Senate Natural Resources committee adopts procedural rules and remote participation policies

The West Virginia Senate Committee on Natural Resources approved a set of procedural motions at the start of its session, including adoption of committee rules, authorization for the chair to set the agenda, and permission for staff to make technical corrections to bills and drafts.

Those measures were presented and moved by the Junior Senator from Greenbrier and were adopted after voice votes in which the chair declared the ayes to have it. The committee also authorized the council to incorporate bills or resolutions into committee substitutes after presentation and vote, and approved administering the oath to witnesses (with the exception of senate staff and elected officials) under Senate rule 28a.

The panel voted to permit members physically present in their Capitol offices to participate remotely as if physically present and to count those members toward quorum under Senate rule 43; it separately approved remote participation for members diagnosed with COVID-19 or determined by a physician to be at higher risk from COVID-19 exposure. All of the listed motions were declared adopted by the chair following voice votes; specific roll-call tallies were not recorded in the transcript.