Communications Subcommittee

Good afternoon, Subcommittee 2, Finance Subcommittee 2, come to order. Subcommittee will go. At ease. Thank you, Madam Chair. Members of the committee House, before you have House Bill 1250. And so, which comes by way of extensive research from the Joint Commission of Technology and Science in pursuant of their recommendations from their 2025 work plan. Simple that House Bill 1250 is a section 1 bill that directs the Office of Attorney General within its existing structure. It is a framework bill, not a command and control statute. It does not create a new regulatory regime, it does not tell the Attorney General how to prosecute cases dealing with emergent technology, and it does not mandate a new enforcement program. What it does, it addresses a very real and growing gap between existing consumer protection law and the emerging technologies now shaping housing, employment, finance, health care and public services. Virginia already has strong consumer protection statutes, including the Virginia Consumer Data Protections Act. But those laws were written for a different technological moment. You know, as technologies become more complex, automated, sometimes opaque, we need a clear governance and coordination framework to ensure those laws can be applied…