The Judiciary Committee convened Friday, taking up a bill that updates regulations of the foster care system.
Under House Bill 2010, the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources would be required to change its rules regulating foster children in a way that would allow parents to treat foster children the same as they would treat their natural children. This would ensure foster children are able to travel and participate in the same activities that other siblings in the family can enjoy.
The committee considered several amendments including one suggested by Delegate Barbara Evans Fleischauer, D-Monongalia, and Delegate Shawn Fluharty, D-Ohio. This amendment provided a new section in the bill requiring the department to conduct a study and make recommendations for improving services provided for kinship foster care families. The committee advanced the bill in a 13-11 vote and the bill next heads to the House floor.
The committee passed Three other bills, which next head to the House floor. House Bill 2521 relates to permitting fur-bearer parts.
The bill provides that in addition to pelts, other parts may be sold, traded or bartered. These include carcasses for making lures and baits; carcass parts including glands, skulls, bones, urine, and claws taken during the legal season. The bill also adds language permitting the sale, trading or bartering of the hide and tails of legally killed squirrels.
House Bill 2503 modifies right to counsel for non-offending parents in abuse and neglect cases. This bill seeks to address the issue of abuse and neglect cases often hosting numerous attorneys appointed to represent non-offending parents whose parental rights are not implicated in the action.
The last bill reviewed was Senate Bill 177, which relates to the Fire Commission rule relating to State Building Code. The current rule provides guidance for all building and construction throughout the state. This bill amends a current legislative rule by adding a required sunset provision and updating an energy efficiency standard for commercial buildings from the 2007 edition to the 2010 edition of the International Property Maintenance Code.
The Judiciary Committee is scheduled to meet Monday, January 28, 2019 at 9 a.m.
