Virginia Commerce and Labor (S02) Committee Docket — 2020-02-03

Summary

A Virginia Senate Commerce and Labor committee docket dated February 3, 2020 for the 2020 Regular session, listing Richard L. Saslaw (D) as Chair. It lists Senate bills in committee with their patrons and summaries. SB8, with Saslaw as patron, covers prevailing wage rates on public works contracts under the Virginia Public Procurement Act. SB48 and SB49 concern nonpayment of wages, SB481 concerns earned paid sick time for employers with 15 or more employees, and SB629 concerns shared solar programs.

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TITLE: Virginia Commerce and Labor (S02) Committee Docket — 2020-02-03
DATE: 2020-02-03T00:00:00
SESSION: 2020 Regular (20201)
CHAMBER: Senate

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
  - Richard L. Saslaw (D) Chair

STAFF: Autumn Green, Thomas Stevens

DOCKET / AGENDA:

[Senate Bills in Committee]
  999. SB8 - Virginia Public Procurement Act; public works contracts, prevailing wage rate, penalty.
       Patron(s): Saslaw
       Summary: Prevailing wage; public works contracts; penalty. Requires contractors and subcontractors under any public contract with a state agency, or with a locality that has adopted an ordinance requiring the payment of prevailing wages, for public works to pay wages, salaries, benefits, and other remuneration to any mechanic, laborer, or worker employed, retained, or otherwise hired to perform services in connection with the public contract for public works at the prevailing wage rate. The provisions of the bill would not apply to any contract for public works of $250,000 or less. The Commissioner of
  999. SB48 - Nonpayment of wages; discriminatory actions prohibited.
       Patron(s): Spruill
       Summary: Nonpayment of wages; discriminatory actions prohibited. Prohibits an employer from discharging or otherwise discriminating against an employee because such employee has filed any complaint or instituted or caused to be instituted any proceeding related to the failure to pay wages, or has testified or is about to testify in any such proceeding. The measure authorizes the Commissioner of Labor and Industry to institute proceedings against an employer who has taken such prohibited discriminatory action. Available remedies include reinstatement of the employee, recovery of lost wages, and liquidat
  999. SB49 - Nonpayment of wages; investigations.
       Patron(s): Spruill
       Summary: Nonpayment of wages; investigations. Authorizes the Commissioner of Labor and Industry, if he acquires information during an investigation of a complaint of an employer's failure or refusal to pay wages and that information creates a reasonable belief that other employees of the same employer may not have been paid wages, to investigate whether the employer has failed or refused to make a required payment of wages to other employees. The measure also provides that if the Commissioner finds in the course of such investigation that the employer has committed a violation, the Commissioner may ins
  999. SB172 - Health insurance; definitions, payment to out-of-network providers, emergency services.
       Patron(s): Favola
       Summary: Health insurance; payment to out-of-network providers. Provides that when an enrollee receives emergency services from an out-of-network health care provider or receives out-of-network surgical or ancillary services at an in-network facility, the enrollee is not required to pay the out-of-network provider any amount other than the applicable cost-sharing requirement and such cost-sharing requirement cannot exceed the cost-sharing requirement that would apply if the services were provided in-network. The measure also provides that the health carrier's required payment to the out-of-network prov
  999. SB180 - Prevailing wage; public works contracts, penalty.
       Patron(s): Favola
       Summary: Prevailing wage; public works contracts; penalty. Requires contractors and subcontractors under any public contract with a state agency for public works to pay wages, salaries, benefits, and other remuneration to any mechanic, laborer, or worker employed, retained, or otherwise hired to perform services in connection with the public contract for public works at the prevailing wage rate. The Commissioner of Labor and Industry is required to determine the prevailing wage rate for such public contracts on the basis of applicable prevailing wage rate determinations made by the U.S. Secretary of La
  999. SB182 - Public works contracts; definitions, authorization of project labor agreements.
       Patron(s): Saslaw
       Summary: Project labor agreements; public procurement. Authorizes any public body, including any state or local government, when engaged in procuring products or services or letting contracts for construction, manufacture, maintenance, or operation of public works, to require bidders to enter into or adhere to project labor agreements on the public works projects. The bill has a delayed effective date of May 1, 2021. The bill is identical to HB 358.
