Trending
Well, the 2022 West Virginia legislative session -- the second session of the 85th Legislature -- came to a close at midnight on Saturday.
A total of 293 bills were passed and sent on to Gov. Jim Justice, with the state Senate passing 143 bills and the House of Delegates passing 150. Of the 2,216 bills introduced since the session gaveled in on Jan. 12, only 13% actually made it through the sausage-making process.
I believe I predicted that this session would be a relatively calm one unless the Republican majority started getting into the culture war issues. For the most part, I was right.
If you subtract the fights over the anti-critical race theory bill, the early effort to set the abortion ban from 20 to 15 weeks and COVID-19 mask mandate prohibition in schools, it was a fairly quiet session in the scheme of things. You can't count last-day-of-session drama, as that always happens.
••••••
SB 498, the bill dealing with the teaching or discussion of concepts derived from critical race theory, died Saturday because the actual vote took place milliseconds after midnight. In the final minutes, the Senate majority was trying to rush bills through then offer motions to stop debate before debate could even begin. The Anti-Racism Act was the last bill of the night.
Because of how it looked, many media outlets had written that the bill passed. I had written that the bill passed, but I was still in the Capitol at 1 a.m. after most media had left when it was brought to my attention that the Legislature's website showed the bill didn't complete legislative action. Running upstairs, I found Senate Clerk Lee Cassis, who also confirmed as much. And thanks to Editor John McCabe in Wheeling being a night owl, we were able to get the correct story out with everyone else playing catch-up.
As they say in the musical Hamilton, you've got to be in the room where it happens.
••••••
Other high-profile bills that died Saturday night:
HB 4344, the foster care bill that had wide bipartisan support, died after the Senate Finance Committee gutted the bill of the data dashboard system, the foster placement database and pay raises for CPS workers. The governor gave a promissory note of sorts that said the Department of Health and Human Resources could increase CPS pay when they collapse some of the 1,400 vacant DHHR positions. We'll see if that happens.
A bill creating an unemployment fraud unit within WorkForce West Virginia died because the Senate amended into it on Saturday bills lowering the maximum duration of unemployment benefits from 26 weeks to 12, among other things.
A couple of bills died because the Senate amended in both of them provisions of a Senate bill trying to increase PEIA reimbursement rates and put limitations on plan participants when it comes to spouses.
Put simply: the Senate killed these bills and several others because they amended things they wanted into bills that, in many cases, had nothing to do with the original intent of the bills in order to try to get some Senate priorities over the finish line, thus dooming the bills.
••••••
Of note, the COVID mask mandate prohibition bill, HB 4071, never made it out of the Senate. Considering 51 out of 55 counties have no mask mandates at this time according to the Department of Education (and the other four have likely dropped their mandates too, but they base masking decisions on COVID spread in their schools), the bill is largely moot.
The 15-week abortion ban, House Bill 4004, also never made it out of the Senate. Focus instead turned to an abortion bill that prohibited abortions if they were being requested because of a detected physical or intellectual disability, but the bill doesn't change the 20-week abortion ban.
••••••
A bill that came out of nowhere in the Senate dealing with exemption for school attendance rules for students who attend a micro school or learning pod also drew a lot of debate. Never heard of a micro school? Don't feel bad. Didn't know we had micro schools? We didn't, and we still don't because that bill also died Saturday night.
Keep in mind, we are only in the second year of our public charter school pilot project and the first charter schools won't even go live until next school year. SB 268 would appear to allow families to set up, in essence, unregulated private schools that don't have to abide by the rules current private schools have to abide by, such as rules regarding fire safety. The Senate limited learning pods and micro schools to no more than 100 students, but the House Education Committee took those limitations off.
On the other hand, bills that could have helped with education issues in public school failed because Senate committees never even took them up. A bill championed by House Speaker Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay, would have required an early childhood classroom assistant in certain grade levels. Another priority bill for the House would have provided that third-grade students be competent in reading and math before moving on to the fourth grade.
••••••
Attempts by both Republicans and Democrats to cut taxes never made it out. House Finance Committee Chairman Eric Householder, R-Berkeley, wanted to cut personal income tax rates. The Democratic caucus in the House and Senate wanted to cut the consumer sales and use tax. Only a bill from Senate Finance Committee Chairman Eric Tarr, R-Putnam, that ends the 71-year-old soda tax, made it out.
••••••
The MVP this legislative session was Delegate Wayne Clark, R-Jefferson. I have never seen a freshman lawmaker hustle like he did this session for bills, while also not trying to take the limelight and attention. He truly was the definition of a whip. He was also lead sponsor of one of the two bills that had near unanimous support in the Legislature this session dealing with eating disorder awareness.
••••••
Bills promoted by both House Speaker Hanshaw and Senate President Craig Blair at the beginning of session did make it across the finish line. These include bills to remove the prohibition on nuclear power plant construction, a site selection and preparation program and the creation of a new Mining Mutual Insurance Company to handle mine reclamation bonding.
However, bills to incentivize pulling rare earth elements used in electronics and batteries from West Virginia's hills and acid mine drainage never made it. That was a Hanshaw prioritiy. I kind of feel like Blair had more wins than Hanshaw did this session.