Legislative Update: Critical Votes Ahead – Here’s What’s at Stake

Here are updates on bills we flagged last week, plus new developments, and ways to take action.

Climate & Energy

• Utility Regulation:
• • • Ratepayer Bill of Rights, HB 5648, has been introduced and is pending in the House Committee on Energy and Public Works.
    • Take Action:
      • Call your House Delegate to urge them to support the bill and protect WV ratepayers. Then follow-up by sending a message!
      • Attend Affordability Day at the Capitol next Thursday, Feb. 26: Meet with your legislators and show your support. Learn more and sign up here.

• Clean Water:
• • • Urge the House Energy and Public Works Committee to place the Clean Water Act, HB 5585, on its agenda. This bill is the crucial emergency funding piece needed to bring immediate help to southern WV. 
      • You can add a public comment directly to the bill on the WV Legislature website and let lawmakers know this can’t wait. Find the “add a public comment to this bill” button to the right of the bill number.
      • Watch our reel and read coalfield residents’ demands from Rural Advocacy Day at the Capitol.  

• Data Centers:
• • • HB 4983 advances the rulemaking for 145 CSR 20, which passed the House during the 2025 session as HB 2014. This rule defines the process for certification of data center sites. However, the rules approved by the Legislative Rule Making Review Committee lack important transparency provisions that would provide the public with basic facts about what’s being proposed for their communities.
      
      Attempts to amend the bill to address concerns about water impacts from high-impact data centers and requiring developers to disclose water usage information were rejected. Learn more. HB 4983 is now pending in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

• • • Meanwhile, HB 4013, which would provide additional tax cuts and incentives to support data center development, has not returned to the House Finance Committee agenda since it was removed more than a week ago. The state wouldn’t see any meaningful tax benefits from these deals, shifting the cost and environmental burden even further onto regular West Virginians. We are continuing to watch this bill closely with the support of the WV Environmental Council. Take action here.

Healthcare

• Reproductive Freedom:
  • • The WV Senate passed SB 173, a bill that is aimed at restricting access to abortion pills sent through the mail. It is now pending in the House Judiciary Committee. 
      • Take Action: Attend Reproductive Justice Day March 6!

    • SB 805 passed the Senate Health & Human Resources Committee today, Feb. 19. SB 805, framed as “abortion pill reversal,” is now referred to the Senate Finance Committee, signaling it would spend state dollars boosting pregnancy care organizations. Critics say it doesn’t address West Virginia’s maternity care crisis and could divert resources from regulated hospitals and clinics to centers that aren’t medical providers, aren’t regulated, and aren’t bound by HIPAA. Learn more and take action here.

• Budget Priorities: 
• • • Gov. Patrick Morrisey’s tax-cut pitch is riding on a budgeting gimmick: plugging a permanent hole with temporary money. Morrisey’s budget balances his 10% income tax cut by using one-time surplus funds to cover ongoing costs—including Medicaid—after shifting more than $100 million out of the agency that pays the Medicaid bill. Critics say that’s a risky way to “pay for” a permanent tax cut because surplus money may not be there next year.

    • The Senate and House have both begun work on the budget. The Senate’s version includes the Governor’s 10% tax cut, but the House’s proposal wouldn’t provide any cut to the state’s personal income tax. Read more about the differences here.

Democracy & Human Rights

• Elections:
• • • The House and the Senate have introduced more than 100 election-related bills. The House has passed a total of five election bills (sending two to the Senate yesterday.) It is on track to pass four more this week, including a bill, SB 640, passed by the Senate earlier this week that will stop the public from accessing employer information about people who donate to political candidates and campaigns. The Senate has passed four election-related bills so far (including SB 640), and others are working their way through the committee process.

      Not all of the bills are bad, but the majority are conspiracy-based bills born from baseless hysteria around voter fraud that will make it harder for West Virginians to vote and unnecessarily complicate the work of election officials.

      Others, like SB 640, decrease transparency of political spending or roll back measures intended to reduce the influence wealthy special interests have over the political process and decisions that impact our lives. In that vein, the Senate has also passed SB 643, which repeals West Virginia’s public campaign financing program that sought to protect judges from the pressures and conflicts of interest that campaign fundraising creates. Eliminating this program for Supreme Court elections is disappointing, but its demise is just another failure of our broken electoral system.

    • All this is happening as Congress is moving to mandate proof of citizenship for voting in federal elections. This anti-democratic bill will make it significantly harder, if not outright impossible, for millions of eligible voters to register to vote. 
      • Take Action: Use this click and send tool to tell WV Senators and Representatives to stop the SAVE Act.

• Immigration Enforcement: 
• • • SB 615, passed the Senate on Feb. 9, and is referred to the House Judiciary Committee. This bill mandates that state and local law enforcement must immediately transfer any person identified as an undocumented immigrant to federal authorities for deportation. WVMetroNews reported on the role of WV state and local law enforcement in the ongoing anti-immigrant surge and the federal dollars being used to entice them to participate.

    • The Senate has also passed HB 4433 which would criminalize providing basic aid to undocumented residents and exempt undocumented migrants from restitution if they’re victims of human trafficking. The Senate requests the House agree to its changes. Read more here.