Del. Mark Keam (D-Fairfax) took the oath of office at noon on Wednesday, to begin his fourth term in the Virginia House of Delegates representing the 35th District.
Del. Keam introduced fourteen bills to address various problems facing Virginians. Some bills were requested by constituents to deal with their concerns, while others were requested by state government agencies.
Some of the more significant proposals that Del. Keam will be fighting for this year include:
- As a result of attending dozens of meetings with constituents and representatives of the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) over the proposed expansion of I-66 outside the 495 beltway, Del. Keam worked with concerned constituents in Dunn Loring to draft House Bill 947 which would require VDOT to factor in traffic congestion relief when proposing highway widening projects.
- Based on media investigations that discovered the unscrupulous practice of “predatory towing” where consumers who park their cars in commercial lots for a very short duration had their cars towed away, Del. Keam drafted House Bill 946 to ban the practice of using “spotters” whose primary job is to find cars to be towed immediately.
- To prevent unethical individuals from lying about their military service for personal gain, Del. Keam drafted House Bill 950, the Stolen Valor Act, to criminalize the false representation of past military service or awards for the purposes of financial gain or tangible benefit.
- As a member of the Virginia Commission on the Youth which conducted a thorough research on the issue of concussions among students, Del. Keam drafted House Bill 954 to require schools to adopt “Return to Learn” policies to allow for students to fully recover from concussions before making up missed schoolwork.
- In response to efforts by some political advocates to make it more and more difficult for certain groups of voters to exercise their franchise, Del. Keam drafted House Joint Resolution 131 to amend the Constitution of Virginia to affirm that every citizen has the right to vote, and that the Virginia General Assembly shall make no law impeding the right to vote.
In addition to these bill, Del. Keam introduced the following in the regular session of the 2016 General Assembly:
- HB 948 would raise funds for public schools using out-of-state organizations that secure specialty license plates to be placed on Virginia automobiles.
- HB 949 would create an extra seat on the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority for towns, such as the Town of Vienna, to be represented, in addition to counties.
- HB 951 was requested by the Virginia Department of Tax to amend a complicated tax code section that impacts taxpayers whose employer did not submit withholding records.
- HB 952 would exempt from sales tax laws feminine hygiene products.
- HB 953 would provide a lesser form of punishment for students who bring to school items that are not illegal but may appear to resemble illegal drugs.
- HB 955 was requested by the State Corporation Commission to clarify certain complex aspects of the Virginia Limited Liability Act.
- HB 956 would allow towns, such as the Town of Vienna, to save costs by posting certain notices on their official government websites instead of having to pay a local newspaper to print such an advertisement.
- HB 957 would require the practice of laser hair removal to be overseen by the state government instead of being made available to the public today without any regulation.
- HB 958 would prohibit the abhorrent practice of drowning wildlife animals.
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