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2008 Bill Watch

2008 General Assembly Session: Emergency Management Related Bills

Icon Legend:

Passed:
Passed

Tabled or Stricken:
Tabled

Combined:
Combined with another bill

The following emergency management related bills have been filed for the 2008 General Assembly session. Bills that are passed, tabled or combined with another bill or bills are marked with a graphic icon. The full text of each bill and its detailed status information is available by clicking on the bill numbers. All links open in a new browser window.

If you have any questions or comments about the information below, please contact George Urquhart at (804) 897-6500 ext. 6598 or george.urquhart@vdem.virginia.gov.

Updated March 7, 2008

HB 15: Vehicle lights; vehicles owned by forensic crash reconstructionists.

Summary as introduced: Allows forensic crash reconstructionists operating under memoranda of understanding with the Virginia Department of Emergency Management as first responders K9 search and rescue assets to equip their vehicles with red or red and white warning lights and auxiliary lights.
Patron: R. Lee Ware
Status: Tabled

HB 236: Identification cards, licenses, and driver's licenses.

Summary as introduced: Requires that these documents be made of a material and in a form designed to prevent duplication, alteration, and counterfeiting.
Patron: John Cosgrove
Status: Tabled

HB 261: Use of flashing lights on law-enforcement and rescue vehicles.

Summary as introduced: Allows law-enforcement and emergency response personnel to exercise discretion in deciding whether to use flashing lights on vehicles while responding to an emergency.
Patron: Onzlee Ware
Status: Tabled

HB 338: Emergency plans; fee for review.

Summary as introduced: Allows a locality to charge an administrative fee for the review of the emergency plans of nursing homes, assisted living facilities, adult day care centers, and child day care centers located within the locality. Localities that have an emergency management agency are currently authorized to require such a review.
Patron: Jennifer McClellan
Status: Continued to 2009

HB 358: Suspending water hook-ups during certain emergencies.

Summary as introduced: Allows a locality that has adopted a water supply emergency ordinance to suspend the issuance of water hook-up permits for connection to its water and sewer systems during such emergency.
Patron: Mark Cole
Status: Tabled

HB 403: Health care provider liability protections.

Summary as introduced: Provides that, in the absence of gross negligence or willful misconduct, health care providers who respond to a disaster are immune from civil liability for any injury or wrongful death arising from the delivery or withholding of health care. This immunity only applies if a state or local emergency has been or is subsequently declared in response to such a disaster. This bill further provides that the failure of a health care provider to deliver the same level or manner of care that would be delivered under nondisaster circumstances does not constitute a breach of duty by such provider where the failure results from a lack of necessary resources. The bill also allows persons who hold licenses or certificates evidencing their professional or mechanical skills who render aid involving that skill during a disaster to receive reimbursement for their actual and necessary expenses. The bill also combines the definitions of the terms "man-made disaster" and "natural disaster" as contained in the Commonwealth of Virginia Emergency Services and Disaster Law of 2000 into the term "disaster" and adds the term "communicable disease of public health threat" to the definition. The bill also expands when immunity attaches for health care providers who abandon patients in order to respond to a disaster to include disasters, emergencies, and major disasters. This bill also makes technical amendments.
Patron: Phillip A. Hamilton
Status: Passed

HB 489: Public institutions of higher education; crisis and emergency management plans.

Summary as introduced: Requires the board of visitors or other governing body of each public institution of higher education to develop, adopt, and keep current a written crisis and emergency management plan. Such plan must be reviewed and revised every four years. The Department of Emergency Management must assist institutions, as needed, in their development of the plan.
Patron: James Shuler
Status: Combined with HB1449

HB 532: Infectious disease presumption; emergency declaration by Governor.

Summary as introduced: Authorizes the Governor to declare that a communicable, contagious or infectious disease, or any condition that leads to the disease, is a disease or condition that is covered by the existing infectious disease presumption for firefighters, paramedics, emergency medical technicians, and certain law-enforcement officers under the Virginia Workers Compensation Act. The presumption currently exists for hepatitis, meningococcal meningitis, tuberculosis, and HIV. Such a declaration may be made after the Board of Health has issued an order for the purpose of suppressing the outbreak of the disease and the Governor has declared a state of emergency due to an outbreak of the disease that poses a danger to the life and health of the public.
Patron: Robert Mathieson
Status: Tabled

HB 546: Telephone systems, multiline; alternative method of providing emergency calls.

