Summary: Virginia Freedom of Information Act; meetings held through electronic communication means during a state of emergency. Allows a public body, or a joint meeting thereof, to meet by electronic communication means without a quorum of the public body physically assembled at one location when a locality in which the public body is located has declared a local state of emergency, provided that (i) the catastrophic nature of the declared emergency makes it impracticable or unsafe to assemble a quorum in a single location and (ii) the purpose of the meeting is to provide for the continuity of operations of the public body or the discharge of its lawful purposes, duties, and responsibilities. Under current law, public bodies may only meet in such manner when the Governor has declared a state of emergency and only for the purpose of addressing the emergency. Finally, the bill requires public bodies meeting through electronic communication means during a local or state declaration of a state of emergency to (a) make arrangements for public access to such meeting through electronic communication means, including videoconferencing if already used by the public body, and (b) provide the public with the opportunity to comment at such meetings when public comment is customarily received.

Summary: Virginia Freedom of Information Act; proprietaryrecords and trade secrets; carbon sequestration agreements. Excludesfrom the mandatory disclosure provisions of the Virginia Freedomof Information Act proprietary information, voluntarily providedby a private business under a promise of confidentiality from a publicbody, used by the public body for a carbon sequestration agreement.The bill requires the private business to specify the records forwhich protection is sought before submitting them to the public bodyand to state the reasons why protection is necessary.

Summary: Department of Small Business and Supplier Diversity; definitions; small business. Redefines "small business" for the purpose of programs for the Department of Small Business and SupplierDiversity to allow a cooperative association organized pursuant toChapter 3 (Cooperative Associations) of Title 13.1 as a nonstockcorporation to qualify as a small business if it is at least 51 percentindependently controlled by one or more members who are U.S. citizensor legal resident aliens and, together with affiliates, has 250 orfewer employees or average annual gross receipts of $10 million orless averaged over the previous three years. The bill also redefines "small business" for the purpose of programs for the Virginia Public Procurement Act to allow a cooperative association organized pursuantto Chapter 3 (Cooperative Associations) of Title 13.1 as a nonstockcorporation to qualify as a small business if it is controlled byone or more members who are U.S. citizens or legal resident aliensand, together with affiliates, has 250 or fewer employees or averageannual gross receipts of $10 million or less averaged over the previousthree years.

Summary: Environmental justice; interagency working group; report. Establishes the Interagency Environmental Justice Working Group as an advisory council in the executive branch of state government to further environmental justice in the Commonwealth and directs each of the Governor's Secretaries to designate at least one environmental justice coordinator to represent the secretariat as a member of the Working Group. The bill provides that the Working Group shall expire on July 1, 2031.