SB 56 VA

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Passed One Chamber

Virginia Freedom of Information Act; procedure for responding to requests; charges; posting of notice of rights and responsibilities. Limits the fees charged for producing public records to the median hourly rate of pay of employees of the public body or the actual hourly rate of pay of the person performing the work, whichever is less, and provides that a public body may petition a court for relief from this fee limit if there is no one who can process the request at the median hourly rate of pay or less. The bill makes corresponding amendments to the required statement on charges in the notice of rights and responsibilities that must be posted on a public body's website. The bill also amends existing law providing that a public body may petition a court for additional time to respond to a request for public records to allow such petitions to be heard in either general district or circuit court, to give such petitions priority on the court's docket, and to toll the response time while such a petition is pending before a court. The bill makes technical amendments, including moving provisions regarding charges for the production of public records into a separate section of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act.

• Danica A. Roem Democratic · primary

1. Nov 26, 2025 Prefiled and ordered printed; Offered 01-14-2026 26100741D · upper
2. Nov 26, 2025 Referred to Committee on General Laws and Technology · upper
3. Jan 12, 2026 Fiscal Impact Statement from Department of Planning and Budget (SB56) · upper
4. Jan 21, 2026 Reported from General Laws and Technology and rereferred to Finance and Appropriations (15-Y 0-N) · upper
5. Feb 3, 2026 Reported from Finance and Appropriations (13-Y 0-N) · upper
6. Feb 4, 2026 Rules suspended · upper
7. Feb 4, 2026 Constitutional reading dispensed Block Vote (on 1st reading) (40-Y 0-N 0-A) · upper
8. Feb 4, 2026 Passed by for the day Block Vote (Voice Vote) · upper
9. Feb 5, 2026 Read second time · upper
10. Feb 5, 2026 Engrossed by Senate (Voice Vote) · upper
11. Feb 6, 2026 Read third time and passed Senate (40-Y 0-N 0-A) · upper
12. Feb 12, 2026 Placed on Calendar · lower
13. Feb 12, 2026 Read first time · lower
14. Feb 12, 2026 Referred to Committee on General Laws · lower
15. Feb 23, 2026 Assigned HGL sub: Procurement/Open Government · lower
16. Feb 24, 2026 Subcommittee recommends laying on the table (10-Y 0-N) · lower
17. Mar 10, 2026 Left in General Laws · lower

The published texts of this bill as it moves through the legislature. Each links to the official document on the state legislature site. Data from OpenStates.

• Introduced · PDF
• Introduced · HTML