As of 4 p.m., Wednesday, February 20, the 43rd day of the 2008 Regular Session, 1338 bills have been introduced in the House. Of these, a total of 58 have passed the House and have gone to the Senate for consideration. Some of the bills passed this week include:
House Bill 4389 would remove the requirement that resident traffic law violators sign citations.
House Bill 4512 would allow the State Fire Marshal to license engineered suppression systems installers, portable fire extinguisher technicians, pre-engineered suppression systems installers and pre-engineered suppression systems technicians.
House Bill 4513 would include newborn screenings as a covered benefit by the Public Employees Insurance Agency, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, the Medicaid program and all health insurance providers that extend their benefit packages to include pregnancy coverage.
A Sampling of Bills Introduced In the House
House Bill 4528 would require mandatory community service upon conviction of a misdemeanor offense of driving under the influence. For a first offense, the bill would require the individual to serve 50 hours of community service within six months from the date of conviction or the release from confinement. For a second offense, the bill would require the individual to serve 75 hours of community service. For a third offense and every offense after that, the individual would be required to serve 100 hours of community service within six months. The bill would also create a national registry of such offenders to be maintained by the Criminal Identification Division of the State Police.
House Bill 4529 would suspend the future issuing of licenses for new video lotteries unless expressly authorized by the West Virginia Legislature.
House Bill 4533 would exempt law enforcement officers on official duty from paying tolls on the West Virginia Turnpike. This bill would be applicable to officers in both marked and un-marked law enforcement vehicles.
House Bill 4536 would require that persons who maintain 20 or more adult cats or dogs to apply to register as a kennel.
House Bill 4546 would require the West Virginia Health Care Authority to ensure that all patient-specific, protected health information for prescription drugs be disclosed only with the permission of the patient in compliance with state confidentiality laws and the provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. Violations would be punishable by a civil penalty of up to $15,000.
House Bill 4555 would prohibit banks or lending institutions from raising any sort of loan interest rates due to a loan-seeker’s failure to pay any other non-related debt.
House Bill 4561 would allow the names of West Virginia veterans killed in action in the Kosovo, Afghanistan or Irag conflicts to be inscribed on the Veterans Memorial on the State Capitol Complex.
House Bill 4566 would allow individuals giving donations to scholarship programs to receive a tax credit of $1 for every dollar donated. There would be no cap as to how much a person could donate or how much a person could receive in tax credits for the donations.
House Bill 4568 would require accident and sickness insurance providers, as well as health management organizations (HMOs), to cover certain Lyme disease treatments. Benefits provided would include diagnostic testing and long-term antibiotic treatment for chronic Lyme disease when determined medically necessary by a physician. Insurance providers would not be allowed to deny coverage for these treatments because they are considered too experimental or unproven.
House Bill 4580 would designate December 7, “Pearl Harbor Day,” as a legal state holiday.
House Bill 4592 would allow anyone involved in a motor vehicle accident to have access to basic information about the other driver for the purposes of making an insurance claim. This basic information would include: the name and address of each individual involved in the accident; the make, year and model of each vehicle involved; insurance information from each driver such as the insurance company, the policy number and contact information for the insurance company; contact information for the police officer which responded to the scene of the accident and the time, location and date of the accident.
House Bill 4597 would make it a felony to wager money or other valuables at animal fighting ventures. The bill would make it a felony offense for an individual to own, lease or have any other financial connection to the premises where animal fighting occurs when the individual has knowledge of the operation. Any person guilty of this would be fined between $1,000 and $5,000, sentenced to prison for one to five years, or both.
House Bill 4650 would require that all justices on the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals and all circuit court judges be elected during the general election but on a separate, non-partisan ballot.
