Phase I Utilities; securitized asset costs. Authorizes Appalachian Power to petition the State Corporation Commission for a financing order for securitized asset costs, as defined in the bill. The bill creates the securitized asset cost charge and provides that the revenues generated by this charge, known as securitized asset cost property, are a property right that can be transferred and pledged as security for the securitized asset cost bonds. The bill establishes the procedures for creating, perfecting, and enforcing the security interest in securitized asset cost property. The bill also prohibits rate increases for Appalachian Power during the months of November through February and prohibits rate adjustment clauses from taking effect on customer bills between the months of November through February. The bill prohibits Appalachian Power from charing a residential customer any interest or late fees between July 1, 2025, and December 31, 2025, and from charging a residential customer any reconnection fees between July 1, 2025, and March 1, 2026. The bill also provides that in any rate proceeding for Appalachian Power, the State Corporation Commission shall include an invitation for public comment.

Virginia Freedom of Information Act; procedure for responding to requests; charges; posting of notice of rights and responsibilities. Limits the fees charged for producing public records to the median hourly rate of pay of employees of the public body or the actual hourly rate of pay of the person performing the work, whichever is less, and provides that a public body may petition a court for relief from this fee limit if there is no one who can process the request at the median hourly rate of pay or less. The bill makes corresponding amendments to the required statement on charges in the notice of rights and responsibilities that must be posted on a public body's website. The bill also amends existing law providing that a public body may petition a court for additional time to respond to a request for public records to allow such petitions to be heard in either general district or circuit court, to give such petitions priority on the court's docket, and to toll the response time while such a petition is pending before a court. The bill makes technical amendments, including moving provisions regarding charges for the production of public records into a separate section of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act.

School boards; school-based mental health teletherapy services; increasing accessibility of mental health teletherapy services; policies and requirements. Directs the Department of Education (the Department) to include in the model memorandum of understanding between a school board and a nationally recognized school-based telehealth provider that it is required to develop and distribute to each school board pursuant to applicable law parameters for the provision of mental health teletherapy for students outside of regular school hours and during regular school hours on school property. The bill also requires each school board to, for the purpose of increasing the accessibility of mental health services for public school students, (i) permit any student enrolled in the school division to schedule and participate in mental health teletherapy services during regular school hours on the same basis as such students are permitted to participate in school counseling services; (ii) enter into a memorandum of understanding, consistent with the model memorandum of understanding developed by the Department, with a nationally recognized school-based telehealth provider that ensures and sets forth parameters for the provision of such mental health teletherapy services during regular school hours; (iii) develop and implement policies and procedures for permitting any student to participate in such mental health teletherapy services during regular school hours; and (iv) develop, post in a publicly accessible location on its website, and make available to all administrative and instructional personnel in the school division at the beginning of each school year informational materials relating to such mental health teletherapy policies.

Codification of tax preferences in effect pursuant to the appropriation act. Codifies certain tax and fee provisions that are in effect under current law pursuant to provisions of the appropriation act. The provisions are (i) an annual vehicle registration fee increase of $2 that is used for emergency medical services, (ii) a clarification of the amount of sales tax revenue pledged to public facility projects, (iii) a sales and use tax exemption for tangible personal property purchased by a federally funded research and development center, (iv) an additional $20 recordation fee that is used for conservation purposes, and (v) a clarification that aviation fuel is not subject to the regional gas tax.

Electric utilities; renewable energy standard eligible sources; zero-carbon electricity generating nuclear facilities. Provides that, for the purposes of the renewable energy portfolio standard, eligible sources include zero-carbon electricity generating nuclear facilities located in the Commonwealth.

Income tax credit; adaptive repurposing of underutilized structures; Affordable Dwelling Units. Creates a nonrefundable income tax credit in taxable years 2025 through 2029 for eligible expenses, defined in the bill, incurred in converting office buildings to residential uses. The credit may be claimed only in the year during which a qualified converted building, defined in the bill, is placed into service and is equal to (i) 20 percent or (ii) 30 percent in an at-risk locality, defined in the bill, of the amount of eligible expenses incurred. No single taxpayer may claim more than $2.5 million in credits in any single taxable year and the credit is subject to an aggregate annual cap of $30 million. The bill also allows localities to restrict certain partial exemptions from real estate taxation to real property on which the improvement is a residential structure that has set aside at least 30 percent of such structure for Affordable Dwelling Units.

