Bills Moving on to the House

2023 General Assembly Crossover Update The General Assembly has reached the Crossover portion of the legislative session. This is when bills passed in the Senate go to the House and bills passed in the House go to the Senate to gain approval from both chambers. This session the Senate has passed 29 of my bills. Those are all summarized and linked below:

SB 796	Consolidated Corporate Tax Filings Makes it possible for larger companies to file a consolidated tax return instead of hundreds of separate tax returns to save paperwork and expense at the Virginia Department of Taxation.	Yea’s: 38 No’s: 0
SB 799	Juvenile and Domestic Relations Expert Witness Testimony Allows parties to present expert medical testimony in Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court by affidavit instead of requiring witnesses to come to trial.	Yea’s: 40 No’s: 0
SB 801	US Army Police Authority Gives U.S. Army and Air Force Police the authority to serve search warrants off-base jointly with Virginia law-enforcement agencies. Requested by Fort Belvoir police who discovered limitations trying to investigate stalking charges.	Yea’s: 40 No’s: 0
SB 813	Freedom of Information Act Credit Cards Clarifies that governments are required to release the names of government employees using government credit cards. The Virginia Comptroller has claimed that this information is exempt from disclosure under the Virginia Consumer Protection Act.	Yea’s: 39 No’s: 0
SB 814	Deaf Interpreters Allows Virginia Courts to use interpreters from a broader pool of potential signing professionals due to lack of interpreters available post-pandemic.	Yea’s: 40 No’s: 0
SB 815	Lemon Law for Small Businesses  Extends Virginia Lemon Law to any small business that owns five or fewer cars.	Yea’s: 27 No’s: 12
SB 817	Attorney’s Fees Lien Clarifies the rules regarding asserting and perfecting  attorney’s liens in tort and contract cases.	Yea’s: 39 No’s: 0
SB 821	Sex Offense Notice Fix Requires the Secretary of Education to gather notification information for all school systems for sex offense charges and convictions, clarifies method of notification to ensure a document trail, requires law enforcement to check employment for accused persons, and expands the list of sex crimes for notification.	Yea’s: 39 No’s: 0
SB 835	Definition of Obscenity   Removes depictions of homosexuality from the statutory definition of “sexual conduct” for purposes of books that can be sold, loaned, or displayed to juveniles.	Yea’s: 25 No’s: 12
SB 841	VASAP Local Boards Clarifies that courts have the power to adjudicate probation violations for DUI charges that are reduced to Reckless Driving and requires Virginia’s Alcohol Safety Program to include a local attorney who practices DUI law on local alcohol safety boards.	Yea’s: 39 No’s: 0
SB 871	Auto Dealer Franchise Agreements Prevents auto manufacturers from putting excessive requirements on automotive dealer franchises and preserves locally owned dealerships’ independence.	Yea’s: 39 No’s: 0
SB 886	Sick Leave for Healthcare and Grocery Store Workers Requires employers of essential healthcare and hospital system workers to be provided sick leave to allow such workers to take time off when they are sick to help slow the spread of future COVID outbreaks as well as mitigating the common cold and flu.	Yea’s: 22 No’s: 18
SB 895	Court of Appeals Immunity Jurisdiction Clarifies that interim orders in Domestic Relations cases are not appealable and that appeals of interim orders dismissing cases based on immunity are heard by the Court of Appeals instead of the Supreme Court of Virginia.	Yea’s: 39 No’s: 0
SB 1065	Leesylvania Easement Allows the Department of Conservation and Recreation to transfer an easement to ten houses on the Potomac River surrounded by Leesylvania State Park.	Yea’s: 38 No’s: 0
SB 1067	Red Flag Clean-Up Clarifies various factors to be considered by a magistrate or judge in reach a decision to remove firearms from a person due to their threats or mental condition.	Yea’s: 23 No’s: 16
SB 1083	APCO Shared Solar Authorizes solar providers to begin providing shared solar in the Appalachian Power service territory.	Yea’s: 35 No’s: 5
SB 1166	Commission on Utility Regulation Transparency Improves transparency and oversight of Virginia’s transition to clean energy by requiring regular meetings, reports to the Commission regarding implementation of significant legislation by the State Corporation Commission, Governor and other entities, provides full-time staff for vetting energy policies and studies, creates a new energy development fund to be promote energy research at in-state research universities, and provide oversight of state application for federal energy grants.	Yea’s: 21 No’s: 19
SB 1243	Reproductive Health Data Protection Prohibits a Virginia judge from ordering the extradition of a Virginia citizen for out-of-state abortion or reproduction-related prosecutions for conduct that is legal in Virginia and creates a private cause of action to allow individuals to sue companies for selling data regarding their reproductive health or location data.	Yea’s: 23 No’s: 17
SB 1244	Crime Victim’s Rights Act Fix Requires that the Attorney General comply with the Crime Victim’s Rights Act.  If this would have been in place, the Ghaisar family would have been consulted before the Virginia Attorney General dismissed the prosecution of the two U.S. Park Police Officers who murdered him.	Yea’s: 40 No’s: 0
SB 1266	Shared Solar Minimum Bill Fix Reduces the minimum bill that Dominion Energy can charge shared solar subscribers and expands the cap on allowed shared solar service.	Yea’s: 24 No’s: 15
SB 1397	Default Structure to Adopt Essential Health Benefits Plan Creates a process for the state to adopt a new baseline essential health benefit for purposes of the plans sold in the Virginia State Healthcare Exchange for future years.	Yea’s: 40 No’s: 0
SB 1398	DWI Study Requires DMV to collect data on drivers who are convicted of using drugs, alcohol, or a combination of them and aggregate the data on a statewide basis so that the decline in alcohol-impaired driving and the rise of drugged driving can be better evaluated for additional solutions.	Yea’s: 40 No’s: 0
SB 1399	Authority to Adopt New Essential Health Benefits Plan Creates authority for the State Corporation Commission to adopt a new baseline essential health benefit plan this year based on two new mandated benefits approved in last General Assembly Session.	Yea’s: 40 No’s: 0
SB 1402	Expungement Cleanup Amends the expungement and sealing reforms passed in 2021 to facilitate the implementation and programming of the new sealing processes. Clarifies that marijuana charges are automatically sealed instead of expunged, clarifies that a petition for sealing can only include offenses that stem from the same transaction or occurrence, and ensures access to expunged records by the subject of the record.	Yea’s: 39 No’s: 0
SB 1431	Recall Election Rewrite Clarifies the circumstances that a local government official can be removed from office in a recall election.	Yea’s: 39 No’s: 0
SB 1482	New Commissioner for the SCC Authorizes a new commissioner on the State Corporation Commission to equalize the length of terms due to two pending vacancies.	Yea’s: 40 No’s: 0
SB 1494	Attorney Discipline Revision Provides a disbarred attorney seeking reinstatement to elect a three judge panel to consider reinstatement instead of only consideration by a committee of attorneys.	Yea’s: 25 No’s: 14
SB 1495	Civil Penalty for Abuses of Power Allows any person who is impacted by the willful unlawful actions of a local government to sue the locality to seek an injunction and recover attorney’s fees.	Yea’s: 40 No’s: 0
SJ 257	Commending the Honorable Glenn L. Clayton II	Passed Senate and House
SJ 279	Commending the Honorable Mitchell I. Mutnick	Passed Senate and House
SJ 280	Commending Doreen Gentzler	Passed Senate and House
SJ 299	Commending the Honorable William J. Minor, Jr.	Passed Senate and House