Government

With today being the next-to-last day of the regular session, time is running out for lawmakers to complete legislation to be sent to the governor. The House voted on 23 Senate items ranging from rules bills, to education and assisting veterans.

S.B. 477

Several bills were debated during the afternoon House session but the one receiving the most discussion was Senate Bill 477.

The West Virginia Senate has passed a bill to raise the minimum wage by $1.50 over three years.

Members of the state Senate unanimously passed a bill Friday allowing for the drill cuttings from natural gas fracking sites to be disposed of in county or privately owned landfills.

Currently, the drill cuttings can either be disposed of by burying them on site or deposited in landfills, but Senator Herb Snyder said landfills are the most environmentally friendly option.

At midnight on Saturday, March 8, The 81st West Virginia Legislature will adjourn. This post will be the home for The Legislature Today's online coverage right up until the final moments.

News Director Beth Vorhees, Senate Reporter Ashton Marra, House Reporter Aaron Payne, and Digital Editor Dave Mistich will curate this post by aggregating tweets, posting audio of important moments on the chamber floors, and also provide a 'Legislative Report Card' so everyone can keep up-to-date on the status of some of the major bills that have made their way through the rotunda this session.

Be sure to keep refreshing this page to see the latest.

Coverage begins at 10 a.m. Saturday.

U.S. Rep. Shelley Moore Capito wants to see a long-debated widening project finished on U.S. Route 35 in Mason and Putnam counties.
 
The West Virginia Republican took a tour Friday of a 14.6-mile section of the highway that remains two lanes. The four-lane highway starts at Interstate 64 in Putnam County and is a major truck and bus route connecting to southern Ohio and other points in the Midwest.

Senate Bill 376 would require onsite employees at certain works construction projects to complete an Occupational Safety and Health Administration approved ten-hour construction safety program.

Similar measures have been struck down in the past due to fears the program would decrease worker productivity.

Before the vote, one of the sponsors of a similar bill introduced on the House Delegate Phil Diserio gave an impassioned speech about why this measure needed to be taken.

Senators voted on their version of the budget bill Thursday.

It included the governor’s recommended pay raises for school service personnel and State Police forensic lab technicians, but Senate Bill 306 only accounts for the $837 teacher pay raise passed by the upper chamber. The House has changed that bill to include a $1,000 across the board raise.

Legislation to regulate and improve the training of nurses who collect forensic evidence in sexual assault cases has passed in both the West Virginia Senate and House.
 
The Senate passed the bill Thursday to create a Sexual Assault Forensic Examination Commission to regulate these specially-trained registered nurses at the county and state levels.

The West Virginia Senate has passed legislation to help accommodate pregnant women in the workplace.
 
The Pregnant Workers' Fairness Act allows employees to request modified duties and other accommodations as long as they do not place undue hardship on employers. It allows such accommodations as bathroom breaks and assistance with manual labor.
 

There is little doubt that the bill aimed to protect water resources in the state, in response to the Jan. 9 spill of MCHM into the Elk River by Freedom Industries, has been the most closely watched and widely discussed bill of the session.

Although the Senate passed SB 373 less that two weeks after its introduction, its passage  in the House took far longer--a result of a triple committee reference that offered a chance for roughly 60 delegates to offer amendments to the bill. Delegates also labored over 20 amendments on the bill's Third Reading Wednesday night before deciding to send the bill back to the Senate.

Here's a few highlights from Wednesday night's floor session leading up to SB 373's passage:

The West Virginia Senate Finance Committee has watered down a House bill to raise the minimum wage. The minimum wage would be increased by $1.50 over three years instead of two.
 
Under the bill amended Wednesday, the standard would increase from $7.25 to $7.50 an hour in January 2015, to $8 in January 2016, and to $8.75 in January 2017. Originally the House voted to raise the wage 75 cents each year over two years.

Two senators rose to speak on the floor Wednesday about local issues they feel could have larger state impacts.

A Senate Committee saw controversy as House Bill 4286 was discussed.

The bill pulls the state deer farming program from the oversight of the Division of Natural Resources and puts it under the Department of Agriculture.

“The DNR has been doing everything in their power in recent years to squash that entire industry. They will not promote it, they’re trying to kill it,” said Sen. Daniel Hall in support of the legislation.

While the House Judiciary Committee was unable to get through all 19 items in the morning session, they were able to approve a constitutional amendment that would partner with Senate President Jeff Kessler’s Future Fund bill.

The resolution would put the specific parameters of the fund into West Virginia’s constitution.

One of the nation's largest coal producers will pay a $27.5 million fine and is set to spend $200 million to reduce illegal toxic discharges into waterways across five Appalachian states.
 
The proposed settlement is the largest ever of its kind.
 

Given the tough budget forecast, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin thinks a proposal to give teachers $6,000 in raises over three years is unrealistic.

Tomblin told reporters Wednesday that awarding teachers more than a 2 percent pay increase he suggested would cost millions of dollars and require offsetting budget cuts.

The House Education Committee increased the raise Monday. School service personnel would also receive $100 more monthly over three years.

The Senate passed an $837 teacher pay bump.

A state bill would no longer change West Virginia law to require prescriptions for cold medicines that are used to make methamphetamine.
 
Instead, lawmakers tweaked the proposal to cut in half how much medicine someone can buy each year.
 

The women’s organization West Virginia Free gathered more than 50 supporters outside the state Senate Chambers to protest House Bill 4588, the pain capable unborn child protection act.

The bill was taken up in the Senate Health and Human Resources Committee and amended Tuesday, changing the felony charge for performing an abortion to a misdemeanor with a possible fine of up to $4,000.

The Senate recently passed the “Move to Improve Act” which could change the daily grind in state classrooms. The bill is in response to the Healthy Lifestyles Act, which was passed by the legislature in 2005 without a mechanism to assure implementation. Lawmakers say they’re trying to address an epidemic of childhood obesity in West Virginia. 

Children and teens spend more than half of their waking hours at school.

The House Finance Committee removed several of the sections added by the other House committees in the water resource protection bill.