Bills Introduced for 2018 Va. General Assembly Session Include Ban on “Bump Stocks,” Campaign $$ from Public Service Corporations (e.g., Dominion)

Today was the first day that bills could be filed for the upcoming 2018 Virginia General Assembly session, and there were some excellent ones. Here’s the full list of bills filed today; the following are some that I particularly like.

• Del. Marcus Simon: HB 7 Campaign finance; prohibited personal use. (“Prohibits any person from converting any moneys, securities, or like intangible personal property contributed to a candidate or a candidate’s campaign committee to his personal use, the personal use of the candidate, or the personal use of a member of the candidate’s immediate family.”)
• Del. Kaye Kory: HB 10 Hate crimes; criminal acts against persons because of gender, etc. (“Adds disability, gender, gender identity, and sexual orientation to the categories of victims whose intentional selection for a hate crime involving assault, assault and battery, or trespass for the purpose of damaging another’s property results in a higher criminal penalty for the offense.”)
• Del. Kaye Kory: HB 11 Tuition, in-state; domicile, individuals currently granted Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.
• Del. Kaye Kory: HB 12 Temporary driver’s licenses, permits, etc.; DMV authorized to issue to certain aliens.
• Del. Kaye Kory: HB 14 Dogs or cats; public animal shelters required to notify intent to euthanize. (“Requires a public animal shelter to wait three days before euthanizing a dog or cat when a person has notified the shelter of his intent to adopt or take custody of the particular animal.”)
• Del. Patrick Hope: HB 17 Grand larceny; threshold. (“Increases from $200 to $500 the threshold amount of money taken or value of goods or chattel taken at which the crime rises from petit larceny to grand larceny.”)
• Del. Charniele Herring: HJ 1 Study; JLARC; sentencing of drug offenders; report.
• Sen. Adam Ebbin: SB 1 Mechanical devices designed to increase the rate of fire of firearms; penalty. (“Prohibits the manufacture, import, sale or offer to sell, possession, transfer, or transportation of any device used to increase the rate of fire of any semi-automatic firearm beyond the capability of an unaided person to operate the trigger mechanism of that firearm.”)
• Sen. Adam Ebbin: SB 3 Same-sex marriages; civil unions. (“Repeals the statutory prohibitions on same-sex marriages and civil unions or other arrangements between persons of the same sex purporting to bestow the privileges and obligations of marriage.”)
• Sen. Adam Ebbin: SB 5 Firearm transfers; criminal history record information checks; penalty. (“Requires a background check for any firearm transfer and requires the Department of State Police to establish a process for transferors to obtain such a check from licensed firearms dealers.”)
• Sen. Chap Petersen: SB 10 Campaign finance; prohibited contributions to candidates. (“Prohibits any candidate from soliciting or accepting a contribution from any public service corporation, as defined in § 56-1, or any political action committee established and administered by such a corporation.”)
• Sen. Chap Petersen: SB 12 State and Local Government Conflict of Interests Act & General Assembly Conflicts of Interests Act. (“Members of the General Assembly are currently prohibited from lobbying the General Assembly or any legislative agency for one year after the termination of public service; the bill extends that prohibition to three years.”)
• Sen. Scott Surovell: SB 21 Grand larceny; threshold. (“Increases from $200 to $500 the threshold amount of money taken or value of goods or chattel taken at which the crime rises from petit larceny to grand larceny.”)
• Sen. Adam Ebbin: SJ 1 Constitutional amendment (first resolution); marriage.
• Sen. Scott Surovell: SJ 4 United States Constitution; Equal Rights Amendment. (“Ratifies the Equal Rights Amendment to the United States Constitution that was proposed by Congress in 1972”)