Newsroom & Archives

SB 1340 Virginia Law Officers' Retirement System; hazardous materials response specialist officers. Adds hazardous materials response specialist officers employed by the Virginia Department of Emergency Management to membership in the Virginia Law Officers' Retirement System (VALORS).

Patron: Puckett

Assigned to VDEM for action

Continued to 2006

HJ 618 Study; immunity from liability during emergencies; report. Requests the Virginia Department of Emergency Management to study whether to grant immunity to emergency personnel for damage caused by their livestock and pets during an emergency or a disaster.

Patron: Orrock

Assigned to VDEM for action

Tabled

HB 1786 Mutual aid arrangements. Allows a local director of emergency management to enter into mutual aid arrangements for reciprocal assistance in case of disaster with other states or localities within other states. Currently, directors are limited to making these arrangements with other public or private agencies within the Commonwealth or with states adjacent to the Commonwealth.

Patrons: House - BaCote

Assigned to VDEM for action

Combined with HB 2379

HB 2032 Powers and duties of VDEM; coordination of emergency services intelligence; Freedom of Information Act.Provided that the Department of Emergency Management shall be responsible for the coordination, receipt, evaluation, and dissemination of emergency services intelligence and shall coordinate intelligence activities with the Department of State Police. The bill also creates a records exemption under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act for contact information, computer information, and operating schedule information submitted by an individual or agency for participation in the Statewide Alert Network.

Patron: Miles

Assigned to VDEM for action

Passed

HB 2379 Mutual aid arrangements. Allows a local director of emergency management to enter into mutual aid arrangements for reciprocal assistance in case of disaster with other states or localities within other states. Currently, directors are limited to making these arrangements with other public or private agencies within the Commonwealth or with states adjacent to the Commonwealth.

Patron: Rapp

Assigned to VDEM for action

Passed

HB 2681 Disclosure of insurance information; natural disaster damage assessments.  Permits the disclosure to state, federal, and local government officials of certain aggregated information involving property damage resulting from natural disasters.

Patron: Lingamfelter

Assigned to VDEM for action

Passed

SB 766 Mutual aid arrangements. Allows a local director of emergency management to enter into mutual aid arrangements for reciprocal assistance in case of disaster with other states or localities within other states. Currently, directors are limited to making these arrangements with other public or private agencies within the Commonwealth or with states adjacent to the Commonwealth.

Patron: Locke

Identical to HB1786

Assigned to VDEM for action

Passed

SB 800 Disaster preparedness programs; continuity of operations. Requires that the State Department of Emergency Management provide guidance and assistance to state agencies and localities in developing and maintaining continuity of operations (COOP) programs.

Patron: Watkins

Assigned to VDEM for action

Passed

SB 814 Mutual aid arrangements. Allows a local director of emergency management to enter into mutual aid arrangements for reciprocal assistance in case of disaster with other states or localities within other states. Currently, directors are limited to making these arrangements with other public or private agencies within the Commonwealth or with states adjacent to the Commonwealth.

Patron: Williams

Combined with SB 814

HB 1567 Workers' compensation; compensable employees. Provides that those volunteer members of community emergency response teams and volunteer members of medical reserve corps who have been acknowledged as employees by the local governing body or state institution of higher education in which the principal office of their team or corps is located are employees of that local government or state institution for workers' compensation purposes.

Patron: Cosgrove

Passed

HB 1607 Contact information during a health emergency. Requires the Department of Health Professions, as the licensing authority, to provide to the State Veterinarian the email addresses, telephone numbers and facsimile numbers of licensed veterinarians in the event of an animal health emergency. The Department and the State Veterinarian are prohibited from publishing, releasing or making available the contact information for any other purpose.

Patron: Shuler

Passed

HB 1631 Local water supply emergency ordinances. Provides that a local water supply emergency ordinance may limit the water usage of businesses to a specified percent of normal use; however, the ordinance shall not establish different percentages for different categories of businesses.  All businesses shall be treated equally except that the ordinance may exclude certain businesses from all limitations for health and safety reasons.

Patron: Van Yahres

Tabled

Patron: Shannon

Tabled

HB 1966 Department of State Police; terrorism intelligence center. Establishes a terrorism intelligence center within the Department of State Police for the central responsibility of information regarding terrorists, terrorist groups, and terrorist events. The State Police will cooperate with the Department of Emergency Management and other federal, state and local agencies as may be appropriate.

Patron: Miles

Passed

HB 2253 Statewide Emergency Medical Services Plan.  Adds several new requirements to the Statewide Emergency Medical Services Plan developed by the Board of Health. These requirements include (i) publishing the Plan, (ii) expanding paramedic and advanced life support training, (iii) establishing and maintaining a process for crisis intervention and peer support services for emergency medical services and public safety personnel, a statewide emergency medical services for children program, a statewide system of health and medical emergency response teams, and a program to improve dispatching of emergency medical services, and (iv) identifying and establishing best practices for managing agencies and improving response times. The bill also deletes an obsolete cross-reference relating to automated external defibrillators.

Patron: Bell

Passed

HB 2236 Hospitals sharing patient health data.  Requires the Board of Health to implement regulations that require hospitals to have interoperability and sharing of patient health data through common data reporting formats and standardized methods of transmission while maintaining protections for the privacy of personal health information.

Patron: O'Bannon

Passed

HB 2520 Immunity from liability for certain emergency services and preparedness personnel.  Amends the immunity provisions of the Virginia State Government Volunteers Act, the law relating to isolation of persons with communicable diseases of public health threat, and the emergency services and disaster statutes to cover persons who serve in a Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) unit or on a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT).

Patron: O'Bannon

Assigned to VDEM as secondary agency for action

Passed

HB 2667 Terrorism hoax; reimbursement of expenses.  Raises the flat fee that may be charged to a person convicted of certain terrorism hoax incidents in order to reimburse the locality for related expenses.

Patron: McDonnell

Passed

HB 2682 Property Owners' Association Act; erection of radio antennas.  Provides that no declaration or association's rules and regulations or architectural guidelines shall restrict or prohibit the erection by a lot owner on his lot of a radio antenna where the lot owner is a volunteer amateur radio operator participating in the Citizens Corps coordinated by the federal Department of Homeland Security. The bill provides, however, that an association may restrict the erection of such antenna (i) in the common areas or (ii) in accordance with federal or state law, and may establish reasonable restrictions as to the size, place, and manner of placement of the antenna. The bill also requires the association disclosure packet to contain a statement of any restrictions on the size, place, and manner of placement of such antenna. The bill contains technical amendments.

Patron: Lingamfelter

Tabled

HJ 691 Study; use of biometric identifiers in connection with driver's licenses; report.   Requests the Department of Motor Vehicles, in cooperation with the Virginia Information Technologies Agency, the Office of the Attorney General, the Department of State Police, the Department of Social Services, the Department of Emergency Management, and all other interested state agencies to study the desirability and feasibility of the integration of biometric identifiers for Virginia driver's licenses and special identification cards.

Patron: May

Tabled

SB 963 Statewide communications interoperability.   Creates a new chapter in Title 9.1 requiring the office of the Governor to annually review and make recommendations for the update of the statewide interoperability strategic plan, and requires all state agencies and localities to comply with the plan by July 1, 2015, in order to remain eligible to receive state or federal funding for communication programs.

Patron: O'Brien

Passed