Electric utilities; virtual power plant pilot program; Phase I Utilities. Requires Appalachian Power to petition the State Corporation Commission for approval to conduct a pilot program to evaluate methods to optimize demand through various technology applications, including the establishment of virtual power plants, by December 1, 2026. The bill requires the pilot program to evaluate electric grid capacity needs and the ability of such virtual power plants to provide grid services, including peak-shaving, during times of peak electric demand.
Palliative Care Information and Education Program; Palliative Care and Quality of Life Advisory Council established. Directs the Board of Health to include in its regulations a requirement that every hospital, nursing home, and certified nursing facility licensed by the Board (i) establish a system for identifying patients or residents who may benefit from palliative care and (ii) provide information about and facilitate access to appropriate palliative care services for patients or residents experiencing illness, injuries, or conditions that substantially affect quality of life for more than a short period of time. The bill also directs the Department of Health to establish a palliative care consumer and professional information and education program to maximize the effectiveness of palliative care initiatives in the Commonwealth by (a) ensuring that comprehensive and accurate information and education about palliative care is available to the public, health care providers, and health care facilities and (b) implementing such other initiatives related to education about palliative care and the delivery of palliative care services as may be necessary to educate health care professionals and the public about palliative care. The bill further establishes the Palliative Care and Quality of Life Advisory Council to advise the Department on matters related to the establishment, operation, maintenance, and outcomes evaluations of such initiatives. The bill directs the Palliative Care and Quality of Life Advisory Council to study the possibility of establishing a Medicaid benefit for palliative care and the need for a licensure scheme for palliative care providers. The bill further directs the Board of Health to develop a statewide advanced care planning campaign to increase public awareness of available palliative care options.
Health care providers; caller identification information; civil penalty. Requires a health care provider to ensure that the caller identification information associated with his practice readily identifies such practice to the recipient of his practice's telephone call. The bill further provides that any person who knowingly causes a telephone to ring and engages in conduct that results in the display of false caller identification information, as defined in the bill, on the called party's telephone shall be subject to a civil penalty in an amount not to exceed $500 plus reasonable attorney fees, expenses, and court costs, as determined by the court.
Land subdivision and development; mandatory provisions of a subdivision ordinance; periodic partial and final release of certain performance guarantees. Provides that the amount of a certified check, cash escrow, bond, or letter of credit required to be furnished by an owner or developer to a governing body related to certain improvements dedicated for public use within any subdivision shall not exceed the total estimated cost of construction as determined by a duly licensed professional engineer or land surveyor and a reasonable allowance for estimated administrative costs, inflation, and potential damage to existing roads or utilities, which shall not exceed five percent of the estimated construction costs. Current law requires that such amount not exceed the total of the estimated cost of construction based on unit prices for new public or private sector construction in the locality and such reasonable allowance, which shall not exceed 10 percent of the estimated construction costs. The bill also provides that periodic partial releases of certain performance guarantees granted to subdividers or developers may not occur before the completion of at least 15 percent of the public facilities covered by any bond, escrow, letter of credit, or other performance guarantee. Current law provides such partial release may not occur before the completion of at least 30 percent of such public facilities. The bill also requires that a certification of partial or final completion of such public facilities from a duly licensed professional engineer or land surveyor be accepted without requiring further inspection of such public facilities. Current law allows, but does not require, such certifications be accepted without further inspection.
Department of Transportation; rest areas and welcome centers; adult changing stations. Requires the Department of Transportation to provide at least one adult changing station at all rest areas on interstate highways and welcome centers operated by the Virginia Tourism Authority in the Commonwealth, with such changing station being either (i) in a single-stall family restroom or (ii) one adult changing station in both the men's and women's restrooms, and provides that such requirement may be satisfied by retrofitting or renovating existing restroom facilities or family restrooms. The bill provides that the Department of Transportation is not required to complete the installation, retrofitting, or provision of such an adult changing station at existing rest areas and welcome centers prior to such a time at which other renovations to such a rest area or welcome center are conducted.
Electric utilities; State Corporation Commission to investigate financial incentives; renewable energy portfolio standard; report. Directs the State Corporation Commission to conduct an investigation of financial incentives related to the renewable energy portfolio standard program and submit a report of its findings and recommendations to the Governor and General Assembly by November 1, 2026.
Review of plats and plans by locality; designated agent. Allows any locality without a professional fire department to use its planning commission as the designated agent for purposes of reviewing and acting on subdivision plats, site plans, and plans of development. Currently, only localities with a population of 5,000 or less are permitted to use their planning commissions for such purpose.
Conformity of the tax laws of the Commonwealth to the Internal Revenue Code. Repeals rolling conformity and reestablishes fixed date conformity with the Internal Revenue Code as it existed on December 31, 2024, for Virginia income tax purposes beginning with taxable year 2025. Under current law, Virginia conforms to federal tax changes as soon as they are enacted by Congress, with certain exceptions. Virginia deconforms from any amendment that would increase or decrease general fund revenues by more than $15 million in the fiscal year in which the amendment was enacted or any of the succeeding four fiscal years. The $15 million threshold is adjusted for inflation annually beginning in 2024. Virginia also deconforms from all amendments occurring between adjournment sine die of the previous regular session and the first day of the subsequent regular session if the cumulative impact of such amendments would increase or decrease general fund revenues by more than $75 million in the fiscal year in which the amendments were enacted or any of the succeeding four fiscal years. Deconformity under rolling conformity does not apply to any federal tax changes that the General Assembly subsequently adopts or to any federal tax extender. However, the twelfth enactment of the 2025 Appropriation Act temporarily paused rolling conformity generally for any federal tax changes enacted on or after January 1, 2025, but before January 1, 2027, and thereby still required Virginia to conform to any federal tax changes that the General Assembly subsequently adopts and to any federal tax extenders.
School access corridors; snow and ice removal; Planning District 8. Requires the Commissioner of Highways, when providing snow and ice removal services in Planning District 8, to prioritize the removal of snow and ice from certain state-maintained sidewalks and crosswalks defined in the bill as school access corridors.
Department of Taxation; memorandum of lien for collection of taxes; time to process requested information. Provides that no memorandum of lien shall be filed until at least 60 days after the Department of Taxation has requested any information from the taxpayer that would otherwise alleviate the need for collection of past due taxes or fees, including penalties and interest. The bill also provides that no memorandum of lien shall be filed until the Department has fully processed all of such requested information received by the Department regarding such taxpayer.
Electric utilities; State Corporation Commission; all-source competitive procurement. Directs the State Corporation Commission to conduct and review an all-source competitive procurement process for Dominion Energy and Appalachian Power. Under the bill, the Commission shall determine best practices for the competitive procurement, including methods to evaluate all available resources prior to selecting feasible and cost-effective options.
Virginia Retirement System; service credit for career and technical education teachers. Provides that a member of the Virginia Retirement System shall be eligible for additional years of service credit for service earned as a teacher in the field of career and technical education. The amount of service credit earned shall determined as follows: (i) for service earned as a member who is 45 years of age or older but younger than 55 years of age at the time of such service, such service shall be multiplied by the weighted years of service factor of 2.0 and (ii) for service earned as a member who is 55 years of age or older at the time of such service, such service shall be multiplied by the weighted years of service factor of 2.5.
