Tag: House Bills

House Passes Bills on EPA, Highways, & Board of Education

Friday in the House, three bills were up for passage. First was House Bill 2004, which would require a procedure for the development of a state plan in regard to the Clean Air Act.

Currently the Environmental Protection Agency requires a 20% decrease in carbon-emissions by the year 2030 for the whole country.

Delegate John Shott, chairman of the House Judiciary committee, explained that in the EPA’s proposed rule, it requires a state to follow a set of four building blocks to reach this goal, however, he said the building blocks don’t add for much wiggle room for West Virginia.

“It requires limiting and reducing energy used by West Virginia residents and citizens. Let me say that again, it requires limiting and reducing energy used by West Virginia residents and citizens,” Shott noted, “This is greater than just a coal debate. This is a debate about the Federal EPA telling citizens how much energy they can use in their own homes.”

Shott says this bill would help aid in some pushback toward the EPA and give the state a little more control. It would require the Department of Environmental Protection to submit a report to the Legislature determining whether a state plan from the EPA is feasible. This in turn would allow for development of a proposed state plan to be reviewed and considered by the Legislature before submission to the EPA.

“In sum,” Shott said, “the proposed EPA rule is an improper intrusion upon the people of this state. We as the Legislature are the people’s eyes and ears and directly accountable them for the laws and policies of our state. In passing this bill we are properly exercising our role as a legislature and ensuring that the energy policies of this state are given appropriate review and consideration and not forced upon us by the EPA.”

House Bill 2004 passed overwhelmingly 93 to 3. Delegates Barbara Fleischauer, Mike Pushkin, and Stephen Skinner voted against.

Next was House Bill 2008, auditing the Division of Highways.

Delegate Eric Nelson, the Chair of House Finance, thinks this bill will help fix up West Virginia roads. The original bill took $500,000 dollars out of the State Road Fund to pay for the audit. That amount has been removed from the bill, and now the legislature will pay for the audit from its accounts.

“The biggest thing we did is we took this out of the Department of Highways,” said Nelson, “as far as the cost of this audit, we all know that we have issues with our, the maintenance of our roads and whatnot and did not feel like that needed to be a burden of the Department of Highways, and instead this will be an expense of the joint committee. A couple of other points, the last independent audit of the Department of Highways was completed in 2005, and before our committee, both Secretary Maddox and the Legislative Auditor both expressed support for the independent audit. I urge passage, Mr. Speaker.”

Delegate Amy Summers of Taylor County stood to support Nelson’s bill.

“We’ve put roads on the back burner for too long,” Summers said, “The audit of the Department of Highways is the initial step to evaluate our needs and develop a plan. Infrastructure can no longer be ignored. I urge support of House Bill 2008.”

Delegate Tim Miley, the Minority Leader, also stood to support the bill, but he inquired about the last independent audit done in 2005. He asked Delegate Nelson if anyone had followed up with the audit to determine whether the recommendations following it were implemented and if it is currently being followed. Nelson said many of the new plans over the last ten years came from that audit in 2005.

House Bill 2008 passed 96 to 0.

The last bill on third reading was House Bill 2151. This bill would make the West Virginia Teacher of the Year an ex officio, nonvoting member of the West Virginia Board of Education. The bill would also require two members of the Board of Education to be parents of children currently in the school system.

This bill also passed but with one rejection vote from Delegate Mike Azinger from Wood County.

House Bills Move to Next Stage Without a Hitch

A number of bills were on the floor Tuesday from child welfare to the election of judges to the qualifications of the labor commissioner; all of them passed to their next stages without much of a hitch.

Eight bills were on the House Floor, and only House Bill 2200 was on third reading. This bill is to revise, rearrange, consolidate, and recodify the laws of the state relating to child welfare and juvenile disposition.

Judiciary chairman, Delegate John Shott, is the lead sponsor. He described the bill to be more user-friendly for those who have to deal with this area of law.

“There have been complaints for many years over how difficult it is to work in this area and how it can lead to misinterpretations, misunderstandings,” Shott noted, “and this is an effort that this bill, it’s got bipartisan support, it’s got widespread support among those who need to be able to navigate these complicated provisions of law, and Mr. Speaker I urge passage.”

House Bill 2200 passed 98 to 0.

The next five bills were on second reading; the amendment stage. First up was Senate Bill 13, which has to do with the liability of a possessor of real property for injuries caused by open and obvious hazards.

Delegate Shott proposed an amendment.

“The amendment that has been passed in the judiciary committee to modify the senate version, Senate Bill 13, basically recognizes a very limited exception to the open and obvious doctrine,” said Shott, “and that is where the danger on the landowner’s property is a violation of a law intended for the public safety, and that violation caused the injury, then in that narrow situation, the landowner is still responsible.”

Shott’s amendment passed and the bill progressed to third reading.

House Bill 2010 was up next. This bill relates to electoral reforms requiring the election of justices of the Supreme Court of Appeals, circuit court judges, family court judges, and magistrates to be on a nonpartisan basis.

Delegate Tim Manchin proposed an amendment that would extend public campaign financing to circuit court judges. It’s already in place for candidates for the Supreme Court.

“That program has worked. As a matter of fact, we have a current Supreme Court justice now who sits in the chamber upstairs because of this bill. It was a private project at the time, which is now been made permanent for Supreme Court judges,” Manchin explained, “The reason that I’ve offered this bill [amendment] is because, quite frankly, the only real reason to have nonpartisan judges, or the only stated reasons, are two; number one, so that there not beholden to anybody and they don’t appear to have partiality after they’ve been elected. Number two is to cut down on the cost of election, however if we miss this opportunity to extend the public campaign financing to those circuit court judges, we will leave in probably the greatest threat to the appearance of impartiality that there is, and that’s direct campaign contributions.”

Delegate Shott stood to oppose the amendment but in good faith.

“This is a good idea, and it’s an idea that it’s time may come, just not today,” Shott said, “I’m going to speak against this amendment not because I don’t think it’s a good idea, I think it’s where we want to be at some point, but I’m concerned that it complicates a bill whose focus is to take the first step, and that is to make these judicial elections nonpartisan.”

Delegate Manchin stood again to encourage the amendment be adopted.

“We have an opportunity right here to do something good right now and not wait until later, until all other kinds of people weigh in,” Manchin said, “and tell us all other reasons why the system won’t work, when in fact it already has.”

Delegate Manchin’s amendment was rejected 67 to 31, and House Bill 2010 moved on to third reading.

Also up for passage Wednesday will be House Bill 2217, relating to the qualifications of the Commissioner of Labor. The bill removes the term “labor interests of the state” and inserts language to require the commissioner to have knowledge and experience in employee issues and interests including employee-employer relations.

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