Virginia Commerce and Labor (S02) Committee Docket — 2020-01-20

Summary

This is the Virginia Commerce and Labor (S02) Committee docket dated January 20, 2020 for the 2020 Regular session. It names Richard L. Saslaw (D) as Chair and lists staff Autumn Green and Thomas Stevens. Items include SB27 (patron Petersen) on bad faith in uninsured and underinsured motorist insurance policies, SB48 (patron Spruill) prohibiting discriminatory actions over nonpayment of wages complaints, and SB875 (patron Marsden) on national standards for solar energy projects.

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TITLE: Virginia Commerce and Labor (S02) Committee Docket — 2020-01-20
DATE: 2020-01-20T00:00:00
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. SB27 - Uninsured and underinsured motorist insurance policies; bad faith.
       Patron(s): Petersen
       Summary: Uninsured and underinsured motorist insurance policies; bad faith. Provides that if an insurance company denies, refuses, or fails to pay its insured, or refuses a reasonable settlement demand within the policy's coverage limits, for a claim for uninsured or underinsured motorist benefits within a reasonable time after being presented with a demand for such benefits and it is subsequently found that such denial, refusal, or failure was not in good faith, then the insurance company shall be liable to the insured for the full amount of the judgment and reasonable attorney fees, expenses, and int
  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. SB77 - Student loans; licensing of qualified education loan servicers, civil penalties, report.
       Patron(s): Howell
       Summary: Qualified education loan servicers. Prohibits any person from acting as a qualified education loan servicer except in accordance with provisions established by this bill. The bill requires a loan servicer to obtain a license from the State Corporation Commission (SCC) and establishes procedures pertaining to such licenses. Banks, savings institutions, credit unions, nonprofit institutions of higher education, and farm credit systems are exempt from the licensing provisions. The servicing of a qualified education loan encompasses (i) receiving any scheduled periodic payments from a qualified ed
  999. SB94 - Virginia Energy Plan; climate change pressing challenge.
       Patron(s): Favola
       Summary: Virginia Energy Plan; Commonwealth Energy Policy. Adopts findings that climate change is an urgent and pressing challenge for Virginia, that swift decarbonization and a transition to clean energy are required to meet the urgency of the challenge, and that the Commonwealth will benefit from being a leader in deploying a low-carbon energy economy. The measure states that the Commonwealth recognizes that the following objectives will advance the health, welfare, and safety of Virginians: (i) establishing sufficient supply and delivery infrastructure to enable widespread deployment of distributed
  999. SB95 - Health insurance; coverage for essential health benefits, preventive services.
       Patron(s): Favola
       Summary: Health insurance; essential health benefits; preventive services. Requires a health carrier offering or providing a health benefit plan, including (i) catastrophic health insurance policies and policies that pay on a cost-incurred basis; (ii) association health plans; and (iii) plans provided by a multiple-employer welfare arrangement, to provide, as an essential health benefit, coverage that includes preventive care. The bill defines essential health benefits as those general categories and those items and services within such categories that are covered in accordance with regulations issued
  999. SB101 - Driver's license; scanning information.
       Patron(s): Marsden
       Summary: Scanning information from driver's license. Allows a merchant to scan the machine-readable zone of an individual's Department of Motor Vehicles-issued identification card or driver's license in order to verify authenticity of the identification card or driver's license or to verify the identity of the individual when the individual requests a service pursuant to a membership or a service agreement. Currently, a merchant is allowed to conduct such a scan for identity verification purposes if the individual pays for goods or services with a method other than cash, returns an item, or requests a
  999. SB164 - Accident airtrip insurance; vending machine sales.
       Patron(s): Spruill
       Summary: Accident airtrip insurance; vending machine sales. Repeals the authorization for insurers to issue policies of accident airtrip insurance by means of mechanical vending machines in public airports.
  999. SB165 - Life and annuities agents; report on licensure exam passage rate.
       Patron(s): Spruill
       Summary: Life and annuities agents; report on examination passage rate. Eliminates the requirement that the State Corporation Commission provide an annual report to the General Assembly on the licensure exam passage rate of candidates for licensure as a life and annuities agent.
