A Nicholas County delegate has announced he is leaving his seat in the West Virginia House of Delegates, months before the 2020 general election.
The resignation from Del. Jordan Hill, R-Nicholas, will become effective May 28. In a news release from House Communications Director Jared Hunt, Hill said he was leaving after five and a half years for a job outside of the 41st district, which encompasses parts of Nicholas and Greenbrier counties.
“I thank the people of the 41st District for giving me the opportunity to be their voice in the Legislature,” Hill said in the statement. “We’ve accomplished a great deal to move our state forward since 2015, and I know that momentum will continue into the future.”
In the most recent legislative session, Hill chaired the House Health and Human Resources committee, which passed a bill he co-sponsored capping monthly insulin copayments at $100 dollars, and another bill promising $16.9 million for foster care reform.
Going forward, executive director Byron Fisher for the West Virginia Republican Party said the 41st District Republican Executive Committee will be taking applications for a replacement to occupy Hill’s seat until the end of his term.
The committee must have three recommendations for Gov. Jim Justice by June 12, leaving him five days to select someone.
Hill announced on the last day of the 2020 session he was not planning to run for another term. With less than a month until the June 9 primary, Heather Tully from Summersville is running unopposed for the Republican nomination.
Duane Bragg in Tioga also runs unopposed for the Democratic nomination in the 41st District.
A bill to legalize medical marijuana will be put to a vote in the House of Delegates Tuesday. Over the weekend, a handful of delegates from both sides of the aisle met with attorneys to discuss potential amendments to the Senate bill that were discussed in a late night floor session Monday. The bill has now taken a much different form than when it was approved in the state Senate just last week.
After a procedural move last week that brought Senate Bill 386, or the Medical Cannabis Act, immediately to the House floor, bypassing the committee process, House leadership acted quickly, delaying further consideration of the bill to allow it to be studied by members and staff over the weekend.
As approved in the Senate, the bill would create a 17-member commission in the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources. That commission would oversee the program, creating rules for doctors, patients, growers and dispensers that would then be approved by the Legislature.
A doctor could prescribe marijuana for certain illnesses like post-traumatic stress disorder, chronic pain, or seizures. Patients with a prescription would also be able to grow up to two plants for personal use. The program would not begin until July 2018.
Credit Perry Bennett / West Virginia Legislative Photography
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West Virginia Legislative Photography
Del. Jordan Hill, R-Nicholas.
A handful of delegates, including Judiciary Chair John Shott, met Sunday to discuss some changes they’d like to see to the legislation. From that meeting, two committee substitutes were drafted both of which were taken up by the House Monday night. One was sponsored by Chairman Shott, the second by a bi-partisan group of delegates that include Jordan Hill, a Republican from Nicholas County.
“There was a bi-partisan group that were in favor of the motion the other day,” Hill said, “We had all, you know, gotten together, came up with an amendment on this.”
Hill’s version would have changed the title to “The Patient Freedom Act.” It called for the commission to be independent but still under the DHHR, and would implement a 6 percent sales and a 6 percent excise tax on marijuana. But that version was never taken up Monday evening after delegates voted 51 to 48 to adopt Shott’s version of the bill.
The Judiciary chairman’s version only includes the 6 percent excise tax and keeps the original title “The Medical Cannabis Act.” His bill puts the control of medical marijuana under the Department of Public Health and pushes the rollout date back one year to July 2019.
Shott’s version would not allow the product to be smoked or eaten – only allowing an oil, pill, or patch version of marijuana to be prescribed. However, the oil could be incorporated into a baked good, Shott says, but only if that baked good is made by the patient.
Shott says the bi-partisan group of lawmakers created an amended bill that was still too broad and he’s pushing his fellow lawmakers to back a more cautious approach to a medical marijuana program.
