Independent Pharmacy Support Program established; report; sunset. Directs the Department of Health to establish the Independent Pharmacy Support Program to fund independent pharmacies, as defined by the bill, that operate in rural and medically underserved areas. The bill specifies the requirements for pharmacies to receive funds through the Program and the purposes for which funds can be used. The bill requires the Department to administer the Program and compile and submit an annual report to the Chairs of the House Committee on Health and Human Services and the Senate Committee on Education and Health by November 1 of each year. The provisions of the bill will expire in 2035 unless renewed by an act of the General Assembly.

Sex Offender and Crimes Against Minors Registry; registration intervals for Tier I and Tier II offenses. Requires any person who is required to register with the Sex Offender and Crimes Against Minors Registry and who is convicted of a Tier I or Tier II offense to register yearly. The bill also requires any person convicted of providing false information or failing to provide registration information where such person was included on the Registry for a Tier II offense to register twice a year.

Department of Public Safety and Homeland Security; work group; report. Directs the Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security to establish a work group to study existing emergency management needs and analyze sustainability of current funding, among other things, and to report the work group's findings and recommendations to the Chairmen of the House Committee on General Laws and the Senate Committee on General Laws and Technology on or before October 1, 2025.

Dam Safety, Flood Prevention and Protection Assistance; Dam Safety Act; powers and duties of the Department of Conservation and Recreation; rights and requirements of dam owners; civil penalty. Amends various provisions of the Dam Safety Act to streamline the Department of Conservation and Recreation's enforcement powers for impounding structures under the Act and clarifies the Department's powers and duties during an active dam failure. The bill also makes changes to a dam owner's responsibilities under the Act, including adding requirements to obtain a general permit for a low hazard impounding structure, making a dam owner responsible for ensuring that his impounding structure that presents an imminent danger has a safety inspection performed as provided in the bill, and allowing a dam owner to identify the dam break inundation zone of his impounding structure by providing the limits of the dam break inundation zone in lieu of filing a map. The bill also changes certain criteria for applicants to receive funds from the Dam Safety, Flood Prevention and Protection Assistance Fund, including the project match requirements for grants or loans. Finally, the bill repeals the provisions providing civil penalties for violating the provisions of the Act and makes technical amendments related to such repeal. This bill is identical to SB 857.

Child support orders; date of conception. Provides that any child support order is retroactive to the date of the conception of the child. Under current law, such support order is retroactive to the date of the filing of an action for the establishment of such support order. The bill specifies that its provisions will only apply to child support orders entered for children conceived on or after July 1, 2025.

Sewage disposal; alternative onsite sewage systems; elimination of report filing fee. Eliminates the $1 filing fee required for the filing of site visit reports by licensed operators of alternative onsite sewage systems.

Energy Innovation Pilot Program established. Establishes the Energy Innovation Pilot Program to foster the development of innovative energy projects by allowing Program participants to provide grid services or other beneficial energy measures. Under the Program, a participant, after obtaining State Corporation Commission approval, is not required to comply with specific state statutes and regulations pertaining to the generation, transmission, or distribution of electric energy for sale, except for those laws and regulations that are required for worker safety, public safety, or environmental protection, for a period of five years. The bill includes provisions for application requirements, an approval process, Program exit procedures, a test period extension process, suspension or revocation of Commission approval, consumer protections, Commission investigations, and recordkeeping and reporting requirements.

Sales and use tax; sales through vending machines. Provides that, beginning January 1, 2026, only a one percent local sales and use tax shall be applied to sales through vending machines of food purchased for human consumption or essential personal hygiene products. Under current law, the rate applicable to such sales is 5.3 percent or 6.0 percent, as applicable depending on the locality, plus the one percent local sales and use tax.

Board of Education; career and technical education courses, pathways, and credentials; biennial review; report. Requires the Board of Education and the Virginia Board of Workforce Development, with the assistance of the Department of Workforce Development and Advancement and the Virginia Office of Education Economics, the Department of Education, the Virginia Community College System, and the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia, to conduct, beginning with the fiscal year starting July 1, 2025, and each odd-numbered year thereafter, a biennial review of all career and technical education course, pathway, and credential offerings available to public school students across the Commonwealth for the purpose of ensuring that all such career and technical education course, pathway, and credential offerings are (i) aligned with current and emerging industry and workforce needs, demands, and standards and (ii) designed to effectively prepare students for postsecondary success through gainful employment in a high-demand industry or field, enrollment in postsecondary education, or enlistment in the United States Armed Forces. The bill requires the Board of Education and the Virginia Board of Workforce Development to develop and submit to the Secretary of Education, the Secretary of Labor, and the chairs of the House Committee on Education and the Senate Committee on Education and Health by October 1 of each odd-numbered year, beginning with October 1, 2025, a report on each such biennial review.

