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ACROSS SESSIONS
- Subject Index: Since 1995
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Developed and maintained by the Division of Legislative Automated Systems.
2018 SESSION
Chairman: Frank W. Wagner
Clerk: Chad Starzer
Staff: Frank Munyan
Date of Meeting: February 7, 2018
Time and Place: 20 mins. after adjournment / Senate Com Room A, Pocahontas Bldg
Patron: Petersen
Security freezes; fees. Prohibits a credit reporting agency from requiring a consumer to pay a fee to place a security freeze on the consumer's credit report. Currently, a consumer may be required to pay a fee of no more than $10 to place a security freeze on his credit report. Victims of identity theft are currently exempt from the fee.
Patron: Spruill
Security freezes; fees. Prohibits a credit reporting agency from requiring a consumer to pay a fee to place a security freeze on the consumer's credit report if the consumer has not previously requested the placement of a security freeze from the consumer reporting agency. Currently, a consumer may be required to pay a fee of no more than $10 to place a security freeze on his credit report. The measure does not prohibit a consumer reporting agency from charging a fee to temporarily lift or to remove a security freeze or to place a security freeze on the consumer's credit report if it is the second or subsequent request for placement of a security freeze. Victims of identity theft are currently exempt from the fee.
Patron: Surovell
Security freezes; fees. Prohibits a credit reporting agency from requiring a consumer to pay a fee to place a security freeze on the consumer's credit report. Currently, a consumer may be required to pay a fee of no more than $10 to place a security freeze on his credit report. Victims of identity theft are currently exempt from the fee.
Patron: McPike
Security freezes; fees. Prohibits a credit reporting agency from requiring a consumer to pay a fee to place a security freeze on the consumer's credit report. Currently, a consumer may be required to pay a fee of no more than $10 to place a security freeze on his credit report. Victims of identity theft are currently exempt from the fee.
Patron: Favola
Security freezes; fees. Prohibits a credit reporting agency from requiring a consumer to pay a fee to place a security freeze on the consumer's credit report. Currently, a consumer may be required to pay a fee of no more than $10 to place a security freeze on his credit report. Victims of identity theft are currently exempt from the fee.
Patron: Surovell
Security freezes for protected consumers. Raises the age of eligibility for someone to qualify as a "protected consumer" from 16 to 18. The measure also clarifies that if the protected consumer is under age 18 sufficient proof of authority may be a birth certificate and if the protected consumer is an incapacitated person for whom a guardian or conservator has been appointed sufficient proof of authority may be a court order.
Patron: Dance
Unclaimed property; deposits with financial institutions; charges and interest. Removes an exception to a provision that prohibits a bank or other holder from (i) imposing charges on dormant or inactive accounts in a manner that differs from active accounts or (ii) ceasing to pay interest on an inactive account. The deleted exception allows such accounts to be treated differently if the bank or other holder, when it imposes such different charges or ceases paying interest, does not reverse or cancel charges or retroactively credit interest with respect to the property for any reason other than to correct a documented internal error. The deleted exception also authorizes a holder that is a state-chartered credit union to refund charges or reverse or cancel those charges or retroactively credit interest with respect to such property to the same extent that a federally chartered credit union is authorized to do pursuant to federal law.
Patron: Peake
Fire Programs Fund; cancer prevention. Authorizes moneys in the Fire Programs Fund to be used for purposes of preventing the occurrence of cancer among firefighters.
Patron: Chafin
Virginia Life, Accident and Sickness Insurance Guaranty Association; board of directors. Increases the minimum number of members of the board of directors of the Virginia Life, Accident and Sickness Insurance Guaranty Association from five to nine and the maximum number of such members from nine to 13.
Patron: Surovell
Consumer finance companies. Requires the State Corporation Commission, as a condition of licensing a consumer finance company, to find that the applicant will not make consumer finance loans at the same location at which the applicant makes payday loans or motor vehicle title loans. The measure also (i) caps the amount of a consumer finance loan at $35,000, (ii) requires that such loans be installment loans with a term that is not less than six months nor more than 120 months, (iii) sets the maximum annual interest rate on such loans at 36 percent, (iv) authorizes late payment fees of $20, (v) authorizes loan processing fees of up to $125, and (vi) increases the amount of a bad check fee from $15 to $25.
Patron: Wagner
Security freezes; fees. Prohibits a credit reporting agency from requiring a consumer to pay a fee to place a security freeze on the consumer's credit report. Currently, a consumer may be required to pay a fee of no more than $10 to place a security freeze on his credit report. Victims of identity theft are currently exempt from the fee.
Patron: Wagner
Payment of wages. Removes the exemptions that exclude newsboys, shoe shine boys, ushers, doormen, concession attendants, and theater cashiers from the Virginia Minimum Wage Act (Act). The Act's exclusion for babysitters is limited to those not employed more than 10 hours per week. The spouse, children, and parents of an individual employer are excluded from the definition of "employee" under the Act. The measure eliminates the Act's exclusion for persons employed by an employer that does not have four or more employees. The measure requires a court to award attorney fees incurred by an employee who is awarded judgment in an action for a violation of the Act; currently, awarding such fees is permitted but not required. The measure expands the information an employer is required to provide to its employees when wages are paid. Finally, the bill authorizes the Commissioner of Labor and Industry to institute proceedings and take enforcement action against an employer if he has reason to believe that the employer has engaged in a pattern or practice of violations.
Patron: Chase
Coal combustion residuals unit; closure. Directs the Department of Environmental Quality to require the closure of any coal combustion residuals (CCR) surface impoundment located in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The bill requires that such closure include the removal of all coal combustion residuals for disposal in a permitted landfill that meets federal criteria and that the impoundment site be reclaimed in a manner consistent with federal mine reclamation standards. The bill allows an investor-owned public electric utility to recover the costs of closure from customers. Finally, the bill suspends the issuance of any permit to close a CCR surface impoundment in the Chesapeake Bay watershed between May 1, 2018, and July 1, 2018.
