Bill Text: VA HB1530 | 2017 | Regular Session | Prefiled
Bill Title: Small Business and Supplier Diversity, Department of; certification programs for certain businesses.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 2-0)
Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2017-02-25 - Failed to pass [HB1530 Detail]
Download: Virginia-2017-HB1530-Prefiled.html
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
1. That §2.2-1606 of the Code of Virginia is amended and reenacted as follows:
§2.2-1606. Powers of Director.
As deemed necessary or appropriate to better fulfill the duties of the Department, the Director may:
1. With the participation of other state departments and agencies, develop comprehensive plans and specific program goals for small, women-owned, and minority-owned business programs; establish regular performance monitoring and reporting systems to assure that goals of state agencies and institutions are being achieved; and evaluate the impact of federal and state support in achieving objectives.
2. Employ the necessary personnel or subcontract, according to his discretion, with localities to supplement the functions of business development organizations.
3. Assure the coordinated review of all proposed state training and technical assistance activities in direct support of small, women-owned, and minority-owned business programs to ensure consistency with program goals and to avoid duplication.
4. Convene, for purposes of coordination, meetings of the heads of departments and agencies, or their designees, whose programs and activities may affect or contribute to the purposes of this chapter.
5. Convene business leaders, educators, and other representatives of the private sector who are engaged in assisting the development of small, women-owned, and minority-owned business programs or who could contribute to their development for the purpose of proposing, evaluating, or coordinating governmental and private activities in furtherance of the objectives of this chapter.
6. Provide the managerial and organizational framework through which joint undertakings with state departments or agencies or private organizations can be planned and implemented.
7. Recommend appropriate legislative or executive actions.
8. Adopt regulations to implement certification programs for
small, women-owned, and minority-owned businesses and employment services
organizations, which regulations shall be exempt from the
Administrative Process Act (§2.2-4000 et seq.) pursuant to subdivision B 2 of
§2.2-4002. Such certification programs shall allow
applications for certification to be submitted by electronic means as
authorized by §59.1-496 and the applicant to affix thereto his electronic
signature, as defined in §59.1-480. Such certification programs shall deny
certification to vendors from states that deny like certifications to
Virginia-based small, women-owned, or minority-owned businesses and employment
services organizations or that provide a preference for small, women-owned, or
minority-owned businesses and employment services organizations based in that
state that is not available to Virginia-based businesses. The regulations shall
(i) establish minimum requirements for certification of small, women-owned, and
minority-owned businesses and employment services organizations; (ii) provide a right to appeal the denial or revocation of a certification as provided
in Article 3 (§2.2-4018 et seq.) of the
Administrative Process Act; (iii) provide
a process for evaluating existing local, state, private sector, and federal
certification programs that meet the minimum requirements; and (iii) (iv) mandate certification,
without any additional paperwork, of any prospective state vendor that has
obtained certification under any certification program that is determined to
meet the minimum requirements established in the regulations and of any
employment services organization that has been approved by the Department for
Aging and Rehabilitative Services.
9. Establish an interdepartmental board in accordance with § 2.2-1608 to supply the Director with information useful in promoting minority business activity.