Sen. Jennifer Boysko

Income tax deduction for commuter benefits provided by an employer. Establishes, for taxable years 2020 through 2024, an individual and corporate income tax deduction for commuter benefits, defined in the bill, provided by an employer to its employees. The deduction is available only to the employer and is limited to $265 per employee. The provisions of the bill are contingent on funding in a general appropriation act.

Telemarketing; financial exploitation; agency communication. Directs the Attorney General to establish ongoing communication with the Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services and the Department of Social Services to ensure that adults 60 years of age or older or 18 years of age or older and incapacitated have access to information regarding the prevention of potential patterns of financial exploitation.

Department of Professional and OccupationalRegulation; real estate brokers; escrow funds. Provides thatin the event of foreclosure of real property, all rent moneys, regardlessof when received, shall be deposited in an escrow account by theend of the fifth business banking day following receipt, unless otherwiseagreed to in writing by the principals to a lease transaction.

Child care providers; out-of-state backgroundchecks. Requires certain child care providers and employees orvolunteers thereof to submit to background checks that include acriminal history record information check and sex offender registrycheck in any state in which the applicant has resided in the precedingfive years.

Purchase of handguns; limitation on handgun purchases; penalty. Prohibits any person who is not a licensed firearms dealer from purchasing more than one handgun in a 30-day period and establishes such an offense as a Class 1 misdemeanor. The bill exempts from this provision (i) persons who have been issued a certificate by the Department of State Police under certain circumstances and with an enhanced background check, (ii) law-enforcement agencies and officers, (iii) state and local correctional facilities, (iv) licensed private security companies, (v) persons who hold a valid Virginia concealed handgun permit, (vi) persons whose handgun has been stolen or irretrievably lost or who are trading in a handgun, (vii) purchases of handguns in a private sale, and (viii) purchases of antique firearms. This bill incorporates SB 22. This bill is identical to HB 812.

Suspension of driver's license for nonpayment of fines or costs. Repeals the requirement that the driver's license of a person convicted of any violation of the law who fails or refuses to provide for immediate payment of fines or costs be suspended. The bill also removes a provision allowing the court to require a defendant to present a summary prepared by the Department of Motor Vehicles of the other courts in which the defendant also owes fines and costs. The bill requires the Commissioner of the Department of Motor Vehicles to return or reinstate any person's driver's license that was suspended prior to July 1, 2019, solely for nonpayment of fines or costs. Such person does not have to pay a reinstatement fee. The bill contains an emergency clause and incorporates SB 10, SB 514, and SB 814.

Funeral directors and embalmers; Board to promulgate regulations for licensure. Directs the Board of Funeral Directors and Embalmers to promulgate regulations that establish requirements of licensure for funeral directors and embalmers.

Arrest and prosecution when experiencing or reporting overdoses. Provides that no individual shall be subject to arrest or prosecution for the unlawful purchase, possession, or consumption of alcohol; possession of a controlled substance; possession of marijuana; intoxication in public; or possession of controlled paraphernalia if (i) such individual (a) seeks or obtains emergency medical attention for himself, if he is experiencing an overdose, or for another individual, if such other individual is experiencing an overdose, or (b) is experiencing an overdose and another individual seeks or obtains emergency medical attention for him; (ii) such individual remains at the scene of the overdose or at any location to which he or the individual requiring emergency medical attention has been transported; (iii) such individual identifies himself to the law-enforcement officer who responds; and (iv) the evidence for a prosecution of one of the enumerated offenses would have been obtained only as a result of an individual seeking or obtaining emergency medical attention. The bill also provides that no law-enforcement officer acting in a good faith shall be found liable for false arrest if it is later determined that the person arrested was immune from prosecution. Current law provides an affirmative defense to such offenses only when an individual seeks or obtains emergency medical attention for himself, if he is experiencing an overdose, or for another individual, if such other individual is experiencing an overdose.

Provision of abortion; informed consent; regulations. Eliminates the procedures and processes, including the performance of an ultrasound, the provision of specified information, and the offer to review certain printed materials, required under existing law to effect a pregnant person's informed written consent prior to the performance of an abortion; however, the bill retains the requirement that a physician obtain a pregnant person's informed written consent prior to performing any abortion. The bill expands who can perform first trimester abortions to any person licensed by the Board of Medicine as a physician's assistant and acting within such person's scope of practice or any person jointly licensed by the Board of Medicine and Nursing as a nurse practitioner acting within the nurse practitioner's such person's scope of practice. The bill removes a provision classifying facilities that perform five or more first trimester abortions per month as hospitals for the purpose of complying with regulations establishing minimum standards for hospitals.

Deferred disposition in criminal cases. Allows a court to defer and dismiss a criminal case where the defendant has been diagnosed with autism or an intellectual disability and the court finds by clear and convincing evidence that the criminal conduct was caused by or had a direct and substantial relationship to the person's disorder or disability.