When the 60th and final day of the 2024 legislative session began, West Virginia senators and delegates were at a stand-off. A cut in unemployment benefits was held up in the House, while the Senate was sitting on public employee pay raises and a reduction in taxes on Social Security.
As the day turned to night, the logjam cleared and lawmakers passed several of their priorities. Senators agreed to a bill phasing out the income tax on Social Security benefits, after they conceded to House lawmakers’ preference on the bill to not tie the cut to state revenue. And they agreed on a measure to cut unemployment benefits for West Virginians who are out of work. Though the final bill keeps unemployment benefits at the current duration — 26 weeks — it creates burdensome new job search requirements and eliminates annual inflation adjustments for weekly payments.
Del. Evan Worrell, R-Cabell, who delivered an impassioned speech against the unemployment bill, said the two chambers had made a trade — unemployment in exchange for pay raises and Social Security. Del. Eric Householder, R-Berkeley, the House Majority leader, would only say he was glad to see “good legislation being passed.”
Del. John Hardy, R-Berkeley, was more coy. “It’s the last night,” he said. “Things happen.”
And things did happen. Outgoing lawmakers said their goodbyes. The usually deadpan House Speaker, Roger Hanshaw, cracked a joke. After a few delegates announced wins at the girl’s basketball tournament, the Clay County Republican, who holds a Ph.D. in chemistry, asked, “Does anyone know who won the state science fair?” Del. Brandon Steele obliged, reading out a win from his home county of Raleigh.
Every year, the 60-day legislative session is an opportunity for West Virginia’s elected lawmakers to make major changes in the state. At the start of the session, there was talk of making child care more affordable for families, figuring out the funding for first responders, and even fixing a high school sports transfer rule that created a season of football blowouts. Besides some tweaks to how ambulances get insurance payments, none of those measures got any traction.
Instead, lawmakers hammered on a “Women’s Bill of Rights” that erased trans West Virginians from state code, debated the merits of showing videos produced by an anti-abortion advocacy group in public school classes and considered a bill that would allow librarians and teachers to be prosecuted if they share books deemed “obscene.”
None of those bills passed, either.
Lawmakers did successfully relax the state’s strict vaccination laws for some families who’ve transitioned to private and homeschools. They passed a bill letting private and parochial schools establish their own vaccination policies and allowing virtual school students to remain unvaccinated.
Senate Health Chair Mike Maroney, R-Marshall and a doctor, asked lawmakers to think of the widespread death and disease that occurred prior to rubella and polio vaccines, and he appealed to pro-life lawmakers by describing the danger to pregnant women caused by rubella, which he noted often led to “spontaneous abortions” — miscarriages. But his fellow senators still approved the bill in a 24-12 vote on Saturday, despite widespread opposition from doctors and medical organizations.
Also on the final day, lawmakers passed a bill meant to protect people living in recovery residences from exploitation, a bill allowing people over 21 to make moonshine for personal use and a bill requiring retailers to verify customers are 21 before selling vapes.
And before they adjourned at midnight, they had completed the one bill they’re required by the state constitution to pass: the budget.
That process was thrown for a loop after concerns were raised late into the session about a potential $465 million “clawback” of federal COVID funds because the state failed to keep up its education spending.
In response, lawmakers stripped the laundry list of projects proposed by the governor, including funding the Flood Resiliency Trust Fund and an infrastructure package for rural hospitals, with promises that they would come back in May to consider those measures once the status on the federal issue is resolved.
The annual session is an important time when the state’s elected officials can pass laws and set spending priorities that will affect West Virginians for years to come. Here’s what lawmakers did or didn’t do in 2024 to address our state’s biggest challenges.
Jump to:
- Pay raises for teachers, police and other state employees
- Changes to unemployment benefits
- Relaxing vaccination requirements
- Boosting workforce
- Reproductive health
- The legacy of fossil fuels
- LGBTQ+ rights
- School discipline
- Racial discrimination
- Child abuse and neglect
- Foster care
- Child care accessibility
- High school sports
Pay raises for teachers, police and other state employees
With health insurance premiums set to increase for those who rely on the Public Employees Insurance Agency, pay raises for state employees loomed over the entire session.
During his State of the State address, Gov. Jim Justice asked the Legislature to pass a budget with a 5% raise, as well as separate raises for teachers and state troopers, who have their pay scale set outside the regular budget.
While the House followed through on pay raises, the Senate largely refused. There, lawmakers had amended the pay raises to be contingent on revenue levels, and by Saturday morning, the two chambers found themselves locking horns.
Over on the House side, an unemployment bill that had faced headwinds was also stalled. By Saturday night, a deal appeared to have been struck, with the Senate passing the raises and the House passing the unemployment bill.
The budget bill also included the 5% raise for public employees across the board.
