Virginia Housing Development Authority; technical advisory group; report. Directs the Virginia Housing Development Authority to convene a technical advisory group to (i) evaluate the prevalence of deed fraud, including notary fraud, seller impersonation, owner impersonation, and fraudulent lien filing; (ii) develop recommendations for the prevention of deed fraud; and (iii) develop measures to enhance protections for property owners from such crimes. The bill also requires the technical advisory group to give consideration to certain policy proposals stated in the bill. The bill requires the technical advisory group to submit its findings and recommendations to the Chairmen of the House Committee on General Laws and the Senate Committee on General Laws and Technology no later than November 1, 2025. This bill is identical to HB 2396.

Commending the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families; Virginia Initiative for Education and Work; Subsidized Work Experience Program established. Establishes the Subsidized Work Experience Program (SWEP) for persons who are otherwise eligible for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. The bill directs the Department of Social Services to conduct SWEP and assign SWEP participants as volunteers to agencies, community organizations, and educational institutions. The bill also directs the Department to promulgate regulations necessary to implement the provisions of SWEP.

Public institutions of higher education; certain grants from and partnerships and agreements with foreign countries of concern prohibited; report; civil penalty. Prohibits, except with the approval of the governing board of the institution of higher education or the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia under certain circumstances, any public institution of higher education from accepting any grant from or participating in any partnership or agreement with any foreign country of concern, as that term is defined in the bill. The bill requires the Council to establish and enforce mechanisms for compliance and penalties for noncompliance with such prohibition, which shall include civil penalties not to exceed $25,000 per offense and may include periodic institutional reporting until any such noncompliance is remedied by the institution. The bill requires each public institution of higher education, by December 1 of each year, to report to the General Assembly, the Governor, and the Council any grant that it accepted from or agreement or partnership in which it participated with a foreign country of concern during the previous fiscal year and the date on which such grant, agreement, or partnership is expected to terminate.

Public institutions of higher education; Department of Social Services; SNAP eligibility, applications, and participation; guidance, resources, and education. Requires the Department of Social Services (the Department) to (i) develop, annually update, and provide to each public institution of higher education in advance of the start of each school year an information sheet on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) with information relating to SNAP eligibility, applications, participation, requirements, and such other information as the Department deems necessary or appropriate, relevant to students enrolled in public institutions of higher education and (ii) provide information, resources, and education to certain faculty members employed by each public institution of higher education regarding opportunities for assisting students enrolled in public institutions of higher education with completing SNAP applications. The bill requires each public institution of higher education to ensure that such SNAP information sheet developed by the Department is provided to each student enrolled in such institution at the beginning of the fall semester of each school year or, in the case of any student who enrolls after the beginning of the fall semester, as soon as practicable after enrollment and is included in any orientation materials distributed to each new student.

Obtaining records concerning electronic communication service or remote computing service without a warrant. Provides that when disclosure of real-time location data or subscriber data is not prohibited by federal law, an investigative or law-enforcement officer may obtain real-time location data or subscriber data without a warrant if the investigative or law-enforcement officer reasonably believes that (i) an individual or group of individuals has made a credible threat via electronic communication to commit an act of violence upon the property, including the buildings and grounds thereof, of any (a) child day center, including any preschool program offered by a publicly funded provider; (b) preschool or nursery program certified by the Board of Education; or (c) public, private, or religious elementary or secondary school and (ii) a warrant cannot be obtained in time to prevent the identified danger or identify the source of the threat. The bill also provides that no real-time location data or subscriber data shall be admissible in a criminal proceeding unless a judge finds that probable cause for the issuance of a search warrant existed at the time of the search and such data is otherwise admissible, provided that no such data obtained is presented to establish the necessary probable cause.

Restaurants and catering operations; notice of food containing pork products. Requires all restaurants and catering operations in the Commonwealth to place a conspicuous notice next to or underneath food items that contain pork products on menus. This bill also requires restaurants and catering operations to post a copy of the menu in a conspicuous location such that it is accessible to all employees involved in the preparation or service of food.

Hospitals; reports of threats or acts of violence against health care providers. Requires hospitals in the Commonwealth to establish a workplace violence incident reporting system to document, track, and analyze any incident of workplace violence reported. The bill requires each hospital to (i) report the data collected via the reporting system to the chief medical officer and the chief nursing officer of such hospital on, at minimum, a quarterly basis and (ii) send a report to the Department of Health on an annual basis that includes, at a minimum, the number of incidents of workplace violence voluntarily reported by an employee. The bill also requires the Secretary of Health and Human Resources, in collaboration with the Department of Criminal Justice Services, to convene a stakeholder work group for the purpose of making recommendations on the workplace violence system and policies adopted pursuant to the bill. This bill is identical to HB 2269.

