republic-os/legislation/us/states/va/2017/sb-1341.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Government records; digital certification."
description: "Provides for the Secretary of the Commonwealth, in cooperation with the Virginia Information Technologies Agency, to develop standards for the use of digital signatures by government agencies on electronic records generated by such agencies. The bill further provides that such agencies may provide copies of digital records, via a website or upon request, and may charge a fee of $5 for each digitally certified copy of an electronic record. Any digitally certified record submitted to a court in the Commonwealth shall be deemed to be authenticated by the custodian of the record. The bill defines \"agency\" to include all state agencies and local government entities, including constitutional officers, except circuit court clerks."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2017"
identifier: "SB 1341"
citation: "Virginia SB 1341 (2017)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Administration of Government", "Civil Remedies and Procedure", "Computer Services and Uses"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Scott A. Surovell"]
version_count: 5
action_count: 25
vote_count: 8
first_action: "2017-01-10"
last_action: "2017-03-24"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/ca7cb7e5-95f4-488a-baac-53f91c954aff"
source_url: "http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+sum+SB1341"
source_hash: "194a34ad289e53f8eb67a31df24fb0105f8d8a71673893feefa818c0bfa013aa"
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 SB 1341 (2017) — Government records; digital certification.

Provides for the Secretary of the Commonwealth, in cooperation with the Virginia Information Technologies Agency, to develop standards for the use of digital signatures by government agencies on electronic records generated by such agencies. The bill further provides that such agencies may provide copies of digital records, via a website or upon request, and may charge a fee of $5 for each digitally certified copy of an electronic record. Any digitally certified record submitted to a court in the Commonwealth shall be deemed to be authenticated by the custodian of the record. The bill defines "agency" to include all state agencies and local government entities, including constitutional officers, except circuit court clerks.

## Version chain

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

1. **Governor: Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0738)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+CHAP0738)
2. **House: Committee substitute printed 17105529D-H1** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+SB1341H1)
3. **Senate: Bill text as passed Senate and House (SB1341ER)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+SB1341ER)
4. **Senate: Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/11/17 17100671D** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+SB1341)
5. **Senate: Printed as engrossed 17100671D-E** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+SB1341E)

## Votes

- Reported from Science and Technology with amendments — **21–0** (pass) · legislature
- Subcommittee recommends reporting with amendments — **7–0** (pass) · legislature
- Passed House with substitute BLOCK VOTE — **98–0** (pass) · legislature
- Reported from General Laws with substitute — **22–0** (pass) · legislature
- Reported from General Laws and Technology with amendments — **14–1** (pass) · legislature
- Constitutional reading dispensed — **40–0** (pass) · legislature
- House substitute agreed to by Senate — **40–0** (pass) · legislature
- Read third time and passed Senate — **40–0** (pass) · legislature

## Sponsors

- Scott A. Surovell — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2017-01-10** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/11/17 17100671D `introduction`
- **2017-01-10** Referred to Committee on General Laws and Technology `referral-committee`
- **2017-02-02** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2017-02-02** Reading of amendments waived
- **2017-02-02** Committee amendments agreed to
- **2017-02-02** Engrossed by Senate as amended SB1341E
- **2017-02-02** Printed as engrossed 17100671D-E
- **2017-02-08** Placed on Calendar
- **2017-02-08** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2017-02-08** Referred to Committee on Science and Technology `referral-committee`
- **2017-02-13** Referred to Committee on General Laws `referral-committee`
- **2017-02-13** Assigned GL sub: Subcommittee #2 `referral-committee`
- **2017-02-20** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2017-02-21** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2017-02-21** Committee on Science and Technology amendments rejected
- **2017-02-21** Committee on General Laws substitute agreed to 17105529D-H1
- **2017-02-21** Engrossed by House - committee substitute SB1341H1
- **2017-02-21** Passed House with substitute BLOCK VOTE (98-Y 0-N) `passage`
- **2017-02-22** Title replaced 17105529D-H1
- **2017-03-07** Enrolled
- **2017-03-07** Signed by Speaker
- **2017-03-10** Signed by President
- **2017-03-13** Enrolled Bill Communicated to Governor on 3/13/17
- **2017-03-13** Governor's Action Deadline Midnight, March 27, 2017
- **2017-03-24** Approved by Governor-Chapter 738 (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/ca7cb7e5-95f4-488a-baac-53f91c954aff`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).