Dale Lee, president of the West Virginia Education Association, said for teachers the raise would not only off-set the increased insurance costs, but should result in more take-home pay for teachers. Seeing the bill go through took some pressure off teachers who were uncertain if they’d get a raise, Lee said.
“The games are over,” he said.
The House also passed a pay raise for non-uniformed correctional workers, such as counselors, case workers and secretaries who work in the state’s jails and prisons. Those employees were left out last year during a special session that raised pay for correctional officers, where lawmakers only gave those non-uniformed workers a bonus. However, lawmakers on the Senate Finance Committee never took up the bill.
Changes to unemployment benefits
In the final hours of the session, lawmakers passed a bill that would make it harder for people who have lost their job and need to rely on unemployment benefits. Throughout the legislative process, SB 841, which makes several changes to unemployment taxes and benefits, ran up against deadline after deadline before it officially passed on Saturday night.
Senate Republicans introduced the measure on the last possible day to do so, and swiftly passed it out of committee. On Crossover Day, as criticism of the bill mounted, they changed it into a completely different proposal overhauling the state’s unemployment benefits system and sent it to the House.
On Friday afternoon, House leadership shelved the bill, a move that could have killed it entirely. But they took it back up after leadership in the two houses reached an agreement a day later. The bill was then amended once again in the final hours of the session and passed by the House 66-31. The Senate agreed with the House’s changes, sending the bill to the governor.
Things happened so quickly that even as lawmakers discussed passage on the floor Saturday evening, they were still struggling to understand exactly what the bill does.
People will still have 26 weeks of benefits under the final version of the bill. But it will also create new job search requirements and cap benefits and employer payments to the state’s unemployment trust fund at their current amounts.
This means that even as inflation increases wages in the state, unemployment benefits won’t be adjusted to match.
Though the state’s unemployment trust fund is currently stable, supporters argued the bill was needed to protect that fund. Critics meanwhile, note that as inflation continues to rise, the bill will take money away from people who need to use unemployment in the future.
Relaxing vaccination requirements
After years of considering the removal of vaccine requirements for West Virginia school children, the state Senate voted to make immunization optional for some of the state’s kids.
Under current law, West Virginia kids enrolled in public or private schools can only be exempt from mandatory immunizations for medical reasons, not religious or philosophical ones.
But HB 5105 changes that by giving private school administrators the option to not enforce these provisions and removing the requirements for students enrolled in public virtual schools. The old requirements still apply to any student who participates in inter-school extracurricular activities.
Just this week, Kanawha County health officer Dr. Steven Eshenaur spoke against the bill at a Senate Health and Human Resources committee meeting. He described his time as a military doctor in Afghanistan, and what it was like taking trips to villages to treat diseases like polio.
“They were tragic,” Eshenaur said. “Seeing kids with almost every one of the diseases that we don’t see here endemically, I saw there. Parents, mothers crying, bringing their kids, wanting them treated.”
Later in that meeting, Dr. Alvin Moss, a West Virginia University internal medicine doctor who routinely testifies against vaccine mandates at statehouses, told lawmakers that vaccine mandates coerce patients’ medical decisions and go “against the whole idea of informed consent.” Prominent bioethicists have said this argument doesn’t hold up because the vaccines themselves are not forced, but rather required if a student enrolls in a public or private school.
As the bill was up for final passage in the Senate chambers on Saturday, the body’s Health and Human Resources Committee chair Mike Maroney, R-Marshall, said that he urged against the proposal, but his committee wanted to move it forward.
“I took an oath to do no harm,” said Maroney, a medical doctor. “There’s zero chance I could vote for this bill.”
Soon afterwards, the senate passed the vaccine requirement rollback 20-12 . The bill now heads to Gov. Jim Justice’s office to be signed into law.
As the debate wrapped up on the Senate floor Saturday night, Maroney predicted a grim future filled with devastating diseases for West Virginia’s children.
“It’s an embarrassment for me to be a part of it,” he said. “It should be an embarrassment for everybody.”
Workforce
Prior to the start of the session, Gov. Jim Justice made a big announcement: West Virginia was partnering with electronics company LG on an “innovation corridor.” The announcement, officials argued, was the latest proof of the state’s significant progress on economic development.
Experts countered that with this success, the state needed to look beyond the jobs being created to building the workforce that is needed to take them. West Virginia has one of the lowest labor force participation rates in the country, though experts say several things — like better wages and benefits, making it easier for people to stay on public assistance as they find stable work, and reducing barriers for people with criminal records, in recovery, and with health problems — could all help people enter the workforce.
Several bills that could have helped, like banning the box, increasing the minimum wage, and helping people enter jobs after incarceration all failed this year. And while the Senate passed a bill making it easier for people with criminal records to get professional licenses, that bill didn’t make it out of the House Government Organization Committee.
