What the 2026 General Assembly actually did to Virginia hospitality, checked line by line
The session is usually summarized as the food-to-beverage rewrite plus a list of defeats. Against the legislature's own bill file, several of those defeats are attached to the wrong bill numbers, and one subject widely reported as dead became law on a different bill.
Most coverage of the 2026 session focused on HB 975 and the food-to-beverage ratio, which is fair. It is the biggest change to Virginia mixed beverage licensing in a generation.
The rest of the session is usually summarized as a list of defeats. Against the legislature’s own bill file, several of those defeats are attached to the wrong bill numbers. One subject reported everywhere as dead is law.
What passed, with chapter numbers
HB 975, Chapter 719. Food-to-beverage ratio reform, replacing the flat 45% requirement for mixed beverage licensees with tiers keyed to monthly food sales. Bennett-Parker. Effective July 1. Full breakdown.
HB 662, Chapter 196, and SB 444, Chapter 197. Gift card fraud. Creates a specific offense for gift card fraud, theft and forgery. Bigger for multi-location operators and hotel groups than the headline suggests: gift card balances are real liabilities, and until now the criminal exposure for draining them sat in the general theft statutes.
HB 524, Chapter 162, and SB 314, Chapter 163. Tourism improvement districts. The title is specific: “Tourism improvement districts; transient occupancy tax in Arlington County.” This is not a statewide TID authority and it does not authorize a district in any other locality.
What failed, correctly attributed
SB 644 is not the whistleblower bill. It is Surovell, “Minimum wage and overtime wages; payment, misclassification of workers, civil actions,” and it failed. Its subject matter did not die with it: the House version, HB 238, became Chapter 1040, and it is the bill that put tips inside the statutory definition of wages and created the 14-day cure window. See the employment changes.
HB 930 is the whistleblower bill. Simon, “Protection of employees; retaliatory action against employee prohibited.” Failed. Industry groups argued the expansion would have effectively ended at-will employment in Virginia.
HB 695, sodium warning labels. Hayes. Would have required a sodium warning with a civil penalty attached. Failed on workability grounds, which is the argument that usually wins against menu mandates in a state with this many independent operators. The model is spreading in other states.
The bill that was carried over, not passed
HB 707 was continued to the next session, not enacted. Hayes. Its subject is state government website domains, not hospitality. It returns in 2027.
Salary history, not scheduling
There was no predictive scheduling bill in the 2026 session. A search of the full 2026 bill file turns up no predictive or advance-notice scheduling measure. Virginia has no predictive scheduling law.
HB 962 is Mehta, “Employer seeking wage or salary history of prospective employees; prohibited,” and it failed, as did HB 1164. The subject became law on two other bills: HB 636 became Chapter 1063 and SB 215 became Chapter 996, and since July 1 a Virginia employer may not seek an applicant’s wage or salary history.
The pattern in the record
The defeats that get reported are labor mandates, and the reporting tends to treat a failed bill as a settled question. The 2026 record says otherwise. Whistleblower expansion failed on HB 930 and will be back. Wage and misclassification enforcement failed on SB 644 and passed the same session on HB 238. Salary history failed twice and passed twice.
A bill number is not a subject.
The 2027 session opens in January, and the drafting happens in the fall.
