---
type: "Bill"
title: "Business advertising material; expands definition."
description: "Expands the definition of business advertising material as it relates to private security services businesses to include any electronic medium, including the Internet, social media, and digital advertising."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2017"
identifier: "HB 1629"
citation: "Virginia HB 1629 (2017)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Commonwealth Public Safety", "Computer Services and Uses", "Professions and Occupations", "Trade and Commerce"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Hyland F. \"Buddy\" Fowler, Jr."]
version_count: 3
action_count: 15
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2017-01-04"
last_action: "2017-02-20"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/884b00d2-92c8-435a-b1eb-0a6ccb2a26e3"
source_url: "http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+sum+HB1629"
source_hash: "cc7a3f6e107cd8fcd8b415d81cde1a394fe36526bc8226a38d916220f2cb609d"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-va"]
---

# Virginia HB 1629 (2017) — Business advertising material; expands definition.

Expands the definition of business advertising material as it relates to private security services businesses to include any electronic medium, including the Internet, social media, and digital advertising.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Governor: Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0085)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+CHAP0085)
2. **House: Bill text as passed House and Senate (HB1629ER)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+HB1629ER)
3. **House: Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/11/17 17101941D** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+HB1629)

## Votes

- Passed Senate — **40–0** (pass) · legislature
- Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE — **99–0** (pass) · legislature
- Subcommittee recommends reporting — **7–0** (pass) · legislature
- Reported from General Laws — **22–0** (pass) · legislature
- Reported from General Laws and Technology — **14–0** (pass) · legislature
- Constitutional reading dispensed — **39–0** (pass) · legislature

## Sponsors

- Hyland F. "Buddy" Fowler, Jr. — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2017-01-04** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/11/17 17101941D `introduction`
- **2017-01-04** Referred to Committee on General Laws `referral-committee`
- **2017-01-11** Assigned GL sub: Subcommittee #4 `referral-committee`
- **2017-01-19** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2017-01-20** Read second time and engrossed `reading-2`
- **2017-01-23** Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE (99-Y 0-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2017-01-24** Constitutional reading dispensed
- **2017-01-24** Referred to Committee on General Laws and Technology `referral-committee`
- **2017-02-09** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2017-02-13** Enrolled
- **2017-02-13** Signed by Speaker
- **2017-02-13** Signed by President
- **2017-02-14** Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on 2/14/17
- **2017-02-14** Governor's Action Deadline Midnight, February 21, 2017
- **2017-02-20** Approved by Governor-Chapter 85 (effective 7/1/17) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/884b00d2-92c8-435a-b1eb-0a6ccb2a26e3`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).