Department of Law; Address Confidentiality Program; removal of Program participant; penalty. Permits the Office of the Attorney General to cancel a participant's certification in the Address Confidentiality Program if such Program participant (i) has reached the age of 18, is not incapacitated, and did not submit recertification for participation in the Program within 60 days of his eighteenth birthday or (ii) initiates any legal action against the Office of the Attorney General. The bill clarifies that participation in the Program shall not affect custody or visitation orders in effect prior to or during Program participation. Finally, the bill penalizes any individual who knowingly discloses or publishes a Program participant's confidential address or any other confidential information with intent to coerce, intimidate, or harass such Program participant or any other person.

Virginia Retirement System; enhanced retirement benefits for 911 dispatchers, animal control officers, and municipal park rangers. Allows local governments to provide enhanced retirement benefits for hazardous duty service to (i) full-time salaried 911 dispatchers, (ii) full-time animal control officers, and (iii) sworn municipal park rangers qualifying as conservators of the peace. The bill provides that such enhanced retirement benefits apply only to service earned in such positions on or after July 1, 2026, but allows an employer, as that term is defined in relevant law, to provide such enhanced retirement benefits for service earned in such positions before July 1, 2026, in addition to service earned on or after that date. The bill has a delayed effective date of July 1, 2026.

Department of Taxation; evaluation of income tax subtraction for military benefits received by members of the uniformed services; report. Directs the Department of Taxation (the Department) to evaluate the effects of extending the income tax subtraction for military benefits to military retirement income paid to a veteran or the surviving spouse of a veteran for such veteran's service in the uniformed services, defined in federal law as the armed forces, the commissioned corps of the U.S. Public Health Service, and the commissioned corps of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Current law restricts such income tax subtraction to certain military benefits received for service in the armed forces. The bill directs the Department to submit a report of its findings and any recommendations to the Chairmen of the House Committee on Finance and the Senate Committee on Finance and Appropriations no later than November 30, 2025.

State of emergency; spending authority during budgetary lapse. Authorizes the Governor to declare a state of emergency in the event of a budgetary lapse, defined as a state of affairs in which the general appropriation act has expired and no lawful appropriation authority is in effect. Upon such a declaration of a state of emergency, the Governor shall have authority to continue disbursement of funds for essential public services, defined in the bill, at levels equivalent to those that were in effect prior to expiration of the general appropriation act. Such spending authority shall begin upon declaration of a state of emergency during a budgetary lapse and shall continue until enactment of a general appropriation act. The Governor, upon declaring a state of emergency, shall have 30 days to provide a report to the General Assembly that details his plan to continue the functioning of essential public services during the budgetary lapse and to submit a budget bill to the General Assembly that, if enacted, would end the emergency. The bill contains an enactment clause providing that, unless reenacted, it shall expire two years and six months after the end of the session of the General Assembly in which it is enacted.

Retail sales and use tax; exemption for data centers; reports. Requires a data center operator, in order to be eligible for the existing data center sales and use tax exemption to (i) beginning July 1, 2030, purchase a certain percentage of the data center's annual electric load from clean energy resources, (ii) beginning July 1, 2030, demonstrate sufficient investment in energy efficiency measures to provide system-wide benefits, and (iii) beginning July 1, 2027, use only backup generators that meet certain emissions standards. The bill requires the Commission on Electric Utility Regulation to examine the cost and feasibility of data centers using onsite backup and primary generation that is not diesel-fired and report its findings and recommendations to the General Assembly no later than December 1, 2025. The bill requires the Department of Energy to (a) identify opportunities for beneficial use of waste heat from data centers; (b) create and publish on its website an interactive map of existing and proposed data centers and potential public and private heat users; (c) develop a strategic plan to accelerate data center heat reuse in the Commonwealth; (d) designate an employee within the Department to lead the Commonwealth's efforts to reuse data center heat; and (e) convene a stakeholder work group to provide expertise and feedback on the Department's efforts to accelerate the use of waste heat from data centers. The Department is required to report its findings to the General Assembly no later than December 1, 2025. Finally, the bill requires investor-owned electric utilities to file with the State Corporation Commission for approval of a voluntary tariff to facilitate large customer procurement of clean energy.

Virginia Public Procurement Act; discrimination prohibited; military spouse-owned businesses. Prohibits a public body from discriminating against military spouse-owned businesses, as defined in the bill, in the solicitation or awarding of contracts. The bill further requires public bodies to facilitate the participation of military spouse-owned businesses in procurement transactions.

Virginia Workforce Housing Assistance Program; report. Establishes the Virginia Workforce Housing Assistance Program to provide grants to eligible employers, defined in the bill, that set up housing down payment assistance programs for employees in amounts equal to the lesser of 15 percent of housing down payment assistance expenses incurred by an eligible employer during the fiscal year or $50,000. The bill specifies that an eligible employer may only receive grants in the aggregate of up to $150,000 across all fiscal years or $250,000 for housing down payment assistance expenses incurred for employees in certain fiscally stressed localities. The bill provides that the Program be administered by the Department of Housing and Community Development in coordination with the Virginia Economic Development Partnership Authority.