Summary as introduced: Provides that an alternative method of providing call location information exists when a 9-1-1 call to a public safety answering point (PSAP) provides sufficient information to ensure that emergency responders are dispatched to a location at the facility from which the call was placed, where the responders are able to view all of the telephone stations in the contiguous area containing the telephone from which the emergency call was placed. Currently, an alternative method requires responders to be able to view all of the telephone stations at the facility. The measure also provides that the provider of a multiline telephone system acquired or installed on or after July 1, 2009, is required, if reasonably achievable, to be able to provide calling party information to the 9-1-1 network that connects to the PSAP, or to provide an alternative method of providing call location information. Calling party information allows equipment at the PSAP to perform automatic location identification (ALI) and automatic number identification (ANI). Such providers are required to arrange to update the ALI database with the appropriate master street address guide, valid address and callback information corresponding to the calling party information for each telephone station, and to update the information as soon as practicable for new MLTS installation or within one business day of record completion of the actual changes for previously installed systems. Currently, such providers are required to ensure that emergency calls provide either ALI and ANI or an alternative method of providing call location information.
Patron: Samuel Nixon
Status: Passed

HB 839: State Interoperability Executive Committee.

Summary as introduced: Codifies the State Interoperability Executive Committee, which assists the Commonwealth Interoperability Coordinator.
Patron: Beverly Sherwood and Brian Moran
Status: Passed

HB 841: Establishment of the Capitol District.

Summary as introduced: Defines the geographic seat of government of the Commonwealth as the "Capitol District." The definition is for administrative purposes only and does not restrict or augment the responsibilities or authority of the legislative, executive, or judicial branch of state government or any agency thereof. The Capitol District is comprised of the area in Richmond bounded by Broad Street, Eighth Street, Main Street, and Interstate 95.
Patron: Beverly Sherwood
Status: Passed

HB 890: Flashing warning lights on emergency vehicles.

Summary as introduced: Allows warning lights on emergency vehicles to be of types constructed within turn signal housings or motorcycle headlight housings, subject to approval by the Superintendent.
Patron: Matthew Lohr
Status: Passed

HB 922: Vehicle registration fee increase for firefighting and emergency medical services.

Summary as introduced: Increases the $4-for-life fee to $4.25, with the revenues generated by the additional $0.25 to be used for costs associated with the certification and recertification training of emergency medical services personnel.
Patron: Thomas Davis Rust
Status: Passed

HB 1007: Virginia Fusion Intelligence Center; confidentiality; immunity.

Summary as introduced: Provides that papers, evidence, information, etc., and databases or other information in the possession of the State Police are confidential and not subject to the Virginia Freedom of Information Act or the Government Data Collections and Disseminations Practices Act. The bill also provides that employees of the Department are not subject to subpoena in any civil action concerning criminal intelligence information or terrorism investigation. The bill restricts the release or dissemination of information without prior authorization from the Virginia Fusion Intelligence Center and punishes any person who knowingly disseminates information with a Class 1 misdemeanor. If such unauthorized release or dissemination results in death or serious bodily injury, such person is guilty of a Class 4 felony.
Patron: Dwight Clinton Jones
Status: Passed

HB 1268: Public institutions of higher education; crisis and emergency management plans.

Summary as introduced: Requires the board of visitors or other governing body of each public institution of higher education to develop, adopt, and keep current a written crisis and emergency management plan. Such plan must be reviewed and revised every four years. The Department of Emergency Management must assist institutions, as needed, in their development of the plan.
Patron: Adam Ebbin
Status: Combined with HB1449

HB 1316: Higher Education; threat assessment teams at each public institution of higher education.

Summary as introduced: Requires the board of visitors or other governing body of every public institution of higher education in the Commonwealth to establish a threat assessment team. The bill also requires the team to adopt a campus-wide threat assessment policy and to regularly seek cooperation from (i) residential life; (ii) academic affairs; (iii) law enforcement; (iv) the counseling center; and (v) student judicial affairs.
Patron: David Nutter
Status: Combined with HB1449

HB 1420: Department of Health declared state radiation agency.

