---
type: "Bill"
title: "Local government; hiring people with disabilities."
description: "Local government hiring; people with disabilities. Requires any locality to take into consideration or give preferenceto an individual's status as a person with a disability in its employmenthiring policies and practices, provided that such person with a disabilitymeets all of the knowledge, skills, and eligibility requirementsfor the available position."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2022"
identifier: "HB 710"
citation: "Virginia HB 710 (2022)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Mark L. Keam"]
version_count: 3
action_count: 21
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2022-01-11"
last_action: "2022-04-11"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/9be64542-1f3d-4a70-a89f-97d8e60ef812"
source_url: "https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?221+sum+HB710"
source_hash: "06f7609fe8e29651de503cb71944495469b7cc29341e5a97b0a472bc02cd863a"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-va"]
---

# Virginia HB 710 (2022) — Local government; hiring people with disabilities.

Local government hiring; people with disabilities. Requires any locality to take into consideration or give preferenceto an individual's status as a person with a disability in its employmenthiring policies and practices, provided that such person with a disabilitymeets all of the knowledge, skills, and eligibility requirementsfor the available position.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **CHAP0306** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?221+ful+CHAP0306)
2. **HB710ER** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?221+ful+HB710ER)
3. **Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/12/22 22102125D** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?221+ful+HB710)

## Votes

- Subcommittee recommends reporting (8-Y 0-N) — **8–0** (pass) · lower
- Reported from Local Government (14-Y 0-N) — **14–0** (pass) · upper
- Constitutional reading dispensed (40-Y 0-N) — **40–0** (pass) · upper
- VOTE: Block Vote Passage (100-Y 0-N) — **99–0** (pass) · lower
- Passed Senate (40-Y 0-N) — **40–0** (pass) · upper
- Reported from Counties, Cities and Towns (22-Y 0-N) — **22–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Mark L. Keam — primary (person)
- Angelia Williams Graves — cosponsor (person)
- Candi Mundon King — cosponsor (person)
- G. "John" Avoli — cosponsor (person)
- Jackie H. Glass — cosponsor (person)
- Joseph P. McNamara — cosponsor (person)
- M. Keith Hodges — cosponsor (person)
- Paul E. Krizek — cosponsor (person)
- Richard C. "Rip" Sullivan, Jr. — cosponsor (person)
- Sam Rasoul — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2022-01-11** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/12/22 22102125D `introduction`
- **2022-01-11** Referred to Committee on Counties, Cities and Towns `referral-committee`
- **2022-01-24** Assigned CC & T sub: Subcommittee #1 `referral-committee`
- **2022-02-04** Subcommittee recommends reporting (8-Y 0-N)
- **2022-02-11** Reported from Counties, Cities and Towns (22-Y 0-N) `committee-passage`
- **2022-02-13** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2022-02-14** Read second time and engrossed `reading-2`
- **2022-02-15** Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE (100-Y 0-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2022-02-15** VOTE: Block Vote Passage (100-Y 0-N)
- **2022-02-16** Constitutional reading dispensed
- **2022-02-16** Referred to Committee on Local Government `referral-committee`
- **2022-02-21** Reported from Local Government (14-Y 0-N) `committee-passage`
- **2022-02-22** Constitutional reading dispensed (40-Y 0-N)
- **2022-02-23** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2022-02-23** Passed Senate (40-Y 0-N) `passage`
- **2022-02-25** Enrolled
- **2022-02-25** Signed by Speaker
- **2022-02-25** Signed by President
- **2022-03-11** Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on March 11, 2022
- **2022-03-11** Governor's Action Deadline 11:59 p.m., April 11, 2022
- **2022-04-11** Approved by Governor-Chapter 306 (effective 7/1/22) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/9be64542-1f3d-4a70-a89f-97d8e60ef812`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).