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Communications, Technology and Innovation

Monday, February 2, 2026·59m·▶ Watch / Listen

The Virginia House Committee on Communications, Technology and Innovation advanced a sweeping virtual currency kiosk regulatory framework (HB 665) over industry objections and one member's conflict-of-interest challenge, while carrying over four AI-related bills to 2027 and tabling a law enforcement AI transparency bill for lack of agency commitment.

Key Actions

·HB 83 – VITA Cyber Civilian Corps VolunteersNo Vote

+ 10 more actions

Controversies

Scope of HB 665 beyond fraud prevention

Delegate Griffin argued that while he supported the bill's fraud-prevention purpose, the printed bill is 11 pages of mostly new language covering qualifications, licenses, reporting requirements, retention of books, investigations, fees, disclosures, machine titling, customer service, advertising, and civil penalties — most of which he said does not address fraud. Delegate Maldonado responded that the Bureau of Financial Institutions provided a significant number of edits and that there is no current regulatory infrastructure in place for crypto kiosks.

+ 4 more controversies

Notable Quotes

“Nationwide estimates in 2025 put losses to scams involving crypto kiosks at around $330 million. Now, you may hear that the scams only make up about 7% of the industry. And while that seems like a very small piece of the pie. The thing that we have to recognize is it's in its infancy.”

Delegate Maldonado — Delegate Maldonado, patron of HB 665, was justifying the need for a regulatory framework for virtual currency kiosk operators by citing the scale of fraud enabled by these machines.

+ 4 more quotes

Votes

Block carryover of HB 83, HB 1294, HB 1295, and HB 1521 to 2027No Vote
Adopt substitute for HB 310Passed
Report and refer HB 310 to Committee on Appropriations (first attempt)No Vote
Report and refer HB 310 to Committee on Appropriations (second attempt)Passed
Adopt substitute for HB 797Passed
Report and refer HB 797 to Committee on AppropriationsNo Vote
Adopt substitute for HB 1186Passed
Report and refer HB 1186 to Committee on EducationNo Vote
Adopt substitute for HB 665Passed
Report HB 665 with substitute (first attempt)No Vote
Report HB 665 with substitute (second vote)Passed
Gently lay HB 1170 on the table with a letter from the Chair for ongoing conversationPassed
Carry over HB 1257 and HB 1261 to 2027No Vote
Adopt substitute for HB 798Passed
Report HB 798 with substitutePassed
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TranscriptPreview
Committee will go be called to order. Committee will go at ease. Committee will come to order. And we'll ask that the clerk open the roll. And we have a core. All right. I want to welcome you to the February 2nd meeting of the full committee on communications Technology and Innovation. And we do have report coming from our communications subcommittee which met this morning prior to this committee. And the chair recognizes chair glass. Gratitude, Mr. Chair. So we had seven bills that take action from the subcommittee. The first four bills are once we the subcommittee recommended to continue into 2027. I will roll through each of those beginning with House Bill 83, patron by delegate Fagans. This bill allowed the Virginia Information Technology Agency, or VITA Vita to select persons to serve as a cyber corps cyber civilian corps volunteer and advisors to deploy for rapid response. The civic subcommittee recommended continuing the bill to 2027. Next we have House Bill 1294, patron by delegate Clark, which required the COVID the use of covered artificial intelligence as defined in a bill in a criminal investigation to be disclosed in a police report filed for that investigation.…
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