Capitol Beat: Hectic final days in Charleston

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WVVA) - On Thursday, both the W.Va. House of Delegates and State Senate continued to work through massive lists of bills to consider in the final days of this year’s legislative session.

In the House of Delegates, an hours-long session led to some frustration and disagreements -- but also, some unlikely common ground.

For Del. Todd Longanacre (R-Greenbrier), an apparent strategic move by Democrats to delay passage of one bill they oppose leads to issues down the line.

“They forced the reading of the bill which was almost 30 pages long. It’s a delay tactic so if you do it now with only two days left in the session, unfortunately other good bills that will help West Virginia citizens will die,” said Del. Longanacre. “They’re using it as a strategy. If they can’t defeat a bill what they can do is delay action on the floor.”

But despite that frustration, shortly after the delay, Del. Longanacre did find some commonality across the aisle.

“We’ve addressed over 2,000 bills this session and a lot of bills, the Democrats and Republicans are on the same page,” said Del. Longanacre. “So there are bipartisan things that happen up here.”

That agreement came over an amendment to Senate Bill 687, which would clarify the Legislative Auditor’s scope of authority. It passed the house on Thursday.

As for bills WVVA has been following in our Capitol Beat reporting, Del. Longanacre said he’s hopeful to see a loosening of vaccine requirements for students in the Mountain State.

“The House amended the religious exemptions into that, and it went over to the Senate and I think they took that language back out of the bill so it may be just back to its original form now,” said Del. Longanacre.

House Bill 5105 would allow private and parochial schools to set their own standards when it comes to vaccine requirements.

Meanwhile, House Bill 4793 would allow West Virginians to make a specified amount of liquor at home for personal consumption. That bill is set for its third reading in the State Senate on Friday, and from there it could be sent to Gov. Jim Justice’s desk. It’s sponsored by Del. Doug Smith (R-Mercer), and while he declined to speak on that bill on-camera -- he did share his thoughts on one bill he’s been passionate about. It, however, will not make it to the Governor’s desk this session.

“The teacher carry bill didn’t make it through the Senate but at least it got looked at,” said Del. Smith. “We can make some tweaks to it and make it a better bill.”

House Bill 4299 would have allowed teachers in K-12 schools to carry concealed firearms as a Designated School Protection Officer. It appears to have died in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Meanwhile, with day 60 of this year’s legislative session coming up on Saturday, Gov. Jim Justice has issued a proclamation extending this year’s session by one day if lawmakers can’t come to an agreement on the state’s budget. Del. Marty Gearheart (R-Mercer), the House Majority Whip, said while he’s fairly confident the budget can be passed by Saturday -- it’s far from a guarantee.

“Each house has passed its version of the budget, at this point its a matter of reconciling that budget,” said Del. Gearheart. “We’re hopeful we’ll be able to get that reconciled and get that done…but at this point in time it’s still iff-y there.”

WVVA will continue to follow developments in Charleston as this year’s legislative session wraps up.

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