Even workforce-oriented bills that drew public criticism but had more lawmaker support failed to make it through. A bill that reduced protections for children entering the workforce by eliminating youth work permits died in the final days of the session. And a bill that would expand work requirements for able-bodied adults without dependents currently on food stamps passed the Senate before getting stuck in the House Finance Committee.
Reproductive health
After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade in June 2022, anti-abortion lawmakers in West Virginia took steps to almost entirely ban the procedure. As they worked on the ban, they said they were committed to making sure state residents had the support they needed to give birth safely.
But now, nearly two years later, those promises have gone largely unfulfilled.
This year, much like they did in 2023, the overwhelmingly-Republican West Virginia Legislature sat on a bill that would have allowed hundreds of thousands of West Virginians on public insurance plans to be reimbursed for doula birthing services. Research shows access to these birthing coaches reduces the risk of complications during pregnancy, especially for Black parents.
For months, Beth Redden, an Oak Hill midwife, tried to persuade lawmakers to pass either a House or Senate bill that would have created licensure for certified professional midwives. Redden said this license was one critical step toward providing appropriate health care in the dozens of counties without reliable access to birthing services.
But the lawmakers Redden and other West Virginia midwives tried to convince to put the bills on committee agendas took no action, and the bills died.
To the West Virginians who live in places where they still can’t get reliable birthing care, Redden said she’s sorry.
“I’m sorry that our legislators did not hear our cries for help,” she said. “The midwives of the state are trying to make things better. But we can only do as much as our Legislature is willing to do.”
But lawmakers considered but did not pass a bill that is designed to further dissuade the handful of people who were able to get abortions through the narrow legal pathways in state law.
The legacy of fossil fuels
As West Virginians continue to wrestle with the damage left by fossil fuel industries, lawmakers did little this legislative session to help communities tackle the ongoing environmental and public health impacts from a long legacy of coal mining and gas drilling.
There was a litany of bills — backed by environmental groups — that languished in the Legislature, including measures to allow community solar, protect net metering and clean up natural gas wells.
Despite the tens of thousands of non-producing wells scattered across the state that could be leaking methane, polluting groundwater and damaging soil, lawmakers didn’t consider either of the two bills that would have helped prevent future damage by requiring companies to put up more money to plug those wells.
Lawmakers did consider other measures, including one that would have limited the use of citizen-collected air monitoring data unless it meets strict quality criteria as well as a bill that would have given coal companies a tax credit for up to $100,000 spent on road and highway improvement projects. While both passed the House, the bills stalled in the Senate.
Meanwhile, the Senate approved a piece of legislation framed as a wildfire prevention measure, which sparked concerns that it would allow timbering in state parks. The bill didn’t make it through the House.
Lawmakers considered but did not pass a measure that would create another program to revitalize West Virginia’s struggling coalfield communities — even though little has been done by a similar program created two years ago. They did pass a bill that removed the sunset provision on a renewable energy facility program and increased the cap on renewable energy programs from 50 to 100 megawatts.
LGBTQ rights and social issues
Throughout the session, the Republican supermajority repeatedly targeted transgender and non-binary West Virginians with several measures, including bills that would ban hormone therapy for minors diagnosed with gender dysphoria, a couple iterations of a bathroom ban, and banning non-binary as a marker on a birth certificate.
But for the most part, these bills didn’t make it: by the time the dust settled on Saturday night, only the non-binary birth certificate bill had made it to the governor’s desk.
Both the House and Senate passed versions of legislation that lawmakers called the “Women’s Bill of Rights,” but which really would erase transgender people from state code by stating that only the sex assigned to a person at birth is accurate.
Despite efforts by the Senate Judiciary Committee late Saturday to revive it, both versions of the bill were drowned in Democratic amendments. In the House, Del. Kayla Young, D-Kanawha, offered a list of amendments while Sen. Mike Caputo, D-Marion, did the same in the Senate.
Lawmakers were able to get across the line a bill that could open the door to the teaching of creationism and intelligent design in school, but bills that would’ve expanded armed security and teachers in schools, had students watch a video on human conception produced by an anti-abortion group, and a bill that could have led to librarians and teachers getting tossed in jail all died.
School discipline
West Virginia has among the highest rates of child poverty, child abuse cases and children with disabilities. All of those factors can show up at school, whether that’s a hungry student falling asleep or a kid with anxiety or ADHD acting out because they need help.
As teachers reported kids were becoming more disruptive, education officials have said they would work on solutions to keep kids in class rather than suspending them. They also released a report last year that showed kids who are low-income, Black, in foster care, or have disabilities were more likely to be suspended and lose instructional time.
Lawmakers responded last year with a bill to give teachers in grades six through 12 wider latitude to kick students out of class. They spent much of their time this session debating legislation to also make it easier to suspend elementary students. The West Virginia Education Association had said the bill was needed for safety reasons like kids fighting and attacking teachers.
