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 Senate will reconvene 11 a.m. tomorrow, March 15.
The House will reconvene 4 p.m. tomorrow, March 15.
