We’ve only got 17 days left in the 2015 legislative session. That means that time is running short and a number of deadlines are coming up this week. These deadlines structure the legislative session calendar to ensure that as much activity as possible occurs in the 60 day session.

This week, we are highlighting the deadlines that have recently passed or are on the horizon in the coming days.

Last Day to Introduce Bills

Senate Rule 14 and House Rule 91a state that the Senate cannot introduce any bills after the forty-first day of the session and that the House cannot introduce any bills after the forty-second day of the session.

For the 2015 session, the last day to introduce bills in the Senate was this past Monday, Feb. 23, and the last day to introduce bills in the House was Tuesday, Feb. 24.

Legislators often introduce a substantial number of bills in these final days. This year, the House introduced 126 new bills on the final day for introduction and the Senate introduced 42 new bills on their final day for introduction. While this is more than have been introduced in the final days of the last few years, it’s not substantially out of the norm.

For bills that are introduced in the final days, though, there are significant hurdles to overcome to stay alive. On average, about 10 percent of bills introduced at the very end of the session pass into law. The vast majority of the 168 bills introduced this week will never make it out of committee.

That is because a second deadline comes almost immediately after the final day of introduction deadline: the Forty-Seventh Day Deadline.

Bills Due Out of Committee

House and Senate rules require every bill to have three full readings on the floor before the bill can be voted on (House Rule 102, Senate Rule 19). Generally, this means that a bill must be read on the floor over a three day time period before the final vote on the third day.

In order to comply with those rules, bills must be out of committee and on the floor of their house of origin for their first reading on the forty-seventh day of the legislature. The house of origin means that bills that were introduced on the Senate side have to be out of all Senate committees by the forty-seventh day, and bills introduced on the House side have to be out of all House committees by the same day. The forty-seventh day falls on Sunday, March 1 this year. If the Legislature does not meet over the weekend, every bill will have to be out of committee by this Friday, Feb. 27.

The forty-seventh day deadline gives bills time to be read on the floor of their house of origin before crossover day, the third deadline of the coming week.

Crossover Day

Bills must be out of their house of origin by the fiftieth day of the session. To pass out of its house of origin, a bill must have three readings (or have that requirement suspended by a 4/5ths vote) and be voted for by a majority of members. Any bill that does not achieve this by March 4 will have died and will have to try again next year. Every bill that does pass this deadline moves into the opposite chamber and has 10 days to speed through passage on that side.

Last Day of Session

All activity ends at midnight on the sixtieth day of the session – Saturday, March 14. Any bills that have not passed both chambers will have died, unless they are placed on the agenda for a special session.

Special Sessions

Because of the short time period of West Virginia’s legislative session, there is normally at least one special session called following the regular session of the legislature.

Special sessions are short legislative sessions called by the Governor following the regular session. Special sessions are often used to finalize and pass a balanced budget, which the Legislature is constitutionally required to pass each year. The Governor may also place other bills on the agenda for the special session. Only bills that are placed on the agenda by the Governor may be considered during special sessions.

Last year saw two special sessions, one immediately following the legislative session and a second special session in May. Twenty-six bills were on the agenda for those two special sessions, 15 of which passed.

Because special sessions are at the total discretion of the Governor, it is generally understood that any bills that do not make it through the deadlines of the regular session will almost certainly have to be taken up in the following year.

High tensions in the Senate, first vetoes by the Governor, and the clock ticking for priority legislation

You may have heard about some serious hubbub happening in the Senate chamber this week or, if you were like us and were listening in on the floor session on Tuesday, you may have heard the heated and confusing dialogue yourself.

Raised voices on the Senate floor were just part of the hubbub this week. The last few days also saw the first vetoes by the Governor and some more attention on Republican leadership priority bills. The Hub is here to help you slice through the noise and understand what hubbub matters – and what doesn’t.

Senate Parliamentary Hubbub

Tuesday saw one of the most contentious days of the session in the Senate and highlighted some of the tensions that have been boiling under the surface throughout the last 40 days.

It all started with a controversial bill that has the Senate split on party lines. The debate boiled over because of a set of obscure parliamentary actions taken in a committee meeting and then on the Senate floor.

