Good morning and welcome back to 60 Days.
Today is Friday, February 17th, 2023, the 38th day of the West Virginia Legislature’s regular session.
This morning’s briefing is coming to you from your 60 Days legislative listening post in Martinsburg, where thankfully, your briefer is back on solid food. While the House was busy passing bill after bill on Thursday, my dentist got a little too enthusiastic with his needles. The right side of my face was numb all day and my tongue seemed so swollen that my wife laughed at me when I mumbled tried to speak to her.
Better to overdo it than the alternative, I guess.
Anyway, my tongue seems normal this morning and I no longer feel like someone sucker punched me.
Grab your coffee and let’s get this briefing started.
The usual Friday drill is in effect at the statehouse today. Both Houses of the Legislature will attempt to wrap things up early so lawmakers can get out of Charleston as quickly as possible.
To that end, the House of Delegates is convening early, at 9 a.m., and guess what’s made it to the floor — the controversial “Campus Self-Defense Act.”
Senate Bill 10 is better known as “Campus Carry.” It will be among the measures on first reading in the House today. Assuming it stays on schedule, it should be at the passage stage early next week despite a big show of opposition during Wednesday’s public hearing on the bill and objections from the leaders of higher learning institutions around the state, including Marshall University and West Virginia University.
The bill carves out exceptions, but generally speaking it would allow anyone with a concealed carry permit to carry a handgun on college campuses.
By the way, the House passed a slew of bills Thursday, including House Bill 2820, which would allow students who receive Hope Scholarships to participate on athletic teams fielded by public schools.
In case you’re not familiar with the Hope Scholarship — it allows K-12 students who don’t go to public schools to receive financial assistance that can be used for tuition, fees and other expenses.
H.B. 2820 advanced to the Senate. It was among 16 bills the House passed Thursday so it should come as no surprise that there aren’t any measures at the passage stage today. In other words, if you want to bail early, clear your calendar!
You can find today’s House floor agenda here. And today being Friday, the committee schedule is almost nonexistent:
8:45 a.m. - Behind Chamber
We should note that the House Judiciary Committee is planning its fourth public hearing of the regular session. It’s scheduled for this Monday, February 20th and will be held in the House Chamber beginning at 9 a.m.
The committee is taking public comment on H. B. 3270, which would “amend the ‘deliberate intent’ statute to limit noneconomic damages to $250,000.”
Deliberate intent is part of the state’s worker’s compensation law that allows workers to hold companies accountable for ignoring safety hazards that lead to severe injury or death.
Last year, there was a failed effort to get rid of it.
The Senate is set to start its floor session 15 minutes after the House gavels in — at 9:15 a.m.
You can find the complete Senate floor agenda for today here. Unlike the House, the upper chamber has several bills at the passage stage:
Eng. Com. Sub. for S. B. 151 - Levying tax on pass-through entity's income
Eng. S. B. 452 - Relating to Emergency Medical Services Retirement System (original similar to HB3242)
Eng. Com. Sub. for S. B. 453 - Ensuring retirement contributions and delinquency charges of charter school employees be paid upon school closure or by successor (original similar to HB3237)
Eng. S. B. 458 - Setting rate of interest on delinquent retirement contribution submissions (original similar to HB3241)
Eng. S. B. 474 - Requiring municipal pensions oversight board to propose legislative rules (original similar to HB3244)
Eng. Com. Sub. for S. B. 579 - Providing payment to vendors who provided services to state
And here’s today’s Senate Committee schedule, such as it is. It’s Friday, after all.
And with that, we’re at the end of another week of legislating.
Tell Dave and me how we’re doing.
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ALMOST FORGOT! You can hear NPR’s review of Star Trek: Picard here. The following is a promising excerpt.
(ST: Picard) … “finally brings the rollicking spirit and camaraderie of the '80s and '90s-era series into a modern context, reintroducing old characters in bold new ways — with contemporary special effects and cinematography — while leaning into all the things that made fans love The Next Generation series in the first place.”