Sen. Jennifer L McClellan

Requires General Assembly members, full-time legislative staff of General Assembly members compensated with state appropriations, and full-time employees of each legislative branch agency to complete sexual harassment training once every calendar year. The exact same training shall be offered by the Office of the Clerk of the House of Delegates and the Office of the Clerk of the Senate and provided to their respective members and their staff. All other legislative branch employees shall complete the sexual harassment training course offered by either Clerk. The training must be available online 24 hours per day, seven days per week and be exactly the same as any sexual harassment training course offered through the Commonwealth of Virginia Learning Center administered by the Department of Human Resource Management. Persons elected to the General Assembly or commencing or recommencing full-time employment in the legislative branch will have 90 days from the election or their dates of hire to complete the training. The bill has a delayed effective date of January 1, 2019. This bill incorporates

Requires the Board of Education, in its graduation requirements, to permit local school divisions to waive the requirement for students to receive 140 clock hours of instruction after the student has completed the course curriculum and relevant Standards of Learning end-of-course assessment, or Board-approved substitute, provided that such student subsequently receives instruction, coursework, or study toward an industry certification approved by the local school board.

Authorizes an association organized as a nonstock corporation whose members are employers conducting business in the Commonwealth to sponsor a trust. The measure authorizes the trust, called a benefits consortium, to sell benefits plans to its members. To be eligible to sponsor a plan, the association is required to have been actively in existence for 10 years, have at least five members, have been formed for purposes other than obtaining or providing health benefits, and operate as a nonprofit entity. A wholly-owned subsidiary of such an entity is eligible to be a sponsoring association. The benefits plans may provide medical prescription drug, dental, and vision coverage for the employees of members and the sponsoring association and their dependents. The benefits may be self-funded or purchased from an insurer. The benefits consortium will be a multiple employer welfare arrangement subject to the provisions of the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974. The measure exempts the benefits consortium from state taxation and insurance regulations.

Authorizes the Department of Environmental Quality (the Department) to conduct inspections of the land-disturbing activities of interstate and intrastate natural gas pipeline companies that have approved annual standards and specifications as such land-disturbing activities relate to construction of any natural gas transmission pipeline greater than 36 inches inside diameter to determine (i) compliance with such annual standards and specifications, (ii) compliance with any site-specific plans, and (iii) if there have been or are likely to be adverse impacts to water quality as a result of such land-disturbing activities. The bill authorizes the Department to issue a stop work instruction on the relevant part of the site when the Department determines that there has been a substantial adverse impact to water quality or that a substantial and imminent adverse impact to water quality is likely to occur as a result of such land-disturbing activities. The bill requires that upon written documentation of completion by the company and approval by the Department in writing of the corrective measures specified in the stop work instruction, the instruction shall be immediately lifted. Such stop work instruction may be appealed to the circuit court of the jurisdiction where the violation was alleged to have occurred or other appropriate court.

Requires each local school board to adopt policies that (i) prohibit school board employees from requiring a student who cannot pay for a meal at school or who owes a school meal debt to do chores or other work to pay for such meals or wear a wristband or hand stamp and (ii) require school board employees to direct any communication relating to a school meal debt to the student's parent, which may be made by a letter addressed to the parent to be sent home with the student. This bill is identical to