Gov. Youngkin signs more than 600 bills

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — Gov. Glenn Youngkin has signed more than 600 bills passed this year by the Virginia General Assembly into law, most of which will take effect July 1.

Gov. Youngkin (R) has until 11:59 p.m. on March 27 to sign, veto or amend the 819 bills passed during the assembly’s 2023 legislative session. As of 4:30 p.m. Monday, Youngkin has signed 618 new bills.

The General Assembly will reconvene in Richmond on April 12 to vote on the governor’s vetoes and amendments to bills.

Youngkin has signed bills making the Chincoteague pony Virginia’s official pony, a bill creating a $300 tax credit to reimburse those who buy a gun safe or other lockable devices designed to store a firearm and legislation to allow historic site signs to be placed at Green Book locations and businesses.

Here’s a look at some of the bills that will become law in July:

House Bill 1463/Senate Bill 928 — Legislation to pay $1.5 million to Michael Haas, a man who the state said was wrongfully convicted after spending more than 20 years in prison for child sexual abuse.

House Bill 1582 — Provides nearly $59,000 to David Wayne Kingrea, who was found to be wrongfully convicted of indecent liberties with a minor.

House Bill 1968 — Legislation that allows historic site signs to be placed at locations found in the Green Book, which Black Americans used while traveling during the Jim Crow era to find safe routes and places.

House Bill 2020/Senate Bill 1073 — A bill that bans any unmanned aircraft system from dropping items within any state or local correctional facility or juvenile correctional center without consent. It also prohibits the use of such devices to obtain video or images of those incarcerated in those facilities. Violators could face a Class 1 misdemeanor.

House Bill 2471/Senate Bill 1514— Allows a majority of the State Board of Elections and a local electoral board to remove a general registrar by signing a circuit court petition. Under current law, a local board may remove a registrar with a majority vote, but the state board can only petition the court for a registrar’s removal after asking the local board to do so and if the local board fails to do so.

House Bill 2487/Senate Bill 887 — This legislation will require Virginia prisons to provide incarcerated people in solitary confinement at least four hours “of out-of-cell programmatic interventions or other congregate activities per day.” The measure did not pass with a provision that would have limited solitary confinement to 15 days. Read more here.

Senate Bill 1120/House Bill 2010 — A measure to allow the commissioner of the Virginia Employment Commission to authorize any of the agency’s attorneys “to issue subpoenas to compel the attendance of witnesses and the production of books, papers, correspondence, memoranda, and other records deemed necessary as evidence in connection with the investigation or adjudication of any disputed claim or the administration of the Virginia Unemployment Compensation Act.”

Senate Bill 1455 — This bill empowers local law enforcement chiefs to impose curfews for up to 24 hours if there is “an imminent threat of any civil commotion or disturbance in the nature of a riot which constitutes a clear and present danger.” Read more here.

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