Professions-Occupations and Administrative Process Subcommittee

Thursday, February 26, 2026·1h 47m·▶ Watch / Listen

The Professions-Occupations and Administrative Process Subcommittee advanced all four bills on its agenda, including a measure adding menopause and perimenopause to the Virginia Human Rights Act, a fix to an inequity in the Contractor Transaction Recovery Fund, a conflict-of-interest reform for the Board of Auctioneers, and an expansion of the Children's Ombudsman's powers.

Key Actions

·SB 258 – Menopause/Perimenopause Discrimination ProtectionsPassed

+ 3 more actions

Controversies

Board jurisdiction to reopen Recovery Fund cases — SB 565

Madam Chair flagged concern about needing language to ensure the Board of Contractors has jurisdiction to reopen Recovery Fund cases. The presenting senator [name UNCLEAR] responded by introducing a line amendment sourced from DPOR to address the concern.

Notable Quotes

“It was voted out of the Senate 39 to 0. So I do hope it is the will of the committee to report the bill or recommend reporting the bill.”
Senator Favola — Senator Favola, patron of SB125 expanding the Children's Ombudsman's powers, cited the bill's unanimous Senate passage to encourage the subcommittee to report the bill favorably.

Votes

Adopt substitute for SB 258Passed

Report SB 258 with substituteNo Vote

Report SB 574No Vote

Adopt line amendment for SB 565Passed

Report SB 565 as amendedNo Vote

Report SB125No Vote

AdjournNo Vote

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TranscriptPreview

All right. The House Committee on General Laws, Subcommittee, Professions, Occupation, Administrative Process will come to order. And if the clerk will please open the roll for attendance, we will please log your votes or your attendance rather your presence. All right, we do have a quorum while we wait for senators to arrive. The committee will go. At ease. All right, so first bill we have up today is Senate Bill 258 patron by Senator Pekarski. Senator, you have the floor. Thank you, Madam Chair. We do have a substitute. I believe that you should do a motion to adopt the substitute. Moved and seconded. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All right, the substitute is before us, Senator. Great. So I'll just kind of talk about the substitute and the purpose of the bill. Delicate Tran had a bill on this side that actually went through Commerce and Labor that tried to put protections in for workforce accommodations for folks with menopause. I had a separate bill over on the Senate side where I wanted to add to the Virginia Human Rights act an explicit protection for menopause or perimenopause and thereby prohibiting discrimination on the basis…

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