Invasive plant species; retail sales. Requires, for the retail sale of certain invasive plant species for outdoor use, a retail establishment to post in a conspicuous manner on the property located in proximity to each invasive plant signage identifying such plant as invasive, educating consumers regarding invasive plant species, and encouraging consumers to ask about alternatives. The bill requires the Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services to designate the format, size, and content of such signage no later than October 1, 2025, and requires the Commissioner to issue a stop sale order and mark or tag a plant in a conspicuous manner when an invasive plant is for sale at a retail establishment without appropriate signage. In such case, the bill requires the Commissioner to give written notice of a finding made to the owner, tenant, or person in charge of such retail establishment and requires the stop sale order issued to remain in effect until the required signage is posted. Certain provisions of the bill have a delayed effective date of January 1, 2027. This bill is identical to HB 1941.

Department of Wildlife Resources; propagation of mammalian wildlife unlawful; premature separation; hybridization. Makes it unlawful to prematurely separate any mammalian wildlife offspring born in captivity from the mother prior to the natural time of weaning that is appropriate for such species, except that wildlife offspring may be prematurely separated if a medical necessity exists pursuant to a written order from a veterinarian licensed to practice in the Commonwealth with appropriate species-specific experience and expertise. The bill excludes the following from its provisions: (i) noncommercial transfers or trades between accredited zoological facilities, (ii) an accredited zoological facility that retains the mammalian wildlife offspring that has already been prematurely separated by such zoological facility, and (iii) a person operating under a wildlife rehabilitator permit issued by the Department of Wildlife Resources. The bill also makes it unlawful to intentionally and for commercial purposes propagate mammalian wildlife of different species, also known as hybridization.

Certificate of public need; expedited application and review; medical deserts. Instructs the State Health Commissioner to direct the State Health Services Plan Task Force to develop recommendations for establishing an expedited application and review process for projects requiring a certificate of public need in medical deserts. This bill is identical to HB 2119.

Enhanced Earned sentence credits; inchoate offenses; concurrent and consecutive sentences. Provides that a person who is convicted of an inchoate offense will earn sentence credits at the same rate as someone who is convicted of the completed offense for certain enumerated offenses. The bill also specifies that the provision in current law providing that a person who has been convicted of certain enumerated offenses may earn a maximum of 4.5 sentence credits for each 30 days served on any sentence for such offenses also applies to any other sentence that is to be served concurrent with or consecutive to any such sentence. The bill specifies that such provisions shall apply to the sentence of any person convicted of a felony offense committed on or after July 1, 2025, and who is sentenced to serve a term of incarceration in a state or local correctional facility.

Elections; prohibited activities; distribution of referendum materials. Adds "referendum" to the description of materials that are prohibited from being distributed within certain areas while voting and registration activities are being conducted.

Court appearance of a person not free on bail. Makes various changes to provisions regarding bail hearings, including (i) the appointment of counsel for the accused, (ii) the information provided to counsel for the accused, (iii) a requirement that counsel for the accused be provided with adequate time to confer with the accused prior to any bail hearing, and (iv) the compensation of counsel for the accused. Effective in due course, the bill provides that the chief judge in each circuit shall create a plan to be completed by November 1, 2025, that establishes the means by which the jurisdiction will meet these requirements. The remainder of the bill has a delayed effective date of January 1, 2026.

Virginia Commonwealth University Health System Authority; board of directors; chief executive officer. Makes several changes relating to the board of directors and the chief executive officer of the Virginia Commonwealth University Health System Authority (the Authority), including (i) reducing from 19 to 13 the number of appointed members on the board of directors and adding the chief executive officer of the Authority as an ex officio member with voting privileges, thereby reducing from 21 to 16 the total number of board members; (ii) changing from voting to nonvoting the nature of the membership of the President of Virginia Commonwealth University (the University) on the board of directors and prohibiting rather than requiring, as under current law, the President of the University from serving as chairman of the board of directors; (iii) lengthening the terms of all members of the board of directors from three years to four years; (iv) adding demonstrated experience or expertise in finance or commercial real estate as options for satisfying the required qualifications for certain appointed members and requiring each enumerated area of demonstrated experience or expertise to be represented amongst such appointed members at any given time; (v) requiring the biennial election of a chairman and vice-chairman of the board of directors, requiring such chairman and vice-chairman to have served for at least two years on the board of directors, and prohibiting any employee of the University, employee of the Authority, member of the board of visitors of the University, or legislative member from serving as chairman; (vi) prohibiting rather than permitting, as under current law, the Senior Vice-President for Health Sciences of the University from serving as chief executive officer of the Authority but requiring the Senior Vice-President for Health Sciences to regularly communicate and collaborate with such chief executive officer to support the mutual interests and success of the University and the Authority; (vii) providing that no further action shall be taken if a majority of each of the three-member committees appointed by the board of directors of the Authority and the board of visitors of the University do not agree on the removal of the chief executive officer of the Authority within 30 days of the appointment of the committees by each board; and (viii) providing that in the event that a majority of the members of each committee do not agree on the selection or conditions of appointment of the chief executive officer within 30 days of the appointment of the committees by each board, then the process set forth in statute shall be repeated until such selection has been made or such conditions of appointment have been determined. Current law requires the President of the University to make a binding decision in the event of any such disagreement. This bill is identical to HB 2161.