MORGANTOWN – Saturday is the 60th and last day of the legislative session. The House and Senate are both set to convene at 10 a.m. and the session concluded at midnight.
Here is a running look at Senate action. It will be updated regularly, with newest entries at the top.
The final three bills of the night were among the most controversial of the night and Sen. President Craig Blair grew a bit cranky as he was trying to push them through and there were some communication breakdowns.
Blair then mistakenly adjourned the session sine die in response to a resolution introduced by Majority Leader Tom Takubo, R-Kanawha, to notify the House that the Senate was ready to adjourn. The body adopted the motion and Blair adjourned – before appointing three senators to deliver the message and before another necessary resolution to also inform the governor was adopted. The sound was off but Blair was visibly irritated when he learned of the error.
After a few minutes, Blair started over and went through the correct process.
SB 498 is the Anti-Racism Act. The Senate concurred with House amendments. It will go to the governor. [Update: It was later announced that the vote occurred after midnight and the bill did not pass.]
SB 268 is the bill to authorize and regulate learning pods and microschools. The regulation mirrors homeschooling regulation. The Senate concurred with House amendments. It will go to the governor.
SB 468 is the Unborn Child with Down Syndrome Act. The House spent close to 90 minutes debating it before passing it with a number of Democrats voting yet and two Republicans voting no.
It forbids performing an abortion on an unborn child with a disability – including Down syndrome, though that isn’t named in the House version of the bill – except in the case of medical emergency or a nonmedically viable fetus. It contains reporting requirements and provides that a licensed medical professional who violates the code is subject to licensing board discipline.
The House adopted a Judiciary Committee amendment, rejecting three Democratic secondary amendments, including one making an exemption for rape and incest.
Delegate Evan Hansen, D-Monongalia, said the bill may discourage some pregnant women from seeking care for a problematic pregnancy because it has the contradictory effect of allowing abortions on healthy fetuses.
The bill doesn’t protect or support children with disabilities or their families, he said. “This is an attempt to use people with disabilities as props for an anti-abortion agenda. … Bans on aboriton based on the reason for abortion doesn’t make the state a better place for people with Down syndrome. … This bill is about government-mandated trauma.”
Delegate Kayla Kessinger, R-Fayette and lead sponsor, said she’s sat and comforted women who’ve shared their stories of abortion with her.
“I believe that every life has value, regardless of its diagnosis, regardless of its place,” she said. “Every life in this room, in the mother’s womb … was created in the image of the same God you and I were created in.”
The bill is not about pushing religion on others, she said, but about science and morality. “It’s about when does life begin and whether or not it has value.” She referred to the World Health Organization decision to classify Down syndrome as a severe birth defect, part of a worldwide move to abort babies with Down syndrome.
The vote was 81-17 and it returns to the Senate for amendment concurrence. Locally, all Republicans voted for it; all Democrats voted against it except Danielle Walker, who was not present for the vote.
The Senate concurred and repassed it. It will go to the governor.
HB 4627 limits the number of labs permitted to operate to test medical cannabis to two. The Senate amended it to end the limitation effective Jan. 1, 2025 and prohibit the labs to conspire to fix prices.
The vote as 30-3 and it returned to the House, which concurred. It will go to the governor.
SR 60 recognized the public service of Sen. Dave Sypolt, R-Preston, who is retiring from the Legislature this year, after serving four terms, along with his wife, Delegate Terri Sypolt, also R-Preston.
“The guy has been a class act,” said Majority Leader Tom Takubo, R-Kanawha. “He’s been a mentor.”
Sypolt serves as Finance vice chair. Chair Eric Tarr commented on how he relied on Sypolt for his depth of knowledge. “You may not like what you’re going to hear but you’re going to hear the truth.”
Terri Sypolt came to the Senate floor for adoption of the resolution. After the vote, Sypolt said, “I just wanted everyone to know I love you very much. This is family, this is more than family.”
HB 4111 began as a bill to allow advance practice registered nurses and physician assistants to prescribe Schedule II drugs for up to three days. But they patched in SB 574 dealing with PEIA hospital inpatient and EMS reimbursement rates, to be set at 110% of Medicare rates. It also adds that PEIA coverage may only be extended to employee spouses who do not have alternate primary coverage through their employers.
Judiciary chair Charles Trump, R-Morgan, commented, tongue in cheek, that it’s a good bill. “I like this idea of giving the House of Delegates multiple opportunities to look the things we send to them.”
It passed 34-0 and returned to the House, which stripped back out the PEIA portion and sent it back to the Senate.
HB 4012 deals with employer COVID-19 vaccine mandates. It says a state or local government may not require proof of vaccination as a condition of entering the premises or using services provided by a state or local government. The prohibition does not apply to any local government-owned facility that is leased to a private entity where the local governmental unit primarily serves as a property owner receiving rental payments.
The bill also says a hospital may not require proof of vaccination as a condition of entering the premises and higher education institutions may not require proof of vaccination as a condition of enrollment or for entering the premises.
It contains exemptions for cases where federal law takes precedence and for employees of covered employers who work in Medicare or Medicaid-certified facilities subject to federal regulations.
Sen. Ron Stollings, D-Boone, said the bill is hardly needed now with COVID waning, but if a new variant would come along it will reduce flexibility of local governments to respond.
The vote was 23-9 and it returned to the House. Locally, all Democrats voted against it, all Republicans for it. The House concurred and re-passed it. It will go to the governor.
HB 4502 is the BUILD WV Act. It provides for tax incentives for approved companies to build housing for graduate and post-graduate and professional job holders, technical workers and entrepreneurs in up to three designated areas (down from 12 in the House version); projects would be certified by Economic Development Department. It caps total credits at $40 million (down for $150 million in the House version) and sunsets the program in five years.