  999. SB192 - Health insurance; physical therapist office visit, cost-sharing requirements.
       Patron(s): Peake
       Summary: Health insurance; physical therapist office visit; cost-sharing requirements. Prohibits health insurers, corporations providing health care coverage subscription contracts, and health maintenance organizations whose policies, contracts, or plans include coverage for physical therapy from imposing any cost-sharing requirements such as a copayment, coinsurance, or deductible for a physical therapist office visit that exceeds the cost-sharing requirements for a physician or osteopath office visit.
  999. SB235 - Health insurance; association health plans.
       Patron(s): Barker
       Summary: Health insurance; association health plans. Provides that for policies of group accident and sickness insurance issued to an association, members of such an association may include (i) a self-employed individual and (ii) an employer member with at least one employee that is domiciled in the Commonwealth. The bill provides that for such policies issued to an association that covers at least 51 members and employees of employer members of such association on the first day of the plan year the policies shall be considered a large group market plan and are required to meet various provisions in th
  999. SB250 - Medicare; supplement policies for certain individuals under age 65.
       Patron(s): Edwards
       Summary: Medicare supplement policies for certain individuals under age 65. Requires each insurer issuing Medicare supplement policies or certificates in the Commonwealth to offer the opportunity of enrolling in at least one of its issued Medicare supplement policies or certificates to any individual under age 65 who resides in the Commonwealth, is enrolled in Medicare Part A and B, and is eligible for Medicare by reason of disability. The provisions of the measure are applicable to health plans and health maintenance organizations.
  999. SB274 - Motion picture theaters; required open-captioned showings.
       Patron(s): Barker
       Summary: Motion picture theaters; required open-captioned showings. Requires any motion picture theater that has four or more separate auditoriums to provide two scheduled showings of a motion picture that engages open captions for a particular showing of an open-captioned-available motion picture each week in any auditorium showing any open-captioned-available motion picture. The measure requires one showing in each auditorium to be during peak weekend motion picture attendance hours, and at least half of the other open-captioned showings to be during peak weekday motion picture attendance hours. If a
  999. SB280 - Health insurance; mental health parity, required report.
       Patron(s): Barker
       Summary: Health insurance; mental health parity; required report. Codifies an existing requirement that the State Corporation Commission's Bureau of Insurance make an annual report regarding claims information for mental health and substance use disorder benefits. The bill adds information regarding network adequacy to such report and requires the Bureau to submit the report to the House Committee on Labor and Commerce and the Senate Committee on Commerce and Labor by September 1 of each year. The bill directs the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) to conduct a third-party review of
  999. SB291 - Mortgage brokers; prohibition on dual compensation.
       Patron(s): Deeds
       Summary: Mortgage brokers; prohibition on dual compensation. Clarifies the existing provisions that prohibit a licensed mortgage broker from negotiating, placing, or finding a mortgage loan that will be used to finance the purchase of residential property if the mortgage broker or its affiliate is acting as a real estate broker, agent, salesman, or firm in connection with the sale of the property that will secure the loan and receiving a commission or other thing of value for such services. Mortgage brokers who were licensed by the State Corporation Commission as of February 25, 1989, remain exempt fro
  999. SB293 - Financial institutions; multiple-fiduciary accounts.
       Patron(s): Chafin
       Summary: Financial institutions; multiple-fiduciary accounts. Provides that financial institutions may enter into multiple-fiduciary accounts with more than one fiduciary to the same extent that they may enter into fiduciary accounts with one fiduciary. The measure defines "fiduciary account" as (i) an estate account for a decedent, (ii) an account established by one or more agents under a power of attorney or an existing account of a principal to which one or more agents under a power of attorney are added, (iii) an account established by one or more conservators, (iv) an account established by one or
  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. SB296 - Credit unions; board of directors compensation.
       Patron(s): Marsden
       Summary: Credit unions; director compensation. Provides that compensation of members of a credit union's board of directors and members of the credit and supervisory committees shall be determined by a written policy approved by the board of directors, provided that annual compensation for an individual member does not exceed $6,000. The measure removes the existing prohibition on compensating members of a credit union's board of directors for services as a member of the board. This bill is identical to HB 813.
  999. SB382 - Health insurance; coverage for prosthetic devices.
       Patron(s): McPike
       Summary: Health insurance; coverage for prosthetic devices. Requires health insurers, corporations providing health care coverage subscription contracts, health maintenance organizations, and the Commonwealth's Medicaid program to provide coverage for prosthetic devices, including myoelectric, biomechanical, or microprocessor-controlled prosthetic devices that have a Medicare code. The measure repeals the existing requirement that coverage for prosthetic devices be offered and made available. The measure has a delayed effective date of January 1, 2021.
