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2007 SESSION

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Senate Committee on Rehabilitation and Social Services

Chairman: Emmett W. Hanger, Jr.

Clerk: Charles T. Shotton
Staff: Ellen Weston, Sarah Stanton
Date of Meeting: February 9, 2007
Time and Place: 8:30 a.m., Senate Room B

H.B. 1687

Patron: Toscano

Criminal history and central registry check; birth parents. Exempts birth parents revoking an entrustment agreement or placement agreement pursuant to § 63.2-1223 from criminal history and central registry checks.  

H.B. 1692

Patron: Kilgore

Home Energy Assistance Program.  Reduces the frequency of the reports required from the Department of Social Services regarding the effectiveness of low-income energy assistance programs in the Commonwealth. Currently, reports are due by October 1 of each year until October 1, 2007, on which date the reporting requirement is scheduled to cease. The measure provides that after October 1, 2007, reports will be due biennially.

H.B. 1784

Patron: Cosgrove

Alcoholic beverage control; delivery of wine and beer; permits. Allows a brewery, winery, or farm winery located within or outside the Commonwealth that is authorized to engage in the retail sale of wine or beer, after obtaining a delivery permit from the ABC Board, to deliver wine and beer to consumers. Such privilege was removed as a result of recent federal litigation challenging the constitutionality of Virginia's ABC law. The bill contains technical amendments, including relocating the existing provisions concerning direct shipment of wine and beer (§ 4.1-112.1) to the administration of licenses portion of ABC law.

H.B. 1815

Patron: Suit

Alcoholic beverage control; meal-assembly kitchen license. Adds a new license for meal-assembly kitchens, defined as any commercial establishment that offers to its customers, for off-premises consumption, ingredients for the preparation of meals and entrees in professional kitchen facilities located at the establishment. Under the terms of the license, a licensee is authorized to serve wine or beer on the premises of the licensee to any such bona fide customer attending either a private gathering or a special event; however, the licensee shall not give more than two five-ounce glasses of wine or two 12-ounce glasses of beer to any such customer, nor shall it sell or otherwise charge a fee to such customer for the wine or beer served or consumed. The privileges of this license shall be limited to the premises of the meal-assembly kitchen regularly occupied and utilized as such. The bill provides for state and local license taxes.

H.B. 1887

Patron: Albo

Alcoholic beverage control; unlawful purchase or possession of alcoholic beverages; deferred proceedings.  Provides that in the event of a violation for underage possession of alcoholic beverages where the court defers further proceedings and places the accused on probation subject to conditions, one of the conditions must be suspension of the accused's driver's license.  The bill contains a technical amendment.

H.B. 1889

Patron: Albo

Alcoholic beverage control; refusal to grant and revocation or suspension of licenses.  Updates the various business ownership types of applicants for an ABC license, as well as those who already are licensees of the ABC Board, in the context of conducting background checks for granting a license or revoking or suspending a license.

H.B. 1905

Patron: Albo

Home study for adoption; simultaneous meeting.  Changes the requirement that a social worker meet with the birth parent(s) and prospective adoptive parents simultaneously to an optional provision. Provides that such meetings may occur simultaneously or separately, upon the agreement of both parties.

H.B. 1910

Patron: Albo

Alcoholic beverage control; tastings conducted by manufacturers or wholesalers. Clarifies that the $100 limitation on the purchase of alcoholic beverages by a manufacturer from a retail licensee for a tasting conducted by the manufacturer or wholesaler does not include taxes or gratuities.  The bill caps  the amount of the gratuity to 20 percent of the cost of the alcoholic beverages, including the tax.

H.B. 1932

Patron: Rapp

Jail farms. Clarifies that a local jail farm may be used to hold or confine a person who could be held or confined in a regional or local jail.

H.B. 1980

Patron: Lohr

Alcoholic beverage control; mixed beverage limited caterer's license.  Creates a new mixed beverage limited caterer's license, which may be granted only to a person regularly engaged in the business of providing food and beverages to others for service at private gatherings or at special events, not to exceed 12 gatherings or events per year. The bill authorizes the licensee to sell and serve alcoholic beverages for on-premises consumption, and the licensee must meet the required food sale ratio. The bill sets forth the state and local license taxes for this new license. The bill contains technical amendments.