Youth Health Protection Act established; civil penalty. Creates the Youth Health Protection Act, which makes it unlawful for any individual to provide gender transition procedures, defined in the bill, for minors and prohibits the use of public funds for gender transition procedures. The bill allows parents, guardians, or custodians to withhold consent for any treatment, activity, or mental health care services that are designed or intended to form their child's conceptions of sex and gender or to treat gender dysphoria or gender nonconformity. The bill prohibits government agents, other than law-enforcement personnel, from encouraging or coercing a minor to withhold information from the minor's parent. The bill establishes a duty for a government agent with knowledge that a minor has exhibited symptoms of gender dysphoria or gender nonconformity or otherwise demonstrates a desire to be treated in a manner incongruent with the minor's sex to immediately notify each of the minor's parents, guardians, or custodians in writing, with descriptions of relevant circumstances. The bill prohibits discrimination against persons (i) providing information regarding violations of the Act to their employer or specified public entities or (ii) who make disclosures under the Act of information that evinces any violation of law, rule, or regulation; any violation of any standard of care or other ethical guidelines for the provision of health care service; or gross mismanagement, a gross waste of funds, an abuse of authority, or a substantial and specific danger to public health or safety. The bill establishes a civil action for any violation of the Act by a clinic, health care system, medical professional, or other responsible person with a two-year statute of limitations. The bill prohibits political subdivisions of the Commonwealth from enacting, adopting, maintaining, or enforcing any measure that interferes with the professional conduct and judgment of a mental health care professional or counselor undertaken within the course of treatment and communication with clients, patients, other persons, or the public. The bill provides for enforcement by the Attorney General or a mental health care professional or counselor through an action for injunctive relief and allows a mental health care professional to recover reasonable attorney fees and reasonable costs incurred in obtaining an injunction. The bill waives sovereign immunity to suit and immunity from liability under this statute.

Virginia Human Rights Act; definition of "employer." Reduces from 15 to five the number of employees for each working day in each of 20 or more calendar weeks in the current or preceding calendar year for the purposes of the definition of "employer."

Importation, sale, manufacture, etc., of assault firearms and certain ammunition feeding devices prohibited; penalties. Creates a Class 1 misdemeanor for any person who imports, sells, manufactures, purchases, or transfers an assault firearm, as that term is defined in the bill with some exceptions, and prohibits a person who has been convicted of such violation from purchasing, possessing, or transporting a firearm for a period of three years from the date of conviction. The bill provides that an assault firearm does not include any firearm that is an antique firearm, has been rendered permanently inoperable, is manually operated by bolt, pump, lever, or slide action, or was manufactured before July 1, 2025. The bill also prohibits the sale of a large capacity ammunition feeding device, as that term is defined in the bill. The bill provides that any person who willfully and intentionally (i) sells an assault firearm to another person or (ii) purchases an assault firearm from another person is guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor and that any person who imports, sells, barters, or transfers a large capacity ammunition feeding device is guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor. The bill also makes it a Class 1 misdemeanor for any person younger than 21 years of age to import, sell, manufacture, purchase, possess, transport, or transfer an assault firearm regardless of the date of manufacture of such assault firearm with some exceptions. This bill is identical to HB 1607.

Regulation of electric utilities; development of renewable energy facilities; powers of State Air Pollution Control Board; powers of State Corporation Commission. Repeals provisions (i) requiring the State Air Pollution Control Board to adopt regulations to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from any electricity generating unit in the Commonwealth and authorizing the Board to establish an auction program for energy allowances; (ii) prohibiting the State Corporation Commission from approving any new utility-owned generation facilities that emit carbon dioxide as a by-product of energy generation, in certain circumstances; (iii) declaring that statutory allowances for energy derived from sunlight, onshore wind, offshore wind, and storage facilities are in the public interest; and (iv) relating to the development of solar and wind generation and energy storage capacity, development of offshore wind capacity, and generation of electricity from renewable and zero-carbon sources. The bill provides that planning and development activities for new nuclear generation facilities are in the public interest.

Protected health care activities; prohibition on extradition for certain crimes. Provides that no demand for extradition of a person charged with a criminal violation of law of another state shall be recognized by the Governor if such alleged violation involves protected health care activity within the Commonwealth unless the alleged criminal violation would also constitute a criminal offense under the laws of the Commonwealth. Protected health care activity is defined in the bill as the provision or receipt, attempted provision or receipt, or assistance or attempted assistance in the provision or receipt of any health care that is lawful in the Commonwealth by a health care provider licensed under the laws of the Commonwealth and physically present in the Commonwealth.

Electric utilities; emissions intensity target program. Requires the State Corporation Commission to develop an emissions intensity target program for Dominion Energy Virginia and American Electric Power to achieve net-zero emissions. The bill requires the Commission to promulgate regulations to implement its provisions by January 1, 2026. Upon the promulgation of such regulations, the bill repeals certain provisions that require Dominion Energy Virginia and American Electric Power to participate in a renewable energy portfolio standard program, authorize the State Air Pollution Control Board to promulgate certain regulations, and provide that the construction or purchase by a public utility of certain generation facilities is in the public interest.

Health insurance; cost sharing for breast examinations. Prohibits health insurance carriers from imposing cost sharing for diagnostic breast examinations and supplemental breast examinations, as those terms are defined in the bill, under certain insurance policies, subscription contracts, and health care plans delivered, issued for delivery, or renewed in the Commonwealth on and after January 1, 2026. The bill provides that such examinations include examinations using diagnostic mammography, breast magnetic resonance imaging, or breast ultrasound. This bill is a recommendation of the Health Insurance Reform Commission. This bill was incorporated into SB 1436.

Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority; police power; primary law-enforcement agency for certain crimes against property and involving fraud. Provides that special agents of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board shall serve as the primary law-enforcement agency for enforcing, reporting, and investigating certain crimes against property and crimes involving fraud that occur on property owned or leased by the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority.