republic-os/legislation/us/states/va/2019/hb-2691.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Electric utilities; provision of broadband services to unserved areas."
description: "Requires the State Corporation Commission to establish pilot programs under which Dominion Energy and Appalachian Power may submit a petition to provide or make available broadband capacity to nongovernmental Internet service providers in areas of the Commonwealth that are unserved by broadband. The costs of Dominion Power and Appalachian Power's proposals are each capped at $60 million annually. The provision of such broadband capacity is declared to be in the public interest. The measure authorizes the utilities to recover the net costs of the pilot program from customers through a rate adjustment clause. The measure authorizes such utility to own or lease broadband capacity equipment. The measure requires the Commission to conduct proceedings to determine whether an area is unserved by broadband."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2019"
identifier: "HB 2691"
citation: "Virginia HB 2691 (2019)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Commissions", "Boards and Institutions Generally", "Public Service Companies", "State Corporation Commission"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Israel D. O'Quinn"]
version_count: 6
action_count: 23
vote_count: 10
first_action: "2019-01-14"
last_action: "2019-03-19"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/060fef3c-ce34-4917-9af9-22d53da170b2"
source_url: "http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+sum+HB2691"
source_hash: "959d2f17a98004a18d8f787917ab9bb823ebf49caa8152ed20c801b140af2798"
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 2691 (2019) — Electric utilities; provision of broadband services to unserved areas.

Requires the State Corporation Commission to establish pilot programs under which Dominion Energy and Appalachian Power may submit a petition to provide or make available broadband capacity to nongovernmental Internet service providers in areas of the Commonwealth that are unserved by broadband. The costs of Dominion Power and Appalachian Power's proposals are each capped at $60 million annually. The provision of such broadband capacity is declared to be in the public interest. The measure authorizes the utilities to recover the net costs of the pilot program from customers through a rate adjustment clause. The measure authorizes such utility to own or lease broadband capacity equipment. The measure requires the Commission to conduct proceedings to determine whether an area is unserved by broadband.

## Version chain

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

1. **Governor: Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0619)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+ful+CHAP0619)
2. **House subcommittee amendments and substitutes adopted** (committee substitute) — [source](https://committees.lis.virginia.gov/subcommitteeaction.aspx?ses=191&bil=HB2691)
3. **House: Bill text as passed House and Senate (HB2691ER)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+ful+HB2691ER)
4. **House: Committee substitute printed 19105782D-H1** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+ful+HB2691H1)
5. **House: Presented and ordered printed 19104679D** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+ful+HB2691)
6. **Senate amendments engrossed** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+amd+HB2691ASE)

## Votes

- Passed Senate with amendments — **39–0** (pass) · upper
- Passed Senate with amendments — **38–0** (pass) · upper
- Reported from Commerce and Labor with amendments — **13–1** (pass) · upper
- Senate amendments agreed to by House — **96–3** (pass) · lower
- Reported from Finance — **15–0** (pass) · upper
- Reported from Commerce and Labor with substitute — **20–0** (pass) · lower
- Subcommittee recommends reporting with substitute — **10–0** (pass) · lower
- Read third time and passed House — **96–2** (pass) · lower
- Constitutional reading dispensed — **40–0** (pass) · upper
- Reconsideration of Senate passage agreed to by Senate — **40–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Israel D. O'Quinn — primary (person)
- Jeffrey L. Campbell — cosponsor (person)
- Kaye Kory — cosponsor (person)
- Roslyn C. Tyler — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2019-01-14** Presented and ordered printed 19104679D `introduction`
- **2019-01-14** Referred to Committee on Commerce and Labor `referral-committee`
- **2019-01-17** Assigned C & L sub: Subcommittee #3 `referral-committee`
- **2019-02-03** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2019-02-04** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2019-02-04** Committee substitute agreed to 19105782D-H1
- **2019-02-04** Engrossed by House - committee substitute HB2691H1
- **2019-02-05** Read third time and passed House (96-Y 2-N 1-A) `passage, reading-3`
- **2019-02-06** Constitutional reading dispensed
- **2019-02-06** Referred to Committee on Commerce and Labor `referral-committee`
- **2019-02-18** Rereferred to Finance `referral-committee`
- **2019-02-20** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2019-02-20** Reading of amendments waived
- **2019-02-20** Committee amendments agreed to
- **2019-02-20** Engrossed by Senate as amended
- **2019-02-21** Placed on Calendar
- **2019-02-21** Senate amendments agreed to by House (96-Y 3-N)
- **2019-02-23** Enrolled
- **2019-02-23** Signed by Speaker
- **2019-02-23** Signed by President
- **2019-03-04** Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on March 4, 2019
- **2019-03-04** Governor's Action Deadline Midnight, March 26, 2019
- **2019-03-19** Approved by Governor-Chapter 619 (effective 7/1/19) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/060fef3c-ce34-4917-9af9-22d53da170b2`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).