Safeguarding American Veteran Empowerment Act; prohibited practices; penalties. Creates the Safeguarding American Veteran Empowerment Act to regulate the practices of persons seeking to receive compensation for preparing, presenting, prosecuting, advising, consulting, or assisting any individual regarding any veterans' benefits matter, as defined in the bill. The bill provides that a violation of its provisions constitutes a prohibited practice under the Virginia Consumer Protection Act.

Elections; election results; reporting; provisional ballots. Requires the general registrar of each locality to report to the Department of Elections for each precinct in his locality the total number of provisional ballots cast, the number of those provisional ballots determined to be valid by the electoral board, and the results of such valid provisional ballots by voters assigned to such precinct. The bill specifies that results from provisional voting and voting at the precinct on election day must be reported separately. The bill directs the Department to establish standards for ascertaining and reporting such information and provides that such standards must direct that all results be posted promptly and no later than 5:00 p.m. on the tenth day after the election day.

Foreign protective orders in cases of family abuse; enforcement. Clarifies that the same criminal penalty applies for any person who violates the provisions of a foreign protective order in a case of family abuse that is accorded full faith and credit and is enforceable in the Commonwealth as if it were an order of the Commonwealth. This bill is a recommendation of the Judicial Council of Virginia and is identical to HB 1781.

Regulation of discharging preproduction plastic; requirements. Requires the Department of Environmental Quality to establish a program to ensure zero discharge or release from point and nonpoint source at certain facilities that discharge to (i) a surface water under a Virginia Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit issued by the Department or (ii) a publicly owned treatment works under an industrial pretreatment program permit or other written authorization issued by a local permit control authority and to require the prompt and environmentally responsible containment and cleanup of discharged or released preproduction plastic. The bill requires the Department to adopt and implement certain requirements in order to reduce and control the discharge or release of preproduction plastic from such facilities. The bill allows the Department to exempt a facility from the requirements of the program if a facility satisfies the criteria for a no exposure certification and complies with inspection requirements administered by the Department. The bill also allows the Department to establish additional requirements regarding the regulation of discharges and releases of preproduction plastic from certain facilities into water or onto land in the Commonwealth.

Unauthorized use of name, portrait, voice, likeness, or picture of any person; digital replica; civil liability; statute of limitations. Expands the existing ability for any person to maintain a suit in equity, including the accompanying remedies available, for the unauthorized use of his name, portrait, or picture for advertising purposes or for the purposes of trade to include the unauthorized use of his voice or likeness. The bill also creates civil liability for a person who produces, distributes, or makes available the digital replica, defined in the bill, of a person's voice or likeness in an expressive audiovisual work or sound recording without prior written consent, with exceptions enumerated in the bill. The bill also extends the current statute of limitations for such civil suits from 20 years to 100 years after the death of such person.

Virginia Growth and Opportunity Act; eligibility for grants. Expands eligibility for regional councils to receive grants from the Virginia Growth and Opportunity Fund. The bill allows regional councils to apply for and utilize grant funds for regional activities that substantially promote the objectives of the regional council's economic growth and diversification plan where there exists a demonstrable gap in services that negatively impacts a region's ability to grow one or more trade sector industry clusters.

Division of Consumer Counsel; duties; artificial intelligence fraud and abuse. Expands the duties of the Division of Consumer Counsel to include establishing and administering programs to address artificial intelligence fraud and abuse. The bill provides that such programs would include establishing a statewide fraud and abuse alert system to be administered by the Division.

Stormwater management regulations; localities outside Chesapeake Bay watershed. Requires the State Water Control Board and the Department of Environmental Quality to apply in a locality that is located outside of the Chesapeake Bay watershed the regulations establishing minimum design criteria for measures that were in effect prior to July 1, 2014, to control (i) nonpoint source pollution and (ii) localized flooding and stream channel erosion.

Living Shoreline Grant Fund established. Establishes the Living Shoreline Grant Fund to be administered by the Marine Resources Commission for the purpose of awarding grants to a local government or a federally recognized tribe in the Commonwealth to match federal or other matching funds. The bill requires such grants be used for the construction, renovation, or improvement of living shorelines greater than 1.5 miles in any shore angle direction. The bill requires the Commission to give priority to projects that (i) are located on public lands, (ii) demonstrate the ability for the living shoreline to migrate upland over time through documented control of upland properties, or (iii) are identified as priorities in the Virginia Coastal Resilience Master Plan.