Senate adopts invitation for governor, introduces bills and resolutions, and schedules confirmation consideration

The West Virginia Senate on Feb. 12, 2025 adopted a House Concurrent Resolution inviting the governor to deliver an address to the legislature and raised a joint assembly for that event.

On the floor, the clerk and the senator from Lewis handled a series of procedural matters: by unanimous consent the Senate considered Senate Bill 1 through Senate Bill 299 as introduced and referred them to committee, and the clerk read several joint resolutions by title (including county boundary review, incorporation of churches/religious denominations, a cannabis-legalization amendment, a protection-of-right-to-bear-arms amendment, and an annual legislative-session amendment). Under the rules, some concurrent resolutions were held over one day as prescribed.

The Senate received an executive message (Senate Executive Message No. 1J) from the governor listing 37 nominations; the chair referred those nominations to the committee on confirmations. The senator from Pleasants moved — and the Senate adopted — that consideration of the nominations be made a special order of business on April 12 at 11:30 a.m.

Committee and meeting announcements recorded on the floor included a committee on substance use and mental-health disorders meeting at 1 p.m., a joint public hearing of the Senate Finance Committee with House finance counterparts on federal block grant funding at 2 p.m., and the governor’s revenue presentation scheduled for the following morning at 9:30 a.m. Specific committee assignments, referral committees, and the text of introduced constitutional amendment resolutions were referred to the judiciary and finance committees as shown on the chamber automation system; detailed bill texts were not read on the floor.