Tow truck drivers and towing and recovery operators; prohibited acts. Prohibits tow truck drivers and towing and recovery operators from monitoring law-enforcement communications in order to determine the location of a wrecked or disabled vehicle that is subject to a law-enforcement-requested tow for the purpose of driving by the scene of such vehicle to initiate contact with the owner or operator of the vehicle to solicit or offer towing services and prohibits tow truck drivers from driving by the scene of a wrecked or disabled vehicle for the same purposes.

Driver's licenses; persons having defective vision; minimum standards of visual acuity and field of vision. Allows a driver's license without daylight restrictions to be issued to any person with visual acuity between 20/40 and 20/70 in one or both eyes with or without corrective lenses and a field of 110 degrees of horizontal vision in one or both eyes if such person's application is accompanied by a certification by an ophthalmologist or optometrist that there is no other condition that would impair such person's operation of a motor vehicle during nighttime hours.

Department of General Services; Office of Pharmaceutical Services; report. Establishes in the Department of General Services an Office of Pharmaceutical Services to develop and execute a plan to consolidate state agency prescription drug purchasing and pharmacy benefit management programs to increase efficiency in prescription drug purchasing and constrain spending on prescription drugs. The bill directs the Department to provide to the Governor and the General Assembly an interim report on the development of the plan by November 1, 2023, and a final report on the plan by November 1, 2024.

Employer use of use of employee's social security number; prohibited; civil penalty. Prohibits an employer from using an employee's social security number or any derivative thereof as such employee's identification number or including an employee's social security number or any number derived thereof on any identification card or badge, any access card or badge, or any other similar card or badge issued to such employee. The bill imposes a civil penalty of up to $100 for any knowing violation of the prohibition. Employer use of use of employee's social security number; prohibited; civil penalty. Prohibits an employer from using an employee's social security number or any derivative thereof as such employee's identification number or including an employee's social security number or any number derived thereof on any identification card or badge, any access card or badge, or any other similar card or badge issued to such employee. The bill imposes a civil penalty of up to $100 for any knowing violation of the prohibition.

Celebrating the life of Perry Lee Briggs, Jr.

Alcoholic beverage control; mixed beverage carrier license; airport passenger lounge; emergency. Allows mixed beverage carrier licenses to be granted to financial institutions, subsidiaries of a financial institution, and certain persons under contract with a financial institution or subsidiary that are operating a lounge for air carrier passengers located within an airport in the Commonwealth, which would authorize the licensee to sell and serve mixed beverages in designated areas of such passenger lounge. The bill has an emergency clause.

Coal mine methane; capture and beneficial use; Department of Energy to evaluate policy options; report. States that it is the policy of the Commonwealth to encourage the capture and beneficial use of coal mine methane, defined in the bill. The bill directs the Department of Energy to evaluate policy options to encourage the capture and beneficial use of coal mine methane and submit a report of its findings by November 15, 2023.

Elections; registration, absentee, and conduct of election. Elections; registration, absentee, and conduct of election. Restores the local option to hold May elections; repeals laws permitting registration on election day and requiring preregistration of certain persons under 18 years of age; eliminates the permanent absentee voter list; removes provisions allowing general registrars to contract with a third party for the printing, assembly, and mailing of absentee ballot packets; requires an excuse to vote absentee; reduces absentee voting in person to the 10 days prior to the date of an election; requires that mailed absentee ballots be returned by the United States Postal Service; repeals provisions allowing for absentee ballot drop boxes; requires absentee ballots to be received by the general registrar by the close of polls on election day in order to be counted; requires presentation of a form of identification containing a photograph in order to vote; repeals the provisions of law permitting a voter who does not have one of the required forms of identification to vote after signing a statement that he is the named registered voter he claims to be; and requires that provisional ballot envelopes have written on them certain required information in order to be considered, including the signature of the officer of election administering the provisional ballot and his indication of whether photo identification was shown, and if so, the type. The bill also amends provisions regarding risk-limiting audits to allow for (i) risk-limiting audits of the part of a district that covers multiple localities that lies in a single locality and (ii) the use of the batch comparison method when conducting a risk-limiting audit.

Unemployment compensation; venue for prosecution of certain criminal cases. Provides that the venue for criminal cases involving false statements, representations, or nondisclosures by an employing unit or an individual with regard to an unemployment claim lies in the county or city wherein the statement, representation, or nondisclosure originates or, alternatively, is received by the Virginia Employment Commission. Under current law, the venue for such cases lies solely in the county or city wherein such statement, representation, or nondisclosure is received by the Commission.

Board of Pharmacy; permit to operate pharmaceutical processor or cannabis dispensing facility. Increases the limit on the number of permits that the Board of Pharmacy (the Board) may issue or renew in any year from one to two pharmaceutical processors for each health service area established by the Board of Health. The bill also allows the Board to issue or renew permits in any year for up to five cannabis dispensing facilities per pharmaceutical processor for each health service area. Under current law, the Board may issue up to five cannabis dispensing facilities for each health service area. With the exception of pharmaceutical processors permitted prior to July 1, 2023, the bill prohibits a pharmaceutical processor from receiving more than one permit from the Board.

