House General Laws committee reports 25 bills; measures on housing, procurement and licensing advance

The House Committee on General Laws reported 25 bills to further legislative action Tuesday, advancing a mix of consumer-protection, housing, procurement and licensing measures.

Chair opened the meeting, called the roll and said the committee would proceed quickly through a long list of identical and similar bills, grouping unanimous items into a block and taking separate votes where members recorded differing positions. “We have a number of bills that are identical and weare going to put those into a block,” Chair said during the session.

The committee re-referred Senate Bill 877 to Public Safety and passed one item "by for the day." The panel then reported a large block of identical bills out of committee unanimously. Those unanimous items included measures addressing resale-certificate disclosures for common-interest communities; increasing experience requirements for real-estate board membership; reporting duties for the Office of Inspector General related to behavioral health and developmental services; limits on state-agency degree requirements for hiring; clarifications to CPA education requirements; shifting oversight of data governance to the Virginia Information Technologies Agency; a buyer-beware disclosure related to aircraft noise; rules for boxing and wrestling events; a Virginia Housing Development Authority technical advisory group on deed fraud; and multiple measures affecting real-estate licensing and professional pathways. The committee recorded those bills as reporting out by 21 to 0.

Not all identical bills carried unanimous support. The committee reported, with recorded votes: Senate Bill 812 (increase to a 14-day mandatory waiting period after a landlord serves written notice for nonpayment of rent) 11 to 9; Senate Bill 970 (establishing a retail marijuana market framework) 12 to 8; Senate Bill 995 (two-hour fair-housing and appraisal-bias course for certain residential appraiser applicants) 16 to 5; and Senate Bill 1165 (procurement provisions regarding solar photovoltaic equipment under the Virginia Public Procurement Act) 16 to 5.

On similar or amended measures, the committee adopted technical line amendments or substitutes and reported those bills with the recorded tallies shown in the Votes at a glance below. Notable items in that set included a substitute requiring certain local competitive-bidding processes to consider apprenticeship-hour criteria for non-transportation construction projects over $250,000 (reported with substitute 12 to 9); a provision clarifying that some license and agent provisions do not apply to employees of a licensed real-estate broker (reported with substitute 21 to 0); landlord-notice requirements for owners of more than four rental units or equivalent interests (reported 17 to 4); development of a criminal-record screening model policy for admitting or denying applicants for affordable housing under the Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act (reported with substitute 13 to 8); regulatory authority to consider comparable international professional credentials for licensure (reported with amendments 21 to 0); and an alternative apprenticeship-style pathway to professional engineer or architect licensure (reported with amendments 21 to 0).

Votes at a glance (bill outcome; committee vote where recorded): - Senate Bill 877 re-referred to Public Safety; committee action: re-referred (roll called at opening) - Senate Bill 949 passed by for the day (motion passed) - Senate Bill 808 (resale-certificate disclosure; Sen. Craig) reported 21-0 - Senate Bill 866 (real-estate board experience requirement; Sen. Reeves) reported 21-0 - Senate Bill 885 (adds behavioral health commission to OIG reporting; Sen. Perry) reported 21-0 - Senate Bill 996 (treasurer designee payments for certain unclaimed property; Sen. Williams Graves) reported 21-0 - Senate Bill 1014 (state hiring baccalaureate prohibition exceptions; Sen. Van Valkenburg) reported 21-0 - Senate Bill 1042 (CPA education/experience clarifications; Sen. Evan) reported 21-0 - Senate Bill 1137 (data governance oversight to VITA; Sen. Boyseco) reported 21-0 - Senate Bill 1210 (buyer-beware aircraft-noise disclosure) reported 21-0 - Senate Bill 1245 (boxing and wrestling events) reported 21-0 - Senate Bill 1270 (VHDA advisory group on deed fraud; Sen. Hackworth) reported 21-0 - Senate Bill 1309 (real-estate broker/salesperson provisions) reported 21-0 - Senate Bill 1419 (Studs Bill; pulled from block for separate handling) reported 21-0 - Senate Bill 812 (mandatory waiting period after notice for nonpayment) reported 11-9 - Senate Bill 970 (framework for retail marijuana market) reported 12-8 - Senate Bill 995 (appraiser fair-housing education requirement) reported 16-5 - Senate Bill 1165 (Virginia Procurement Act, solar PV equipment; Sen. Saleem) reported 16-5 - Senate Bill 787 (consolidate report due dates for DHCD) reported with amendments 21-2-0 (amendments adopted) - Senate Bill 962 (local bidding/apprenticeship criteria; Sen. Carol Foye) reported with substitute 12-9 - Senate Bill 993 (clarification for broker/employee exceptions; Sen. Williams Graves) reported with substitute 21-0 - Senate Bill 1043 (landlord notice for owners of >4 rental units; Sen. Evan) reported 17-4 - Senate Bill 1128 (criminal record screening model policy for affordable housing; Sen. Lucas) reported with substitute 13-8 - Senate Bill 1188 (recognition of comparable international licenses/certificates; Sen. Pekarski) reported with amendments 21-0 - Senate Bill 1310 (alternative pathway to engineer/architect licensure; Sen. McPike) reported with amendments 21-0

Committee business concluded after the votes; Chair announced the meeting had disposed of 25 bills and adjourned the committee to a forthcoming housing subcommittee meeting at 3:40 p.m.

Context and next steps: reporting a bill out of the House Committee on General Laws sends it to the next legislative stage (often the floor or another committee) for further consideration, amendment or final vote. Several measures reported with substitutes or line amendments will carry those changes forward for consideration in subsequent stages. For bills that recorded split committee votes, the roll-call tallies will appear in the committee record sent to the clerk.

No executive-session items or final enactments occurred at this meeting; the committees actions were procedural votes to refer, report or pass items for the day.