DELEGATE CLARK 2024 LEGISLATIVE PACKAGE.

Richmond, VA: After being sworn into office, Delegate Nadarius Clark, representing Suffolk City, Isle of Wight County, Franklin City and Chesapeake City,  has filed 13  bills as part of this years legislative package. These bills cover a series of necessary reforms to the Virginia State Code, and are geared towards public safety, responsible gun ownership, medical debt, education, and economic mobility.

​

HB 32 - Requires the Board of Medicine to implement policies that will require each licensed practitioner who has direct contact with persons who become pregnant to complete continuing education related to implicit bias, and cultural competency in health care at least once every other license renewal cycle.

​

HB 33-  Directs the Commissioner of Health to convene a work group to study the occurrence of microplastics in the Commonwealth's public drinking water and develop recommendations for the reduction of microplastics in the Commonwealth's public drinking water. 

​

HB 34- Would provide a three year statute of limitations for an action on any contract, to collect medical debt, including actions brought by the Commonwealth.

​

HB35- Expands the definition of device and also provides  individuals with a firearm safety device tax credit to include any device that, when installed on a firearm, is designed to prevent the firearm from being operated without first deactivating the device. 

​

HB37-Creates a loan repayment program for persons who have worked as mental health professionals in the Commonwealth for at least five years.

​

HB38- Allows local governments to provide enhanced retirement benefits for hazardous duty service to full-time salaried 911 dispatchers. The bill provides that such enhanced retirement benefits apply only to service earned as a full-time salaried 911 dispatcher on or after July 1, 2025.

​

HB187- Requires that public school instructional and non instructional support staff be compensated at a rate that is at or above the national average salary for such staff.
 

HB351-  To require individuals who purchase a firearm and have a minor living in the household to purchase a firearm locking device, if there is no minor living in the home then the individual must sign a waiver under penalty of perjury stating there is no minor living in the home with them. A violation of either provision is a Class 1 misdemeanor. 

​

HB406-  Requires the Department of Environmental Quality to promptly enforce federal regulations implementing a provision of the federal Clean Water Act for cooling water intakes at power plants to reduce negative impacts on fish populations in the waters of the Commonwealth.

​

HB721- Aims to protect Virginians from rent gouging practices. This bill would require landlords to provide at least two months' written notice of a tax increase, and would not allow the rent to increase by more than the localities allowance. The bill also allows a locality to establish an anti-rent gouging board that will develop and implement rules and procedures by which landlords may apply for and be granted exemptions from the rent increase limits set by the ordinance.

​

HB864- Requires  health insurers providing health care plans to provide coverage for therapeutic day treatment services for children with serious mental health issues. Under the bill, "therapeutic day treatment services" are treatment programs that combine psychotherapeutic interventions with education and mental health and may include evaluation, counseling, and general support to enhance their lives. 

​

The text for all of these bills can be found online at lis.virginia.gov

###

​

​