Campaign finance; prohibited personal use of campaign funds; complaints, hearings, civil penalty, and advisory opinions. Prohibits any person from converting contributions to a candidate or his campaign committee for personal use. Current law only prohibits such conversion of contributions with regard to disbursement of surplus funds at the dissolution of a campaign or political committee. The bill provides that a contribution is considered to have been converted to personal use if the contribution, in whole or in part, is used to fulfill any commitment, obligation, or expense that would exist irrespective of the person's seeking, holding, or maintaining public office but allows a contribution to be used for the ordinary and accepted expenses related to campaigning for or holding elective office, including the use of campaign funds to pay for the candidate's child care expenses that are incurred as a direct result of campaign activity. The bill provides that any person subject to the personal use ban may request an advisory opinion from the State Board of Elections on such matters. The bill directs the State Board of Elections to adopt emergency regulations to implement the provisions of the bill and to provide an updated summary of Virginia campaign finance law that reflects the State Board of Elections' and Attorney General's guidance on the provisions of such law that prohibit the personal use of campaign funds and any new regulations promulgated by the State Board of Elections.

Commissioner of Highways; roadways operating under the Virginia Highway Corporation Act of 1988 to operate under the Public-Private Transportation Act of 1995. Directs the Commissioner of Highways to evaluate whether it is in the public interest for any roadway operated pursuant to the Virginia Highway Corporation Act of 1988 (HCA) to operate instead under the authority and requirements provided by the Public-Private Transportation Act of 1995 (PPTA). The bill authorizes the Commissioner, if he determines it is in the public interest for any such roadway to operate under the PPTA and if the Secretary of Transportation and the Transportation Public-Private Partnership Steering Committee concur, to negotiate and execute a new comprehensive agreement with the operator of such roadway to operate under the authority and requirements provided by the PPTA. The bill has an expiration date of January 1, 2025. Commissioner of Highways; roadways operating under the Virginia Highway Corporation Act of 1988 to operate under the Public-Private Transportation Act of 1995. Directs the Commissioner of Highways to evaluate whether it is in the public interest for any roadway operated pursuant to the Virginia Highway Corporation Act of 1988 (HCA) to operate instead under the authority and requirements provided by the Public-Private Transportation Act of 1995 (PPTA). The bill authorizes the Commissioner, if he determines it is in the public interest for any such roadway to operate under the PPTA and if the Secretary of Transportation and the Transportation Public-Private Partnership Steering Committee concur, to negotiate and execute a new comprehensive agreement with the operator of such roadway to operate under the authority and requirements provided by the PPTA. The bill has an expiration date of January 1, 2025.

Virginia Public Procurement Act; preference for products made or manufactured in Virginia and the U.S.; recyclable content; report. Provides preference for a bidder who is a resident of Virginia over a bidder who is a resident of any other state in determining the award for any contract for goods, services, or construction under the Virginia Public Procurement Act. The bill requires a state agency to decrease by seven percent the price of any offer for a Virginia end product, defined in the bill, and to decrease by two percent the price of any offer for a U.S. end product, defined in the bill, when evaluating bids for purposes of making an award determination. When the lowest responsive and responsible bidder, after price preferences have been taken into account, is a resident of Virginia and the offer price is within $10,000 or five percent, whichever is less, of the lowest responsive and responsible bidder who is a resident of another state, the Virginia resident shall be given the option to match the price of the nonresident bidder. Current allowance for granting price preferences to Virginia residents is made mandatory by the bill. The bill directs the Secretary of Commerce and Trade to convene a stakeholder work group to recommend revisions to the recyclable materials tax credit and report on the work group's recommendations by November 1, 2023. This bill is a recommendation of the Manufacturing Development Commission.

State Corporation Commission; offshore wind energy development; report. Requires the State Corporation Commission to submit a report regarding the status of offshore wind energy projects approved by the Commission no later than December 31, 2023, and annually thereafter to certain committees of the General Assembly, the Secretary of Natural and Historic Resources, and the Secretary of Commerce and Trade. The bill contains requirements and considerations for the initial report and subsequent annual reports and requires electric utilities proposing offshore wind development to consider and incorporate information from the Commission's annual reports and any recommendations contained therein. State Corporation Commission; offshore wind energy development; report. Requires the State Corporation Commission to submit a report regarding the status of offshore wind energy projects approved by the Commission no later than December 31, 2023, and annually thereafter to certain committees of the General Assembly, the Secretary of Natural and Historic Resources, and the Secretary of Commerce and Trade. The bill contains requirements and considerations for the initial report and subsequent annual reports and requires electric utilities proposing offshore wind development to consider and incorporate information from the Commission's annual reports and any recommendations contained therein.

Unauthorized dissemination of photographic or digital images from a security camera in a state correctional facility; penalty. Provides that any person who retrieves photographic, motion picture, or other digital images captured or recorded by a security camera or other device used for surveillance or security purposes at a state correctional facility and disseminates such images, without the permission of the Director of the Department of Corrections or his designee, to another person who is not employed by the Department of Corrections is guilty of a Class 6 felony.