“We modeled our bill after the most recent states, which were Pennsylvania, Ohio, Minnesota, and New York,” Shott noted, “This is basically a very cautious approach that each of them have taken after studying what has happened in other states. You know, I think we need to help some of these folks that don’t get relief from other conventional ways.”
Credit Perry Bennett / West Virginia Legislative Photography
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West Virginia Legislative Photography
Del. Mike Pushkin, D-Kanawha.
Delegate Mike Pushkin, a Democrat from Kanawha County and one of the sponsors of the committee substitute supported by Delegate Hill, argued on the floor Monday night that Shott’s amendment is too restrictive and doesn’t do enough to help the West Virginians struggling with serious diseases that could be helped through access to the drug.
“Anybody else’s phone ringing off the hook today? They want us to vote for this bill, but they want the bill to actually do something; they want a medical cannabis bill. The first amendment doesn’t really do that. It’s not even a toe in the water,” Pushkin said.
Most of the other amendments to the bill adopted Monday night were technical in nature, fixing grammatical errors or incorrect references.
The chamber voted to allow a terminally ill cancer patient who has a valid prescription to cross state lines and bring back a medical marijuana product consistent with West Virginia’s program. Another requires the containers holding marijuana products to be child proof.
The amended version of the bill will be up for a final vote in the chamber Tuesday. It will have to return to the Senate before it can be considered by the governor.
A bill that sparked some debate in the Senate has made its way to the House of Delegates. It would make changes to the West Virginia Workplace Freedom Act, or the state’s right-to-work law.
The debate over whether West Virginia should be the 26th Right-to-Work state began during last year’s Legislative session.
Right-to-work laws make it illegal to require a worker in a union shop to pay union dues and fees if he or she is not a member.
Union’s argue that worker, however, is still benefiting from the contract negotiations the union pays for, without contributing to the cost.
Last year’s right-to-work bill brought on heated debates in both chambers, but ultimately passed. The legislation was vetoed by then-Governor Earl Ray Tomblin, but both the House and Senate overrode the veto and the bill became law.
Right-to-Work was challenged in court by the West Virginia AFL-CIO, the state’s largest workers’ union. Last month, a Kanawha County Judge deemed the right-to-work bill unconstitutional and the decision could end up in the state’s Supreme Court.
Senate Bill 330, which was on third reading in the House Thursday, seeks to clean up the language the judge saw as unconstitutional.
Delegate Scott Brewer, a Democrat from Mason County and a former construction worker, spoke in opposition to the bill.
“Why does this body want to jeopardize the ability of our industry partners, private business, to shake hands with private organizations and enter into an agreement that provides everything we need for these industries? Senate Bill 330 simply requires unions and labor organizations to spend their resources on people that won’t pay. That’s what this is about; spend your resources on people that will not pay,” Brewer explained.
Brewer was the only member of the body to speak to the bill, however the vote was close. It passed 52 to 48 and now heads back to the Senate.
Members of the House quickly approved 12 additional bills during their floor session on Thursday. One of those was House Bill 2522. It would enter West Virginia into an agreement with other states to allow nurses to practice across state lines without having to get multiple licenses. The compact includes both registered nurses and licensed practical nurses.
Delegate Jordan Hill, a Republican from Nicholas County, works in the Human Resources department for his local hospital, and he spoke in favor of the bill.
“I often find myself hiring numerous travel nurses at our local hospital monthly to fill vacancies that we cannot fill with West Virginia nurses, because of our shortage in the Mountain State,” Hill explained, “The current system of duplicative licensure and nurses practicing in multiple states is cumbersome and redundant for both nurses and states. We have an opportunity right now to step up to the plate and improve rural West Virginia and across the state.”
In the House’s Judiciary Committee, representatives of licensed practical nurses expressed concerns over the nurse licensure compact, arguing it wouldn’t resolve the state’s nursing shortage but allow LPNs from out-of-state to take jobs from West Virginians.
Despite concerns House Bill 2522 passed out of the chamber on a unanimous vote.