H.B. 1984

Patron: Lohr

Alcoholic beverage control; definition of public place.  Clarifies the definition of public place to include any sidewalk adjoining highways, streets, or lanes.

H.B. 1995

Patron: Suit

Alcoholic beverage sale nuisances.  Any locality by or through its mayor, executive, or attorney may file a complaint in a circuit court to enjoin the sale of alcohol at any establishment licensed by the Alcohol Beverage Control Board. The basis for such complaint shall be that the operator of the establishment has allowed it to become a meeting place for persons committing serious criminal violations of the law. After a final determination has been issued by the ABC Board the injunction is null.

H.B. 2034

Patron: Hamilton

Payment for health care costs of prisoners.  Requires that payment by local and state correctional facilities for costs incurred for health care for prisoners not exceed the lesser of the amount that would be paid under Medicare or Medicaid.

H.B. 2145

Patron: Albo

Alcoholic beverage control; mixed beverage licenses.  Authorizes the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board to grant a mixed beverage license to any establishment located on property consisting of at least 10,000 acres and operated as a resort located in any county with a population between 19,200 and 19,500 (Primland Resort in Patrick County).

H.B. 2269

Patron: Ebbin

Statewide Independent Living Council and Statewide Independent Living Fund. Authorizes the SILC to solicit funds for deposit in the SILF. Requires the SILC to report the names of all donors and the amount of all donations.

H.B. 2319

Patron: Welch

Definition of abused or neglected child. Specifies that a decision by parents or other person with legal authority over a child to refuse a particular medical treatment for a child with a life-threatening condition shall not be deemed a refusal to provide necessary care if i) such decision is made jointly by the parents or other person responsible, and the child; ii) the child is sufficiently mature to have an informed opinion on the subject of his medical treatment; iii) the parents or other person responsible, and the child have considered alternative treatment options; and iv) the parents or other person responsible, and the child believe in good faith that such decision is in the child's best interest.

H.B. 2345

Patron: Bell

Sex offender registry; nursing homes and assisted living facilities. Requires nursing homes, certified nursing facilities, and assisted living facilities to register with the Department of State Police to receive automatic notification of the registration of sex offenders within the same or a contiguous zip code area as the home or facility. The bill also requires such entities to ascertain, before admission, whether a potential admittee is a registered sex offender if it is anticipated that the admittee will stay for more than three days or if the admittee does in fact stay for more than three days.

H.B. 2346

Patron: Bell

Sex offender registry notification; nursing homes and assisted living facilities. Requires nursing homes and assisted living facilities, at the time a resident is admitted and during his stay, to provide the resident with notice of Virginia's sex offender registry, and how to access the registry on the State Police's website. The language is similar to the requirement in the Virginia Residential Property Disclosure Act.

H.B. 2418

Patron: Kilgore

Transfer of prisoner to facility housing death chamber; confidentiality of execution records. Provides that the identities of persons designated to carry out an execution are confidential, exempt from the Freedom of Information Act, and not subject to discovery or introduction as evidence in any proceeding. The bill also removes the specific time constraints on when a prisoner condemned to die must be transferred to the correctional center wherein the death chamber is housed and when, prior to execution, the prisoner must elect to execution by a method other than lethal injection.

H.B. 2450

Patron: Saxman

Alcoholic beverage control; creates new wholesale wine license.  Creates a new restricted wholesale wine license that authorizes the licensee to provide wholesale wine distribution services to winery and farm winery licensees, provided that no more than 3,000 cases of wine produced by a winery or farm winery licensee shall be distributed by the corporation in any one year. The bill requires the Commissioner of the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to form a nonprofit nonstock corporation that will hold this new license to promote, develop, and sustain markets for licensed Virginia wineries and farm wineries. The bill also allows certain licensees to deliver or ship beer or wine from one or more premises identified in the license. The bill sets the state license tax for this new license and requires the ABC Board to adopt emergency regulations to implement the provisions of the bill.

