Authority: Discretionary Inclusion.

1. The Secretary of Commerce and Trade shall prepare an agency reorganization plan to be submitted to the Chairmen of the Senate Finance and House Appropriations Committees by December 22, 2003. In developing the plan, the Secretary shall consult with the Secretary of Education, the Department of Planning and Budget, and the clients of services potentially affected by the consolidation.

2. The entities to be reorganized and consolidated into a single agency within the Commerce and Trade Secretariat are the Departments of Business Assistance and Minority Business Enterprise, the A.L. Philpott Manufacturing Extension Partnership, and the Virginia-Israel Advisory Board.

3. The plan shall include but not be limited to establishing the goals of the new agency; measurable objectives to assess the future performance of the agency; the strategies to carry out the objectives; and identification and description of the activities and services to be reorganized, enhanced, curtailed, or eliminated. The plan shall also include information concerning the number of positions and amount of general fund and nongeneral fund dollars to be allocated to each of the new agency's activities and services. The plan shall also identify position and dollar savings, estimated at $500,000, resulting from the consolidation. The Secretary may use nongeneral funds where appropriate to supplant a portion of the general fund reductions set out in this item. He is also authorized to relocate the Department of Business Assistance from its present location to another less-expensive location more accessible to the public as part of the plan.

4. To encourage equal opportunity in state procurement, the consolidated agency shall recognize and fully implement the Governor's Executive Order 29 issued on July 2, 2002.

5. It is the intent of the General Assembly that legislation be introduced in the 2004 Session amending the Code of Virginia to effect the reorganization contained in this item.]