  999. SB295 - Employment; disclosure of terms to employees.
       Patron(s): Marsden
       Summary: Employment; disclosure of terms. Requires every employer to furnish to its employees, at the time of the employee's hiring, (i) a written disclosure of information regarding the terms of employment, including the name and address of the employer, the rate of pay and basis thereof, and the regular payday; and (ii) a physical or digital copy of the driver's license or government-issued identification card of the employer, if the employer is a natural person, or the employee's immediate supervisor, if the employer is not an individual. The measure also requires employers to notify their employees
  999. SB302 - Utility easements; fiber optic cable.
       Patron(s): Stanley
       Summary: Utility easements. Provides that any utility easement, granted before, on, or after July 1, 2020, whether granted publicly or privately, by statute, local ordinance, deed, or other recorded instrument, or by prescription, shall be deemed to include the laying, hanging, and maintenance of fiber optic cable. The bill further provides that any utility easement shall also be deemed to include access over private or public lands to permit the grantee to have physical access to such cable, unless the instrument granting the easement was recorded prior to July 1, 2020, and specifically states otherwi
  999. SB354 - Electric utility regulation; energy efficiency standard.
       Patron(s): Bell
       Summary: Electric utility regulation; energy efficiency standard. Requires Dominion Energy Virginia (DEV) and American Electric Power (AEP) to achieve incremental net annual savings in accordance with a schedule that starts in 2021, when savings are required to be at least 0.35 percent of the average annual energy retail sales by that utility in the three preceding calendar years, and increases the level of required savings until 2027 and thereafter, when savings are required to be at least two percent of the utility's average annual energy retail sales in the three preceding calendar years. The measur
  999. SB376 - Electric utilities; retail competition, renewable energy.
       Patron(s): Suetterlein, Bell
       Summary: Electric utilities; retail competition; renewable energy. Allows individual retail customers of an electric utility to purchase electric energy provided 100 percent from renewable energy from any licensed supplier. The measure eliminates (i) provisions that prohibit such a purchase from a licensed supplier that is an incumbent electric utility that is not the incumbent electric utility serving the exclusive service territory in which the customer is located and (ii) a condition that permits such purchases only if the electric utility serving the applicable exclusive service territory does not
  999. SB379 - Electric utilities; retail competition.
       Patron(s): McPike
       Summary: Electric utilities; retail competition. Shortens from five years to three years the period that a customer who switches from an investor-owned electric utility to a licensed competing supplier is barred from returning as a customer of the utility. The measure provides that if a single person purchases electric energy from a licensed supplier and such electric energy is composed of a percentage of renewable energy equal to or greater than the percentage of renewable energy that the licensed supplier is required to provide pursuant to any renewable energy portfolio standard, such person will con
  999. SB426 - Agreements between private employer and labor or organization; fair share fees.
       Patron(s): Saslaw
       Summary: Fair share fees. Authorizes an employer, pursuant to an agreement between the employer and a labor union or labor organization, to require as a condition of employment any employee who is not a member of such labor union or labor organization and is a member of a collective bargaining unit, where the labor union or labor organization is the exclusive representative of the members of the collective bargaining unit, to pay a fair share fee to compensate the labor union or labor organization for the costs of representing the nonmember employee. The bill defines a "fair share fee" as the pro rata
  999. SB481 - Employees; earned sick leave, civil penalties.
       Patron(s): Favola
       Summary: Earned paid sick time. Requires public and private employers with 15 or more employees to provide those employees with earned paid sick time; however, the provisions of the bill would not apply to an employer that has entered into a bona fide collective bargaining agreement. The measure provides for an employee to earn at least one hour of paid sick leave benefit for every 30 hours worked. An employee shall not use more than 40 hours of earned paid sick time in a year, unless the employer selects a higher limit. Employees shall not be entitled to use accrued earned paid sick time until the nin
  999. SB504 - Virginia Energy Plan; covenants regarding solar power, reasonable restrictions.
       Patron(s): Petersen
       Summary: Virginia Energy Plan; covenants regarding solar power; reasonable restrictions. Provides that a restriction on solar energy collection devices is not reasonable if application of the restriction to a particular proposal (i) increases the cost of installation of the solar energy collection device by five percent over the projected cost of the initially proposed installation or (ii) reduces the energy production by the solar energy collection device by 10 percent below the projected energy production of the initially proposed installation. The owner shall provide documentation prepared by an ind
  999. SB522 - Balance billing; emergency and elective services.
       Patron(s): McDougle
       Summary: Balance billing; emergency and elective services. Requires health care facilities and health care providers to determine if providers scheduled to deliver elective services to a covered person are in the network of the covered person's managed care plan. The measure requires that when an elective service provider is determined to be out-of-network, in order for the covered person to assume financial responsibility for the out-of-network provider's charges, the health care facility or provider shall (i) inform the covered person of the out-of-network status of the provider, (ii) provide the cov
