Day 6: The first full week of legislating
Good morning and welcome back to 60 Days, your daily guide to the West Virginia Legislature’s regular session.
Today is Monday, January 15th — Martin Luther King, Jr., Day. At the state capitol in Charleston, it’s also Child Advocacy Day, EMS Day and Youth Mental Health Awareness Day.
If you’re heading to the Capitol, be prepared for a little bit of snow this morning. The forecast for Charleston is calling for anywhere between a coating to an inch before heavier snow starts falling later in the day. A Winter Storm Warning is in effect for up to six inches through tomorrow morning.
Bundle up. It’s going to be snowy and COLD.
The good news? It won’t be Iowa cold.
The bad news? Dave is in the icebox that is Iowa helping to cover the Republican caucuses for NPR. Caucus-goers are likely to experience record cold temperatures below zero. Seems to me Dave will likely need help thawing out when he gets back.
Smash the button.
Buy him a piping hot cup of coffee.
Or warm his heart even more and pledge a paid subscription to 60 Days as we figure out if it’s a good idea to take this newsletter year-round.
With Dave in Iowa, I’ll be your 60 Days host for the next few days. Don’t worry. If you have a complaint, I’ll make sure Dave deals with it when he gets back. I only take compliments.
Let’s get started:
The House kicks off this first full week of legislating with its floor session. House Speaker Roger Hanshaw (R-Clay) will bring down the gavel at the usual time, at 11am. The floor agenda is thin, with just two bills on first reading, both having advanced out of committee last week.
H. B. 4274 - Renaming the Department of Health and Human Resources. This bill stems from last year’s successful effort to split the DHHR into three separate departments — the Department of Human Services, the Department of Health, and the Department of Health Facilities
H. B. 4433 - Relating to exempting the acquisition and utilization of a mobile facility which performs mammography or low density computerized tomography.
There are no House committee meetings on the schedule for this morning, but several are planned for this afternoon. I’ve included links to committee agendas, but it appears the House has yet to get its online act together for this session. The agendas may or may not be updated.
The Finance Committee will meet at 1 p.m. in Room 460 for Budget Hearings from the Agriculture Department and Supreme Court.
The Committee on Government Organization will meet at 1 p.m. in Room 215E.
The Education Committee will meet at 2 p.m. in Room 434.
The Judiciary Committee will meet at 2:30 p.m.
On the other side of the Capitol, Senate President Craig Blair (R-Berkeley) has kept the chamber busy. On Friday, senators passed more than 30 bills they approved last year only to see them go nowhere in the House. Both Blair and Senate Minority Leader Mike Woelfel (D-Cabell) defended this fast-track process on the floor last week, responding to transparency concerns.
This year, the Senate is taking a slightly different approach to these bills. Instead of suspending the rule that calls for bills to be read over three days, the Senate kept that part of the process intact. However, they were not sent to committee. Senate leaders say the bills they’ve fast-tracked were already vetted last year.
All that said, a number of resolutions are on the Senate’s floor schedule today— and just one bill is on third reading, the passage stage.
Eng. S. B. 164 - Relating generally to trespassing
Later in the afternoon, the Senate Finance Committee will be holding budget hearings that will feature top elected officials. The panel will be hosting Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, State Auditor John McCuskey and Secretary of State Mac Warner. The meeting is scheduled for 3pm in Room 451M.
The Senate Judiciary Committee will also meet at 3pm in 208W. The agenda is here.
60 Days links:
In case you missed it, Senator Joe Manchin made an appearance on a couple of the Sunday morning news programs. He turned on up on TV yesterday after speaking in New Hampshire on Friday. On CBS’s Face the Nation, he didn’t rule out a third party presidential run this year. (Post on X)
On Fox News Sunday, host Shannon Bream kicked off her interview with Manchin by asking if he’s serious about a third party run as opposed to a desire to simply remain in the spotlight. (Post on X)
Friday was ‘Fairness Day’ at the state Capitol. Lori Kersey of West Virginia Watch reports on Governor Justice’s remarks when he was asked about whether he would support a bill that would ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
And Phil Kabler reviews Governor Justice’s State of the State address in his latest Statehouse Beat column for the Charleston Gazette-Mail. (Paywall)
Resources:
Know of any events, press conferences, etc., we should know about? Tell us about them in the comments.