By Steven Allen Adams

The Intelligencer 

Wheeling

Last year, an effort by the West Virginia Legislature to address student discipline problems in elementary school grades died on the last night of the 2024 session. But lawmakers this year worked together to get a bill complete weeks before the end of the 2025 session.

The House of Delegates passed Senate Bill 199, relating to elementary behavior intervention and safety in a 94-3 vote Tuesday morning. The state Senate is expected to concur Wednesday with changes made to the bill.

SB 199 is similar to Senate Bill 614, which died in the final hours of the 2024 legislative session over disagreements between the House and the state Senate. But House Education Committee Chairman Joe Ellington, R-Mercer, said both chambers came to agreement on what was needed to pass the bill.

“I think this is something that should have gone through last year. It was a little beneficial that we made the changes this year,” Ellington said on the House floor Tuesday. 

“It is something that is needed. You’re not only taking care of the student that may be disciplined or potentially disciplined, but maybe their behavior is corrected. It also helps the other students in the classroom and also just helps things run a lot smoother in class, with more satisfaction from our teachers, staff, and the students and parents.”

State Senate Education Committee Chairwoman Amy Grady, R-Mason, was the lead sponsor of SB 614 last year. Speaking Tuesday evening prior to the start of the Senate’s floor session, Grady said she was pleased to see SB 199 one step closer to the desk of Gov. Patrick Morrisey.

“I feel really great, especially seeing that it passed the House 96-3, which tells me it has bipartisan support, which means it’s a much better bill than it was last year,” Grady said. 

Read more: Elementary school discipline bill completes Legislative action after dying last year

By Kris Warner, WV Secretary of State

On March 26, 2025, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) filed an interim final rule that substantially relieves undue burdens on domestic businesses previously imposed by the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA). 

Along with 19 of my colleagues in other states, we wrote a letter encouraging President Trump to prevent federal agencies from pursuing or punishing hardworking Americans with which they disagree. We were successful, and now FinCEN will focus only on foreign businesses, which was the initial purpose of the regulation. 

This limited scope is a good step forward in the states’ battle against federal overreach and overly broad regulations.

However, there’s more work to be done to protect West Virginia businesses. For example, an IRS final rule went into effect on January 14, 2025, which targets certain partnerships that avail themselves to existing business models and tax laws.

Known as basis-shifting, many partnerships reduce their tax obligations in accordance with federal law. With the new federal regulation, the IRS stood up a new division to target certain partnerships that exercise their rights under those laws. 

Worse, enforcement does not begin from the effective date of the final rule, but has a look-back period for activities that occurred in the previous six years. Of course, noncompliance can result in severe penalties.

Read more: Broad-strokes federal regulations and unintended consequences could harm West Virginia businesses

Press Staff

It is disturbing to hear that the House of Delegates is considering rewriting the FOIA rules that say what is considered public information.

The Freedom Of Information Act has been around since 1966, almost 60 years. Not a very long time since many of you can claim that year as part of your personal history. And not long enough when it comes to our government being transparent in their daily job of taking care of its citizens.

While many voters have cheered the turnover of the state Legislature’s power from the many years of Democratic rule to the Republican party, the ruling party shouldn’t make changes just because they can.

Majority rule doesn’t always equate to common sense rule. The kind of sense that makes you stand up against the crowd if necessary — a hard thing to do. It also means we don’t want objections to good ideas just because it wasn’t your party’s idea or a petty retaliation for past injury.

FOIA has gone through changes over the years, mostly on the federal level, all depending on who was “in charge” at the time and often the circumstances of current world affairs.

FOIA has also been misused by individuals inundating offices with multiple requests all for the purpose of disrupting government business. There’s always an opportunity for abuse on either side.

While it seems unclear what the exact intentions of the House of Delegates is, it should take more than several days discussion to enact change to the hard-fought win of those who sought to stop government officials from saving their own skin by placing a “top secret” label on undeserving information.

Are there some exemptions? Yes, and for good reason. But does what the House is concerned about fall under one of these good reasons? 

It may seem like a good idea for now, but is it good for us in the long run?

