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CHARLESTON -- Two bills that looked to be dead were given new life Monday, while a fifth attempt to resurrect a civil rights bill failed.
The House of Delegates moved two bills to first reading Monday morning after motions were made to discharge them from their committees. All House and Senate bills must be passed by Crossover Day Wednesday and sent to the other body in order to continue.
Delegate Joe Ellington, R-Mercer, made a motion to discharge House Bill 3127, allowing home-schooled students to participate in sports administered by the West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission.
Also known as the Tim Tebow Bill, named for a former National Football League quarterback who played high school sports as a home school student, the bill was introduced by Ellington and sent to the House Education Committee. The bill was discussed last week, but the committee took no action on it.
"This has been something we've been working on for the past several years," Ellington said. "I feel it is something that could not get out of the Education Committee, but something that the body did vote on previously. I'd like to see that passed."
A similar bill was passed in 2017, but was vetoed by Gov. Jim Justice. That bill passed the House 60-38 and passed the Senate 23-10.
Delegate Andrew Robinson, D-Kanawha, moved to table Ellington's motion, which failed 44-53.
"So, it can't pass the committee, so we're going to bypass the committee process," Robinson said. "The bill has no support in the committee. The gentleman has no trust in the Education Committee."
Several Republican delegates rose to speak in favor of Ellington's motion, arguing that parents of home school students are still paying taxes that go to public schools and shouldn't be prevented from participating in high school sports.
"It's about time that we recognized home schoolers and private school children in this state as equal citizens," said Delegate Tom Bibby, R-Berkeley. "They have a right to a free education. That's what this bill does. It allows them to participate in extracurricular activities that are not available. It's good for West Virginia's parents and good for West Virginia overall."
"Home schoolers pay taxes too," Delegate Pat McGeehan, R-Hancock, said.
The motion from Ellington to discharge HB 3127 was adopted by voice vote and read a first time, ensuring it gets passed to the Senate by Wednesday. Delegate Mike Pushkin, D-Kanawha, supported the motion, but noted that other delegates have bills in committee that they want to see passed.
"We all could point to very good bills that are currently hung up in committee this close to Crossover Day," Pushkin said. "I would hope we all remain consistent and when we feel we have good bills that are hung up in committee that we all support discharge motions to bring those to the floor for a debate."
Shortly after the motion to discharge the Tim Tebow Bill, Pushkin made a motion to remove from the table and discharge House Bill 2733, which would add "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" to the state Human Rights Act. An attempt to discharge the bill from the House Industry and Labor Committee Feb. 7 was tabled by the House.
Monday's motion was the fifth attempt by House Democrats to revive the bill in the wake of controversial comments made by Delegate Eric Porterfield, R-Mercer, about gays, lesbians and the transgendered community between Feb. 6 and Feb. 12 in committee and in media interviews.
Pushkin's motion failed 37-60 with Delegate Moore Capito, R-Kanawha, voting with the Democrats and Delegate Nathan Brown, D-Mingo, voting with the Republicans. The motion wasn't debatable, but Delegate Sean Hornbuckle, D-Cabell, rose shortly after the vote to chastise the body for ignoring the rights of the LGBTQ community.
"We did not want to debate civil rights for everybody," Hornbuckle said. "Understand what we just did...civil rights came in last. I don't know what we're doing here."
Had the bill been removed from the table, it would have required an additional step. According to the House Clerk's Office, it would take an additional two-thirds vote to waive the second reference to the House Judiciary Committee. House rules require the bill to remain in the committee five days before being discharged. The committee would have to vote the bill out, then the House would have to suspend the rules to get the bill on third reading by Wednesday.
The final bill removed from the table, discharged out of committee and read a first time was House Bill 2732, the Defend the Guard Act. The bill would prevent the West Virginia National Guard from being deployed into active combat duty unless Congress issues an official declaration of war.
McGeehan, the lead sponsor of HB 2732, introduced the bill and presided as chairman of the House Veterans' Affairs and Homeland Security which passed the bill, but it was held up in the House Judiciary Committee. Last week McGeehan was removed as a member of the Judiciary Committee at the request of Chairman John Shott. An attempt to discharge the bill Friday from the judiciary committee was tabled.
"This is an important policy that we need to pass out of this chamber...to send a message to other state legislatures that we do have some sort of mechanism that we can force some kind of accountability on Washington, D.C., and some sort of effort to restore constitutionalism to the power of war," McGeehan said. "We basically disregard our oaths of office if we don't do something about this."
McGeehan's motion was adopted 56-41 and read a first time. Both HB 2732 and HB 3127 will be on second reading and amendment stage today and up for passage to the Senate on Wednesday.
(Adams can be contacted at sadams@newsandsentinel.com)