For Immediate Release: January 20, 2022. 
 

Legislative Contacts:

Leo Priddy

Assistant Vice President

marketing@montgomerycc.org

Margaret Appleby

Legislative Intern

legislative@montgomerycc.org

Week Two of the 2022 Virginia Legislative Session
Making Your Voice Heard: Resources to Contact your Legislators
 

Friday, January 21st, marks the end of the first full week of action in Richmond. With that, your Chamber wants to make sure that we provide you with the resources to make your voices heard and to feel better informed about the legislative process. This short list can help guide you through that process.

1. To find out who your specific legislators are here. While legislators will accept feedback from all Commonwealth residents, they do tend to place much greater weight on feedback from their constituents.
2. For the names, phone numbers, and email addresses of all members of the House of Delegates, you can find that information here. Go here for the Senate.
3. You can also find daily and weekly calendars of House of Delegates and Senate committee hearings and scheduled votes on Virginia's Legislative Information website.
4. In the House, you can sign up to provide written or verbal comments on the bills that are important to you. For legislation in the Senate, navigate to the LIS schedule page to find the bills or hearings you are interested in and select whether you want to provide written comment or register to speak. Unlike the House of Delegates, the Senate comment options are subject to change and may not be available for all bills and hearings.

Here are three bills that were introduced this week that your Chamber will be tracking this legislative session. This list of bills will continue to be grow until January 21, 2022 -- the last day for legislators to introduce new legislation for this session. Click here to find our comprehensive list of bills.

• HB 565, a bill to create the Advanced Manufacturing Talent Investment Program and Fund. This bill, introduced by Del. Israel O'Quinn, creates the Advanced Manufacturing Talent Investment Program and Fund to assist qualified institutions, as defined in the bill, in reaching, by 2042, a goal of increasing by at least 25,000 new eligible credentials, which are noncredit workforce credentials awarded by a qualified institution in a high demand advanced manufacturing field as identified by the Board of Workforce Development.
• HB 447, a bill related to broadband providers and affordable monthly plans. This bill, introduced by Del. Sam Rasoul, requires each broadband provider operating in the Commonwealth to offer an affordable monthly plan for broadband services that (i) does not exceed $50 per month and (ii) meets the faster of either (a) the standards for advanced service as defined by the Federal Communications Commission or (b) a minimum broadband speed level of 50 megabits per second for download speed and 25 megabits per second for upload speed.
• HB 537, a bill related telemedicine, out of state providers; behavioral health services. This bill, introduced by Del. Amanda Batten, allows for licensed out-of-state behavioral health practitioners to provide continuity of care through the use of telemedicine.