Here is a sampling of bills introduced Jan. 14. Local lead sponsors and co-sponsors, if any, are noted. Booze, tattoos, drugs, sex and schools – along with some solar power – are all up for consideration.
HB 4153, to forbid displays relating to sexuality and to forbid the teaching of sexuality in public schools. Delegate Buck Jennings, R-Preston, co-sponsor.
HB 4158, to allow people age 21 and up to make homemade liquor for home personal consumption, with per-person gallon limits.
HB 4159, to facilitate the economic development of hard cider by reclassifying hard cider in code. Delegate John Williams, D-Monongalia, co-sponsor.
HB 4160, the Youth Mental Health Protection Act, to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth from conversion therapy. Delegate Evan Hansen, D-Monongalia, lead sponsor; Delegates Barbara Evans Fleischauer and Rodney Pyles, both D-Mon, and Michael Angelucci, D-Marion, co-sponsors.
HB 4161, to make scleral tattoos – tattoos on the eyeball – illegal.
HB 4162, to require insurance coverage “for treatment of pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorders associated with streptococcal infections and pediatric acute onset neuropsychiatric syndrome and other autoimmune encephalopathies.” Hansen, lead sponsor; Fleischauer, Pyles, Williams, Danielle Walker, D-Mon, and Amy Summers, R-Taylor, co-sponsors.
HB 4165, the West Virginia Remembers Program for children in the public schools to learn about military service, patriotism and courage from veterans who volunteer to share their experiences in the educational setting with voluntary teacher participation. Jennings, co-sponsor.
HB 4172, Hansen’s Modern Jobs (MoJo) Act. It’s aimed at promoting industry and creating jobs by allowing major consumers of electricity to produce or purchase solar power or power produced by cogeneration where the power supply is sited on a former mine site. Fleischauer, co-sponsor.
HB 4183, to require random drug testing of all classes of K-12 school employees; requiring yearly random testing of 10% of employees. Jennings, co-sponsor.
HB 4186, to remove marijuana as a tested substance from the screening requirements of the West Virginia Alcohol and Drug-Free Workplace Act.
HB 4195, to normalize cannabis regulation, permitting the personal use of cannabis, providing for transitional services for former cannabis offenders and providing for the expungement of cannabis offender criminal records. Pyles, sole sponsor.
HB 4199, to create the Statewide Sexual Assault Evidence Collection Kit Tracking System. Pyles.
HB 4200, to add “sexual orientation” to the categories covered by the Human Rights Act. Pyles.
HB 4201, similar to the previous, to add “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” to the categories covered by the Human Rights Act. Pyles.
HCR 8, a resolution that goes a step further than the Senate’s invitation to Frederick County, Va., in SCR 2. This one invites any Virginia county that so wishes to join West Virginia, in response to Virginia’s recent legislation restricting firearms. Summers, co-sponsor.
