The Senate convened today at 9:30 a.m.
The body refused to concur with the House amendments to S. B. 134 and has requested the House recede its amendments.
The Senate concured with the House amendments to S. B. 338 and S. B. 415. The bills are now awaiting action by the Governor.
H. B. 4268 was passed 23-11 and sent to the House to concur. The bill would allow oil and gas development on property owned by seven or more royalty owners, provided a super majority, 75 percent, of the royalty owners consent. Non-consenting or unknown/unlocatable cotenants will be compensated with a royalty fee “equal to the highest royalty percentage paid to the consenting cotenants in the same property” or by participating in the development to “receive his or her share of the revenue and costs attributable to the tract being developed.”
The bill requires consenting cotenants and the operator to search county records, last known addresses, and the internet to find and negotiate with all owners of the estate. In the case that some owners can’t be found, their compensation will be placed in the Unknown and Unlocatable Interest Owners Fund. After a certain time, the Treasurer will tranfer half of the funds to the Oil and Gas Reclamation Fund to plug orphan wells, while the other half is allocated to the Public Employees Insurance Agency Stability Fund.
H. B. 4402 was passed unanimously and was sent to the House to concur. The bill makes changes to the W. Va. Code based on the reccomendation of the State Task Force on the Prevention of Sexual Abuse of Children which was created in 2015 through “Erin Merryn’s Law”. Task Force’s reccomendations address changes that could be made in education for grades K-12 and through public employees training to prevent child sexual abuse.
H. B. 4473 was passed unanimously and sent to the House to concur. The bill amends the code relating to 2016’s “trinket bill” which has led to severe restrictions on the code determined by the Ethics Commission. The bill redefines the words “advertising” and “press release.” It also permits the name and likeness of public official to be used in publicl funded educational materials, press releases intended for legitimate news or informational purposes, and The West Virginia Blue Book and Legislative Manual.
H. B. 2607 was passed unanimously and was sent to the House to concur.
H. B. 2654 was passed unanimously and is now awaiting action by the Governor.
H. B. 2693 was passed unanimously and was sent to the House to concur.
H. B. 2983 was passed unanimously and is now awaiting action by the Governor.
H. B. 3005 was passed unanimously and was sent to the House to concur.
H. B. 4180 was passed unanimously and is now awaiting action by the Governor.
H. B. 4186 was passed unanimously and was sent to the House to concur.
H. B. 4219 was laid over for one day.
H. B. 4230 was passed unanimously and is now awaiting action by the Governor.
H. B. 4236 was passed unanimously and is now awaiting action by the Governor.
H. B. 4289 was passed unanimously and is now awaiting action by the Governor.
H. B. 4343 was passed unanimously and is now awaiting action by the Governor.
H. B. 4347 was passed unanimously and is now awaiting action by the Governor.
H. B. 4410 was passed unanimously and was sent to the House to concur.
H. B. 4422 was passed unanimously and is now awaiting action by the Governor.
H. B. 4433 was passed unanimously and is now awaiting action by the Governor.
H. B. 4436 was passed unanimously and was sent to the House to concur.
H. B. 4444 was passed 33-1 and was sent to the House to concur.
H. B. 4621 was passed unanimously and is now awaiting action by the Governor.
H. B. 4624 was passed unanimously and was sent to the House to concur.
Bills of Second Reading:
- S. J. R. 8 was laid over for one day.
- H. B. 2889
- H. B. 2995 was amended on the floor.
- H. B. 4238
- H. B. 4539
Bills on First Reading:
- H. B. 2464
- H. B. 4015
- H. B. 4023
- H. B. 4025
- H. B. 4027
- H. B. 4178
- H. B. 4197
- H. B. 4279
- H. B. 4368
- H. B. 4434
- H. B. 4462
- H. B. 4478
- H. B. 4502
- H. B. 4509
- H. B. 4522
- H. B. 4622
The Senate is in recess until 30 minutes following the Finance Committee meeting.
Committees meeting today:
Finance at 1:30 451M
Judiciary at 1:30 208W
Update 10:46 p.m.
The Senate met to take committee reports.
H. B. 4145 was taken up for immediate consideration. The Finance Committees’s amendment to to change the pay raise for teachers, school service personnel and state police officers was adopted by the body 19-15. The bill was then read a third time and passed 21-13 to then be sent to the House to concur.
The Senate took a brief recess to wait for the House’s response.
The amendment to the bill had been filed incorrectly when sent to the House Clerk’s office. The Senate reconvened and reconsidered the actions taken.
After recalling the bill back to the Senate, the Senate reconsidered passage of the bill, moved the bill to second reading and amended the amendment. The amendment to the amendment corrected the error, making the raise for teachers, school service personnel and state police 4 percent. It passed 19-13 with two members absent.
The Senate then voted to pass the amended bill 19-13.
The body briefly recessed to await the House’s ruling.
The Senate recieved the message that the House refused to concur and then voted to refuse to concede to the House. A conference committee was called and Senator Craig Blair (R – Berkeley, 15), Senator Ryan Ferns (R – Ohio, 01), and Senator Robert Plymale (D – Wayne, 05) were appointed to represent the Senate.
The Senate is adjourned until Monday at 11 a.m.
