Del. R. Steven Landes, R-Weyers Cave, today announced his legislative priorities. Legislation introduced by Landes will focus on the key areas of economic development, education and health care.
“The legislation I have introduced this session will concentrate on issues Virginians care about most: economic development; education; and healthcare,” said Landes. “My legislation focuses on moving Virginia forward through continued economic development, education innovations and healthcare reforms,” stated Landes.
Among the legislation introduced by Landes, he highlighted bills House Bills 514, 515 and 858 for economic development, House Bill 516 and House Joint Resolution 112 for education, and House Bills 685 and 1044 for healthcare.
Landes bills
House Bill 514: Governor’s Agriculture and Forestry Industries Development Fund; wild fish and shellfish. Clarifies that commercially-harvested wild fish and wild shellfish are included within the definition of “agricultural products.” The Governor’s Agriculture and Forestry Industries Development Fund provides grants or loans to expand the processing of Virginia-grown agriculture and forestry products.
House Bill 515: Public institutions of higher education; efforts to stimulate economic development. Requires each public institution of higher education to annually report to the Governor and the General Assembly on the institution’s active contributions to efforts to stimulate the economic development of the Commonwealth, the area in which the institution is located, and, for those institutions subject to a management agreement, the areas that lag the Commonwealth in terms of income, employment, and other factors.
House Bill 858: Virginia International Trade Authority. Establishes the Virginia International Trade Authority to promote international trade in the Commonwealth by coordinating private and public efforts to stimulate the international trade segment of the state’s economy and marketing products and services. The bill also requires the Authority to provide to the General Assembly by November 1, 2016, a plan for the establishment of a coalition of organizations providing international trade programs and services in the Commonwealth.
House Bill 516: Board of Education; policy on sexually explicit instructional material. Requires the Board of Education to establish a policy to require each public elementary or secondary school to: notify the parent of any student whose teacher reasonably expects to provide instructional material that includes sexually explicit content; permit the parent of any student to review instructional material that includes sexually explicit content upon request; and provide, as an alternative to instructional material and related academic activities that include sexually explicit content, nonexplicit instructional material and related academic activities to any student whose parent so requests.
House Joint Resolution 112: Study; standards of quality; effective use of educational technology; report. Establishes a two-year joint committee consisting of seven members of the House Committee on Education and five members of the Senate Committee on Education and Health to study the need for revisions to or reorganization of the standards of quality set forth in Chapter 13.2 (§ 22.1-253.13:1 et seq.) of the Code of Virginia, with a particular emphasis on the role that the effective use of educational technology plays in ensuring that an educational program of high quality that meets the standards of quality is established and continually maintained.
House Bill 685: Direct primary care agreements. Provides that the Commonwealth’s insurance laws do not apply to direct primary care agreements. The measure further provides that a direct primary care practice is not be subject to the jurisdiction of the State Corporation Commission (SCC) and is not required to obtain a certificate of authority or license to market, sell, or offer to sell a direct primary care agreement; entering into a direct primary care agreement shall not be considered to be engaging in the business of insurance; and that a direct primary care agreement is not a contract of insurance and is not subject to regulation by the SCC. The bill defines a direct primary care agreement as an agreement entered into between a health care provider and an individual patient under which the provider charges a predetermined fee as consideration for providing primary care to the patient, subject to certain conditions.
House Bill 1044: Prescription Monitoring Program; disclosures. Provides that the Director of the Department of Health Professions may disclose information about a specific recipient contained in the Prescription Monitoring Program to a qualified licensed medical professional employed by the health plan of which the recipient is a member to identify potential misuse of covered substances by recipients for the purpose of intervention to prevent misuse and may disclose information about a specific dispenser or prescriber who participates in a health plan to a qualified licensed medical professional employed by that health plan to identify prescribing practices indicative of fraudulent activity.
Landes represents the 25th House District, which includes parts of Albemarle, Augusta, and Rockingham Counties. Landes is currently serving his eleventh term in the Virginia House of Delegates.
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