But on the final night of session, the bill died.
Also last year, lawmakers passed a bill to create new aides to help with math and literacy in elementary school classrooms, and many special education aides left this year for those positions. And despite considering pay raises, lawmakers didn’t do anything this year about the loss of those special education aides.
Racial discrimination
For the past three years, Black West Virginians have come to the Capitol to put their needs directly in front of lawmakers.
A community-driven “Black Policy Agenda” of proposals that could help included the CROWN Act, the creation of tax credits for diversity and inclusion, more support for people in the justice system, a state minority health equity team, and equal funding for West Virginia State University, one of two historically Black colleges in the state.
Legislators left Charleston again this year without delivering on those requests.
The CROWN Act, which would prohibit discrimination based on hairstyle and texture, was killed shortly before Crossover Day. A House budget amendment that would have given WVSU $50 million for an agriculture lab — a mere fraction of the $852 million owed to the university — was voted down.
House Democrats also raised concerns that SB 173, a bill that will restrict automobile manufacturers and distributors’ ability to sell to dealerships to their preferred buyer, will negatively impact Black West Virginians who are a small minority of dealership owners. Lawmakers passed the bill anyway.
Still Black communities around the state say that they will continue to advocate for their needs, and will continue to push for policy that will help.
Child abuse and neglect
West Virginia health officials investigate the highest number of child abuse cases in the country, and substantiated cases have led to the highest rate of kids in foster care as of 2021, the most recently available data from the child welfare advocacy Annie E. Casey Foundation. And West Virginia’s high rate of poverty makes it harder on families to meet children’s basic needs. More West Virginians than nearly any other state or territory live below the federal poverty line.
HB 4595, increasing homeschooling options, was amended to prevent parents from switching public school students to homeschooling after teachers report suspected abuse. That bill, which included the provision known as “Raylee’s Law”, made some progress, but it also died. An effort to give lawmakers more information about child protective services system failures, as well as a provision within that would have continued to shield those investigations from public scrutiny, died as well.
Foster care
During his last State of the State address, Gov. Jim Justice acknowledged that the state’s foster care system needed “tons of work”. However, the bills introduced by lawmakers during this legislative session failed to address the major issues raised in a class action lawsuit filed by former foster children against the former Department of Health and Human Resources.
Lawmakers considered bills aimed at putting more oversight on the department, increasing the pay of attorneys serving as guardians ad litem, and prohibiting cameras in foster kids’ bedrooms and bathrooms, but all died before the final night.
One piece of legislation that did make it was the creation of an information portal for foster parents to access information about their foster kids.
Although a spokesperson for the House said informal meetings are regularly held to address the issues, lawmakers didn’t introduce a plan to address case overload for social workers or legislation requiring a three-day-plan for children coming into the system.
The new Department of Human Services, however, has launched a hiring campaign for both CPS workers and ads seeking foster families during this legislative session. Still, funding for the department to hire 100 CPS workers to comply with a law passed last year was not included in either the governor’s, House or Senate budgets.
Child care
Child care accessibility has long been a struggle in the state. Legislators are pushing for more businesses to come to West Virginia, but providing the workers those companies need is tough without adequate child care.
Some lawmakers have said that child care accessibility is not the responsibility of the government, but of companies. Yet none of the four bills lawmakers introduced to encourage businesses to offer child care for their employees (SB 258, SB 373, HB 5052 and HB 5506) made it out of their chamber of origin.
Another four bills establishing a child care tax credit for families were introduced, but none made it past a single committee.
With centers losing federal funding, lawmakers also failed to pass an alternative funding measure to help centers from closing down across the state during this legislative session. There were bills that would have changed the way providers are reimbursed, but neither the House nor the Senate version of that bill cleared its respective chamber.
High school sports
Before the session started, some lawmakers and the governor made noise about closing up a high school sports transfer portal the Legislature created last year. But that effort failed to even make a committee agenda.
HB 5011 would’ve closed the opening that allowed for student athletes in high school to transfer without losing eligibility to play for a year. The portal has led to uneven playing fields, especially in football. A Mountain State Spotlight analysis found a rapid rise in blowout victories during the 2023 football season.
Critics of the portal say it’s led to the rise of superteams, especially in areas where there are a number of high schools in close proximity such as the Kanawha Valley and the Eastern Panhandle.
Bill sponsor Del. Dana Ferrell, R-Kanwaha, said he had worked out a compromise to close the portal to upperclassmen, but he couldn’t find enough support in the Republican caucus.
Over on the Senate side, a bill that would’ve allowed high school athletes to participate in travel ball teams passed, but it was never taken up by the House. Critics of that bill said there were concerns this would lead to student athletes overusing their muscles, resulting in more injuries.