My wife’s grandfather Lyle Harlow was a prisoner of war in World War II and survived the Bataan Death March. He had an attitude about the Japanese soldiers and people. My father-n-law also fought in WW II and was hurt in the Battle of the Bulge. He had negative comments to make about the Japanese. 

When I bought a Toyota Celica back in 1978 my father-n-law was not impressed since he had worked many years for General Motors and always drove a Chevrolet. However, never in either of the two men’s wildest imagination did they ever express any desire or interest in burning my Toyota or anyone else’s Toyota. 

My $7,000 Celica was a great car but it was hard for me to make the payments back in 1978. My wife and I were in school struggling to just get by from one small check to the next. 

Read more: How would you feel if someone burned your car?

Something interesting happened as Republican U.S. House members who represent conservative districts returned to Washington after their recent break. 

As you may have seen or read, several of them confronted “town hall” crowds at home that were upset about the turmoil facing federal employees, angry about Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and on edge about the extent and depth of the GOP’s budget-cutting plans, especially involving Medicaid.

The result: Georgia’s Rick McCormick told reporters, “I’m concerned that maybe we’re moving a little bit too fast.” Another member, Wisconsin Rep. Scott Fitzgerald, told NBC that he and his colleagues need to know more specifics about what’s being done by Musk and Trump Administration officials. 

“We don’t know what they’re looking at, and we don’t know what the numbers are,” he said. “I’m learning about this when I see a broadcast as much as anyone else right now, because we haven’t been briefed on it.”

Neither of those is a statement of congressional strength and resolve. They’re a recognition of what ordinary Americans—the concerned Republicans showing up at those town halls, the Democrats besieging their legislators to be more forceful in confronting the actions taken by the Trump Administration—know full well: In our representative democracy, it’s our members of Congress who carry our voice to Washington.

And they do more than that. It’s their responsibility to fund the government—and by this I mean not “the government” as a vague entity, but each and every agency and department and nook and cranny, which means knowing what those offices do, why they do it, and how they go about it. 

It’s their responsibility to oversee those agencies and departments, and make sure they’re acting both according to the law and in the best interests of the American people. In short, it’s their responsibility—and certainly not an unelected billionaire’s—to keep an eye on the details of how agencies are being run and how taxpayers’ money is being spent.

Who gave Congress this responsibility? It’s in the Constitution, our nation’s founding document. In fact, Congress’s roles come first in the Constitution, and there’s a reason for this: If, like the founders, you believe that a country is at its strongest and most vigorous when its citizens have a direct say through elections in who governs them, and a direct line to the halls of power through their representatives, then you make it clear that’s where your priorities lie by putting Congress first. 

And you make it the equal of the President, because you also believe that a balance of power keeps any single branch from running amok.

For some time, Congress has struggled to fulfill its role as a co-equal branch. Presidents are always happy to chip away at congressional power. The issues our country faces are complex and politically charged, and members of Congress over the years have been all too willing to let the White House take the heat. 

The result is that it’s gotten into bad habits that have eroded its ability to act with the vigor it needs: like omnibus bills that bypass the committee hearings and input by rank-and-file members that would make it a truly representative body; oversight that’s concerned with scoring political points, not with the efficiency and effectiveness of executive branch agencies; a work schedule that lets members raise money and boost their national profiles, but doesn’t require much in the way of actual legislating.

But you can lament a Congress that’s too often gotten off track without believing that when it comes to steering this country it should be bypassed. The Trump Administration has embarked on a wholesale reordering of our country. 

At a minimum, Congress should be hauling DOGE staff in front of committees to press them on precisely what they’re doing, why they’re dismantling crucial government functions—including those that lie at the heart of our national security—and precisely what they intend. 

Many Americans believe that we’re already weaker as a nation than we were. It’s up to Congress to pay attention and do something about it.

Lee Hamilton is a senior adviser for the Indiana University Center on Representative Government and was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for 34 years.

By Charles Young

WV News

Following two hours of debate, the West Virginia House of Delegates rejected a bill Monday that would have allowed exemptions to current school vaccination policies.