  999. SB532 - Third-party power purchase agreements; regulation of retail sales of electricity under agreements.
       Patron(s): Edwards
       Summary: Third-party power purchase agreements. Exempts sellers under third-party power purchase agreements from being defined as a public utility, public service corporation, public service company, or electric utility solely because of the sale of electricity or ownership or operation of a distributed generation facility. The measure provides that the sale of electricity generated at a distributed energy facility by a person that is not a public utility, public service corporation, or public service company to a customer that is purchasing or leasing the distributed energy facility under the terms of
  999. SB539 - Utility easements; broadband or other communications services.
       Patron(s): Peake
       Summary: Utility easements; broadband or other communications services. Declares that it is policy of the Commonwealth that (i) existing or future easements for the location and use of electric facilities be used to provide or expand broadband or other communications services; (ii) such use of such easements is in the public interest; (iii) the use of such easements for the provision of broadband or other communications services, where no additional poles are erected, does not constitute a change in the physical use of the easement, interfere with or impair any vested rights of the owner or occupier of
  999. SB629 - Shared solar programs; electric utility regulation, etc.
       Patron(s): Surovell
       Summary: Shared solar programs. Requires the State Corporation Commission to establish by regulation a shared solar program that allows customers of Dominion Virginia to purchase electric power through a subscription in a shared solar facility, which is defined in the bill as a facility that, among other criteria, generates electricity by means of a solar photovoltaic device with a nameplate capacity rating that does not exceed 5,000 kilowatts. Under the program, a subscriber receives a bill credit for the proportional output of a share solar facility attributable to that subscriber. Subscribers are re
  999. SB632 - Public utilities; aggregate energy storage capacity in the Commonwealth.
       Patron(s): Surovell
       Summary: Public utilities; energy storage capacity in the Commonwealth. Provides that it is the objective of the General Assembly that 2,700 megawatts of aggregate energy storage capacity be placed into service on or before July 1, 2030. The bill provides that energy storage facilities with an aggregate capacity of 2,700 megawatts are in the public interest and that prior to January 1, 2030, (i) the construction by a public utility of one or more energy storage facilities located in the Commonwealth, having in the aggregate a rated capacity that does not exceed 2,700 megawatts, or (ii) the purchase by
  999. SB710 - Distributed solar & other renewable energy; sales of electricity under third-party agreements.
       Patron(s): McClellan
       Summary: Distributed renewable energy. Promotes the establishment of distributed renewable solar and other renewable energy. The measure (i) requires the State Corporation Commission to establish by regulation a shared solar program that allows multifamily customers of investor-owned utilities, other than American Electric Power, to purchase electric power through a subscription in a shared solar facility; (ii) raises the cap on the total amount of renewable energy that can be net metered in a utility's service territory from one percent to six percent, five percent of which is available to all custome
  999. SB731 - Investor-owned electric utilities; rate of return on common equity.
       Patron(s): McClellan
       Summary: Rate of return for investor-owned electric utilities. Provides that the State Corporation Commission, in determining a fair rate of return on common equity for an investor-owned electric utility after January 1, 2020, shall not set such rate (i) lower than the average of either (a) the average of the returns on common equity of the utility's peer group reported to the Securities and Exchange Commission for the three most recent annual periods or (b) the authorized returns on common equity that is set by the applicable regulatory commission for other investor-owned electric utilities in the uti
  999. SB735 - Peer-to-peer vehicle sharing platforms; definitions, establishes requirements.
       Patron(s): Newman
       Summary: Peer-to-peer vehicle sharing platforms. Establishes insurance, taxation, recordkeeping, disclosure, and safety recall requirements for peer-to-peer vehicle sharing platforms, defined in the bill. The taxation provisions will become effective on October 1, 2020.
  999. SB749 - Peer-to-peer vehicle sharing platforms; establishes sale of insurance, etc., for platforms.
       Patron(s): Cosgrove
       Summary: Peer-to-peer vehicle sharing platforms; regulation; insurance; taxation. Establishes taxation, insurance coverage, sale of insurance, disclosure, safety recall, airport operation, and recordkeeping requirements for peer-to-peer vehicle sharing platforms, as defined in the bill.
