Rules committees don’t meet very often, and bills assigned to them are often considered shelved for the session. Monday, the Senate sent two bills nearing completion to their Rules committee.
Senate Bill 526 was on third reading Monday but was sent to the Senate Rules Committee. The bill, which would authorize pharmacists to prescribe low-risk medications to patients, sparked heated discussion on the Senate floor Friday over safety, legislative overreach and access to medical care.
The Senate also took action on three bills relating to schools and student safety.
Senate Bill 449 would clarify code to allow for the transportation and storage of compressed air and rimfire rifles for the use of shooting teams in public schools. It was passed with no discussion and now heads to the House of Delegates for consideration.
Senate Bill 220 would require annual, age-appropriate instruction in child sexual abuse prevention, as well as in-service training for school staff. The bill was on second reading Monday, but was also sent to the Senate Rules Committee.
Sen. Mike Woelfel, D-Cabell, and the bill’s sponsor, formally objected to the action. He expressed frustration that such action would be taken as the Capitol was observing West Virginia Coalition Against Domestic Violence Day.
“I understand there’s some religious concerns expressed by folks in the body that I’ve heard,” Woelfel said. “That word, the word ‘sex’ triggers them. Sex abuse; this is not a sex education bill. This is a bill to educate children if they’re victims of sexual abuse, we may be able to ferret that out and interrupt the abuse and save them.”
However, Senate Education Chair Amy Grady, R-Mason, said the reason for the reference were concerns raised by the West Virginia Department of Education about overburdening teachers with training requirements, and not religious objection.
“(Much) of this training has already taken place, and we want to make sure that we’re not duplicating something,” she said. “We want to make sure that we’re looking at that language and we can clarify it if there, if it needs to come out of rules, and we need to run the bill a little bit differently because of that, then that would be the purpose, and that’s the only sole reason for it being sent to rules. Mr. President.”
Woelfel was unconvinced, and requested Grady provide the existing policy.
Senate Bill 548 would require the creation and implementation of student safety and violence prevention training, as well as student training on combating social isolation.
Grady, the bill’s sponsor, presented an amendment to remove mentions of social inclusion in favor of the phrase social isolation.
Sen. Joey Garcia, D-Marion, questioned the need for the change, and Grady conceded the phrases seemed synonymous to her. Garcia proposed his own theory for the change.
“We’ve been discussing this idea of DEI: diversity, equity and inclusion. And I guess that inclusion is just a scary word for some people,” he said. “I don’t get it, because I think, you know, to me, I always try to make something clear, try to use less words, I think, be less verbose. And this kind of goes the other direction, right there. But I think I understand. I think there’s just an aversion to any bill using the word inclusion. And I think that’s kind of sad. So for that reason, I’d oppose the amendment.”
The amendment was adopted and Senate Bill 548 will be on third reading Tuesday.
NCAA Tournament
The announcement of the NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament bracket Sunday sparked considerable political action in the state Monday due to the exclusion of the West Virginia University Mountaineers.
Gov. Patrick Morrisey was joined by Attorney General J.B. McCuskey to announce a lawsuit against the collegiate athletics’ governing body Monday afternoon. But Sen. Mike Stuart, R-Kanawha, took the floor at the end of Monday’s session to express his disappointment and state the case for the body’s attention to the issue.
“This is worthy of remarks. Let me point out real quick that college athletics matter because they promote school spirit, offer educational career benefits to student athletes, and can contribute to a university’s reputation and financial stability,” he said. “After each one of those historic bowl games the Mountaineers played in, it was serious money that flowed into the university and serious upticks in attendance flowed into the university.”
The WVU Women’s Basketball team was included in their NCAA tournament as a six seed.