Special Session Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

With Federal Clawback Averted, Justice Renews Calls For Health Funding

With fears of a federal COVID-19 relief fund clawback quashed, Gov. Jim Justice urged lawmakers to restore funding to health and human services in West Virginia.

For weeks, the possible federal clawback of $465 million in COVID-19 relief funding for schools has loomed large in West Virginia.

But on Friday Gov. Jim Justice announced the state would not have to return the funds, which the United States Department of Education initially said were not spent according to federal guidelines.

News of the potential clawback threw a wrench into the final weeks of the West Virginia Legislature’s regular session this year. Out of caution, lawmakers ultimately approved a state budget of $4.9 billion — a figure lower than the $5.22 billion budget Justice proposed in January.

In March, Justice announced plans to hold a special legislative session in May to reexamine budget spending. With the specter of the clawback removed, lawmakers are now looking to bulk up the state budget.

And Justice has expressed a particular focus on restoring funding to West Virginia’s health and human resources.

State lawmakers significantly reduced funding for Medicaid services in this year’s regular legislative session.

This included a reduction of nearly $11 million in funding for the state’s Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD) Waiver program, which provides residents with disabilities financial support and at-home health services.

During a virtual press briefing Tuesday, Justice said the dismissal of the federal clawback opens the door for restored funding.

“Where we need to concentrate our efforts right off the get-go is to restore the dollars that we pulled out of the budget … for the most needy of our people,” he said. “We didn’t need to [cut funding], and if we don’t watch out we’re going to get our really needy folks in a real mess.”

Lawmakers who supported the cuts during this year’s regular session said the reductions would increase spending transparency and limit unnecessary expenditures.

But opponents of the budget cuts have expressed concern that the lack of funding could broadly reduce Medicaid services for West Virginia residents, including individuals with disabilities.

In March, Justice announced plans to call a special legislative session before May 14, West Virginia’s primary election. He said reexamining the state budget was a top priority for the prospective session.

Meanwhile, state lawmakers have expressed a preference that the session be held later in May, to coincide with interim meetings at the State Capitol.

As of Tuesday, no date for the special session has been finalized.

Babies, Beavers And A Special Session At The Capitol, This West Virginia Week

Another year’s legislative session is now behind us, but news of a special session this spring means the West Virginia Legislature won’t be gone for long. In the meantime, we’ll dive into stories on education, including stories on a new study on special education and a group of West Virginia principals visiting the United States Capitol.

Another year’s legislative session is now behind us, but news of a special session this spring means the West Virginia Legislature won’t be gone for long.

In the meantime, we’ll dive into stories on education, including stories on a new study on special education and a group of West Virginia principals visiting the United States Capitol.

Plus, we’ll discuss potential expansions to passenger train services, protections for residents with Long COVID and the return of the beaver to Appalachia.

Finally, we’ll listen to the first installment of a new series on parenting that will explore the most up-to-date advice for infant care.

Jack Walker is our host this week. Our theme music is by Matt Jackfert.

West Virginia Week is a web-only podcast that explores the week’s biggest news in the Mountain State. It’s produced with help from Bill Lynch, Briana Heaney, Chris Schulz, Curtis Tate, Emily Rice, Eric Douglas, Jack Walker, Liz McCormick and Randy Yohe.

Learn more about West Virginia Week.

Justice Says He Will Call Special Session Before Primary Election

Gov. Jim Justice said he will call a special session of the state legislature to address budget priorities missed in the regular session.

Gov. Jim Justice said he will call a special session of the West Virginia Legislature to address budget priorities missed in the regular session.

The governor had already discussed calling a special session in May before the final gavel of the regular session Saturday night. But during a regular briefing Thursday, a visibly frustrated Justice said he is likely to call legislators back to the capitol before the May 14 primary election.

He said the proposed budget was rushed, omitting key tax breaks for families and creating a “big time problem” for the newly formed Department of Human Services.

“We spent a lot of time talking about issues that were more social issues and forgot to budget,” Justice said. “And absolutely at the last minute, we kind of tried to run in and switch this and that and everything else and we made a bunch of mistakes.”

Although he did not name a specific legislator, Justice made several references to a “per se expert” senator who he accused of leading the budget process into problems.

“Please tell me why we didn’t take the time to listen to the people that are the real experts,” he said. “The real experts are the people that have been in our revenue department and absolutely have been a real part of this unprecedented economic run … We didn’t listen to them. We listened to somebody that’s inexperienced, to be perfectly honest, but commands the floor.”

Justice explained that waiting until after the mid-May elections would push the budgeting process too close to the end of the fiscal year.

“This has got to be corrected before the end of the fiscal year,” he said. “We may very well have to call people back some time in April.”

Justice Discusses Possibility Of Special Session, Trout Stocking And Secretary’s Traffic Stop

Gov. Jim Justice said he is open to a special legislative session later this year to address the state budget.

Last week, legislators were notified of a potential $465 million federal “clawback” of COVID-19 era funding regarding the state’s spending on education. Legislators like the House Finance Committee chairman, Vernon Criss, R-Wood, said the late notice has required adjustments and delays to the state’s proposed budget.

At his regular briefing Wednesday, Justice was open to the idea of a May session to address further funding but was confident that lawmakers could pass a base budget before the close of session Saturday.

“I think I know where we’re gonna stand,” he said. “We want to encourage the Senate in regard to our pay raises and our tax cuts that we have in, helping the hungry and those things that are already kind of built into my budget and everything. But as far as our one-time spending and so on like that if we want to, if we want to come back in May and try to hash that out you know I guess it’d be fine.”

Justice said Superintendent Michele Blatt has been working on the clawback issue, as has his chief of staff, and he does not believe a clawback will happen.