  999. SB754 - Electric cooperatives; on-bill tariff programs, definitions.
       Patron(s): Marsden
       Summary: Electric cooperatives; on-bill tariff programs. Authorizes electric cooperatives to establish on-bill tariff programs under which the cooperative and a customer enter into an agreement that provides for the costs, including financing costs, of energy efficiency measures to be paid by or through the cooperative and repaid by the customer by means of an energy savings charge on the customer's monthly bill. Under the bill, energy efficiency measures can include heating and air conditioning systems, water heaters, weatherization, insulation, window and door modifications, appliances, and automatic
  999. SB767 - Health insurance; payment to out-of-network providers.
       Patron(s): Barker
       Summary: Health insurance; payment to out-of-network providers. Provides that when a covered person receives covered emergency services from an out-of-network health care provider or receives out-of-network services at an in-network facility, the covered person is not required to pay the out-of-network provider any amount other than the applicable cost-sharing requirement. The measure also establishes a standard for calculating the health carrier's required payment to the out-of-network provider of the services, which standard is the lower of the market-based value for the service or 125 percent of the
  999. SB794 - Utility easements; location of broadband and other communications facilities.
       Patron(s): Lewis
       Summary: Utility easements; location of broadband facilities. Declares that it is the policy of the Commonwealth that (i) easements for the location and use of electric and communications facilities may be used to provide or expand broadband or other communications services; (ii) the use of easements to provide or expand broadband or other communications services is in the public interest; (iii) the installation, replacement, or use of public utility conduit, including the costs of installation, replacement, or use of conduit of a sufficient size to accommodate the installation of infrastructure to pro
  999. SB831 - Water utility or sewer utility asset acquisitions; fair market valuations.
       Patron(s): Lewis
       Summary: Utility Transfers Act; water and sewer utilities; asset acquisitions. Directs the State Corporation Commission to establish rules governing fair market valuations of water utility or sewer utility asset acquisitions to determine the initial rate base for the purpose of post-acquisition rate recovery. Such rules shall identify information to be filed in addition to all other filing requirements in the Utility Transfers Act (§ 56-88 et seq.). This bill is identical to HB 835.
  999. SB838 - Nonpayment of wages; cause of action, penalties.
       Patron(s): Ebbin
       Summary: Nonpayment of wages; private action; liability for payment of wages due under construction contracts; penalties. Provides that an employee has a private cause of action, individually, jointly, with other aggrieved employees as a collective action, or on behalf of similarly situated employees as a collective action, under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act against an employer who fails to pay wages to recover the amount of wages due plus interest at eight percent annually from the date the wages were due, an additional amount as liquidated damages, and reasonable attorney fees and costs. If t
  999. SB842 - Electric energy; customer choice.
       Patron(s): Petersen
       Summary: Electric energy; customer choice. Provides that all retail customers of electric energy within the Commonwealth will be permitted to purchase electricity from any supplier licensed to sell retail electric energy within the Commonwealth by January 1, 2023. The bill requires, by January 1, 2022, the State Corporation Commission to promulgate all regulations it deems necessary to ensure the orderly transition to a competitive market for electric energy in the Commonwealth. The bill provides that such regulations (i) provide for the customer choice for electricity for all customer classes, thereby
  999. SB851 - Electric utility regulation; environmental goals.
       Patron(s): McClellan
       Summary: Virginia Clean Economy Act. Establishes a schedule by which Dominion Energy Virginia and American Electric Power are required to retire electric generating units located in the Commonwealth that emit carbon as a by-product of combusting fuel to generate electricity and by which they are required to construct, acquire, or enter into agreements to purchase generating capacity located in the Commonwealth using energy derived from sunlight or onshore wind. The measure replaces the existing voluntary renewable energy portfolio standard program (RPS Program) with a mandatory RPS Program. Under the m
  999. SB860 - Electric utilities; offshore wind development.
       Patron(s): Mason
       Summary: Electric utilities; offshore wind development. Provides that the construction or purchase by a public utility of one or more offshore wind generation facilities located off the Commonwealth's Atlantic shoreline or in federal waters and interconnected directly into the Commonwealth, with an aggregate capacity of up to 5,200 megawatts, is in the public interest. The measure provides that construction by Dominion Energy Virginia of one or more new utility-owned and utility-operated generating facilities utilizing energy derived from offshore wind and located off the Commonwealth's Atlantic shorel
  999. SB876 - Electric utility regulation; mandatory clean energy standard program.
       Patron(s): Marsden
       Summary: Electric utility regulation; clean energy standard. Replaces the voluntary renewable energy portfolio standard program with a mandatory clean energy standard (CES) program that sets requirements for all investor-owned electric utilities and cooperative electric utilities. The CES program requires 30 percent of the total electric energy sold by each utility in 2030 to be clean energy, which is defined as electricity generated without emitting carbon dioxide or generated by a natural gas-fired facility with 80 percent carbon capture or a coal-fired facility with 90 percent carbon capture. The CE
