Capital Eye Vol. 15 No. 7: Week Seven of the WV Legislative Session

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It’s the SEVENTH full week of the 2022 Legislative Session! Stay up-to-date on what’s happening under the dome by watching for our weekly Capital Eye e-blast and following us on Facebook and Twitter. Encourage your friends to stay-up-to-date, too, by signing up for our emails (you can also use this form to update your email interests).

Click on the articles below to see what’s been happening.

Bookmark our events page to keep track of upcoming events! Also, here are some additional actions you can take.

If you find this newsletter informative and valuable, please join us by becoming a supporting member of Citizen Action!

Your Contributions Important to ‘Life After Session’

This time of year we start joking about what life will be like after the craziness of the legislative session. This being an election year we’ll be transitioning to voter education, engagement, and all manner of support for getting better legislators behind the desks at the State Capitol. Your continued support and volunteering will be essential to getting this critical work done! Please take a minute to renew or become a supporting member of WV CAG! A big THANKS to all of YOU who have already done so!

TAKE ACTION:

TODAY – Tell your Legislators to Preserve Our State Parks and Forests!
Public hearing on HB 4840 TONIGHT, Monday, Feb. 28, at 6:00 pm. This bill would gut the enforcement of the Office of Miners Health, Safety and Training, and heads to the floor for passage on Wednesday unless derailed. Watch it live, Call Speaker Handshaw and ask him to ‘Park This Bill!’, and Call your Delegates to reject this if it’s voted on.
Tell members of the Senate Judiciary Committee and your Senators: Reject HB 4785! This bill would strip West Virginians of their ability to have a say in who fills vacancies on the State Supreme Court. Write a letter to the editor on HB 4785 using this toolkit.
Stop HB 4007 – Tell our WV legislators: No more tax cuts for the 1%, invest in us! HB 4007 would shift a higher percentage of the tax burden onto lower-earning West Virginians with cuts in the personal income tax – our wealthiest West Virginians don’t need it.
Calls to the Senate Needed to Support Diabetes Bill – Take Action on HB 4252.
Help Create a Medicaid Buy-In for Working West Virginians
Ensure WVDEP has Adequate Oil & Gas Inspectors to Protect Our Waters!
Support SB 488 – Tell legislators it’s time to end voter disenfranchisement.
Contact House Finance Committee Members to tell them No to the “Blame the Unemployed” bills SB 2 and 3!

UPCOMING EVENTS:

– – March 4th: First Friday Gathering at the WVCAG office – 5PM
Join us for lively discussion, snacks, beverages and solidarity at 1500 Dixie St. in Charleston, WV.

Crossover Day in this ‘Overreach’ Session
When leadership has a bill they really want to keep alive, there are ways to amend them into other legislation that can survive Crossover from their house of origin. In short, nothing is really dead until the very end.
Tagged: Worker's Safety, WV Legislature

Voting Rights Restoration Bill in Jeopardy; Several Bad Bills Advancing
As we head into the final two weeks here’s a look at various election and court related bills that are still in play and their status.
Tagged: Clean elections, Dark Money, Democracy, Fair Courts, Inequality, Voting Rights

Good News on Health Initiatives
As we face down “cross-over” day in the state legislature, it feels like we are being hit with one bad bill after another. But there are two good health care bills moving forward...

Environmental Update
Companion bills HB 4408/SB 485 expanding private companies’ ability to develop recreational facilities were voted on in their respective committees last week...
Tagged: Aboveground Storage Tanks, Air Quality, Corporate Interests, Environment, Gas Wells, Oil and Gas, Pollution, Privatization, Surface Owner Rights, Water, water quality, Worker's Safety

Reject Ineffective and Harmful Cuts to Earned Unemployment Benefits
Essential workers were championed throughout the pandemic for their critical jobs keeping our economy afloat. But now, West Virginia legislators are considering gutting earned unemployment benefits for those very same workers if they lose their jobs through no fault of their own.
Tagged: Unemployment benefits, Workers

Medicaid Helped Her Work and From Falling Through the Cracks
Working from home during COVID gave her the ability to both do her job while working around her many health challenges, and care for Micah, her adult special needs daughter. As someone with disabilities, Priscilla was able to keep her Medicaid while working full-time through a program called M-WIN.
Tagged: Disabilities, Health Insurance, Medicaid