HB 862 (Cousins) and SB 391 (Stuart) are bills introduced at the recommendation of the Virginia Alcohol Safety Action Program Commission (VASAP), a legislative branch commission. The bills stem from a small working group of VASAP Commission members that met last fall and did not include local government representation. Significantly, as introduced, the bills would require localities to provide financial support for local alcohol safety action programs and require each local alcohol safety action program to have a locality serve as its fiscal agent; these are broad changes to the program that were not previously discussed with local governments.
The bills also codify some regulations, reorganize certain Code sections, and set out responsibilities for local policy boards that supervise local alcohol safety action programs.
VACo has advocated that the provisions of the bills that impose these new responsibilities on localities be converted to study directives. A working group, as proposed by VACo, would provide an opportunity to consider how the program could be bolstered — a discussion that is likely overdue, as VASAP’s funding structure has been stressed for some time. The state created VASAP in the mid-1980s as a program supported by fees paid by individuals referred by the courts to the program, but the fees have not increased in years and judges at times waive fees for individuals they deem unable to pay. Legislation in 2024 seeking to increase program fees failed to make it through the General Assembly. No state General Funds currently support the program.
After a series of amendments made on Friday and Wednesday, both bills now delay the requirement for a local ASAP to designate a fiscal agent locality and the requirement for localities to make financial contributions to local ASAPs until January 1, 2028, and include language proposed by VACo and VML that would direct the Secretary of Health and Human Resources, in consultation with the Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security and the Secretary of Transportation, to convene a work group to review the sustainability of the structure and funding model for VASAP. Both bills are headed to the floor in their respective chambers.
VACo Contact: Katie Boyle