Campaign finance; contribution limits; penalties. Requires the Department of Elections to provide an interface for the campaign finance database maintained by the Department that allows users to easily search for and sort information by individual candidates and types of elections, offices, committees, other spenders, and contributors; contributions, receipts, disbursements, expenditures, loans, and other categories of information included in campaign finance reports; and late filings, incomplete filings, and other violations. The bill specifies that the interface shall also provide users with tools for manipulating and exporting data. The bill prohibits foreign nationals, as defined in the bill, from making any contribution or expenditure, or expressly or impliedly promising to provide anything of value, in connection with any ballot measure and any foreign-influenced corporations, as defined in the bill, from making independent expenditures or making contributions to a candidate, campaign committee, or political committee. Any such corporation violating the prohibition is subject to a fine of not more than $50,000 and any officer, director, or agent of any such corporation involved in such violation is subject to a fine of not more than $10,000, imprisonment for not more than one year, or both. The bill also requires that any corporation, as defined in the bill, that makes an independent expenditure or makes a contribution to a candidate, campaign committee, political committee, or political party committee shall certify, under penalty of perjury, with the Department of Elections that, after due inquiry, the corporation was not a foreign-influenced corporation on the date such expenditure or contribution was made. Additionally, the bill prohibits persons and committees from making contributions that exceed the specified contribution caps for certain committees organized under the Campaign Finance Disclosure Act and prohibits such committees from accepting such contributions. The bill specifies that the contribution cap is equal to the specified base amount in 2026 adjusted for inflation at regular intervals and rounded to the nearest multiple of $100. Civil penalties for violations of the limits established by the bill are $500 for each violation. A separate penalty of up to two times the excess contribution amounts may be levied for knowing violations. The excess contribution amounts are required to be disgorged and deposited into the general fund. The Department of Elections is required to promulgate regulations to implement the provisions of the bill prior to its enactment. The bill has a delayed effective date of January 1, 2027.
Campaign finance; prohibited contributions to candidates. Prohibits candidates, campaign committees, and political committees from soliciting or accepting contributions from any public utility, as defined in relevant law, and prohibits any public utility or political action committee established by such public utility from making any such contribution. The bill also provides that its provisions shall not be construed to prohibit the solicitation or acceptance of contributions from a political action committee established by the employees of a public utility. Under the bill, such political action committee may be administered by the public utility so long as no general treasury funds of the public utility are used for the purposes of making contributions to any candidate, campaign committee, or political committee.
This bill's title and abstract ("Board of zoning appeals; writ of certiorari; discovery") do not provide specific details about its policy changes or concrete provisions. The available context (prefiled, referred to Committee on Local Government) indicates procedural status but no substantive content. Without an official summary or description of the bill's actual provisions, no factual summary of its policy impact or affected parties can be provided. Therefore, a meaningful summary cannot be generated from the given information.
Health care; decision-making; end of life; penalties. Allows an adult diagnosed with a terminal disease to request and an attending health care provider to prescribe self-administered aid in dying medication for the purpose of ending the patient's life. The bill requires that a patient's request for self-administered aid in dying medication to end his life be given orally on two occasions and in writing, signed by the patient and one witness, and that the patient be given an express opportunity to rescind his request at any time. The bill makes it a Class 2 felony (i) to willfully and deliberately alter, forge, conceal, or destroy a patient's request, or rescission of request, for self-administered aid in dying medication to end his life with the intent and effect of causing the patient's death; (ii) to coerce, intimidate, or exert undue influence on a patient to request self-administered aid in dying medication for the purpose of ending his life or to destroy the patient's rescission of such request with the intent and effect of causing the patient's death; or (iii) to coerce, intimidate, or exert undue influence on a patient to forgo self-administered aid in dying medication for the purpose of ending the patient's life. The bill also grants immunity from civil or criminal liability and professional disciplinary action to any person who complies with the provisions of the bill and allows health care providers to refuse to participate in the provision of self-administered aid in dying medication to a patient for the purpose of ending the patient's life.
Board of Pharmacy; membership; registered pharmacy technician. Increases the membership of the Board of Pharmacy from 10 to 11 members, with the additional member being a registered pharmacy technician.
