Senate Passes Anti-Hazing Bill, Reports Ten Other Bills to House

The Senate convened Tuesday morning to discuss 12 bills that were on third reading and up for a vote.

Senate Bill 440 relates to anti-hazing laws. This legislation is a direct result of events that happened at West Virginia University in 2018. Five fraternities disassociated themselves from the University, and were subsequently banned from rejoining the University again for the next ten years.

Under current law, the anti-hazing law only relates to greek chapters that are a part of a higher education. SB 440 would amend the current code to include any students who are enrolled in a school of higher education, and are a part of a greek chapter, can be prosecuted for hazing. Whether or not a chapter is associated with a school or not.

Senate Bill 491 would extend the statutory deadline for the implementation of automatic voter registration in conjunction with certain Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV) transactions from July 1, 2019 to July 1, 2021. The DMV is in need of updating their system mainframe before they can implement the automatic voter registration. SB 491 would give the DMV more time to update their system mainframe.

The Senate also passed nine other bills including:

• Senate Bill 13: Relating to distributions from State Excess Lottery Fund
• Senate Bill 26:   Permitting certain employees of educational service cooperatives participate in state’s teacher retirement systems
• Senate Bill 442: Supplementing, amending, and decreasing appropriation to Insurance Commission
• Senate Bill 443: Supplemental appropriation of federal moneys to DHHR divisions
• Senate Bill 444: Supplemental appropriation to DHHR divisions
• Senate Bill 452: Supplemental appropriation to Second Chance Driver’s License Program
• House Bill 2191: Relating generally to limited video lottery
• House Bill 2459: Exercising authority to exempt individuals domiciled within the state from certain restrictions contained in federal law
• House Bill 2492: Relating to mandatory reporting procedures of abuse and neglect of adults and children

Senate Bills 574 to 589 were also introduced.

The Senate is adjourned until tomorrow at 11 a.m.

The following committees will meet today:

Health at 1 p.m. in 451M

Education at 2 p.m. in 451M

Government Organization at 2 p.m. in 208W

Finance at 3 p.m. in 451M

Judiciary at 3 p.m. in 208W

The following committees will meet tomorrow:

Energy at 10 a.m. in 208W

Agriculture at 2 p.m. in 208W

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