As of 4 p.m., Thursday, March 28th, 2013, the 44th day of the first session of the 81st Legislature 1159 bills have been introduced in the House of Delegates. Bills passed by the House this week include:
House Bill 2237 would require physicians and other licensed prescribers to offer the drug Naloxone to their patients who are prescribed opiates for chronic pain. This bill was created to give alternative pain medication options in an effort to crack down on opiate abuse.
House Bill 2453, also known as “Skylar’s Law”, would expand the coverage under the Amber Alert Plan which currently applies only to children believed to have been abducted. This would allow the Amber Alert system to be activated when children are reported to law-enforcement as “missing”, regardless of the circumstance.
House Bill 2463 would repeal the article of the West Virginia Code that permits the sterilization of persons deemed to be mentally incompetent.
House Bill 2508 would increase certain investment amounts necessary for a county or city to create a sales Tax Increment Financing (TIF) district.
House Bill 2514 would decrease the total amount of tax credits under the Film Industry Investment Act from $10 million to $5 million annually.
House Bill 2534 would require that pawn brokers be regulated at the state level and that they maintain accurate pawn transaction forms with penalties for failure to comply with new regulations. Currently pawn brokers are only regulated at the local level.
House Bill 2583 would establish a regulatory system for sexual assault for forensic examinations. The bill is created in an effort to create a uniform examination system with better efficiency.
House Bill 2590 would authorize the creation of a public nonprofit corporation and governmental instrumentality to collectively manage the transition of contaminated properties to new use. The bill would allow many old commercial and industrial sites to be restored back to useable properties.
House Bill 2717 would require that Deputy Sheriffs be issued ballistic vests upon law enforcement certification.
House Bill 2780 would require multi-disciplinary teams be convened quarterly to discuss children in the custody of the Division of Juvenile Services. It also provides that in cases where a child has been detained for more than 60 days without an active service plan, the director of the facility may call a multi-disciplinary team meeting to discuss the child.
House Bill 2809 would authorize the Division of Corrections to implement a 12 month pilot project to establish a responsible parenting program designed to improve child and family well being and to empower men and women with skills to succeed as caretakers.
House Bill 2814 would authorize and require certain assistance to victims of human trafficking. It seeks to achieve this by authorizing the forfeiture of certain assets used in human trafficking, authorizing a civil cause of action for victims of human trafficking, requiring classification of victims of human trafficking and immigration assistance under specified circumstances and specifying that a victim of human trafficking is a victim under the West Virginia Crime Victims Compensation Act, among other provisions.
House Bill 2933 would make it necessary to provide notification to a prosecuting attorney of an offender’s parole hearing and release.
House Bill 2992 would eliminate duplicate reporting requirements for imported cigarettes which are imposed on distributors of tobacco products. It was introduced at the request of the West Virginia Tax Department.
