CHARLESTON — It was a quiet Friday on the House and Senate floors, with both bodies quickly passing slates of uncontroversial bills.
On the House side, HB 4381 extends the time that adopted children may obtain a lifetime hunting, fishing and trapping license at half the cost of the adult price.
Current law says that the lifetime rate for any resident up to age 2 may obtain a half-price license. The bill extends to age for any legally adopted resident to 12.
The bill keeps current language setting the lifetime license fee at 23 times the fee for an annual license.
It passed 96-0 and goes to the Senate.
HB 4470 strikes a couple words mistakenly included in criminal code to clarify that adults who commit a criminal offense while still in juvenile custody may not be held within the sight or sound of adult inmates. The bill was requested by the Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety and passed 96-0. It goes to the Senate.
HB 4476 deals with establishing, managing and monitoring “a statewide system to facilitate the timely and efficient collection, submission, testing, retention and disposition of forensic evidence in sexual assault cases.”
It expands current code on the subject with lengthy instructions on how all that will be accomplished. It requires victim notification should an agency choose to dispose of a kit after the mandatory retention period. It also passed 96-0 and goes to the Senate.
On the Senate side, SB 550, a hunting bill, passed 30-1 and goes to the House.
It says a person who is legally hunting a mortally wounded deer or bear may use leashed dogs to track and locate the game animal. The hunter is also permitted to hire a dog handler of leashed dogs to track and locate the animal.
School calendar bill
Earlier this week, on Wednesday, the House killed a bill intended to modify the school calendar.
As it came through the Education Committee and was then amended on the floor, HB 2433 set the school calendar to run from Sept. 1 through June 7, with an option for county school boards, particularly those wishing to complete their first semester by Christmas break, to seek exemptions.
The bill was intended to accommodate snow days and, at the request of the National Rifle Association, deer season and assure 180 instructional days. But many members objected to the bill taking away local control of county school calendars.
It narrowly failed 47-50, with members of both parties voting both ways. Locally, Democrats Michael Angelucci, Mike Caputo, Linda Longstreth and Dave Pethtel voted yes. Democrats Barbara Evans Fleischauer, Evan Hansen, Rodney Pyles, Danielle Walker and John Williams voted no, along with Republicans Buck Jennings, Amy Summers and Terri Sypolt.
On Thursday, Delegate Rodney Miller, D-Boone, who had voted with the winning side on Wednesday, exercised his right to move to reconsider Wednesday’s vote and try again. His effort failed 46-52 and the bill remained dead.
Some local delegates changed their minds and voted to revive it, to no avail. Voting yes were Angelucci, Caputo, Fleischauer, Hansen, Longstreth, Pethtel, Walker and Williams. Voting no were Jennings, Pyles, Summers and Sypolt.
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