in the case of a dependent student, at least one parent, guardian, or person standing in loco parentis, has filed, unless exempted by state law, Virginia income tax returns for at least three years prior to the date of registration as an entering student or enrollment. The bill provides that any such individual shall remain eligible for in-state tuition for as long as he maintains continuous enrollment in the public institution of higher education and his application for permanent residency has not been denied. The bill also prohibits any student who became eligible for in-state tuition as a result of his lawful presence in the United States pursuant to approval under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program or any other federal deferred action program from being deemed ineligible for in-state tuition by virtue of the elimination or modification of any such program.