Local government; water-filled fire sprinkler systems. Permits a locality to allow the installation of automatic water-filled or wet-pipe fire sprinkler systems in new townhome construction. The bill provides that such ordinance shall require the installation be completed in compliance with standards, requirements, and specifications for the installation of an automatic water-filled or wet-pipe fire sprinkler system as prescribed by the National Fire Protection Association's NFPA 13, Standard for the Installation of Sprinkler Systems. An automatic water-filled or wet-pipe fire sprinkler system shall not be required when additions or alterations are made to existing townhomes that do not have an automatic residential fire sprinkler system installed.

Child Care Subsidy Program vendors; basis for periodic reimbursement. Requires the Department of Education to periodically reimburse child care providers that are vendors through the Child Care Subsidy Program on the basis of authorized child enrollment but provides that if any such enrolled child is absent from the provider for 10 or more days during one month, the Department shall periodically reimburse such provider on the basis of such child's attendance.

Commission on Electric Utility Regulation; evaluation of infrastructure necessary for electric vehicle charging facilities. Directs the State Corporation Commission and the Department of Housing and Community Development to provide technical assistance to the Commission on Electric Utility Regulation (the Commission) if the Commission evaluates the design and deployment of the electrical distribution infrastructure necessary to support the installation of electric vehicle charging facilities in new developments consisting of single-family and multifamily residential units. The bill requires the Commission to engage representatives from the residential and commercial development industries, private sector utility consultants, and other stakeholders if it conducts such an evaluation. Commission on Electric Utility Regulation; evaluation of infrastructure necessary for electric vehicle charging facilities. Directs the State Corporation Commission and the Department of Housing and Community Development to provide technical assistance to the Commission on Electric Utility Regulation (the Commission) if the Commission evaluates the design and deployment of the electrical distribution infrastructure necessary to support the installation of electric vehicle charging facilities in new developments consisting of single-family and multifamily residential units. The bill requires the Commission to engage representatives from the residential and commercial development industries, private sector utility consultants, and other stakeholders if it conducts such an evaluation.

Day of Tears. Recognizing January 22 as the Day of Tears in Virginia.

Tangible personal property tax; indoor agriculture equipment and machinery. Specifies that farm machinery, farm equipment, and farm implements used by an indoor, closed, controlled-environment commercial agricultural facility are a class of farm machinery and farm implements that a locality may exempt from personal property taxation.

Elections; election reform. Requires Elections; election reform. Requires that the general register of each locality publish on the official website of the locality (i) monthly, a list of all registered voters added to or removed from each precinct in the locality including a reason for each change; (ii) on the first day on which the registration records are closed for any election, a list of all the qualified voters registered to vote in each precinct participating in the election; (iii) after the election, a list of all persons who voted for each precinct participating in the election; and (iv) within seven days of any application for or receipt or use of any money, grants, property, or services given by a private individual, nongovernmental entity, or federal government entity, a notice of such activity. The bill requires a registered voter to provide a reason for being absent or unable to vote at his polling place on election day in order to receive an absentee ballot to vote by mail. Registered voters offering to vote absentee in person are similarly required by the bill to provide a reason. The bill provides that an applicant for an absentee ballot is required to receive an absentee ballot by mail and to vote absentee in person before the second Saturday immediately preceding an election. The bill also repeals the permanent absentee voter list and limits the special annual application to those voters with an illness or disability. Provisions of the Code providing for the establishment of drop-off locations for the return of absentee ballots are repealed. The bill requires that all absentee ballots sent in compliance with applicable state and federal law be received by the close of polls on election day. The bill provides that only members of a uniformed service, as defined in relevant law, persons who are residing temporarily outside of the United States, and spouses or dependents of such members or persons are entitled to register to vote after the close of registration records in person up to and including the day of the election. Under current law, any person who is qualified to register to vote is entitled to register to vote after the close of registration records up to and including the day of the election. The bill also requires presentation of a form of identification containing a photograph in order to vote. The bill 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, subject to felony penalties for false statements, that he is the named registered voter he claims to be. Instead, the bill provides that such voter is entitled to cast a provisional ballot. The bill requires the Department of Motor Vehicles to provide voter photo identification cards containing the voter's photograph and signature free of charge to those voters who do not have another valid form of identification. The bill eliminates provisions allowing for the use of ranked choice voting in the Commonwealth. The use of central absentee precincts is also eliminated. All returned absentee ballots are required to be held in their return envelopes until they are distributed on election day to the precinct in which the absentee voter resides for counting.

