---
type: "Bill"
title: "Virginia Public Records Act; records retained in electronic medium."
description: "Virginia Public Records Act; records retained in electronic medium."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2018"
identifier: "HB 228"
citation: "Virginia HB 228 (2018)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Computer Services and Uses", "Libraries"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Mark L. Cole"]
version_count: 2
action_count: 15
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2017-12-29"
last_action: "2018-03-09"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/c72caa35-3ad0-4547-bf97-77fb79e5de13"
source_url: "http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?181+sum+HB228"
source_hash: "a49f0e5b2d7d61fb2179fce7ffb665a99e94920ac8da96320144d5792234c3f1"
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 228 (2018) — Virginia Public Records Act; records retained in electronic medium.

## Version chain

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

1. **House: Bill text as passed House and Senate (HB228ER)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?181+ful+HB228ER)
2. **House: Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/10/18 18102370D** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?181+ful+HB228)

## Votes

- Constitutional reading dispensed — **40–0** (pass) · legislature
- Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE — **99–0** (pass) · legislature
- Reported from General Laws and Technology — **14–0** (pass) · legislature
- Passed Senate — **40–0** (pass) · legislature
- Subcommittee recommends reporting — **8–0** (pass) · legislature
- Reported from General Laws — **22–0** (pass) · legislature

## Sponsors

- Mark L. Cole — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2017-12-29** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/10/18 18102370D `introduction`
- **2017-12-29** Referred to Committee on General Laws `referral-committee`
- **2018-01-17** Assigned GL sub: Subcommittee #4 `referral-committee`
- **2018-01-29** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2018-01-30** Read second time and engrossed `reading-2`
- **2018-01-31** Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE (99-Y 0-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2018-02-01** Constitutional reading dispensed
- **2018-02-01** Referred to Committee on General Laws and Technology `referral-committee`
- **2018-02-22** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2018-02-26** Enrolled
- **2018-02-26** Signed by Speaker
- **2018-02-28** Signed by President
- **2018-03-02** Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on March 2, 2018
- **2018-03-02** Governor's Action Deadline Midnight, March 9, 2018
- **2018-03-09** Approved by Governor-Chapter 252 (effective 7/1/18) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/c72caa35-3ad0-4547-bf97-77fb79e5de13`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).