House Bill 2802 allows law enforcement officers to complete eight of the required in-service hours per year to be served on-site in a school safety program.
House Bill 2836 establishes a Wildlife Rehabilitation program within the Division of Natural Resources’ Wildlife Resources Section. To obtain a permit for wildlife rehabilitation, one must be an 18-year-old West Virginia resident, take wildlife handling and care training and pass an examination, meet and maintain facility requirements, and provide written verification that a veterinarian has agreed to assist and consult with treatment and care.
House Bill 2866 requires the county and municipality to enter into an intergovernmental agreement before a municipality may impose a fire service fee outside of its boundaries in a county that already imposes a county fire service fee.
House Bill 2867 removes real estate from being processed as a small estate.
House Bill 2871 changes negligent homicide to vehicular homicide. Vehicular homicide remains a misdemeanor with a fine of $1,000 to $10,000 and/or up to a year in jail. The bill adds to this section of the code aggravated vehicular homicide and vehicular homicide in a school zone or construction zone. Aggravated vehicular homicide is when one acts with deliberate disregard for the safety of others. The felony offense can be fined up to $20,000 and/or imprisoned for 1 to 5 years. For vehicular homicide in a school or construction zone, the individual would be guilty of a felony and may be fined $2,500 to $5,000 and/or imprisoned for 2 to 10 years. The bill includes embryo/fetus as a protected person in vehicular homicides.
House Bill 2880 creates new code requiring certain information be provided at centralized intake for child welfare. The bill provides for parent resource navigator to be a part of the multidisciplinary teams to help parents through the process. The bill requires the Bureau for Medical Services and the Bureau for Social Services to provide electronic access to various persons and for the child welfare dashboard to be updated.
House Bill 2889 authorizes the Commissioner of the State Auditor of West Virginia to conduct fairness hearings for transactions involving the exchange of a security for one or more outstanding securities, claims, or property interests or partly for cash to determine whether the terms and conditions of the exchange are fair to the security holders.
House Bill 2897 requires the Legislative Auditor to perform a performance for the WV Department of Education. It gives the Legislative Auditor the power and authority to conduct examinations and inspections and requires the legislative auditor to protect the confidentiality, privacy, and security of protected information.
House Bill 2942 extends the sunset date for the WV Department of Environmental Protection’s Design-Build Pilot Program to December 31, 2027.
House Bill 2943 extends the sunset date for the hazardous waste management fee to June 30, 2030
House Bill 2960 implements a two-year pilot program in which the Division of Highways will hire multiple vendors for snow removal on secondary roads in Monongalia and Preston Counties. If a vendor’s performance is unsatisfactory, the Secretary of the Division of Highways may terminate the contract with 30 days’ notice.
House Bill 2961 prohibits designated foreign parties from acquiring, holding, or transferring real estate and mineral rights in West Virginia. “Prohibited foreign party” includes a citizen or government of the People’s Republic of China or any of its political subdivisions or any foreign government, entity, or individual identified annually by the West Virginia Secretary of Homeland Security as hostile to the interest of the US or WV.
House Bill 2963 allows a bank chartered by this state to sell or transfer all, or substantially all, of its assets and liabilities by merger, reorganization, purchase, and assumption or any similar business combination to another entity, but only if that entity is insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). The bill also authorizes any interested person, including a bank or bank holding company, to enforce the provisions of this section by applying to a court for equitable relief.
House Bill 2964 requires airport authority members to be residents of either the municipality or contiguous county they represent. The criteria for feed adulteration are also amended.
House Bill 3000 changes the law on commercial feed by amending the definition of commercial feed to include commodities, compounds, or substances that are not intermixed.
House Bill 3012 modifies the allocation of lottery funding. The bill removes the requirement that the entire city be within the county for revenue sharing.
House Bill 3014 clarifies the circumstances in which a hospital is entitled to immunity arising from actions resulting from civil disobedience, riot, insurrection, rebellion, or failure or inadequacy of police protection. A hospital with a police department is immune from liability if a loss or claim results from civil disobedience, riot, insurrection, rebellion, or the failure to provide or the method of providing police protection. No hospital shall be liable to any person for failing to establish a police department or provide police protection.
House Bill 3016 requires each county board of education to create standardized school safety mapping data. Boards must consult with local authorities to ensure the data meets the requirements. The bill exempts the data from FOIA and adds an internal effective date of September 1, 2026.
House Bill 3024 allows for the creation of a comprehensive system for transferring credits between the state’s public higher education institutions.
House Bill 3030 removes the permit fee limit relating to the WV Water Pollution Control Act.
House Bill 3080 authorizes a hiring preference for certain military spouses in the state. It grants a preference in hiring to a military spouse, provided that the person granted the hiring preference otherwise meets the knowledge, skills, and eligibility requirements of the job to be filled.
House Bill 3089 mandates that all entities that record more than five liens per year use West Virginia’s electronic lien and title system.
House Bill 3111 provides pay increases to members of the judiciary, including the Supreme Court, circuit courts, family courts, and the Intermediate Court.
House Bill 3125 provides that teachers with a bachelor’s degree and 10 years of teaching experience, a valid teaching certificate, good standing, and no unsatisfactory evaluations will be able to apply for and receive a permanent teaching certificate without having to take any additional coursework.
House Bill 3133 permits counties and municipalities to enter into memoranda of understanding for demolition of dilapidated structures.
House Bill 3144 encourages the development of wireless infrastructure and sets policies to govern infrastructure deployment. It is based on the model legislation developed by the Wireless Infrastructure Association.
House Bill 3152 declares the claims against the state to be moral obligations of the state and authorizes the payment of the following amounts: $926,461.63 from General Revenue, $199,652.78 from Special Revenue Funds, and $620,932.59 from the State Road Fund. The total owed in claims is $1,747,047.00.
House Bill 3156 clarifies the Legislature is not subject to the cost assessment, accounting, and reporting services of the Department of Administration Shared Services Section.
House Bill 3157 modifies the shortened process for certain road condition claims to expedite it and requires the Division of Highways to establish a line item in its budget for the expedited payment of certain stipulated road condition claims.
House Bill 3162 adds violations of the West Virginia Consumer Credit and Protection Act to the list of recognized causes of actions that can be brought after the death of a person entitled to recover or the death of the liable person. The bill also modifies the consumer definition to include administrators of estates obligated to pay any debt and administrators of estates of natural persons obligated under a deed or lien where a property is subject to foreclosure or forfeiture for lack of payment.
House Bill 3164 establishes a $125 annual fee for individuals required to register on the Central Abuse Registry. Payment is made to the circuit clerk and tracked by the State Police. The bill allows the State Police to enforce nonpayment through a civil lien process and directs the collected funds primarily toward mental health services for State Police personnel.