The vote was 29-3 and it returned to the House. The House concurred and re-passed it. It will go to the governor.
HB 2910 is the bill to reallocate county magistrates. The Senate adopted a Judiciary amendment.
It calls on the Supreme Court to conduct or arrange for a caseload study to determine how many magistrates are needed in each county. This study would be completed this year for review and legislative action during the 2023 session – in preparation for the 2024 election.
The bill allows for an increase in magistrates from the current 158 to 170. It allots one new magistrate to Berkeley effective July 1. No county will lose magistrates under this version, unlike the House version.
It allows the Supreme Court to direct a magistrate to serve on a temporary basis outside their county. It also calls on the court to develop a rule creating a system to assign magistrates on a periodic alternating basis, to preside over initial appearances, petitions for domestic violence, emergency protective orders, emergency mental health petitions, emergency juvenile delinquency petitions, and applications for the issuance of search warrants arising outside normal court hours or in an emergency on a circuit-wide or other regional basis.
It passed 34-0 and returned to the House for amendment concurrence. The House concurred and re-passed it. It will go to the governor.
HJR 104 proposes a constitutional to limit the terms of office for secretary of state; auditor; treasurer; attorney general and commissioner of agriculture to three, beginning with terms starting Jan. 1, 2025. The Senate adopted an amended version 30-2 and returned it to the House. Locally, Democrat Mike Caputo voted no.
SB 533 would end the 1-cent pop tax effective Jan. 1, 2024. This tax provides about $14 million for the WVU medical school. Instead, the bill will draw funds from the insurance premium and send $14 million to WVU, $5.5 million to Marshall’s medical school and $3.9 million to the School of Osteopathic Medicine. Money would be allocated quarterly.
Any pop tax money collected between the bill’s effective date and the expiration of the tax would be placed in general revenue. Nothing in the bill precludes additional state appropriations to the schools.
The Senate concurred with House amendments and re-passed it. It will go to the governor.
HB 4845 establishes the Katherine Johnson Academy and the Katherine Johnson Scholarship Fund to help qualified high school students take accelerated classes with dual college credit. It passed 33-0 and returned to the House for amendment concurrence.
SB 493 as amended on the House floor would require all county school board meetings to be open to the public in person and via audio and video broadcast live via a link on the board website.
A draft of the minutes of each public board meeting must include a record of the votes cast by each board member on all substantive matters and be posted to the website within two business days. Minutes must remain on the website for at least one year.
The House had amended out a requirement that the audio and video be recorded and available on the BOE website. The Senate amended that back in, along with restoring some House tweaks to attendance policies back to the Senate version and sent it back to the House.
HB 4353 is a long bill that requires nearly all local elections to be held on the same date as statewide elections. It also does away with local special elections and requires them to be held during statewide primary or general elections.
The vote was 32-2 and it returns to the House for amendment concurrence. All local senators except Democrat Mike Caputo voted for it.
HB 4252 lowers the copay for a 30-day supply of insulin from $100 to $35 (up from $30 in the House version); sets a $100 cap for a 30-day supply of devices, defined as blood glucose test strips, glucometers, continuous glucometers, lancets, lancing devices and insulin syringes; and limits the copay for an insulin pump to $250 once every two years.
But they patched in an amendment also added to HB 4111: adding SB 574 dealing with PEIA hospital inpatient and EMS reimbursement rates, to be set at 110% of Medicare rates. It also adds that PEIA coverage may only be extended to employee spouses who do not have alternate primary coverage through their employers.
It passed 31-3 and returns to the House.
HB 4025 provides for a five-year severance tax exemption for extracting and producing for commercial benefit rare earth elements and critical minerals, starting July 1 this year. The Senate amended in another Senate bill allowing counties to impose an amusement tax up to 2% of admission price, which died in the House.
The vote was 30-4 and it returned to the House. All local senators except Democrat Mike Caputo voted for it.
On the House floor, it was moved that the amendment was not germane because it’s unrelated to the original bill and violates the state Constitution’s single-object mandate for a bill.
Delegate Chris Phillips, R-Barbour, argued against the motion because Tucker County’s small population – 5,000 households – can’t provide enough tax revenue to sustain EMS services for the county’s enormous tourist numbers, approaching 1 million per year.
Delegates Buck Jennings and Terri Sypolt, both R-Preston, and others joined him in supporting the amendment.
Delegates Brandon Steele, R-Raleigh, and Geoff Foster, R-Putnam, argued for deeming the amendment not germane on the mistaken notion that the amusement tax would be statewide and would burden everyone who wants to have fun with supporting Tucker County. The amendment in fact allowed for each county to impose its own tax.
Virtually all the debate was about taxation and fairness and not about the issue of whether the additional topic was actually germane to the original bill and would survive a veto.
The vote to refuse to concur with the Senate amendment was not as close as the long debate suggested – 76-23 – and the Senate was notified.
SB 262 allows the state treasurer to put banking institutions that boycott fossil fuel companies on a publicly available Restricted Financial Institution List and to refuse to enter into a banking contract with those
institutions. The Senate concurred with House amendments and re-passed it. It heads to the governor.
SB 704 is the bill to allow parents, custodians and guardians to inspect instructional materials used in their children’s classrooms. The Senate concurred with House amendments and re-passed it. It will head to the governor.
SB 1 is Senate President Craig Blair’s Mining Mutual Insurance Company. The Senate concurred with House amendments and re-passed it. It will head to the governor.
