West Virginia’s GOP supermajority somehow couldn’t get much accomplished during session

The clock in the West Virginia House of Delegates chamber hits midnight, ending the 2024 regular legislative session. (Perry Bennett | West Virginia Legislative Photography)

Wow, were most of my predictions wrong about what would be the big topics during this legislative session.

Based on what lawmakers talked about in the months leading up to the start, I expected them to 1) reverse the high school athlete transfer law, 2) work on transparency in foster care and Child Protective Services cases, 3) legalize cannabis for recreational use, 4) bring back capital punishment for manufacturing and distribution of fentanyl and 5) weaken the state’s immunization laws.

After all the talk about how the legislature ruined high school sports last year and even though lawmakers were already working on a new bill to fix it months ago, the bill was introduced on Jan. 23, and that was the last time it was seen.

Although West Virginia’s foster care system and Child Protective Services are overwhelmed , a bill to allow the Legislative Oversight Commission on Health and Human Resources Accountability to meet with CPS officials to discuss confidential case information passed the House but ultimately died in the Senate.

During the Legislative Lookahead held in early January, Senate President Craig Blair, R-Berkeley, said he would be a sponsor for a bill that would allow capital punishment for the illicit manufacturing and distribution of fentanyl. There’s no record of that bill.

At that same meeting, House Minority Leader Del. Sean Hornbuckle, D-Cabell, said he believes it’s time to legalize cannabis in West Virginia. The bill was sent to the House Health and Human Resources Committee on Jan. 17, where it died.

So what did they do?

Many Republicans wasted time worrying about anything they define as “ woke, ” which actually means being alert to racial prejudice and discrimination. I can’t imagine why someone would be against trying to stop racial discrimination, but Republicans seem to have misinterpreted the term to mean anything that’s a progressive value, like caring about the environment and diversity, equity, and inclusion measures.

And the bills that took up the most time were ones that aim to take us back in time — banning gender-affirming care further, loosening vaccine requirements and allowing librarians to be jailed for providing still yet undefined “obscene” materials.

However, even with the Republican supermajority, many of the most controversial bills that seemed like they were going to pass died on the final night of session.

Lawmakers saved their greatest hits of terrible legislation for Saturday, and I’m not sure if making a big deal about these bills and not passing them was the GOP’s plan all along, or if the Democrats’ tactics to take up as much time as possible helped to stop their passage. A Democrat in the House asked for the unemployment bill, Senate Bill 841 , to be read in full — it has 404 wage brackets listed and took almost an hour to read. Del. Kayla Young, D-Kanawha, also had 30 amendments prepared for the Women’s Bill of Rights to slow things down.

Many of the bills you heard about during the 60 days of session — the Women’s Bill of Rights , loosening teen work requirements , work requirements for SNAP benefits, gender-affirming care ban, arming elementary school teachers, the “ Meet Baby Olivia ” video, library obscenities , prohibiting publishing of mugshots , school discipline — are all dead.

Now loosening the state’s immunization law — which has led to West Virginia having great child vaccination rates and a lack of measles cases despite multiple neighboring states having outbreaks — that was one of the bills Republicans really sank their teeth into and got through both chambers.

If signed by Justice, House Bill 5105 would allow private and parochial schools to develop their own policies for immunizations and provide them legal protections for those choices. It would also allow vaccine exemptions for students attending virtual public schools.

It may not seem like much, but it’s the first step in loosening the restrictions even more. Once lawmakers get away with it once, they’ll come back next time to try again for the religious exemptions that did not get passed this year.

You know, I used to be scared of vaccines too — when I was a child. When we get vaccines, we’re not just doing it for ourselves, we’re doing it for the immunocompromised, the elderly, people with real medical reasons they can’t get vaccines, like Guillain-Barré syndrome . I’ve gotten a flu shot and added the COVID vaccine ever since because there are people I love who can’t get those vaccines, and I would hate myself if I got them sick.

When West Virginia’s first measles case since 2009 is reported, we’ll know who to blame. Sick children will be the 86th Legislature of West Virginia’s legacy.

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