Senate Bill 460 failed by a vote of 42-56, with two members absent or not voting. 

The legislation would have allowed parents to seek out an exemption to a “specific compulsory immunization” from their licensed physician, physicians assistant or nurse practitioner if the health care provider determines the immunization “is or may be detrimental” to a child’s heath, said Del. Evan Worrell, R-Cabell, chair of the House Health and Human Resources Committee.

Health care providers providing these exemptions would have been required to submit the number of exemptions they have approved and the home county of the person seeking the exemption to the State Health Officer, who would submit the information to the West Virginia Legislature annually.

Schools and state-funded child care centers would be prevented from prohibiting children who received vaccine exemptions from participating in extracurricular activities or school-based events. 

The bill allowed the state’s private schools to set their own policies on vaccinations.

Del. Keith Marple, R-Harrison, who is 81, urged his colleagues to vote against the bill. He cited numerous people he has known who dealt with lifelong complications from polio. 

”We’re here today voting not just on one child, not just on 100 children, not on 1,000 children, but on the thousands of children in West Virginia coming into school age,” he said. “Are we going to protect them? Or are we going to let them take their chances.”

Read more: West Virginia House rejects vaccine exemption bill after lengthy debate

The Parkersburg News & Sentinel

One is tempted to wonder who in the motorcycle insurance industry got hold of state lawmakers this year, after discussion of a couple of motorcycle-related ideas in the House of Delegates. House Bill 2752 has actually been dubbed a “freedom from leg cramps bill” by state Del. Chris Philipps, R-Barbour, who was a co-sponsor. It would let riders operate motorcycles or mopeds while standing as long as the rider faces forward and their feet are on the pedals.

That passed the House 80-17.

Meanwhile, Del. David Foggin, R-Wood, offered an amendment that would have let motorcyclists ride without a helmet in the state. The idea there was “freedom” driven, but also to somehow attract tourists.

An argument was made that Ohio and Kentucky do not have helmet requirements.

If Ohio and Kentucky jumped off a cliff, would West Virginia?

Between 2019 and 2023, the Ohio State Highway Patrol says there were 1,045 motorcyclists killed in motorcycle-related crashes. During those same four years, there were 180 motorcyclist fatalities in West Virginia, according to the Governor’s Highway Safety Program.

Read more: Stunts: West Virginia lawmakers must address real needs

Officer in-service training exchange, hiring of SROs, in-state credit transfer, school cell phone ban

By Ann Ali

Deputy Chief of Staff and Communications Director 

Week ending March 21

Members of the House of Delegates voted this week to pass several education-related bills to the Senate for debate as the legislative deadline for bills to pass from one Chamber to the other approaches.

House Bill 2802, which passed the House by a vote of 98-0 Tuesday, was inspired by a successful local partnership between law enforcement and schools. It would allow law enforcement officers to substitute as many as eight of their required 16 hours of annual in-service training for hours served on-site in a school safety program.

“The thought is that officers would spend time in schools within their jurisdiction or immediately surrounding their jurisdiction, knowing that in the event of a school shooting every officer from anywhere close to that area is going to be responding to the school,” said HB2802 Lead Sponsor Delegate Jonathan Pinson, R-Mason. 

“If officers have had the opportunity to take eight of their 16 hours of in-service training inside a local school somewhere, they know where the cafeteria is, so if they get a call that a school shooter is in the cafeteria, that institutional knowledge will already be present; they’re not trying to figure out where the classrooms are, they’re not trying to figure out where certain facilities are.”

Pinson said he began working nearly four months ago with the state’s Law Enforcement Professional Standards (LEPS) Subcommittee of the Governor’s Committee on Crime, Delinquency and Corrections, which is responsible for law enforcement officers’ training and certification. The program is being modeled after the Shield Program in Jackson County, which is in Pinson’s district.

“Ultimately, they agreed this is an excellent idea,” he said, noting the bill was needed to allow the LEPS Subcommittee to set the parameters of a program and the subcommittee had already voted to create this one-to-one exchange for training hours. 

Read more: This week in the West Virginia House of Delegates