Sen. Schuyler VanValkenburg

Commending the ASK Childhood Cancer Foundation.

Department of General Services; Office of Pharmaceutical Services; report. Establishes in the Department of General Servicesan Office of Pharmaceutical Services to develop and execute a planto consolidate state agency prescription drug purchasing and pharmacybenefit management programs to increase efficiency in prescriptiondrug purchasing and constrain spending on prescription drugs. Thebill directs the Department to provide to the Governor and the GeneralAssembly an interim report on the development of the plan by November1, 2024, and a final report on the plan by November 1, 2025.

Commending Major General Timothy P. Williams,VNG.

Presidential electors; National Popular VoteCompact. Enters Virginia into an interstate compact known asthe Agreement Among the States to Elect the President by NationalPopular Vote. Article II of the Constitution of the United Statesgives the states exclusive and plenary authority to decide the mannerof awarding their electoral votes. Under the compact, Virginia agreesto award its electoral votes to the presidential ticket that receivesthe most popular votes in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.The compact goes into effect when states cumulatively possessinga majority of the electoral votes have joined the compact. A statemay withdraw from the compact; however, a withdrawal occurring withinsix months of the end of a President's term shall not become effectiveuntil a President or Vice President has qualified to serve the next term.

Covenants not to compete; health care professionals;civil penalty. Adds health care professionals as a category ofemployee with whom no employer shall enter into, enforce, or threatento enforce a covenant not to compete. The bill defines "health careprofessional" as any physician, nurse, nurse practitioner, physician'sassistant, pharmacist, social worker, dietitian, physical and occupationaltherapist, professional counselor, behavior analyst, assistant behavioranalyst, or medical technologist authorized to provide health careservices in the Commonwealth. The bill provides that any employerthat violates the prohibition against covenants not to compete witha health care professional is subject to the civil penalty in currentlaw of $10,000 for each violation.

Public school funding; certain calculations.Places several parameters on Standards of Quality funding calculationsperformed by the Department of Education, including (i) requiringthe Department, when calculating the cost of salaries under the Standardsof Quality funding formula, to include facilities staff and transportationstaff salaries in the calculation of any cost of competing adjustmentto salaries for instructional and support positions that is providedas part of the state share of basic aid pursuant to the general appropriationact; (ii) requiring the Department, when estimating the cost of anycompensation supplement for instructional and support positions underthe Standards of Quality funding formula, to include and estimatethe cost of such a compensation supplement for facilities staff;(iii) prohibiting the Department from applying any cap on inflationrate adjustments to non-personal cost categories during the biennialprocess of rebenchmarking the direct aid to public education budget;and (iv) requiring the Department to utilize a three-year averageof the most recently available data to calculate the composite indexof local ability-to-pay for each school division. This bill was incorporated into SB 105.

Public school staffing ratios; school counselors; specialized student support positions. Decreases from one to325 to one to 250 the ratio of full-time equivalent school counselorsrequired to be employed by each local school board per student enrolledin the local school division. The bill also increases the numberof specialized student support positions required to be employedby each local school board from at least three to at least four suchpositions per 1,000 students in the local school division. Such specializedstudent support positions include school social workers, school psychologists,school nurses, licensed behavior analysts, licensed assistant behavioranalysts, and other licensed health and behavioral positions. This bill was incorporated into SB 105.

Commending John Ray Grisham, Jr.

Celebrating the life of Shawn Soares.

Commending the Honorable Dr. Luke E. Torian.