The Senate adjourned Sine Die at 11:49 p.m. Saturday evening, officially ending the 2023 legislative session.
The body spent the day receiving House messages and concurring in amendments to complete legislative action or making changes and sending bills back to the House. All told, the Senate completed action on 45 bills Saturday.
Some of the final major bills to complete action Saturday night include:
House Bill 3035 is a combination of House and Senate bills that looks to bolster achievement in early childhood academic development.
House Bill 2007, a bill that would ban gender surgery for minors, but allows treatment with medication under narrowly-tailored circumstances. This bill was passed yesterday. The House only made one change and added a title amendment.
House Bill 3261 amends the requirements for provisionally licensed social workers in West Virginiawho are seeking to become fully licensed. The bill requires a provisionally licensed social worker must be employed for four of the last ten years as a supervised social worker to be considered for full licensing.
A sampling of other bills completed today on the Senate side include:
House Bill 2008 requires local entities to enforce immigration laws. The legislation prohibits state and local entities from adopting laws, rules, or ordinances that would restrict compliance with federal immigration laws or immigration officials.
House Bill 3084 updates various provisions of charter school code. It makes charter schools eligible for School Safety Fund money. It allows a higher education institution to apply organize a charter school and enter into a charter school contract.
If a charter school wishes to offer a dual-credit program, its higher education partners may not pose requirements that are not required of non-charters. Charter school students may participate in public school extracurricular activities at other public schools if their school doesn’t offer them.
Charter schools may determine their own staff qualification and certification requirements. The per-pupil basic foundation allowance will go from 90% to 99%, and include state, federal and local share funds. The home county school board will keep the remaining 1% for administrative expenses.
House Bill 2967 provides for the expedited processing of professional or trade license applications for service members, veterans, and their spouses, when the applicant is licensed, in good standing, in another jurisdiction.
Senate Bill 667 requires periodic performance audits by the legislative auditor of the West Virginia Secondary Schools Activities Commission, the main governing body of high school sports, cheerleading, and marching bands in the state.
Senate Bill 737 bill creates a special revenue account, the Emergency Medical Services Salary Enhancement Fund, to supplement the salaries of EMS workers across the state.
The bill will provide a mechanism for distribution of the funds to the counties demonstrating the most need, counties who have a special levy, counties who have reached the maximum rate on a regular Levy and counties and that suffer from competition from border states.
Senate Bill 534 authorizes municipalities to establish private outdoor designated areas that are zoned for alcohol consumption in that area for alcohol drinks sold for by qualified permit holders, who are class A licensees.
Senate Bill 220 establishes the Industrial Hemp Development Act, covering the sale of kratom and other hemp-derived cannabinoids including delta-8 and delta-10. The bill limits the sale to those 21 years old and up. Unapproved products are considered contraband with criminal penalties for unlawful possession, distribution and sales.
Senate Bill 422 requires each school to publish its up-to-date curriculum on the school’s or County’s website. New or revised curriculum would have to be posted within 30 days.
