By Matthew Young, RealWV
Week three of the 2025 Legislative Session is now in the books, and some lawmakers, at least, seemed to take it a bit more seriously.
For starters, House Bill (HB) 2814 – a bill that, at first glance, comes across as being fairly straightforward and logical – was introduced on Monday, by Del. Bill Ridenour, R-Jefferson. Simply put, the bill would require the state’s governor to create what it calls a “whole-of-government plan to deal with crises that can pose existential or major threats to the people and governance of West Virginia.” As examples of these “existential threats,” the bill lists nuclear war, disruptions to the energy grid, cyber attacks, invasions, and insurrections.
However, in what one must assume was an oversight during its drafting phase, the bill makes no mention of natural disasters. With half of West Virginia being under water as recently as last week, you would think natural disasters would be a little further up on that list of existential threats. But in fairness, Vladimir Putin might Netflix and chill this weekend while watching “Red Dawn” and get some wild ideas.
Right now the bill is pending in the House Committee on Government Organization. If it does get taken up, maybe somebody will think about sticking an amendment on it to address the situations that are possibly just a teensy bit more likely to occur in West Virginia.
HB 2354 is another bill that presents itself as being rational and well thought out. Introduced by Del. “Hammerin” Adam Burkhammer, R-Lewis, the bill seeks to ban some potentially harmful food additives from school lunches. In a mind-blowing turn of events, and aside from calling Burkhammer “Hammerin,” I have absolutely nothing juvenile or sarcastic to say about this bill, and I’m just as shocked as anybody about that.
HB 2354 passed the House by a vote of 93 to 5. It moves over to the Senate now, and the expectation is that it will pass through their chamber just as easily.
Del. Kayla Young, D-Kanawha, introduced a bill that would require public schools to provide female students with feminine hygiene products. If my math is correct, this is the 837th consecutive year that this has been proposed. And seeing as how it’s an idea that could provide some real help for kids and families, my guess is that this will be the 837th consecutive year that the bill doesn’t go anywhere. It really does make you think about that whole “definition of insanity” deal though, doesn’t it?
These next two I really like. And please remember: I said SOME lawmakers seem to be taking things a bit more seriously…
HB 2959 and HB 2887 – one wants to repeal West Virginia’s ban on machine guns, and the other wants to make recreational pot smoking legal. Introduced by Delegates Chuck Horst, R-Berkeley, and Evan Hansen, D-Monongalia, respectively, this is like the dynamic duo of economic stimulus. Just think about it for a second – by this time next year, we could all be walking around, high as a kite, and pretending to be Jesse “The Body” Ventura, taking out the Predator with a chain gun.
Also, legalizing pot is a Democratic fantasy that carried over from last year. The odds of it actually happening are, shall we say, slim. The machine gun thing though, the Vegas bookies have that down as two-to-one on a party-line pass.
But the award for the awesomesauciest legislative proposal of the week has got to go to Del. Henry Dillon, R-Wayne, for wanting to amend West Virginia’s constitution to declare the Christian Bible as the “utmost authority for human and moral behavior.” I don’t know about you, but I can’t think of a single clause that would prevent our government from establishing a state religion.
On the Senate side of the building, budget cuts were the talk of, well, their side of the building. Some pretty big proposed cuts would impact the State’s Department of Arts, Culture and History, as well as the Department of Tourism. In fact, the cuts proposed are so deep that, if Gov. Patrick Morrisey has his way, those two departments will become one department.
After the departure of former Secretary of Arts, Culture and History Randall Reid-Smith two weeks ago, Tourism Secretary Chelsea Ruby has been running both departments. If the departments are combined, it’s a safe bet that Ruby will continue on in her role.
If this happens, I have some name suggestions for what we can call the new department…
The Department of Artism.
Wait, how about the Department of Histism?
No, no – I got it! The Department of Tourture. That name is solid gold.
Lawmakers have until March 18 to introduce new bills. Let’s see just how wacky wacky can get in the next two weeks.