  999. SB394 - Virginia Health Club Act; automated external defibrillator required in health clubs.
       Patron(s): McPike
       Summary: Virginia Health Club Act; automated external defibrillator required in health clubs. Requires each health club location to have a working automated external defibrillator.
  999. SB404 - Health insurance; short-term limited-duration medical plans, definitions, effective date.
       Patron(s): Hashmi
       Summary: Health insurance; short-term limited-duration medical plans. Prohibits carriers from issuing in the Commonwealth, on or after July 1, 2021, any short-term limited-duration medical plan with a duration that exceeds three months or that can be renewed or extended beyond six months, or if the plan's issuance would result in a covered person being covered by a short-term limited-duration medical plan for more than six months in any 12-month period. The bill prohibits a carrier from issuing a short-term limited-duration medical plan during an annual open enrollment period. The bill has a delayed ef
  999. SB411 - Employment health and safety standards; heat illness prevention, definition.
       Patron(s): Hashmi
       Summary: Employment health and safety standards; heat illness prevention. Requires the Safety and Health Codes Board to adopt regulations establishing reasonable standards designed to protect employees from heat illness. The measure directs the standards to require employers to provide water, shade, rest periods, training, and emergency response procedures. The standards are also directed to require employers in certain industries to implement high-heat procedures when the temperature is 90 degrees Fahrenheit or warmer. The measure requires employers to pay employees one additional hour of pay at his r
  999. SB423 - Health insurance; mandated coverage for hearing aids for minors and services.
       Patron(s): DeSteph
       Summary: Health insurance; mandated coverage for hearing aids for minors. Requires health insurers, health maintenance organizations, and corporations providing health care coverage subscription contracts to provide coverage for hearing aids and related services for children 18 years of age or younger when an otolaryngologist recommends such hearing aids and related services. The coverage includes one hearing aid per hearing-impaired ear, up to a cost of $1,500, every 24 months. The measure applies to policies, contracts, and plans delivered, issued for delivery, or renewed on and after January 1, 2021
  999. SB536 - Incentives for telecommunications companies; provision of wireless broadband services.
       Patron(s): Edwards
       Summary: Incentives for telecommunications companies; provision of wireless broadband services. Directs the Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission to award at least $50 million per year in grants to cover expenditures for the purchase and installation of wireless and broadband equipment to rural service areas in the Commonwealth. The bill defines "rural service areas" as any locality with a mean broadband download speed of less than 10 megabits per second, and a mean broadband upload speed of less than one megabit per second.
  999. SB548 - Unemployment compensation; amends various provisions regarding compensation.
       Patron(s): Edwards
       Summary: Unemployment compensation. Amends various provisions regarding unemployment compensation and the Virginia Employment Commission. The bill provides that (i) the Commission shall base its determination on whether an individual is an employee on the standard used by the Internal Revenue Service for such determinations; (ii) for the purposes of unemployment compensation, "wages" does not include any payment made to, or on behalf of, an employee or his beneficiary under a cafeteria plan, as defined in § 125 of the Internal Revenue Code, if such payment would not be treated as wages under the Intern
  999. SB549 - Nuclear energy; strategic plan for overall goal of carbon-free energy.
       Patron(s): Newman
       Summary: Nuclear energy; strategic plan. Directs the Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy, the Secretary of Commerce and Trade, and the Secretary of Education to work in coordination with the Virginia Nuclear Energy Consortium Authority and the Virginia Economic Development Partnership Authority to develop a strategic plan for the role of nuclear energy in the Commonwealth's overall strategy for moving toward renewable and carbon-free energy. The plan shall be completed by October 1, 2020, and updated every four years thereafter. This bill is identical to HB 1303.
  999. SB605 - Health insurance; formula and enteral nutrition products.
       Patron(s): McDougle
       Summary: Health insurance; formula and enteral nutrition products. Requires health insurers, health care subscription plans, and health maintenance organizations whose policy, contract, or plan includes coverage for medicines to classify medically necessary formula and enteral nutrition products as medicine and to include coverage for medically necessary formula and enteral nutrition products for covered individuals requiring treatment for an inherited metabolic disorder. Such coverage is required to be provided on the same terms and subject to the same conditions imposed on other medicines covered und
  999. SB613 - Public utilities; third-party advertising prohibited.
       Patron(s): Suetterlein
       Summary: Public utilities; third-party advertising prohibited. Requires the State Corporation Commission to include in its procedures for public utilities for services not found to be competitive that a public utility is prohibited from (i) sending by mail or electronically to its customers any third-party advertising or other promotional materials or (ii) authorizing a third party to use the public utility's name, logo, or trademarks in advertising or other promotional materials sent by mail or electronically to the public utility's customers.
