Sen. Bill DeSteph

Special license plates; United States Navy;Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society Fund. Authorizes the issuanceof revenue-sharing special license plates with a design that incorporatesthe emblem of the United States Navy to active members and certainveterans of the United States Navy. The bill provides that unremarriedsurviving spouses of such service members may also be issued suchspecial license plates. The bill creates the Navy-Marine Corps ReliefSociety Fund to utilize funds from the license plate fees to supportthe Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society in Virginia.

Department of Education; local school boards; policies on sexually explicit content in instructional material. Requires the Department of Education to develop no later than July 31, 2022, model policies and each local school board to adopt no later than January 1, 2023, policies for ensuring parental notification of any instructional material that includes sexually explicit content and include information, guidance, procedures, and standards relating to (i) ensuring parental notification; (ii) directly identifying the specific instructional material and sexually explicit subjects; and (iii) permitting the parent of any student to review instructional material that includes sexually explicit content and provide, as an alternative, nonexplicit instructional material and related academic activities to any student whose parent so requests. The bill provides that the local school board policies shall be consistent with but may be more comprehensive than the model policies developed by the Department. The bill states that the provisions of the bill shall not be construed as requiring or providing for the censoring of books in public elementary and secondary schools.

Classification of real property owned by certain surviving spouses for tax purposes. Provides that beginning with taxable year 2022, any locality may declare real property owned by a surviving spouse of a member of the Armed Forces of the United States who died in the line of duty with a line of duty determination from the U.S. Department of Defense, while performing official military activities and where such death was not the result of criminal conduct, and where the spouse occupies the real property as his principal place of residence and does not remarry, a separate class of property for local taxation of real property that may be taxed at a different rate than that imposed on the general class of real property, provided that the rate of tax is greater than zero and does not exceed the rate of tax on the general class of real property.

Military honor guards and veterans service organizations; paramilitary activities; exception. Exempts members of a lawfully recognized military color guard, honor guard, or similar organization, and members of a veterans service organization that is congressionally chartered or officially recognized by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, when such member is participating in a training or educational exercise, funeral, or public ceremony on behalf of such military color guard, honor guard, or similar organization or veterans service organization, from the crime of unlawful paramilitary activity unless such member engages in such activity with malicious intent. This bill is identical to HB 17.

Commending Harry Wason.

Voter registration; presumption of domicile;members of a uniformed service and others. Provides that a memberof a uniformed service who is on active duty with permanent ordersstationing him in the Commonwealth shall be presumed to have establisheddomicile for purposes of satisfying the residency requirements forvoter registration, if he has also established physical presenceand a place of abode in the Commonwealth, unless he expressly statesotherwise. The bill provides for the same presumption for his spouseand any dependent residing with him. The bill defines "uniformedservice," the same way the term is defined in the Uniform Militaryand Overseas Voter Act, as the (i) active and reserve componentsof the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, or Coast Guard of theUnited States; (ii) Merchant Marine, commissioned corps of the PublicHealth Service, or commissioned corps of the National Oceanic andAtmospheric Administration of the United States; or (iii) VirginiaNational Guard.

Celebrating the life of the Honorable FloraLonette Davis Crittenden.

Celebrating the life of the Reverend PatrickJoseph White.

Virginia Freedom of Information Act; Virginia Parole Board member votes. Provides that individual votes of the members of the Virginia Parole Board are public records and subject to the provisions of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act. This bill is identical to HB 1303.

Commending the Virginia Cardinals Rugby FootballClub.