As the 60-day, regular legislative session near the halfway point, members of the House of Delegates continue to use their new two-step committee process to discuss potential new laws as well as solutions to issues throughout the state that may not require a change to the law.
“This process requires us to take a long, hard look at an issue, and the by-product is that everyone in the room ends up being educated in some way,” said Deputy House Speaker Delegate David Kelly, R-Tyler. “You wouldn’t have a lot of these discussions without having the specific bills introduced, but if we can walk away from a committee meeting with some area of agreement, that’s a success to me.”
Kelly spent time this week in the House Standing Committee on Health and Human Resources discussing a bill he sponsored, House Bill 2358. The measure would impose deadlines in certain circumstances for the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner to perform an autopsy and provide the autopsy report.
Kelly said during his presentation of the bill that he understands the state’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner would say they need more money, and there is a national shortage of coroners, but West Virginia’s county prosecutors also need to be able to conduct timely investigations when necessary. Kelly said right now it takes about eight months on average for an autopsy report to be completed and shared with prosecutors.
“It’s hard to bring up shortcomings when you’ve learned just how short-staffed they are,” Kelly said after the meeting. “I am hopeful that another bill on the move to help entice more graduates to stay will help alleviate that issue.”
Members of the House Education Committee advanced two bills this week, House Bill 2572 and House Bill 2595, which would establish some guardrails for the state’s colleges and universities to best leverage Name, Image, Likeness opportunities for their student athletes. Members of the House overwhelmingly voted in favor of passing a bill to address elementary student behavior and teacher safety. House Bill 2515 passed the House by a vote of 92-4 this week, and it would establish the steps a teacher may take in an elementary school setting when it is determined a student’s behavior is what has been carefully defined in the bill as violent, threatening, creates an unsafe learning environment or impedes other students’ abilities to learn.
A total of 1,255 bills have been introduced in the House, and the last day to introduce bills is Mar. 18. The House has passed 33 bills to the Senate for debate. The 60-day, regular legislative session ends at midnight Apr. 12.