  999. SB654 - Health insurance; formula and enteral nutrition products.
       Patron(s): Boysko
       Summary: Health insurance; formula and enteral nutrition products. Requires health insurers, health care subscription plans, and health maintenance organizations whose policy, contract, or plan includes coverage for medicines to classify medically necessary formula and enteral nutrition products as medicine and to include coverage for medically necessary formula and enteral nutrition products for covered individuals requiring treatment for an inherited metabolic disorder. Such coverage is required to be provided on the same terms and subject to the same conditions imposed on other medicines covered und
  999. SB677 - Records of financial institutions; reimbursement of costs for production.
       Patron(s): Mason
       Summary: Records of financial institutions; reimbursement of costs for production. Provides that a financial institution that is asked to provide records related to a customer of the financial institution pursuant to a court proceeding shall be reimbursed by the requesting party for the reasonably necessary and directly incurred costs for the production of such records.
  999. SB695 - Telemarketing; financial exploitation, agency communication.
       Patron(s): Obenshain
       Summary: Telemarketing; financial exploitation; agency communication. Directs the Attorney General to establish ongoing communication with the Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services to ensure that adults 60 years of age or older or 18 years of age or older and incapacitated have access to information regarding the prevention of potential patterns of financial exploitation.
  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. SB777 - Virginia Security for Public Deposits Act; collateral for public deposits.
       Patron(s): Lewis
       Summary: Virginia Security for Public Deposits Act; collateral for public deposits; timeframe. Requires a qualified public depository to deposit eligible collateral with a qualified escrow agent equal to or in excess of the required collateral within two business days of accepting a public deposit. Current law requires deposits to be collateralized at the time of deposit.
  999. SB782 - Undergrounding electric transmission lines; pilot program.
       Patron(s): Saslaw
       Summary: Undergrounding electric transmission lines; pilot program. Specifies that one of the two projects that may be included in the pilot program for the undergrounding of electric transmission lines shall be for the relocation or conversion of an existing 230-kilovolt overhead line to an underground line. The measure provides that such a project may be approved if the estimated additional cost of placing the line, in whole or in part, underground does not exceed $40 million or, if greater than $40 million, does not exceed 2.5 times the cost of placing the same line overhead, which costs are borne b
  999. SB817 - Nuclear energy; considered a clean energy source.
       Patron(s): Lewis
       Summary: Nuclear energy; considered a clean energy source. Provides that for the purposes of the Commonwealth Energy Policy, in any clean energy initiative or carbon-free energy initiative undertaken, overseen, regulated, or permitted by the Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy, nuclear energy shall be considered to be a clean energy source.
  999. SB828 - Carbon-free energy and clean energy; definition.
       Patron(s): Lewis
       Summary: Carbon-free energy and clean energy. Provides that "carbon-free energy" or "clean energy," as used in the Code of Virginia, includes electric energy generated from a source that does not emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere during the process of generating the electric energy, including electric energy generated by the conversion of sunlight, wind, falling water, wave motion, tides, or geothermal or nuclear energy.
  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. SB861 - Group health benefit plans; bona fide associations, benefits consortium.
       Patron(s): Mason
       Summary: Group health benefit plans; bona fide associations; benefits consortium. Provides that certain trusts constitute a benefits consortium and are authorized to sell health benefits plans to members of a sponsoring association that (i) has been formed and maintained in good faith for purposes other than obtaining or providing health benefits; (ii) does not condition membership in the sponsoring association on any factor relating to the health status of an individual, including an employee of a member of the sponsoring association or a dependent of such an employee; (iii) makes any health benefit p
  999. SB875 - Solar energy projects; national standards.
       Patron(s): Marsden
       Summary: Solar energy projects; national standards. Authorizes a locality to include in its zoning ordinance provisions to incorporate generally accepted national standards for the use of solar panels and battery technologies for solar photovoltaic (electric energy) projects. This bill is identical to HB 656.

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