---
type: "Bill"
title: "Hate crimes; falsely summoning or giving false reports to law-enforcement officials, penalty."
description: "Hate crime; falsely summoning or giving false reports to law-enforcement officials; penalty. Increases the penalty for falsely summoning or giving false reports to law-enforcement officials from a Class 1 misdemeanor to a Class 6 felony, which shall include a term of confinement of at least six months, when a person intentionally gives a false report as to the commission of any crime to any law-enforcement official, causes another to give a false report to any law-enforcement official, or calls or summons any law-enforcement official against another person because of his race, religious conviction, gender, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, color, or national origin."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2020specialI"
identifier: "HB 5098"
citation: "Virginia HB 5098 (2020specialI)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: []
version_count: 4
action_count: 31
vote_count: 7
first_action: "2020-08-20"
last_action: "2020-10-21"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/7976d6d9-f374-4306-8704-ab7aa74c4383"
source_url: "https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?202+sum+HB5098"
source_hash: "42b2b4051e33b8d117c4d7041f7bd9ca632f4bcd6a45ee3f9ce115ba23804f82"
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 5098 (2020specialI) — Hate crimes; falsely summoning or giving false reports to law-enforcement officials, penalty.

Hate crime; falsely summoning or giving false reports to law-enforcement officials; penalty. Increases the penalty for falsely summoning or giving false reports to law-enforcement officials from a Class 1 misdemeanor to a Class 6 felony, which shall include a term of confinement of at least six months, when a person intentionally gives a false report as to the commission of any crime to any law-enforcement official, causes another to give a false report to any law-enforcement official, or calls or summons any law-enforcement official against another person because of his race, religious conviction, gender, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, color, or national origin.

## Version chain

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

1. **Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0022)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?202+ful+CHAP0022)
2. **Bill text as passed House and Senate (HB5098ER)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?202+ful+HB5098ER)
3. **Impact statement from VCSC (HB5098)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?202+ful+HB5098)
4. **Impact statement from VCSC (HB5098H1)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?202+ful+HB5098H1)

## Votes

- Passed Senate (24-Y 16-N) — **24–16** (pass) · upper
- VOTE: Passage (55-Y 43-N) — **54–43** (pass) · lower
- Reported from Appropriations (13-Y 9-N) — **13–9** (pass) · lower
- Reported from Courts of Justice with substitute (13-Y 8-N) — **13–8** (pass) · lower
- Reported from Finance and Appropriations (16-Y 0-N) — **16–0** (pass) · upper
- Reported from Judiciary (7-Y 2-N) — **7–2** (pass) · upper
- Constitutional reading dispensed (36-Y 0-N) — **36–0** (pass) · upper

## Timeline

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

- **2020-08-20** Presented and ordered printed 20200320D `introduction`
- **2020-08-20** Impact statement from VCSC (HB5098)
- **2020-08-20** Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice `referral-committee`
- **2020-08-26** Reported from Courts of Justice with substitute (13-Y 8-N) `committee-passage`
- **2020-08-26** Committee substitute printed 20201045D-H1 `substitution`
- **2020-08-26** Referred to Committee on Appropriations `referral-committee`
- **2020-08-27** Impact statement from VCSC (HB5098H1)
- **2020-08-28** Impact statement from DPB (HB5098H1)
- **2020-08-31** Reported from Appropriations (13-Y 9-N) `committee-passage`
- **2020-09-02** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2020-09-03** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2020-09-03** Committee substitute agreed to 20201045D-H1
- **2020-09-03** Engrossed by House - committee substitute HB5098H1
- **2020-09-04** Read third time and passed House (55-Y 43-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2020-09-04** VOTE: Passage (55-Y 43-N)
- **2020-09-09** Constitutional reading dispensed
- **2020-09-09** Referred to Committee on the Judiciary `referral-committee`
- **2020-09-16** Reported from Judiciary (7-Y 2-N) `committee-passage`
- **2020-09-16** Rereferred to Finance and Appropriations `referral-committee`
- **2020-09-24** Reported from Finance and Appropriations (16-Y 0-N) `committee-passage`
- **2020-09-25** Constitutional reading dispensed (36-Y 0-N)
- **2020-10-01** Passed by temporarily
- **2020-10-01** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2020-10-01** Passed Senate (24-Y 16-N) `passage`
- **2020-10-07** Enrolled
- **2020-10-07** Impact statement from DPB (HB5098ER)
- **2020-10-07** Signed by Speaker
- **2020-10-07** Signed by President
- **2020-10-14** Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on October 14, 2020
- **2020-10-14** Governor's Action Deadline 11:59 p.m., October 21, 2020
- **2020-10-21** Approved by Governor-Chapter 22 (effective 3/1/21) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/7976d6d9-f374-4306-8704-ab7aa74c4383`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).