republic-os/legislation/us/states/va/2024/sb-401.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Military leaves of absence for employees of the Commonwealth, etc.; includes prof. firefighters."
description: "Military leaves of absence for employees of Commonwealth or political subdivisions; professional firefighters. Provides that any person who is employed by the Commonwealth or a political subdivision of the Commonwealth as a professional firefighter shall receive paid leaves of absence for up to 388 work hours that a leave of absence is required, regardless of whether such amount of work hours exceeds 21 workdays per federal fiscal year, during which such person is engaged in federally funded military duty, to include training duty, or is called forth by the Governor for military duty. Under current law, employees of the Commonwealth or a political subdivision of the Commonwealth are limited to an eight-hour, 21-workday cap, which equates to seven workdays for such employees working in 24-hour shifts. The 388-work-hour cap would provide leave for a little over 16 workdays for such employees working in 24-hour shifts. This bill is identical to HB 279."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2024"
identifier: "SB 401"
citation: "Virginia SB 401 (2024)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Tara A. Durant"]
version_count: 3
action_count: 26
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2024-01-09"
last_action: "2024-03-28"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/7493d2d5-0920-43b7-ab58-4b74d5907376"
source_url: "https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?241+sum+SB401"
source_hash: "4caf2cd52ab9cfaa391335f9670de149f79c189113464c7617f30c5d2d0eea51"
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 401 (2024) — Military leaves of absence for employees of the Commonwealth, etc.; includes prof. firefighters.

Military leaves of absence for employees of Commonwealth or political subdivisions; professional firefighters. Provides that any person who is employed by the Commonwealth or a political subdivision of the Commonwealth as a professional firefighter shall receive paid leaves of absence for up to 388 work hours that a leave of absence is required, regardless of whether such amount of work hours exceeds 21 workdays per federal fiscal year, during which such person is engaged in federally funded military duty, to include training duty, or is called forth by the Governor for military duty. Under current law, employees of the Commonwealth or a political subdivision of the Commonwealth are limited to an eight-hour, 21-workday cap, which equates to seven workdays for such employees working in 24-hour shifts. The 388-work-hour cap would provide leave for a little over 16 workdays for such employees working in 24-hour shifts. This bill is identical to HB 279.

## Version chain

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

1. **CHAP0239** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?241+ful+CHAP0239)
2. **Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/10/24 24104672D** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?241+ful+SB401)
3. **SB401ER** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?241+ful+SB401ER)

## Votes

- Reported from Finance and Appropriations (14-Y 1-N) — **14–1** (pass) · upper
- Read third time and passed Senate (40-Y 0-N) — **40–0** (pass) · upper
- Constitutional reading dispensed (40-Y 0-N) — **40–0** (pass) · upper
- VOTE: Block Vote Passage (97-Y 0-N) — **96–0** (pass) · lower
- Reported from General Laws and Technology (15-Y 0-N) — **15–0** (pass) · upper
- Reported from Public Safety (21-Y 0-N) — **21–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Tara A. Durant — primary (person)
- Jennifer D. Carroll Foy — cosponsor (person)
- Russet Perry — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2024-01-09** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/10/24 24104672D `filing, introduction`
- **2024-01-09** Referred to Committee on General Laws and Technology `referral-committee`
- **2024-01-31** Reported from General Laws and Technology (15-Y 0-N) `committee-passage`
- **2024-01-31** Rereferred to Finance and Appropriations `referral-committee`
- **2024-02-07** Reported from Finance and Appropriations (14-Y 1-N) `committee-passage`
- **2024-02-08** Impact statement from DPB (SB401)
- **2024-02-08** Constitutional reading dispensed (40-Y 0-N)
- **2024-02-09** Read second time and engrossed `reading-2`
- **2024-02-12** Read third time and passed Senate (40-Y 0-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2024-02-15** Placed on Calendar
- **2024-02-15** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2024-02-15** Referred to Committee on Public Safety `referral-committee`
- **2024-02-23** Reported from Public Safety (21-Y 0-N) `committee-passage`
- **2024-02-27** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2024-02-28** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2024-02-28** Passed House BLOCK VOTE (97-Y 0-N) `passage`
- **2024-02-28** VOTE: Block Vote Passage (97-Y 0-N) `passage`
- **2024-03-04** Enrolled `enrolled`
- **2024-03-04** Bill text as passed Senate and House (SB401ER) `passage`
- **2024-03-04** Impact statement from DPB (SB401ER)
- **2024-03-04** Signed by Speaker `passage`
- **2024-03-07** Signed by President `passage`
- **2024-03-11** Enrolled Bill Communicated to Governor on March 11, 2024 `enrolled`
- **2024-03-11** Governor's Action Deadline 11:59 p.m., April 8, 2024 `executive-receipt`
- **2024-03-28** Approved by Governor-Chapter 239 (effective 7/1/24) `executive-signature`
- **2024-03-28** Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0239)

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/7493d2d5-0920-43b7-ab58-4b74d5907376`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).