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Votes at a glance: West Virginia Senate approves multiple bills on Feb. 28, 2025
Summary
The West Virginia Senate passed a package of bills on Feb. 28, 2025, including measures on physician‑assistant ownership, municipal election timing, statutes of limitation, and several professional licensing and program bills; roll‑call results were recorded on the floor.
The West Virginia Senate on Feb. 28, 2025, cleared multiple bills on third reading and by roll call. The clerk reported the following formal outcomes on the floor; the Senate declared each bill passed and the clerk was instructed to communicate the actions to the House of Delegates where appropriate.
Key bills and results
- Engrossed committee substitute for Senate Bill 29 (allowing physician assistants to own practices): passed on third reading, 33 ayes, 0 nays, 1 absent. The sponsor described the bill as allowing physician assistants to hold ownership stakes in PLLCs, be shareholders in medical corporations, and clarified disciplinary authority for improper referrals.
- Engrossed committee substitute for Senate Bill 50 (requiring municipalities to hold elections on the same day as statewide elections): passed on third reading, 33 ayes, 0 nays, 1 absent. The measure requires municipalities to use the statewide election date and gives a compliance window to amend ordinances and charters until July 1, 2032.
- Engrossed committee substitute for Senate Bill 124 (reducing statutes of limitation for contract actions): passed on third reading, 31 ayes, 2 nays, 1 absent. The bill reduces the limitation period for written contracts from 10 to 5 years and for oral and unsigned contracts from 5 to 2 years.
- Engrossed committee substitute for Senate Bill 198 (prohibiting creation, production, distribution, or possession of artificially generated child sexual material): passed on third reading, 33 ayes, 0 nays, 1 absent. The sponsor said the measure expands definitions to include manipulated and AI‑generated images and lowers culpability thresholds in specific sections.
- Committee substitute for Senate Bill 42 (establishing licensure for midwives under the Board of Registered Nurses): passed on third reading, 33 ayes, 0 nays, 1 absent.
- Engrossed Senate Bill 496 (removing reflexology and other energy work from definition of massage therapy): passed on third reading, 33 ayes, 0 nays, 1 absent. The change excludes energy work practices from the definition of massage therapy and thus from massage licensure requirements.
- Engrossed committee substitute for Senate Bill 534 (clarifying polygraph licensing qualifications): passed on third reading, 33 ayes, 0 nays, 1 absent. The bill removes degree requirements for certain license classes and preempts division rules imposing bachelor's or associate's degree requirements.
- Engrossed Senate Bill 537 (establishing the West Virginia Mothers and Babies Pregnancy Support Program): passed on third reading, 33 ayes, 0 nays, 1 absent. The bill permits pregnancy help organizations expanded flexibility for capital expenditures and staff training, among other eligible expenses.
Procedural notes
Most of the bills above reached the floor as engrossed committee substitutes and were advanced and read on third reading. The transcript records sponsors' floor summaries and roll‑call tallies but does not show final enactment steps such as signature or chapter numbering in the excerpt provided.
