House Of Delegates

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Members of the West Virginia Legislature have one full week remaining in the 60-day regular session, and 58 bills have been completed so far.

All 100 members of the House of Delegates voted Wednesday to establish a communication portal for foster parents. House Bill 4975 would require the Department of Human Services to set up a foster parent information system within the existing child welfare information technology system. The cost to sustain the system would be split equally between federal and state dollars.

The bill also would take additional steps to improve conditions within the child welfare system by requiring quarterly evaluations of child protective workers’ responses to information put in the new information technology system. The evaluations would be shared with the Foster Care Ombudsman and the Legislative Oversight Commission on Health and Human Resources Accountability.

The bill’s lead sponsor, Delegate Adam Burkhammer, R-Lewis, is a foster parent. He described the measure as one step forward in a broad approach to improving the entire child welfare system.

“Once it’s proved how technology runs in this system, it can grow and it can bring other people into the system, ultimately helping across the board,” he said. “I am passionate about this.”

West Virginians who successfully file claims of less than $3,000 against the state for road conditions would receive that money faster under the proposals of a bill Delegates unanimously passed Wednesday. House Bill 5595 would authorize those payments, which usually stem from extreme pothole damage, to come through the Legislative Claims Commission outside its regular claims process, which can take many months to resolve.

A bill that would create the Skilled Trades Apprenticeship Nontraditional Degree (STAND) program overwhelmingly passed the House Tuesday. House Bill 5435 would create within the West Virginia Community and Technical College System a program for apprentices or journeyworkers to obtain associate degrees in applied science while they perform on-the-job training and gain practical skills through federally recognized apprenticeship programs.

The House of Delegates unanimously voted Tuesday in favor of House Bill 5399, which would modify the state auditing practices and requirements of volunteer and part-volunteer fire departments. It would eliminate duplicative fiscal audit requirements and would allow as many as 10 volunteer fire departments to participate in a pilot program using the West Virginia Auditor’s Office West Virginia Checkbook fiscal reporting system. The proposal came from the work of several lawmakers during the legislative interim process after hearing from fire departments asking for ways to relieve their administrative burdens.

Also Tuesday the House voted unanimously in favor of House Bill 4882, which was introduced at the request of the governor. The measure would provide in-state tuition rates for all members and veterans of the National Guard, Reserves and Armed Forces as well as their spouses and dependents.

Members of the House of Delegates unanimously approved House Bill 5530 Monday, which would require hospitals to disclose price and fee information for certain hospital services, in line with existing federal regulations, and would add a $250 fine for hospitals that don’t comply. House Health and Human Resources Committee Chair Amy Summers, R-Taylor, is the lead sponsor of the bill and explained not all hospitals follow the current regulations, but the fine may help drive them toward following the law that provides for better customer service in health care.

All these bills have gone to the West Virginia Senate for debate. The regular legislative session ends at midnight Saturday, March 9.