Charitable gaming; conduct of athletic event drawings. Authorizes affiliated nonprofit organizations to conduct athletic event drawings in accordance with the rules and regulations promulgated by the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. The bill places limits on when and where an athletic event drawing may be held and requires the prize amount of any such drawing to be 50 percent of the total amount collected from the sale of the tickets. The bill requires the organization to donate a certain percentage of the remaining funds in accordance with Department regulations.
Commission on Electric Utility Regulation; scope and name change. Renames the Commission on Electric Utility Regulation as the Energy Commission of Virginia and amends the purpose of the Commission to monitoring the State Corporation Commission's regulation of electric utilities and natural gas utilities and examining issues related to the production, transmission, distribution, storage, and use of energy in the Commonwealth. The powers and duties are similarly amended by adding the authority to (i) act in an advisory capacity to the General Assembly on energy-related matters, (ii) consult with applicable state agencies on matters regarding energy efficiency and conservation, and (iii) coordinate its efforts with other existing boards and authorities relating to energy research and development. The bill also eliminates the Virginia Coal and Energy Commission. This bill is a recommendation of the Commission on Electric Utility Regulation.
Fire Programs Fund; aid to localities; redistribution of funds. Provides that, for the purposes of funds distributed to localities as aid for fire programs, if a locality does not provide the required annual report and forms, any funds due to the locality for the next year shall be returned to the Fire Programs Fund and redistributed as grants to enhance firefighting and rescue services in accordance with policies developed by the Virginia Fire Services Board. Under current law, such funds are added to the 75 percent of the Fund allocated to the counties, cities, and towns of the Commonwealth for improvement of fire services in localities.
Economic development incentives; wage requirements. Requires companies to pay an average wage for the jobs eligible for assistance under the component programs of the Virginia Jobs Investment Program that is no less than the prevailing average wage, defined in the bill, or, in the case of an economically distressed locality, defined in the bill, no less than 85 percent of the prevailing average wage. Under current law, to be eligible for the component programs, companies must pay a minimum entry-level wage rate per hour of at least 1.2 times the federal minimum wage or the Virginia minimum wage, whichever is higher, and in areas that have an unemployment rate of 1.5 times the statewide average unemployment rate, the wage rate minimum may be waived. The bill also authorizes the payment of Virginia Investment Performance Grants if the average wage paid by the eligible manufacturer or research and development service, excluding fringe benefits, is no less than 85 percent of the prevailing average wage in localities with either (i) an annual unemployment rate for the most recent calendar year for which such data is available that is greater than the final statewide average unemployment rate for that calendar year or (ii) a poverty rate for the most recent calendar year for which such data is available that exceeds the statewide average poverty rate for that year. Under current law, such authorization is limited to those localities meeting both the unemployment rate and poverty rate thresholds.
Consumer Data Protection Act; protections for children; definitions. Requires a controller or processor, as such terms are defined in relevant law, to obtain verifiable parental consent, defined in the bill, prior to registering any child younger than 18 years of age with the controller's or processor's product or service or before collecting, using, or disclosing such child's personal data.
Emergency vehicles; exempt from certain traffic regulations. Authorizes a law-enforcement vehicle, defined in current law, operated by or under the direction of a federal, state, or local law-enforcement officer to disregard parking and stopping provisions and expands the situations in which such vehicles may disregard speed limits to include when establishing evidence of other violations of law and when responding to an emergency in which emergency lights and siren may pose a safety risk.
Extreme Weather Taxpayer Protection Program and Fund established. Establishes the Extreme Weather Taxpayer Protection Program and Fund, administered by the Department of Conservation and Recreation, for the purpose of holding parties responsible for covered greenhouse gas emissions between the covered period of January 1, 1995, and December 31, 2025, for the parties' share of the Commonwealth's costs due to climate change. The bill defines responsible parties as fossil fuel extractors or crude oil refiners causing emissions of one billion metric tons or more of covered greenhouse gases during the covered period. Under the bill, responsible parties are strictly liable for cost recovery payments to the Commonwealth. The bill requires the State Treasurer to conduct an assessment of the costs to the Commonwealth and its residents of the emissions of covered greenhouse gases during the covered period. The bill establishes the Extreme Weather Relief Fund into which the cost recovery payments from responsible entities are deposited and used to pay for extreme weather relief projects, as defined in the bill.