Issuing citations; certain traffic offenses. Removes the provisions that provide that no law-enforcement officer may lawfully stop a motor vehicle for operating (i) without a light illuminating a license plate, (ii) with defective and unsafe equipment, (iii) without brake lights or a high mount stop light, (iv) without an exhaust system that prevents excessive or unusual levels of noise, (v) with certain sun-shading materials and tinting films, and (vi) with certain objects suspended in the vehicle and removes the accompanying exclusionary provisions.

Abortion; use of public funds prohibited. Provides that no agency of the Commonwealth shall enter into any contract with or make any grant of public funds, as defined in the bill, to any entity or any affiliate of any entity that provides abortion services or operates a facility at which abortion services are provided. The bill also repeals provisions authorizing the Board of Health to use state general funds appropriated to the Department of Health to pay the cost of abortions for women who otherwise meet the financial eligibility criteria for services through the state plan for medical assistance services in cases in which (i) a pregnancy occurs as a result of rape or incest that is reported to a law-enforcement or public health agency or (ii) a physician certifies in writing that he believes the fetus will be born with a gross and totally incapacitating physical deformity or with a gross and totally incapacitating mental deficiency.

Tax credit for vehicle emissions testing equipment; certain vehicles. Allows a corporation, individual, or public service corporation a tax credit equal to 10 percent of the purchase price of a vehicle with an internal combustion engine that is principally garaged in Virginia. Current law allows such a credit only for certain clean-fuel vehicles.

Public school staffing ratios; specialized student support positions. Increases the number of specialized student support positions required to be employed by each local school board from at least three to at least four such positions per 1,000 students in the local school division. Such specialized student support positions include school social workers, school psychologists, school nurses, licensed behavior analysts, licensed assistant behavior analysts, and other licensed health and behavioral positions.

Virginia Public Procurement Act; participation by veteran-owned small businesses. Requires all public bodies to include in their goals for participation by small businesses a minimum of five percent participation by veteran-owned businesses and service disabled veteran-owned businesses. Current law only requires a goal of three percent participation by service disabled veteran-owned businesses and does not impose such goal upon local public bodies. The bill also requires the Department of General Services to update the eVA portal to include a category for veteran-owned and service disabled veteran-owned small businesses that is conspicuous to the general public to easily display and search set-aside opportunities for such businesses.

Virginia Petroleum Products Franchise Act; agreements between jobber/distributors and dealers; market valuation study. Provides that a term of an initial agreement between a jobber/distributor and a dealer relating to specific marketing premises shall not be less than one year and that the term of all subsequent agreements between the jobber/distributor and the dealer relating to the same marketing premises shall not be for less than three years. The bill provides that rental provisions in any such agreement or franchise shall be based on commercially fair and reasonable standards at a fair market value of the leased marketing premises under an objectively reasonable analysis, uniformly applied to all similarly situated dealers of the same jobber/distributor in the same geographic area. If a dealer believes the terms of the agreement offered do not meet a fair market value, such dealer may hire, at his expense, an independent third-party appraisal company from a list of appraisal companies provided by the jobber/distributor to provide a market valuation study. The bill provides that such study shall (i) be for informational purposes only, (ii) not require either party to disclose confidential business information, and (iii) not bind either party. The provisions of the bill apply to Planning District 8 and to initial franchise agreements and renewals of franchise agreements entered into after July 1, 2024.

Electric utilities; temporary power purchase agreements. Provides that if the State Corporation Commission determines that, due to transmission constraints, a public utility is not able to furnish electric service sufficient to meet the current and reasonably anticipated requirements of a customer located in such public utility's service territory, such customer shall be permitted to enter into a temporary power purchase agreement with a third party that shall be authorized to own and operate a facility generating zero-carbon electricity located on such customer's site to serve part or all of such customer's electric service requirements. Under the bill, such authorization shall extend for at least six years.

Probation, revocation, and suspension of sentence; repeal. Repeals the limitations on the amount of active incarceration a court can impose as a result of a revocation hearing for a probation violation or violation of the terms and conditions of a suspended sentence. Under current law, there are limitations on the amount of active incarceration a court can impose for defined technical violations. The bill also removes limitations on the lengths of a period of probation and a period of suspension of a sentence that may be fixed by the court. Under current law, a court may fix the period of probation for up to the statutory maximum period for which the defendant might originally have been sentenced to be imprisoned and any period of supervised probation shall not exceed five years from the release of the defendant from any active period of incarceration, with some exceptions. The bill also makes changes to the time periods within which a court must issue process to notify the accused of a revocation hearing.

Maternal Mortality Review Team; membership. Adds a representative of the Department of Corrections and a representative of the State Board of Local and Regional Jails, both appointed by the Governor, to the membership of the Maternal Mortality Review Team. Maternal Mortality Review Team; membership. Adds a representative of the Department of Corrections and a representative of the State Board of Local and Regional Jails, both appointed by the Governor, to the membership of the Maternal Mortality Review Team.