Patron: Surovell
Coal ash ponds; mandatory testing of drinking water wells. Requires the owner or operator of any coal ash pond in the Chesapeake Bay watershed that is closed by capping in place to complete a survey of all drinking water wells within one mile of the pond by October 1, 2018. The bill requires the utility to commission an independent well water test on behalf of the owner of each such well by January 1, 2019, and requires such a test once per year during each of the five years following the approval of the closure of the coal ash pond, and once every five years thereafter. The bill provides that if any test exceeds groundwater quality standards for constituents associated with coal ash, the Board shall instruct the utility to provide alternate water supplies to the owner of the well. The bill requires the Department of Environmental Quality to consider the results of the tests in its permitting, monitoring, or enforcement proceedings.
Patron: Surovell
Citizen water quality monitoring; use as evidence in enforcement actions. Authorizes the Department of Environmental Quality (the Department) to use certain results of citizen water quality testing as evidence in enforcement actions. Such evidence is currently prohibited. The bill also directs the Department to consider in some cases data collected by a citizen group, regardless of whether the data conforms to the requirements set out in the Code of Virginia.
Patron: Surovell
Coal ash ponds; flaws in closure plans; delay of permit. Authorizes the Director of the Department of Environmental Quality (the Director) to delay the issuance of a permit for the closure of a coal ash pond if the Department of Environmental Quality determines that the closure plan shows any insufficiency or flaw, including a failure to account for the possibility of leakage. The bill authorizes the Director to mandate corrective actions and decline to issue the permit until such actions are complied with.
Patron: Surovell
Electric utilities; recovery of costs associated with closure in place of coal ash facilities. Directs that in a biennial review of an investor-owned electric utility by the State Corporation Commission, any costs incurred by an investor-owned electric utility that are associated with closure in place of a coal combustion residuals landfill or surface impoundment are unreasonable and not prudent. The measure prohibits the Commission in such a biennial review from considering any costs associated with the closure in place of such a landfill or impoundment to be period costs expensed on a Virginia jurisdictional basis. The measure also directs that, for purposes of any rate adjustment clause for recovery of environmental costs, costs associated with closure in place of such a landfill or impoundment are not necessary to comply with any environmental law or regulation.
Patron: Surovell
Electric utilities; rate adjustment clause costs of coal ash beneficiation facility. Authorizes an investor-owned electric utility to petition the State Corporation Commission for approval of rate adjustment clauses for the timely and current recovery from customers of reasonable and prudently incurred costs of constructing coal ash beneficiation facilities capable of processing coal ash to specifications appropriate for cementitious products. The measure provides that a utility that constructs such a facility shall have the right to recover the costs of no more than three such facilities. Construction costs of not more than $60 million shall be presumed to be reasonable and prudently incurred. The measure bars recovery of such costs prior to the date the facility begins commercial operation. The construction of any such facility is declared to be in the public interest and the Commission is directed to liberally construe its provisions.
Patron: Surovell
Electric utilities; Transitional Rate Period; coal combustion residuals landfills. Shortens the duration of the Transitional Rate Period (Period) for any Phase II Utility. The measure provides that the Period ends December 31, 2017, which is the date the Period is currently scheduled to end for a Phase I Utility. The measure provides that biennial reviews will commence in 2020 for both Phase I and Phase II Utilities, which advances the year of the first post-Period biennial review for a Phase II Utility by two years. The measure also provides that during the first biennial review after the Period, the State Corporation Commission shall determine whether the utility would have owed customers a refund during any test period in the Transitional Rate Period, and, if so, the utility may elect to expense up to 80 percent of costs associated with closure by removal of coal combustion residuals landfill or surface impoundments against its overearnings. The measure requires the owner or operator of any coal combustion residuals unit to submit reports on the costs associated with removal of coal combustion residuals landfill or surface impounds.
Patron: Saslaw
Health insurance; copayments for prescription drugs; disclosures. Prohibits any contract between a health carrier or its pharmacy benefits manager and a pharmacy or pharmacist from containing a provision that requires an enrollee to make a copayment for a covered prescription drug in an amount that exceeds the lesser of (i) the applicable copayment for the prescription drug or (ii) the cash price the enrollee would pay for the prescription drug if the enrollee purchased the prescription drug without using the enrollee's health plan. The measure applies to provider contracts entered into, amended, extended, or renewed on or after January 1, 2019.
Patron: McPike
Unemployment compensation; failure of employing unit to furnish reports; penalty. Provides that an employing unit that willfully fails or refuses to furnish a report required by the Unemployment Compensation Act or to produce or permit the inspection or copying of records is liable to a penalty of $1,000 for each offense. The measure also authorizes the Commissioner of the Virginia Employment Commission to order an employer that continues to violate such provisions after three days' notice to cease and desist all business transactions and operations until it is found to be in compliance.
Patron: Chafin
Stock corporations; action by shareholders without meeting. Creates an exception to the provision that authorizes shareholders of a corporation to act without a meeting by less than unanimous written consent of the shareholders. The exception states that if the articles of incorporation or bylaws of a public corporation allow the holders of 30 percent or fewer of all votes entitled to be cast to demand the calling of a special meeting of shareholders, such provision authorizing less-than-unanimous shareholder action shall not apply. A public corporation is a corporation that has shares listed on a national securities exchange or regularly traded in a market maintained by one or more members of a national or affiliated securities association. The measure does not apply if a public corporation's articles of incorporation authorized action by shareholders by less than unanimous consent as of April 1, 2018.