This morning, the Senate received an executive message, which extends the budget session an additional three days through Friday, March 18.

The conference committee on the budget bill, House Bill 2012, will meet today at 4:30 p.m. for an organizational meeting in the House Finance Committee Room, 460M.

The Senate will reconvene tomorrow at 4:30 p.m.

At 12 a.m. Sunday morning the 80th Legislature’s 60-day session came to a close and today will mark the beginning of the extended budget session for House Bill 2012, which sets forth the legislative budget and supplementary appropriation bills–making allocations of public money out of the treasury.

Generally, as legislation moves through the committee and legislative process, the House and the Senate may find themselves unable to reach an agreement on every provision considered on a bill. When this occurs, and neither body will recede or retract its provisions to a bill, the legislation is referred to a conference committee. A conference committee is comprised of members from both bodies, with an equal number from each, and are formed to resolve the differences between the House and Senate versions of a bill. If a compromise is reached, each body will either pass or reject the conference committee bill.

For the budget bill, a conference committee was appointed on the final day of regular session. The conferees appointed from the House include Delegates White (D-Mingo), T. Campbell (D-Greenbrier), M. Poling (D-Barbour), Kominar (D-Mingo), Perdue (D-Wayne), Anderson (R-Wood), and Evans (R-Grant). Appointed Senate conferees include Senators Prezioso (D-Marion), D. Facemire (D-Braxton), Plymale (D-Wayne), McCabe (D-Kanawha), Unger (D-Berkeley), Stollings (D-Boone), and Hall (R-Putnam).

The House will convene today at 4 p.m. and the Senate will convene at 5 p.m.

Update
The House of Delegates and state Senate convened briefly for the extended budget session Monday afternoon and then adjourned.

The House will reconvene 4 p.m. tomorrow, March 15.

This evening, the Senate met and completed seven pieces of legislation. Of those bills, one was the highly discussed autism bill.

After a long journey, House Bill 2693 was officially completed in the Senate tonight. This bill will provide for autism spectrum disorders to fall under insurance coverage. This bill was sent to the Governor and is awaiting his signature.

House Bill 2639 will authorize the Board of Physical Therapy to define a legislative rule relating to General Provisions for Athletic Trainers.

Additionally, Senate Bill 193 was completed as well. This bill will expand the responsibilities of the law-enforcement training sub-committee and rename it the law-enforcement professional standards sub-committee.

Senate Bill 488 will revise the West Virginia HIV testing statute to conform with the most recent recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention This bill was sent to the Governor for consideration.

The Senate also amended the House’s amendment to Senate Bill 616 and then sent it back to the House for it’s further consideration.

Additionally, the Senate refused to recede from it’s version of Senate Bill 614 and House Bill 2513 and sent requests to the House to ask it to recede instead.

The remaining pieces of legislation completed are available through the link below.

The Senate will stand in brief recess until 11 p.m.

The third floor session of the evening yielded the completion of eight additional bills in the Senate.

Each bill was communicated from the House with amendment. Following the amendments, the Senate voted on and completed the eight bills.

A brief sampling of bills include, Senate Bill 35 which will raise the tax credit for non-family adoptions from $2,000 to $4,000. This bill was sent to the Governor’s office and is awaiting signature.

Senate Bill 330 will create “FACTS for Higher Education” by establishing fair, accountable, credible, transparent and systematic mechanisms to determine classification status and compensation for classified employees.This bill was completed in committee substitute form.

A bill that will authorize the Policy Commission and the Council to collect and disseminate information they consider necessary to aid consumers in assessing the performance of institutions of higher education in the state. Senate Bill 375 was also completed and sent to the Governor.

Additionally, the remaining five bills that completed legislation are available through the link below.

The Senate will stand in brief recess until 8 p.m.

In the first floor session of the day, eight bills completed the legislative process and the Senate received numerous messages from the House.

The Senate also stood in brief recess to recognize the legislative interns from this session. Of the bills completed, Senate Bill 563 will authorize municipalities to design and implement Deferred Retirement Option Plans for fund members.

Senate Bill 484 will designate the Higher Education Policy Commission as a state institution of higher education. This bill was sent to the Governor’s office and is awaiting approval.

Additonally, Senate Bill 253 will amend the insurance code to adopt recent changes to the model act adopted by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners with respect to holding companies and systemic risks was completed.

Senate Bill 177 will authorize the State Tax Department to define a legislative rule relating to an exchange of information agreement between the State Tax Department and the Office of the State Fire Marshal.

The remaining bills that completed legislation are available through the link below.

The Senate will stand in brief recess until 1:30 p.m.

UPDATE
This afternoon, the Senate met and passed 16 bills, including House Bill 2562, which relates to the State Athletic Commission.

Three of the bills on third reading completed legislation. Those bills were House Bill 2959, House Bill 3045 and House Bill 3100.

The Senate also received conference committee reports regarding House Bill 2464 and House Bill 2879. Those bills now await the governor’s signature.

House Bill 2958 was read for a second time, advanced to third reading and passed. This bill also completed legislative action.

The Senate will stand in brief recess today until 5:30 p.m.