Senate subcommittee advances multiple public‑safety bills; several carried for budget review
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Summary
The Senate Finance and Appropriations, Public Safety and Claims Subcommittee reported many bills to the full committee and carried a handful for additional fiscal review, including measures on youth mentoring grants, cell‑phone data preservation in collisions, volunteer fire‑department funding, guardianship voting, health‑care provider protections and more.
The Senate Finance and Appropriations, Public Safety and Claims Subcommittee heard and acted on a slate of bills affecting public safety, criminal law and related funding on Wednesday in Richmond.
Sen. Jones presented SB 739 to establish a Virginia Youth Empowerment and Mentoring grant program administered by DCJS to fund mentorship for high‑risk youth and encourage placement in high‑wage trades; the chair moved to carry the measure for budget review so it can be combined with related programs. Sen. Sarval introduced SB 376 to require preservation of cell‑phone data after collisions and to require law‑enforcement officers to ask about carriers and usage at crash scenes; the Subcommittee voted to advance that measure to the full committee. "There's basically two parts of it...otherwise it's not preserved when you don't make a request," Sarval said.
Sen. Hackworth described SB 775, a proposal to create a Virginia at‑risk grant program to help volunteer fire departments, funded in part by an increase in insurance‑related fees and a redirection of certain fee revenue; staff flagged large fiscal impacts and the Subcommittee agreed to carry the bill over for further budget analysis. Sen. Obenshane presented SB 778 to broaden prosecutorial tools against people who groom children; the committee recommended that bill for reporting. Sen. Favola’s substitute to SB 34 would preserve voting rights for most people under guardianship unless a court finds incapacity; the substitute was adopted and the bill will be reported to the full committee as amended.
Other actions: Sen. Perry’s omnibus SB 794 to protect in‑state health‑care providers from certain out‑of‑state legal actions was reported and re‑referred; SB 329 (another bill presented by Sen. Perry to fund child‑victim services with added fees) was held so staff could produce more complete revenue estimates; Sen. Mulcahy’s SB 673 on cyberstalking was recommended for reporting; and a bill addressing gift‑card safeguards (presented as SB 44 in committee conversation) was also reported. The chair briefly listed additional bills (including penalties for damage to critical infrastructure and changes to sewer‑discharge penalties) that were reported or carried depending on fiscal and policy questions.
Most actions in the hearing were voice votes or motions to report to the full committee; where staff identified incomplete fiscal information, the Subcommittee directed further analysis before advancing measures.