CHARLESTON — Every year, only a small percentage of bills introduced make it through the entire legislative process to passage. This year, 294 of 1,893 bills introduced were passed.
Most of the bills that die are never see committee action, some make it through a single committee and fade away. But some that die are attention-getters.
Here’s a look at some prominent bills that died.
— SB 266 proposed to create an intermediate court of appeals. It’s been at the top of the Senate GOP leadership agenda for several years and dies every year. This one came from the governor, who touted it at the beginning of the session.
Opponents say it’s not needed, would waste money and hurt small businesses and regular folks by stretching out litigation, benefiting deep-pocket companies. It cleared the Senate on Feb. 18 and died, untouched, in House Judiciary.
— HB 2347 was another go at repurposing and possibly privatizing Hopemont Hospital in Terra Alta,
The bill would have affected Hopemont and Jackie Withrow Hospital in Beckley, a long-term care state hospital like Hopemont. It said that by July 1, 2020, the Department of Health and Human Resources will plan and contract for either the modernization of Hopemont or construction of a new facility to bear the same name.
It cleared House Health and died in Finance.
— HB 2011, lead sponsored by House Majority Leader Amy Summers, R-Taylor, created a road maintenance program and required the Division of Highways to contract out uncompleted work. It passed the House Feb. 26 and died in Senate Transportation.
But its essence was incorporated into SB 522, the Randy’s Dream bill, which was sent to the governor.
— HB 2802 is one of two bills that would have benefited oil and gas royalty owners. It was Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act and dealt with partition suits for oil and gas mineral estates. It was designed to encourage some good-faith intra-family negotiation before court proceedings, and protect mineral owners from companies that buy up small slivers of mineral tracts and force the sale of the entire tract.
It passed the House on Feb. 26 and died in Senate Energy.
— HB 2866 aimed to allow mineral owners to gain release from inactive leases so they could sign new ones. It set up a notification process leading to an affidavit of termination.
Mineral owners explained that sometimes producers stop producing wells but don’t release the leases, prohibiting the owner from signing a new lease to generate income. This bill would have helped them get their minerals back into production.
It passed the House of Feb. 26 and died in Senate Judiciary.
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