  999. SB894 - Misclassification of workers; cause of action.
       Patron(s): Saslaw
       Summary: Misclassification of workers; cause of action. Authorizes an individual who has not been properly classified as an employee to bring a civil action for damages against his employer for failing to properly classify the employee if the employer had knowledge of the individual's misclassification. The court may award damages in the amount of any wages, salary, employment benefits, including expenses incurred by the employee that would otherwise have been covered by insurance, or other compensation lost to the individual, a reasonable attorney fee, and the costs incurred by the employee in bringin
  999. SB912 - Electric utilities; retail competition, renewable energy.
       Patron(s): Bell
       Summary: Electric utilities; retail competition; renewable energy. Allows individual retail customers of an electric utility to purchase electric energy provided 100 percent from renewable energy from any licensed supplier. The measure eliminates (i) provisions that prohibit such a purchase from a licensed supplier that is an incumbent electric utility that is not the incumbent electric utility serving the exclusive service territory in which the customer is located and (ii) a condition that permits such purchases only if the electric utility serving the applicable exclusive service territory does not
  999. SB939 - Employees of local governments; collective bargaining.
       Patron(s): Saslaw
       Summary: Labor and employment; collective bargaining; employees of counties, cities, and towns. Permits counties, cities, and towns to adopt local ordinances authorizing them to (i) recognize any labor union or other employee association as a bargaining agent of any public officers or employees, except for Constitutional officers and their employees, and including public school employees and (ii) collectively bargain or enter into any collective bargaining contract with any such union or association or its agents with respect to any matter relating to them or their employment. The bill provides that fo
  999. SB988 - Electric utilities; electric school bus projects.
       Patron(s): Lucas
       Summary: Electric utilities; electric school bus projects. Authorizes Dominion Energy Virginia to implement projects designed to encourage the proliferation of school buses that are fueled in whole or in part by electricity, along with associated charging and other infrastructure, for the purpose of transporting students and that may also serve as electric grid stabilization or peak shaving resources. Under an electric school bus project, Dominion Energy Virginia may (i) purchase, own, manage, or control electric school buses, along with associated charging or other infrastructure; (ii) enter into thir
  999. SB992 - Carbon trading program; allocation of allowances, new facility.
       Patron(s): Spruill
       Summary: Carbon trading program; allocation of allowances; new facility. Directs the State Air Pollution Control Board (the Board) to allocate allowances for three years to any electric power generating facility that was permitted prior to the June 26, 2019, effective date of the Board's carbon trading regulations. The bill requires an accounting comparison to actual emissions at the end of the three-year period and the allocation of further allowances pursuant to Board regulations thereafter.
  999. SB998 - Electric utilities; offshore wind development.
       Patron(s): Lucas
       Summary: Electric utilities; offshore wind development. Provides that the construction or purchase by a public utility of one or more offshore wind generation facilities located off the Commonwealth's Atlantic shoreline or in federal waters and interconnected directly into the Commonwealth, with an aggregate capacity of up to 5,200 megawatts, is in the public interest. The measure provides that construction by Dominion Energy Virginia of one or more new utility-owned and utility-operated generating facilities utilizing energy derived from offshore wind and located off the Commonwealth's Atlantic shorel
  999. SB1006 - Business entities; annual registration.
       Patron(s): Reeves
       Summary: Business entities; annual registration. Authorizes domestic and foreign stock corporations with less than 5,000 authorized shares, domestic and foreign nonstock corporations, and domestic and foreign limited liability companies to prepay up to five years of the required annual registration fee.
  999. SB1022 - Collective bargaining for public employees; labor organization representation.
       Patron(s): Boysko
       Summary: Collective bargaining for public employees. Repeals the existing prohibition on collective bargaining by public employees. The bill creates the Public Employee Relations Board, which will determine appropriate bargaining units and provide for certification and decertification elections for exclusive bargaining representatives of state employees and local government employees. The measure requires public employers and employee organizations that are exclusive bargaining representatives to meet at reasonable times to negotiate in good faith with respect to wages, hours, and other terms and condi
  999. SB1069 - Public and private employers; earned paid sick time for employees.
       Patron(s): Barker
       Summary: Earned paid sick time. Requires public and private employers with 25 or more employees to provide those employees with earned paid sick time. The measure provides for an employee to earn at least one hour of paid sick leave benefit for every 30 hours worked. An employee shall not use more than 40 hours of earned paid sick time in a year, unless the employer selects a higher limit. Employees shall not be entitled to use accrued earned paid sick time until the ninetieth calendar day following commencement of their employment, unless otherwise permitted by the employer. The bill provides that ear
  999. SB1086 - Health insurance; coverage for infertility treatment.
       Patron(s): Pillion
       Summary: Health insurance; coverage for infertility treatment. Requires health insurance policies, subscription contracts, and health care plans, including plans administered by the Department of Medical Assistance Services, to provide coverage for infertility treatment.

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