West Virginia Senate advances numerous bills in brief session, refers several to Finance and Judiciary

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The West Virginia Senate on the floor received a series of committee reports on a slate of bills Tuesday, advanced many for their first reading and referred several for further consideration by the Finance and Judiciary committees before adjourning until 11 a.m. tomorrow.

The clerk read a Health and Human Resources Committee report on Senate Bill 114, a committee substitute creating a paid parental leave pilot program; the committee recommended the substitute do pass and asked that, under the original double committee reference, the measure first be referred to the Committee on Finance. Senator from Lewis requested unanimous consent to take the bill up for immediate consideration and the clerk read the bill for its first reading.

The session was largely procedural: the clerk read committee reports and committee chairs were named in the reports submitted into the record, including Brian Helton as chair of Health and Human Resources; Jason Barrett as chair of Finance; Robert L. Morris Jr. as chair of Government Organization; Amy N. Grady as chair of Education; and Patricia Puertas Rucker as chair of the Select Committee on School Choice. Reported items included measures on professional licensing, school-policy changes, utility rate moratoriums, court security fund transfers, judges' retirement, and workforce modernization funding.

Notable items and committee actions reported to the Senate included: - SB 114 (paid parental leave pilot): Committee substitute recommended to pass; referral to Finance requested under original double committee reference; first reading completed. - Committee substitute for SB 151 (exempting life insurance cash value from Medicaid eligibility calculations): reported and given first reading. - Multiple Government Organization committee substitutes: SB 486 (adding a definition of master aesthetician), SB 852 (execution of service fees), SB 947 (birth certificate copies for homeless individuals), SB 970 (raffle regulation exemptions for volunteer fire departments), and SB 1011 (electronic submission of audit paperwork for volunteer fire departments) were reported and recommended to pass. - Finance committee measures: committee substitutes or reports for SB 502 (Women's Collegiate Sports Protection Act) and SB 657 (student athlete safety act) were reported with recommendations to pass. - Health licensing measures: SB 677 (relating to professionals licensed by the West Virginia Board of Medicine) and SB 956 (removing collaborative and supervisory requirements for physician assistants) were reported and given first reading and advanced. - Education-related bills: SB 1024 (rescission/reversal of school closure decisions through July 15), SB 1044 (requiring the Board of Education to set common graduation requirements), and SB 1064 (refining long-term substitute rules) were reported and advanced. - Finance items included SB 952 (transferring the court security fund) and committee substitute for SB 1035 (judges' retirement system), both advanced to first reading. - SB 981, a committee substitute imposing a one-year moratorium on approval of certain public utility rate increases, was reported by the Government Organization committee. - HB 4089 (the "Jessica Huffman" bill on preservation of hair during chemotherapy) was reported by Health and Human Resources, with the committee recommending passage and asking initial referral to Finance under the double committee reference. - SB 1081 (establishing a school finance transparency commission), reported from the Select Committee on School Choice, was recommended to pass.

Procedural requests for unanimous consent to take up legislation for immediate consideration were granted repeatedly and many bills were read for first reading and advanced. Where the clerk read committee reports that included committee chairs' names, those names were inserted into the record by committee reports rather than by direct floor debate during this brief session.

Before adjournment, senators announced committee meeting times: Rules will meet tomorrow at 10:45 a.m. in the Senate President's Conference Room and Judiciary will meet at 9:00 a.m. in Room 208 West; the committee on Enrolled Bills will not meet tomorrow. A senator moved that the Senate stand adjourn until 11 a.m. the following day; the presiding officer took a voice vote, declared the ayes had it and adjourned the Senate.

The session produced no recorded roll-call votes on the bills read today; most action was committee reporting, first readings, and referrals. Details such as formal vote tallies, sponsors beyond committee reports, and scheduled committee hearings on specific bills were not specified in the floor record.

Next procedural steps: referred bills (for example, SB 114) will proceed to the committees designated in the record (Finance or Judiciary) for further consideration, hearings, or amendments.