Day 57: In which we get a do-over for a bill we failed to mention on Monday
Good morning and welcome back to 60 Days, your daily guide to the West Virginia Legislature.
It’s Wednesday, March 6, 2024 — Day 57 of the regular session. That means, as this email hits your inbox, there are just FOUR more days until the gavels fall and everyone can focus on something aside from state policy for a little while.
According to the Activity Calendar, today is Blood Pressure Screening Day, Ice Cream Day and Suicide Prevention Awareness Day. In terms of material to be dealt to try to make some light-hearted, witty introduction into a daily newsletter, that’s a tough one.
If we can come up with anything from those three disparate legislative activities all scheduled on the same day, it’s this: take care of yourself, treat yourself and look out for other people. We know, that sounds like something a grandma would say, but we’ll abide the sentiment.
Speaking of taking care of yourself, both members of the 60 Days editorial board are planning to get some much needed R&R on the weekend of Day 60. We each took a few days off, hoping to unwind from session — and avoid the worst effects of the time change.
We’ve been burning both ends of the candle lately — putting in extra overnights at our real jobs (including last night on Super Tuesday) and cobbling together this very newsletter.
So when we say we could use some coffee, we’re really NOT joking.
Today’s Floor Agenda:
Now that the House of Delegates has passed a budget and sent SB 200 back across the Capitol, the chamber’s own version of a spending bill, HB 4025, is now on third reading on today’s calendar. Also up for a passage vote:
The committee substitute for SB 477 - Prohibiting public disclosure of personal information on the Internet. The bill would protect health care workers, law enforcement officers, firefighters and others from what’s known as doxxing. It would make it illegal to knowingly publish their personal details online with the intent to harm.
The committee substitute for SB 844 - Redesignating Educational Broadcasting Authority as Educational Broadcasting Commission. We mentioned this bill the other day. There are fears it would weaken the firewall between West Virginia Public Broadcasting and the Governor’s office.
Governor Jim Justice’s proposal to completely eliminate income tax collections on Social Security benefits is getting closer to his desk. The engrossed committee substitute for HB 4880 will be on second reading on the Senate floor. The initial version of this bill was in line with Governor Justice’s proposal to eliminate the remaining tax in one fell swoop. The House amended the bill to phase it out over three years.
House active calendar / Senate Calendar
Committee schedule:
House Education had a little trouble working its way through this past Monday’s agenda. Today’s is nearly identical, which makes it easy to single out a couple of bills we pointed to the other day and another one that we missed the first time around.
SB 143 — Creating WV Guardian Program. This bill would allow veterans and some retired law enforcement officers to provide armed security in public schools.
SB 813 — would allow student athletes to play high school and travel sports at the same time.
The committee substitute for SB 614 — thanks to a 60 Days reader for pointing out that we missed this bill on Monday. Making up for it now, especially since it’s likely why the committee held over much of its agenda from Monday. There was more than an hour of debate on it to kick off the week. The bill addresses school discipline at the elementary level.
Senate Health and Human Resources is meeting at 1:00 p.m. and has HB 5105 on its agenda. The bill would loosen vaccine requirements for West Virginia students. It was amended in the House to include a religious exemption.
Here’s the rest of committee schedule:
9:00 a.m. — House Artificial Intelligence Committee
9:00 a.m. — Senate Education Committee
9:15 a.m. – House Judiciary Committee
10:00 a.m. — Senate Judiciary Committee
10:45 a.m. — House Rules Committee
1:00 p.m. — House Education Committee
1:00 p.m. — Senate Energy, Industry and Mining
2:00 p.m. — Senate Transportation & Infrastructure Committee
3:00 p.m. — Senate Judiciary (Agenda TBA)
3:00 p.m. — Senate Finance
60 Days links: Reading that’s good for you and good for West Virginia. Click on the links to help support the reporters who work at the state Capitol day in, day out.
As Day 60 approaches lawmakers from the House and Senate are apparently getting a bit testy with one another. WVMetroNews reports (by way of David Beard at The Dominion Post) that lawmakers in House Judiciary have inserted the library obscenity measure into SB 741, which would criminalize AI child porn. The library obscenity bill, HB 4654, remains stalled in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Since we’re on budget watch, here’s the latest from Caity Coyne of West Virginia Watch. The House amended the Senate’s budget bill to include pay raises and Social Security tax cuts.
A bill that would limit the oversight authority of the Legislative Auditor is inching closer to passage. The measure is on the amendment stage today on the House floor. As Mike Tony of The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports, SB 687 would give the House Speaker and Senate President the ability to direct what is being audited.
This final link is certainly not related to the legislature. But given that we’re subtly trying to re-orient your brains toward what’s to come from our soon-be-launched West Virginia Weakly, we felt it would be appropriate to make folks aware that Charleston hip-hop group Dinosaur Burps is heading west this week to California to open some shows for fellow West Virginia native Sierra Ferrell. Some (many) years back, Dave did a radio story on D-Burps, which is worth a read (and especially listen) in this archival story found on WVPB’s site.
Resources:
Know of any bills we should be keeping tabs on? Any events, press conferences, etc., we should know about? Tell us about them in the comments.