Unemployment compensation; failure to respond; continuation of benefits; repayment of overpayments. Provides that an employer shall be deemed to have established a pattern of failing to respond timely or adequately to written requests for information relating to claims if the Virginia Employment Commission determines that the employer has failed to respond timely or adequately to a written request for information relating to a claim on two or more occasions within a 48-month window and requires such employer to pay a penalty upon his second such failure to respond timely or adequately. Under current law, such pattern is established after four failures, and the penalty is assessed after the third failure. The bill provides that if an employer fails to respond timely or adequately to a written request by the Commission for information relating to a claim, the employer forfeits any appeal rights to that claim. The bill provides that when a claimant has begun receiving unemployment benefits, such benefits shall continue to be paid under a presumption of continuing entitlement unless or until a deputy determines, in a process providing notice and opportunity to be heard to the claimant, that the claimant is ineligible or disqualified. The bill provides that an individual who receives an overpayment of unemployment benefits is not liable to repay the overpayments to the Commission if the Commission determines that (i) the overpayment was not due to fraud, misrepresentation, or willful nondisclosure on the part of the recipient and its recovery would be against equity and good conscience; (ii) the overpayment was a direct result of inducement, solicitation, or coercion on the part of the employer; or (iii) the overpayment occurred due to administrative error. The bill requires the Commission to waive an overpayment of benefits under a federal unemployment benefit program if the program authorizes the waiver. The bill provides that any person who receives an overpayment of benefits is not required to repay such overpayment if the Commission determines that the overpayment was made because the employer failed to respond timely or adequately to a written request by the Commission for information relating to the claim. Finally, the bill prohibits a determination with respect to benefit overpayments to be issued until after a determination or decision that finds a claimant ineligible or disqualified for benefits previously paid has become final.
Sponsored bills
Foster care; termination of parental rights; relatives and fictive kin. Requires local departments of social services and licensed child-placing agencies to involve in the development of a child's foster care plan the child's relatives and fictive kin who are interested in the child's welfare. The bill requires that a child 12 years of age or older be involved in the development of his foster care plan; under current law, a child's involvement is mandatory upon reaching 14 years of age. The bill contains other amendments to provisions governing foster care and termination of parental rights that encourage the placement of children with relatives and fictive kin.
Probation, revocation, and suspension of sentence; limitations. Limits the amount of active incarceration a court can impose as a result of a revocation hearing for a probation violation. The bill provides that if the court finds the basis of a violation of the terms and conditions of a suspended sentence or probation is that the defendant was convicted of a criminal offense or violated another condition other than a technical violation, the court may pronounce whatever sentence might have been originally imposed. The bill defines "technical violation" and provides specific limitations on the sentence a court may impose depending on whether the violation is a first, second, or third or subsequent technical violation. The bill also provides that a court may fix the period of probation for up to the statutory maximum period for which the defendant might originally have been sentenced to be imprisoned and any period of supervised probation shall not exceed five years from the release of the defendant from any active period of incarceration. The bill also provides that a court must measure any period of suspension of sentence from the date of entry of the original sentencing order.
Automatic expungement of criminal records; penalties. Establishes a process for the automatic expungement, defined in the bill, of criminal records for certain convictions, deferred dispositions, and acquittals and for offenses that have been nolle prossed or otherwise dismissed. The bill also provides a process for the automatic expungement of criminal records for charges arising from mistaken identity or the unauthorized use of identifying information. The bill has staggered delayed effective dates in order to develop systems for implementing the provisions of the bill. As introduced, this bill was a recommendation of the Virginia State Crime Commission.
Constitutional amendment (first reference); marriage; repeal of same-sex marriage prohibition; affirmative right to marry. Repeals the constitutional provision defining marriage as only a union between one man and one woman as well as the related provisions that are no longer valid as a result of the United States Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, 576 U.S. 644 (2015). The amendment provides that the right to marry is a fundamental right inherent in the liberty of persons and requires the Commonwealth and its political subdivisions and agents to issue marriage licenses, recognize marriages, and treat all marriages equally under the law, regardless of the sex or gender of the parties to the marriage. Religious organizations and clergy acting in their religious capacity have the right to refuse to perform any marriage. This resolution incorporates HJ 539 and HJ 557.
Virginia Freedom of Information Act; recordexclusion for personal contact information provided to a public body.Provides that personal contact information provided to a publicbody or any of its members for the purpose of receiving electroniccommunications from the public body or any of its members is excludedfrom the mandatory disclosure provisions of FOIA, unless the recipient of such electronic communications indicates his approval for thepublic body to disclose such information. Currently, the law providesprotections for personal contact information provided to a public body, not to its members; only applies to electronic mail; and requiresthe electronic mail recipient to request the public body not to disclose his personal contact information in order for the information to be exempt from mandatory disclosure. This bill is a recommendationof the Virginia Freedom of Information Advisory Council.
Commonwealth Health Reinsurance Program. Requires the State Corporation Commission (Commission) to establish, upon approval of a state innovation waiver request pursuant to § 1332 of the Affordable Care Act, a reinsurance program, known as the Commonwealth Health Reinsurance Program (the Program). The bill provides that the Program is funded through federal funding provided under the state innovation waiver, an assessment on carriers, and state appropriations. The bill requires that the Commission impose an annual assessment of one percent of a carrier's net written premiums on entities authorized to issue individual and group health insurance overage including grandfathered plans but excluding plans offered in the small group market. The bill provides requirements for payment parameters, data submissions, recordkeeping, reporting, and audits of health carriers. The bill requires the Secretary of Health and Human Resources to convene a work group to develop recommendations for developing a state-based subsidy program to increase affordability of health plans to individuals and to increase enrollment in the Virginia Health Benefit Exchange. The bill requires the Commission to evaluate the program following its second year of operation.The provisions of the bill, other than the requirements that the Commission apply for the state innovation waiver, will become effective 30 days after notice of approval of the waiver request.
Homicides and assaults and bodily woundings; certain matters not to constitute defenses. Provides that the discovery of, perception of, or belief about another person's actual or perceived sex, gender, gender identity, or sexual orientation, whether or not accurate, is not a defense to any charge of capital murder, murder in the first degree, murder in the second degree, voluntary manslaughter, or assault and bodily wounding-related crimes and is not provocation negating or excluding malice as an element of murder.
Limitations on enforcement of judgments; judgment liens; settlement agents. Reduces from 20 years to 10 years from the date of a judgment the period of time within which an execution may be issued or action may be taken on such judgment. The bill provides that the limitation of the enforcement of a judgment may be extended by a recordation of a certificate prior to the expiration period in the clerk's office in which a judgment lien is recorded. The bill provides that such recordation shall extend the limitations period for 10 years from the date of such recordation. Under current law, such limitation period may be extended on motion of the judgment creditor or his assignee. The bill allows a settlement agent or title insurance company to release a judgment lien, in addition to a deed of trust as provided under current law, provided that the obligation secured by such judgment lien has been satisfied by payment made by the settlement agent and whether or not the settlement agent or title insurance company is named as a trustee under such lien or received authority to release such lien. The bill has a delayed effective date of January 1, 2022.
Department of Medical Assistance Services; testing for, treatment of, and vaccination against COVID-19; emergency services. Directs the Department of Medical Assistance Services to, during a public health emergency related to COVID-19 declared by the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services, deem testing for, treatment of, and vaccination against COVID-19 to be emergency services for which payment may be made pursuant to federal law for certain aliens not lawfully admitted for permanent residence.