Welcome to my online constituent office. We hope you will find this website to be a useful one-stop portal for any needs you might have from the Virginia state government. We have included information to help you better understand how our government works.
You can also keep up with the policy-making process in the General Assembly during the weeks that I am working in Richmond by reading my blogs and Twitter updates.
As your State Delegate, I’m here to serve you so please contact me with any questions or services you need. I am particularly interested in hearing about ways to make our laws work better for all of us so please do not hesitate to send me policy ideas that I may be able to propose in Richmond. I am honored to represent you and I look forward to meeting you in person.
Thank you,
- DelegateKeam: Presented another Richmond report to civic group: Sully District Council. 35th Dist has only 1 precinct in Sully - called Vale - out of 18.
- DelegateKeam: Witnessing the investiture of new Fairfax Couny Circuit Court Judge Brett Kassabian whom we voted in this session. Congrats, Your Honor!
- DelegateKeam: At NoVA Asian American community town hall hosted by Virginia Asian American Advisory Board. I served on this Governor's board in 2001-09.
- DelegateKeam: Attending "Unlock Gridlock" forum in Tysons hosted by www.TeleworkVA.org and www.TeleworkExchange.com to find solutions for NoVA traffic.
- DelegateKeam: Providing another Richmond report to constituents; this time Providence District Council in Dunn Loring. Most active civic leaders I know.
Posts Tagged ‘vote’
Press Release: Delegate Keam’s bill voted out of House
PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release: Thursday, February 4, 2010
Contact: Rob Abbot, (703) 380-8883
Delegate Mark Keam Successfully Moves Legislation through the Virginia House of Delegates; Bill would Help Family Law Practitioners by Clarifying Ambiguous Requirement
RICHMOND – This afternoon, the full chamber of the Virginia House of Delegates voted on HB 1133, a bill introduced by Delegate Keam, and adopted the measure on a 96 to 2 vote. The vote would have been unanimous but for two Delegates who cast their “no” votes in a tradition of “hazing” Freshmen Delegates on their first legislation voted on by the House.
My vote on House Bill 392
Last Thursday, the House approved HB 392 on a 73-25 vote after two days of floor debates. I voted to support the bill, which has now moved to the Senate and referred to its Transportation Committee.
Explaining My Votes
Since we’ve been in session for over two weeks now, the House of Delegates is fully up and running. Members are taking more and more votes on legislation on the House floor as well as in Committees and Subcommittees where each of us is assigned.
Considering the sheer number of votes we will be casting on bills, amendments and judicial appointments, I don’t think it is practical for me to provide an explanation for every single position I take. However, if the measure is significant from a policy or political perspective, or if anyone asks me to explain my vote, I will be glad to write something on the issue and post it on this website.
One of Delegate Keam’s bills moves out of Committee
Today, Delegate Keam presented two of his bills before his colleagues serving on two different committees. One bill was voted out unanimously to the House floor and the other was postponed for a week to provide more time for Delegate Keam to work with Governor McDonnell’s team on a potential collaborative effort.
Bill that moved: HB 1133. This bill would clarify the term, “counsel,” as that word is currently used in the process of placing a child for adoption. Practitioners of family law in Fairfax County asked Delegate Keam to draft this bill to provide better guidance to courts and lawyers who have found that this word could be interpreted very broadly or narrowly. And differing interpretations could either protract litigation and raise other unrelated factors into an adoption case or resolve it expeditiously in favor of a child’s welfare.
The Health, Welfare and Institution Committee and Subcommittee today voted unanimously to adopt the narrower definition as proposed by Delegate Keam. The bill, with a Committee amendment, now moves to the House floor for consideration by the full body, most likely sometime next week.
Here’s the link to this bill and status: http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?101+sum+HB1133
The bill that was postponed: HB 1123. This bill would require the Secretary of Public Safety and the Secretary of Health and Human Resources to develop recommendations for statutory, regulatory, and other changes necessary to prepare the Commonwealth to take advantage of funding opportunities to improve prisoner reentry services afforded by the Second Chance Act, which Congress passed in 2007.
Having spent two years as the minority staff director of the U.S. Senate Judiciary’s Subcommittee on Corrections and Rehabilitations, Delegate Keam is familiar with the need for state and local communities to provide effective re-entry programs so that ex-offenders don’t fall back into a life of crime after they leave prisons. Helping them get back into society is not only the right thing to do, but makes economic sense as well. The Commonwealth spends so much of our resources dealing with corrections for repeat offenders. We should seek innovative, effective and cost-efficient programs to promote positive re-entry so that these people do not end up back in prison.
Governor McDonnell has made re-entry one of his priority issues as well, as he mentioned it during his first address to the Joint Assembly. Delegate Keam has spoken with the Governor and his Administration officials to seek ways to work together on this important policy goal. To provide the Administration more time to consider this proposal, the Militia, Police and Public Safety Committee today delayed voting on Delegate Keam’s bill and pushed it over to next week’s agenda.
Here’s the link to this bill and status: http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?101+sum+HB1123
Rookie Mistake!
I guess it was only a matter of time… I made a mistake today on a vote on the House floor by voting “Yes” instead of “No” as I intended.
House Bill 393, sponsored by Delegate Matthew Lohr, requires all abortion clinics to be licensed and regulated by the Board of Health. This is one of those controversial social “wedge” issues that comes up in almost every session of the General Assembly. Because this issue has become so routine, there was little debate on the floor and everyone knew the vote outcome even before the roll was called: Pro-life legislators were expected to support the measure while those who are pro-choice would oppose it.
As someone who believes in a woman’s right to choose, I oppose this bill. Unfortunately, because it came up for a vote immediately after a series of noncontroversial bills were voted on unanimously, I inadvertently cast a “Yes” vote when I meant to vote “No.” In other words, I automatically pushed the green button as I was used to doing so when I should have shifted to the red button.
As soon as I realized my mistake, I filed a “vote statement” with the House Clerk explaining that I voted incorrectly. However, because the House of Delegates does not allow a member to change his vote officially after the roll is closed, my recorded vote for this bill will continue to show that I supported it.
I regret the mistake and hope that my recorded vote will not cause confusion for anyone who follows this issue. I have since learned that many Delegates have made similar mistakes (and continue to do so!) on various bills. We cast about 3,000 votes per session, so I guess it’s inevitable that a few wrong votes will be cast by mistake.
As a Freshman Delegate, I’m still learning the ropes around the Capitol and hope constituents will forgive me if I make a few more rookie mistakes in my early days down here in Richmond! Thank you, Mark