Sen. Jennifer L McClellan

Constitutional amendment (first reference);qualifications of voters and the right to vote. Establishes thatthe sole qualifications to vote in the Commonwealth are being a UnitedStates citizen, at least 18 years of age, a resident of the Commonwealth, and registered to vote in accordance with the requirements set outin the Constitution of Virginia. The amendment further provides thatany person who meets those qualifications has the right to vote andthat such right cannot be abridged by law. The bill lifts restrictionson qualifications to vote for those who have been convicted of afelony or adjudicated to be mentally incompetent.

Employment; domestic service. Provides that individuals who are engaged in providing domestic service are not excluded from employee protection laws and the Virginia Workers' Compensation Act.

Electric vehicle rebate program; creation andfunding; report. Creates a rebate program for the purchase or lease of new and used electric vehicles, to be administered by the Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy. A purchaser or lesseeof an electric vehicle would receive a $2,500 rebate at the timeof purchase, and a purchaser or lessee with an annual household incomethat does not exceed 300 percent of the federal poverty level wouldbe entitled to an additional $2,000 rebate. The motor vehicle dealerwhere the vehicle is purchased or leased would receive a refund forthe amount of the rebate and a $50 incentive payment for each rebateprocessed. Funds would be allocated from the revenues generated bythe sunset of the Virginia Coal Employment and Production IncentiveTax Credit and the Coalfield employment enhancement tax credit andprohibit the allocation of new credits on and after January 1, 2021.The bill also establishes an Electric Vehicle Rebate Advisory Councilto oversee the Electric Vehicle Rebate Program and to make recommendationsregarding its implementation. The Director of the Department of Mines,Minerals and Energy is required to report annually to the Governorand the General Assembly regarding the Program. The Program will expire on September 1, 2026.

Virginia Economic Development Partnership Authority;Office of Education and Labor Market Alignment established; workforceand higher education alignment. Directs the Virginia Economic Development Partnership Authority to establish an Office of Educationand Labor Market Alignment (the Office) to coordinate data analysison workforce and higher education alignment and translate data topartners. The Office shall provide a unified, consistent source ofinformation or analysis for policy development and implementationrelated to talent development and shall partner with the State Councilof Higher Education for Virginia, institutions of higher education,the Virginia Employment Commission, GO Virginia, and other relevantentities to offer resources and expertise related to education andlabor market alignment.

Virginia Human Rights Act; definition of employer;person employing one or more domestic workers. Expands the definitionof "employer" for all purposes of the Virginia Human Rights Act toinclude a person employing one or more domestic workers, as definedin the bill.

Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act; landlord remedies; noncompliance with rental agreement; payment plan; removal of sunset. Removes the sunset date of July 1, 2021, from certain provisions enacted during the 2020 Special Session related to the Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act. Such provisions (i) changed from five to 14 days the amount of time that a landlord who owns four or fewer rental dwelling units must wait after serving written notice on a tenant notifying the tenant of his nonpayment of rent and of the landlord's intention to terminate the rental agreement if rent is not paid before the landlord may pursue remedies for termination of the rental agreement; (ii) required a landlord who owns more than four rental dwelling units, or more than a 10 percent interest in more than four rental dwelling units, before terminating a rental agreement due to nonpayment of rent, to serve upon such tenant a written notice informing the tenant of the total amount due and owed and offer the tenant a payment plan under which the tenant must pay the total amount due and owed in equal monthly installments over a period of the lesser of six months or the time remaining under the rental agreement; (iii) outlined the remedies a landlord has if a tenant fails to pay the total amount due and owed or enter into a payment arrangement within 14 days of receiving notice or if the tenant enters into a payment arrangement but fails to pay within 14 days of the due date any rent that becomes due under the payment plan or arrangement after such plan or arrangement becomes effective; and (iv) clarified that a tenant is not precluded from participating in any other rent relief programs available to the tenant through a nonprofit organization or under the provisions of a federal, state, or local law, regulation, or action.

Habitual offenders; repeal. Repeals the remaining provisions of the Habitual Offender Act. The bill also requires that the Commissioner of the Department of Motor Vehicles reinstate a person's privilege to drive a motor vehicle that was suspended or revoked solely on the basis that such person was determined to be or adjudicated a habitual offender pursuant to the Habitual Offender Act. The bill also authorizes the Virginia Alcohol and Safety Action Program (VASAP) to continue to administer intervention for individuals who were ordered to attend an intervention interview on or before June 30, 2021.

Solar projects; erosion and sediment control plan review. Requires any locality that does not operate a regulated MS4 and for which the Department did not administer a VSMP as of July 1, 2020, to notify the Department of Environmental Quality (the Department) if it decides to have the Department provide the locality with (i) review of a required erosion and sediment control plan and (ii) a recommendation on the plan's compliance with the requirements of the Erosion and Sediment Control Law and the State Water Control Board's regulations, for any solar project and its associated infrastructure with a rated electrical generation capacity exceeding five megawatts. The bill provides certain procedural steps for the Department and VESCP authority for a locality to take in reviewing the plan and making recommendations and decisions. The provisions of the bill are contingent on funding in a general appropriation act.

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.

Sexually transmitted infections; infected sexual battery. Provides that any person who is diagnosed with a sexually transmitted infection and engages in sexual behavior that poses a substantial risk of transmission to another person according to current Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations regarding such risk of transmission with the intent to transmit the infection to another person and transmits such infection to that person is guilty of infected sexual battery, punishable as Class 1 misdemeanor. Under current law, the crime of infected battery is punishable as a Class 6 felony. The bill also repeals the crime of donating or selling blood, body fluids, organs, and tissues by persons infected with human immunodeficiency virus and the provisions regarding the testing of certain persons for human immunodeficiency virus or hepatitis B or C viruses. The bill contains technical amendments.