EMERGENCY

H.B. 2491

Patron: Albo

Alcoholic beverage control; interior advertising; civil penalty.  Authorizes licensed retailers of alcoholic beverages to display, and manufacturers, their authorized vendors, and wholesale wine and beer distributors to provide or sell to such retailers, alcoholic beverage point of sale advertising materials for use in the interior of licensed retail establishments.  The bill specifies the conditions under which such advertising may be used and provides that persons found in violation shall be subject to civil penalties.

H.B. 2504

Patron: Toscano

Criminal history and central registry check for placements of children.  Establishes mandatory background checks for prospective foster or adoptive parents that consist of three parts: 1) a sworn statement or affirmation disclosing whether an individual has a criminal conviction or pending charges or has been the subject of a founded case of child abuse or neglect; 2) fingerprinting forwarded through the Central Criminal Records Exchange to the Federal Bureau of Investigation to obtain criminal history information; and 3) searches of the central child abuse and neglect registry maintained pursuant to § 63.2-1515 and similar registries required by federal law in any other state where a prospective parent or other adult in the home has resided in the preceding five years. Provides that in the case of an emergency, a local board must first search the central registry and obtain a written affirmation from the individual prior to placement. Prohibits approval of foster or adoptive homes where an individual has record of an offense set forth in § 63.2-1719 or a founded complaint of child abuse or neglect as maintained in registries pursuant to § 63.2-1515 and the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act (42 U.S.C.S. 16901 et seq.). The bill has an effective date of April 1, 2007.

H.B. 2637

Patron: Gear

Alcoholic beverage control; mixed beverage licenses.  Creates a new limited mixed beverage restaurant license that authorizes the licensee to sell and serve no more than six varieties of liqueurs, which liqueurs shall be combined with coffee or other nonalcoholic beverages for consumption in dining areas of the restaurant. Such license may be granted only to persons who operate a restaurant and in no event shall the sale of such liqueur-based drinks exceed 10 percent of the total annual gross sales. The bill defines liqueur and sets the state and local license taxes for this new license. The bill contains technical amendments.

H.B. 2638

Patron: Gear

Alcoholic beverage control; mixed beverage licenses; designated areas.  Clarifies that outdoor dining areas for a mixed beverage restaurant license include such areas that have more than one means of ingress and egress to an adjacent public thoroughfare.

H.B. 2647

Patron: Jones, S.C.

Civil remedies; persons under disability; incarcerated persons.  Provides that "person under disability" shall not include an incarcerated person for purposes of executing a will, power of attorney, deed, or deed of trust.

H.B. 2858

Patron: Moran

Local community-based probation services.  Makes numerous technical changes throughout the Code to update standard nomenclature for community probation services.

H.B. 2937

Patron: Miller, J.H.

Eligibility of certain aliens for state and local public benefits.  Provides that no state or local funds shall be awarded or otherwise disbursed to any organization operated exclusively for religious, charitable, community, or educational purposes where the award or disbursement is made with the intent of circumventing the provisions of this section by indirectly providing benefits or assistance to persons who are otherwise ineligible and that no organization receiving state or local funds shall use the funds to provide the type of benefits or assistance to those persons who are otherwise ineligible.

H.B. 2962

Patron: Bell

Life-sharing communities.  Defines life-sharing communities and establishes criteria for licensing and inspection of life-sharing communities by the Department of Social Services.

H.B. 3105

Patron: Nixon

Program directors at licensed child day centers; approved credentials.  Adds program directors to the list of individuals who may possess an approved credential. Adds requirement that the Department of Social Services, State Board of Social Services, Child Care Council, or State Board of Education shall recognize individuals who possess an approved credential as being fully qualified to hold the position of program leader, program director, or child care supervisor in any private licensed child day center or private preschool.

H.B. 3120

Patron: Albo

Alcoholic beverage control; farm wineries.  Provides that no county, city, or town shall adopt an ordinance or resolution that prohibits or regulates the storage, warehousing, or wholesaling of wine by licensed farm winery provided it is done in accordance with state and federal law and ABC regulations.