Sen. Suhas Subramanyam

Commending Pranamya Jindal.

Commending the Literacy Council of NorthernVirginia.

Celebrating the life of Leigh B. Middleditch,Jr.

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.

Virginia African Diaspora Advisory Board. Establishes the Virginia African Diaspora Advisory Board to advise the Governor on ways to improve economic and cultural links between the Commonwealth and African nations, with a focus on the areas of commerce and trade, agriculture, art, education, and government. The Board is composed of 18 nonlegislative citizen members, of whom at least 15 must be persons who identify as part of the African diaspora, to be appointed by the Governor. The Secretaries of Agriculture and Forestry, Commerce and Trade, and Education or their designees serve as ex officio members.

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.

Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology; stakeholder working group; student seat allocation. Requires the Fairfax County School Board to establish a working group that consists of representatives of the school boards governing the local school divisions that send students to attend Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology to discuss the allocation of student seats in such school amongst such local school divisions. The bill requires the working group to seek input from relevant stakeholders including students, parents, teachers, and school administrators and submit to the Chairmen of the House Committee on Education and the Senate Committee on Education and Health no later than December 1, 2022, a summary report of its deliberations and findings and recommendations, if any.

Employee protections; medicinal use of cannabis oil. Amends the provision that prohibits an employer from discriminating against an employee for such employee's lawful use of cannabis oil under the laws of the Commonwealth. pursuant to a valid written certification issued by a practitioner for the treatment or to eliminate the symptoms of the employee's diagnosed condition or disease, with certain exceptions. Under the bill, the term "employer" includes the Commonwealth and any of its political subdivisions or agencies.

Study; Department of Transportation; U.S. Route50; report. Requests that the Department of Transportation conduct a two-year study of traffic congestion on that portion of U.S. Route50 between the intersections of Interstate 66 in Fairfax Countyand U.S. Route 15 in Loudoun County and the feasibility of implementingimprovements to such portion of the highway.

Campaign finance; prohibited personal use ofcampaign funds; complaints, hearings, civil penalty, and advisoryopinions. Prohibits any person from converting contributionsto a candidate or a candidate's campaign committee for their personal use. Current law only prohibits such conversion of contributionswith regard to disbursement of surplus funds at the dissolution ofa campaign or political committee. The bill provides that a contributionis considered to have been converted to personal use if the contribution,in whole or in part, is used to fulfill any commitment, obligation,or expense that would exist irrespective of the person's seeking,holding, or maintaining public office but excepts from "personaluse" the ordinary and accepted expenses related to campaigning foror holding elective office, including the use of campaign funds topay for the candidate's child care expenses that are incurred as adirect result of campaign activity. Any person subject to the personaluse ban may request an advisory opinion from the State Board of Electionson such matters. The bill directs the State Board of Elections toadopt emergency regulations similar to those promulgated by the FederalElection Commission to implement the provisions of the bill and toprovide an updated summary of Virginia campaign finance law that reflects the Attorney General's opinion and any new regulations promulgatedby the State Board of Elections.