Democrats Fail To Amend New House Rules; Public Hearings Out

The legislative session has started, and as constitutionally required, lawmakers approved rules for each chamber. 

However, some of those rules sparked vigorous debate in the House of Delegates. 

There were various recommended tweaks to the way things function in the house. For example Del. Eric Brooks, R-Raleigh, asked for a mandatory recess of 30 minutes every two hours, which was denied. Del. Kayla Young, D-Kanawha, asked that House committee meeting videos be available, instead of the current audio only option. 

“So if you’re deaf or hard of hearing, you’re not going to be able to listen to those audios,” Young said. 

The Senate makes both video and audio of committee meetings available.

“I don’t know why we don’t hold ourselves to the same standards of accountability and transparency,” Young said. 

That amendment was also denied. 

But the main complaint of Democrats and advocacy groups was a rule that does away with public hearings.

Public hearings are a chance for members of the public to tell lawmakers what they think about a bill. This has happened in the past for taxation formulas for landowners and for bills that would define gender. 

Early in the week, environmental and social justice groups met at the Capitol to criticize the rule. 

On Wednesday, Democrats criticized the rule and offered amendments that would further guarantee the public’s ability to comment on bills. 

Del. Evan Hansen, D-Monongalia, introduced an amendment  to strike the new rule and preserve public hearings.

“It’s an issue of great concern to people across the state, people who’ve lost faith in their elected leaders, and I think this is a show of good faith to our constituents that we care about what they say.” 

Hansen’s  amendment was rejected. 

Del. Matthew Rohrbach, R-Cabell, says that members of the public can weigh in during the elongated committee process. 

“The most important role we have as legislators is to listen to our constituents. That’s it. That’s the most important rule,” Rohrbach said. “We should all live by. That. So what we’ve done with the rules that are now under consideration is we have come up with a plan to allow for each and every bill, each and every bill, to have public comment. So if you can’t get here from Martinsburg, guess what? You can send it in writing, or if you are called in front of the committee by the chair, you can come now.”

The caveat: they have less time to do so, and have to be invited to speak.  

Del. Mike Pushkin, D-Kanawha, said that members of the public are not required to be given timely notice per the new rules. 

“We’re not allowing public input if they don’t know exactly when it’s going to be on the agenda,” Pushkin said. 

Del. Pat McGeehan, R-Hancock, said that committee chairs intend to give members of the public time to give public comments on bills.