“We have absolutely had discussion after discussion after discussion,” he said. “We are absolute believers that absolutely the education fed folks are not going to claw back on us at all in regard to this. But let’s just see how it all plays out and everything.”

Fish Stocking

Justice also announced an agreement had been reached with the federal government to allow the state’s trout stocking program to continue. The U.S Fish and Wildlife Service had removed certain waters from the trout stocking schedule due to concerns about endangered species.

As part of the agreement, West Virginia University will study trout feeding habits in an effort to protect the endangered candy darter, Guyandotte River crayfish and Big Sandy crayfish.

“At the end of the day, we don’t want to endanger any endangered species,” Justice said. “We don’t want to do anything that’s going to harm our environment in any way. We just want to do the right stuff.”

The agreement between the state Department of Natural Resources and Fish and Wildlife allows stocking to resume in four streams in four southern West Virginia counties. The stockings will now take place in May in Greenbrier, Nicholas, Wyoming and Mercer counties.

Update To Secretary Wriston’s Traffic Stop

For the third week in a row, Justice also addressed the traffic stop of West Virginia Department of Transportation Secretary Jimmy Wriston by Charleston Police in February.

“I just don’t get all this stuff but we have every reason to believe now that Jimmy Wriston was just set up,” Justice said. “That’s all there is to it. And from our standpoint, we’re waiting. We’re waiting on the Charleston Police Department and Kanawha County prosecutor to bring us a lot more information in regard to that.”

Wriston was not charged or cited at the time of the stop. A release from the Charleston Police the following day stated an investigation was underway, and a later update said “the person who contacted Metro Communications to report erratic driving by the vehicle involved in this incident was not a WV State Trooper.”

A later update stated that, “CPD officers were not able to find probable cause to arrest Mr. Wriston based on the fact that Mr. Wriston passed two field sobriety tests that were conducted.”

The update does note that an “odor of alcohol” was indicated by a preliminary breath test, “however, CPD Officers on the scene believed that the test was inconclusive and inconsistent with other tests being performed that Mr. Wriston passed.”

The Charleston Police Department has opened a criminal investigation into the person who called 911 to report the erratic driving “to determine if the information they provided CPD Officers was accurate and truthful.”

The Special Legislative Session Ends And EV Charger Infrastructure, This West Virginia Morning

On this West Virginia Morning, members of both parties voice concern over the lack of consideration and debate on proposed bills during the legislation’s special session this week, and a discussion about how efforts to build out a charging network for electric vehicles is progressing.

On this West Virginia Morning, Randy Yohe spoke to members of both parties that voiced concern over the lack of consideration and debate on dozens of proposed bills during the legislation’s special session this week. The session ended Tuesday around 9:30 p.m.

Curtis Tate spoke with Robert Fernatt, president of the West Virginia Electric Auto Association, about how efforts to build out a charging network for electric vehicles is progressing.

Also, a look at improvements in staffing shortages in the state’s social services as well as updates to West Virginia University’s restructuring efforts.

West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, which is solely responsible for its content.

Support for our news bureaus comes from Concord University and Shepherd University.

Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning

Fast Tracking Special Session Bills Cause Concern

With concerns from members of both parties over the lack of standard consideration and debate on dozens of proposed bills, the August special West Virginia Legislative session continued into day three on Tuesday.

On day one, lawmakers introduced the same 44 bills in each chamber as presented by Gov. Jim Justice. The Senate and the House have routinely suspended the rules requiring three bill readings on three separate days, pushing bills through by limiting discussion and debate. Many bills never saw the light of a Finance or Judiciary committee.

House Finance Committee member Del. Larry Rowe, D-Kanawha, said a lot of the proposed projects are valuable, helpful and need to be completed, but not “in this overwhelming manner.”

“Finance [Monday] met for 10 hours and we voted $500 million worth of supplemental appropriations to this year’s budget,” Rowe said. “So yeah, there’s windburn. It’s very uncomfortable to vote on bill after bill after bill when there hasn’t been proper vetting.”

Speaker of the House Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay, said in a statement that the legislature often convenes at the end of a fiscal year to make appropriations for one-time expenditures.

“We have been having those discussions very publicly for weeks,” Hanshaw said. “Legislators and the public have heard plenty of discussion in the past few weeks about the anticipation of an extraordinary session and should have had some awareness this was coming.”

Del. Scot Heckert, R-Wood, said the need for action now outweighs the need for extended debate.

“Anytime anything like this is going on, everybody should be concerned,” Heckert said. “But we’re trying to do what’s best for everybody and trying to make something happen for the betterment of the state and create more jobs in the state.”

Del. Mike Pushkin, D-Kanawha, and West Virginia Democratic Party Chair, said that fast-tracking decisions on spending millions of taxpayer dollars leaves out the taxpayers.

“It shuts the public out of the process,” Pushkin said. ”If the delegates and the senators don’t have enough time to familiarize themselves with the legislation, the public definitely does not.”

Del. Brandon Steele, R-Raleigh, said that setting up consideration and debates over something like funding airplane hangers, instead of a sole focus on solving the corrections crisis, was an administration ploy.

“They’re like at Kinkos down there, they can crank one of these out fast,” Steele said. “You can’t tell me this wasn’t planned a long time ago and we were kept in the dark the same way we always have been for the five years I’ve been here. Keep them in the dark, put them in there, put them under pressure.”

However, Senate Finance Committee Chair Sen. Eric Tarr, R-Putnam, said planning in advance is the point. He said months and years of meetings have ended, and now is the time to fulfill well made plans.

“We get it to where it’s easier to go in and discuss it after we’ve been discussing it for years and get everybody around the solution when we finally have revenue to be able to apply the solution,” Tarr said.

Not everyone, even within the same party, seems to agree with that idea, but the introduced bills are slowly passing through both chambers.