Employment health and safety standards; heat illness prevention. Requires the Safety and Health Codes Board to adopt regulations establishing reasonable standards designed to protect employees from heat illness and establish a list of high-hazard industries, as defined in the bill. The bill authorizes a person aggrieved by a violation of its provisions or the regulations promulgated thereunder to seek to obtain injunctive relief, to recover statutory damages of $1000, or both, in an action commenced within one year of the cause of action. The bill requires the Safety and Health Codes Board, in consultation with the Department of Labor and Industry, to develop a list of high-hazard industries by January 1, 2026, and to develop and adopt regulations requiring employers in high-hazard industries to implement standards for heat illness prevention by May 1, 2026.

Data centers; industrial zoning. Requires a locality to review and amend its zoning ordinance to (i) designate data centers as industrial uses for zoning purposes; (ii) review the locations of zones allowing data centers by right, and adjust the zoning map, if needed, considering proximity to residential areas; (iii) review the minimum requirements in the zoning ordinance, such as setbacks and building heights, for the purpose of mitigating negative impacts on residential or other sensitive areas and consider adding requirements specific to data centers as needed; (iv) identify optimal areas for data center development in the locality, including locations that are suitable from the locality's perspective as well as the industry's perspective; (v) consider zoning ordinance changes to reduce the likelihood of noisy data centers, including through limiting allowable locations and requiring sound modeling, and prohibit the constant low-frequency noise of data centers from reaching residential areas; and (vi) require commitments from data centers making zoning requests to sufficiently mitigate negative impacts on any nearby residential areas. The provisions of the bill shall only apply to localities where data centers are already addressed in the locality's zoning ordinance and where a locality is revising its zoning ordinance to include data centers.

Commonwealth Mass Transit Fund; Hampton Roads Transportation Accountability Commission. Creates a new allocation from the Commonwealth Mass Transit Fund for the Hampton Roads Transportation Accountability Commission, adjusts the amounts of certain other allocations from such Fund, and removes the light rail system operated by the Transportation District Commission of Hampton Roads from eligibility for funds from such other allocations from such Fund. The bill requires the Commonwealth Transportation Board to withhold 20 percent of the funds from such new allocation unless the Transportation District Commission of Hampton Roads submits to it certain information annually. The bill directs the Department of Rail and Public Transportation, for fiscal year 2027, to reserve and utilize certain funds in amounts necessary to provide certain supplemental operating assistance to certain transit providers that would experience a reduction in allocable funds due to the reallocations in this bill. The bill has a delayed effective date of July 1, 2026.

Mattress Stewardship Program established; report; civil penalties. Establishes the Mattress Stewardship Program that allows certain industry associations to administer the Program as a mattress recycling organization with approval and certification from the Department of Environmental Quality. The bill requires certain producers, retailers, and renovators of mattresses to register with a certified mattress recycling organization and requires a producer to identify each mattress brand it sells or offers for sale in the Commonwealth on or before June 1, 2027. Prior to the Program going into effect, the bill requires a mattress recycling organization to submit a plan with certain criteria relating to the collection and recycling of mattresses and the implementation of the Program. The bill establishes annual reporting requirements for the mattress recycling organization and establishes a Mattress Stewardship Program Advisory Board to provide advice on the proper implementation and sustainability of the Program. Finally, the bill establishes the powers and duties of the Department as they relate to the bill and civil penalties for violations of the Program by the producers, the retailers, or the mattress recycling organization.

Film industry community zones; local designation. Allows localities to establish, by ordinance, one or more zones in a film industry community, defined in the bill as a community that has a film industry presence or the potential of a film industry presence within the designated area and where such presence drives, or has the potential to drive, significant economic activity. The bill provides that a locality, or another political subdivision acting on behalf of the locality, may offer unique benefits to film industry businesses, along with related businesses that serve the needs of the film industry, looking to locate within a film industry community zone, including the reduction of certain fees and taxes. In addition, the bill provides that local governing bodies are authorized to enter into agreements for the payment of economic development incentive grants to such businesses. The bill also allows a governing body to provide for certain regulatory flexibility and incentives and provides that the establishment of a film industry community zone does not preclude a filmmaker from participating in the Governor's Motion Picture Opportunity Fund and the motion picture production tax credit.

Commending the Rappahannock High School baseball team.