Summary as introduced: Establishes the Virginia Department of Health as the state radiation control agency.
Patron: Algie Howell, Jr.
Status: Passed

HB 1436: Line of Duty Act; definitions; funding for Line of Duty Health Benefits Trust Fund.

Summary as introduced: Includes local employees disabled on or after January 1, 1966, in the definition of %93disabled employee.%94 The bill also provides for a $1 fee to be collected from alarm company operators for each alarm system monitored and a $5 fee to be collected for processes and services in civil proceedings to provide funding to the Line of Duty Health Benefits Trust Fund.
Patron: David Bulova
Status: Tabled

HB 1449: Public institutions of higher education; crisis and emergency management plans.

Summary as introduced: Requires the board of visitors or other governing body of each public institution of higher education to develop, adopt, and keep current a written crisis and emergency management plan. Such plan must be reviewed and revised every four years. The Department of Emergency Management must assist institutions, as needed, in their development of the plan.
Patron: Anne Crockett-Stark
Status: Passed

HB 1501: Firefighters; task force to develop training standards.

Summary as introduced: Creates a task force, appointed by the Secretary of Public Safety, to develop criteria for the training and certification of all firefighters in Virginia. The bill sets out the membership of the task force and its duties.
Patron: Kristin Amundson
Status: Tabled

HJ 156: Study; Commission on Local Government; report.

Summary as introduced: Requests the Commission on Local Government to study the need for contingency plans for local governing bodies to operate in the event of public health emergencies.
Patron: Mark Sickles
Status: Tabled

SB 168: Individual income tax; volunteer firefighters and emergency medical services personnel tax credit.

Summary as introduced: Provides an income tax credit for individuals who volunteer as firefighters or emergency medical services personnel and are in good standing in an amount ranging from $500 to $3,000 annually, depending on length of service and satisfaction of certain training requirements.
Patron: Richard Stuart
Status: Tabled

SB 256: Public institutions of higher education; crisis and emergency management plans.

Summary as introduced: Requires the board of visitors or other governing body of each public institution of higher education to develop, adopt, and keep current a written crisis and emergency management plan. Such plan must be reviewed and revised every four years. The Department of Emergency Management must assist institutions, as needed, in their development of the plan.
Patron: R. Creigh Deeds
Status: Passed

SB 500: Infectious disease presumption; emergency declaration by Governor.

Summary as introduced: Authorizes the Governor to declare that a communicable, contagious or infectious disease, or any condition that leads to the disease, is a disease or condition that is covered by the existing infectious disease presumption for firefighters, paramedics, emergency medical technicians, and certain law-enforcement officers under the Virginia Workers Compensation Act. The presumption currently exists for hepatitis, meningococcal meningitis, tuberculosis, and HIV. Such a declaration may be made after the Board of Health has issued an order for the purpose of suppressing the outbreak of the disease and the Governor has declared a state of emergency due to an outbreak of the disease that poses a danger to the life and health of the public.
Patron: Ralph S. Northam

SB 503: Emergency Medical Services.

Summary as introduced: Establishes the Department of Emergency Medical Services to replace the current Office of Emergency Medical Services and places the new Department under the Secretary of Public Safety.
Patron: Ralph S. Northam
Status: Stricken by patron

SB 520: State Interoperability Executive Committee.

Summary as introduced: Codifies the State Interoperability Executive Committee, which assists the Commonwealth Interoperability Coordinator.
Patron: John C. Watkins and Creigh Deeds
Status: Passed

SB 538: Higher education; first warning and emergency notification system required.

Summary as introduced: Mandates that by August 1, 2008, each public institution of higher education establish a comprehensive, prompt, and reliable first warning and emergency notification system for students, staff, and faculty.
Patron: Mark Obenshain
Status: Passed

SB 539: Higher Education; threat assessment teams at each public institution of higher education.

Summary as introduced: Requires the board of visitors or other governing body of every public institution of higher education in the Commonwealth to establish a threat assessment team. The bill also requires the team to adopt a campus-wide threat assessment policy and to regularly seek cooperation from (i) residential life; (ii) academic affairs; (iii) law enforcement; (iv) the counseling center; and (v) student judicial affairs.
Patron: Mark Obenshain
Status: Passed