CHARLESTON — House Republicans proved on Monday there’s no such thing as lockstep at the east end of the Capitol.
Adding spirit to what would have been an otherwise routine day of bill passing, a couple GOP delegates, with support from both sides of the aisle, led mini-rebellions to get bills discharged from committees where the chairs were sitting on them.
After that, they got around to passing and amending bills, pausing for a long debate on deadly distracted driving. And a bill to create a road maintenance program saw two amendments posed by Delegate Barbara Evans Fleischauer, D-Monongalia, shot down.
Delegate Joe Ellington, R-Mercer, kicked off the effort to liberate dead bills, moving to have HB 3127, dubbed the Tebow Bill, discharged from the Education Committee.
As introduced, it aims to allow a home-schooled student who meets certain academic standards and other requirement to participate in extracurricular activities at a school serving that student’s attendance area.
The committee took up a substantially amended committee version of the
bill last week that led to a host of questions about academic standards, bumping public school kids from teams and other issues. Committee chair Danny Hamrick, R-Harrison, to lay it over and never pick it back up.
Delegate Andrew Robinson, D-Kanawha, moved to table Ellington’s motion, but his motion failed in a 44-53 vote, with Hamrick and speaker Roger Hanshaw voting with Ellington.
Delegate Mike Pushkin, D-Kanawha, then said he would support Ellington, not on the merits of the bill but because every motion to discharge what could be a good bill deserves consideration.
Ellington said, “It’s all about the students,” and giving them equal access. His motion passed in a voice vote and the introduced version of the bill was brought to the floor on first reading.
Pushkin’s push for mutual support didn’t earn him any payback. He is lead sponsor of HB 2733, to add sexual orientation and gender identity to the Human Rights Act. It’s been contentious since it was introduced, with opponents saying it could lead to males in female locker rooms and restrooms.
On Feb. 7, a motion to discharge the bill from House Industry and Labor was tabled, and four subsequent efforts to un-table it so the discharge motion could be considered failed.
So Pushkin made a fifth effort, which failed 37-60, with Ellington voting with the majority. Wednesday is Crossover Day, when bills have to leave their house of origin and go to the other end of the building, so this bill appears dead.
Standing on principle, Pushkin helped another GOP delegate free a doomed bill from committee.
Delegate Pat McGeehan, R-Hancock, is lead sponsor of HB 2732, the Defend the Guard Act. Reflecting his belief that Congress has abdicated its authority to conduct war, it forbids the state National Guard from being called to active duty combat without a Congressional declaration of war or other act of Congress regarding insurrection or invasion.
McGeehan moved on Friday to discharge the bill from Judiciary. That motion was tabled. On Friday, he moved to un-table it, which passed 53-44 (Ellington, Hanshaw and Judiciary chair John Shott, R-Mercer, voting no) and to discharge it, which passed 56-41 (Ellington, Hanshaw and Shott again voting no). So it came to the floor and was read a first time.
Delegate Sean Hornbuckle, D-Cabell, capped it all by commenting, “We just talked about the Defense Guard Act and Tim Tebow and civil rights came in last.”
Distracted driving
Up for passage was HB 3134, which increases the penalty for reckless driving leading to death from a maximum of one year to a range of three to 15 years, and the penalty for reckless driving causing serious injury from a range of 10 days to six months to a range of 2-10 years.
Shott said the intent is to make the penalties consistent with DUI. He cited figures that districted drivers are six times more likely to cause injury that those driving DUI. He cited the example of a driver who was texting and plowed into a Division of Highways worker who, with his crew, was assisting a stranded motorist. The worker, a young father of two, lost both his legs.
Delegate David Kelly, R-Tyler, had a first-hand account. A distracted driver crossed the center line and hit his car head-on, killing his mother and another passenger. “This bill may be the beginning of seeing things like that don’t happen again.”
Delegate Larry Rowe, D-Kanawha, argued that someone who leaves their home without their glasses or drives with a dirty windshield could end up in prison under this bill.
But Delegate Joe Canestraro, D-Marshall and a prosecutor, said, “It’s all about discretion, for prosecutors to do a little more” in extreme cases. He cited the example of a driver who huffed an aerosol can of compressed air – for cleaning computer keyboards – and his another DOH crew, disabling one worker.
It passed 63-33 and goes to the Senate. Voting crossed party lines. Locally, Democrats Fleischauer, Evan Hansen, Dave Pethtel, Rodney Pyles and John Williams, along with Republicans Amy Summers and Terri Sypolt voted yes. Democrats Michael Angelucci, Mike Caputo, Linda Longstreth and Danielle Walker, along with Republican Buck Jennings voted no.
The roads bill is HB 2011, which was on second reading and open to amendment. HB 2011 authorizes the DOH to direct each district to establish contracts with to perform, at least, core maintenance of pothole repair, mowing, ditching, snow removal and non-core maintenance such as paving.
It requires each district to develop a maintenance plan and review that plan each Dec. 1. If it hasn’t completed 90 percent of that maintenance, it must solicit bids to complete the work to the extent available money makes it possible.
Fleischauer proposed to amend into the bill her related bill to create a DOH pilot project in District 4 to evaluate the value of including a seven-year maintenance clause in three paving contracts. It failed 40-58; lead sponsor Summers and one other sponsor voted for it, but the other nine sponsors voted against it.
Her second amendment, from another of her roads bills, to raise DOH employee salaries by $3,000 per year for three years, to help fill empty DOH worker positions, was ruled not germane to a road maintenance bill. HB 2011 will be on third reading for passage on Tuesday.
Other bills
— HB 2452 creates a state Cybersecurity Office within the Office of Technology. Passed 96-2.
— HB 2694 establishes regulations for producing industrial hemp. Passed 96-2.
— HB 2770 requires insurers to apply manufacturer prescription drug cost-sharing programs, where the drug maker picks up most or all of the co-pay, to the patient’s deductibles. Called the Fairness in Cost-Sharing Calculation Act. Passed 98-0.
— HB 2837, establishes regulation and taxation for advance deposit pari-mutuel wagering done online or on mobile devices. The intent is to cut into the black market and to retain tax dollars going to other states where it’s legal. Passed 77-20.
— HB 3045 exempts complimentary hotel rooms from hotel occupancy tax. Passed 96-2.
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