Monday evening during a Senate Finance Committee meeting, Minority Leader Senator Jeff Kessler (Marshall Co.) moved to indefinitely postpone SB 14, the bill that would allow for the creation of charter schools in West Virginia. Indefinite postponement is a procedure whereby a committee votes to no longer consider a bill. It doesn’t vote against the bill out-right, but basically puts it into a holding area that the bill is unlikely to ever emerge from. Normally, indefinite postponement kills a bill for the remainder of the session.

Sen. Kessler was only able to succeed with his motion because three Republican senators were missing from the committee meeting that day. All three senators were out for excused medical and professional reasons but their absence gave the Democrat minority a rare opportunity to have the majority vote along party lines. The postponement motion passed because the Republicans did not have a majority in the committee and it looked like the charter school bill was dead for this year.

After checking with the Senate Parliamentarian, the Republican leadership determined that they could take the bill back up on the Senate floor on Tuesday by passing a motion to discharge the bill from the Finance Committee. While there was heated argument over whether this was a valid motion, current and previous Senate Parliamentarians made clear that the chamber has authority to undertake such an action. Democrats responded by slowing the activity on the Senate floor to a crawl on Tuesday by requiring the Assistant Senate Clerk to read every bill in full.

Tuesday served as an interesting glimpse into some of the mechanisms that lawmakers can use to shift, slow and change the legislative process – and it served as a reminder of how such a narrow split between the number of majority and minority members can create opportunities for hubbub, if legislators want to take advantage of those opportunities.

The First Vetoes

Tuesday also saw the first vetoes issued by Governor Earl Ray Tomblin for the 2015 session. While the Governor has already signed eight bills into law, he did not approve two bills passed by the Legislature that were awaiting his signature.

He vetoed SB 2201, which dealt with net metering, and HB 335, which provided first responders with access to opioid antagonists to combat drug overdoses. Both bills were vetoed because of technical errors.

Gov. Tomblin had discussed the need for access to opioid antagonists in his State of the State and encouraged the Legislature to fix that legislation and send it back to his desk before the end of the session.

It is unclear whether the Legislature will be able to fix both bills and move them back through passage before the session ends.

Leadership Priorities

The House and Senate Leadership have been working against the clock since the first day of the session and the looming deadlines of this week have caused them to ramp up their work, just like everyone else.

Here are bills that the Senate Republicans have prioritized to move through this year, meaning that they must be through their committee review by Sunday…

• The asbestos reform bill, SB 411, is a tort reform bill addressing mass litigation relating to asbestos claims. This bill will be on third reading on the Senate floor on Friday.

• The aboveground storage tank bill, SB 423, which you can read about in our blog post from last week on a number of water bills. It will be on second reading on Friday.

• The consumer credit act, SB 542. This bill would, among other provisions, allow creditors to contact anyone to obtain a debtor’s contact information and allows creditors to contact consumers between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. every day. It has not yet left the Judiciary Committee.

• SB 541 received some press attention this week because of concerns raised by Senate Minority committee members about the Campaign Finance Act. This bill would dramatically change state elections by repealing a state law that currently bans corporate contributions to state candidates. Currently, corporations cannot give directly to candidates. SB 541 would remove this ban and allow unlimited contributions by corporations.

• SB 347, also know as the “constitutional carry” firearms act. This bill would remove current requirements that require gun owners to have a license to carry a concealed weapon. While it dismantles current concealed permit requirements, it does continue state licensing for any person who wants to obtain a WV firearms permit in order to obtain reciprocity with other states. The bill will be up for a final vote on the Senate floor on Friday.

• SB 377, or the “Learned Intermediary Defense” bill is another tort reform bill. This bill creates a legal defense for pharmaceutical manufacturers and sellers. It protects manufacturers and sellers from product liability claims so long as they provide warnings about the potential dangers of the drugs. The bill is up for a final vote on the Senate floor on Friday.

• The Franchise Bill, SB 453, applies to motor vehicle dealers, distributors, manufacturers and wholesalers. It’s a big bill updating and clarifying the section of code dealing with these franchises. It is not the motor vehicle bill that has gotten some media attention (SB 107) which would exempt certain used cars from implied warranties. SB 453 is still in the Judiciary Committee.

• Much attention has been paid to the Right to Work bill, SB 337. While there has much hubbub over this bill, including public hearings, rallies and a number of articles and editorials in various newspapers, the bill is currently in the Judiciary Committee and has not been taken up yet for a vote.

• SB 291 would allow the Attorney General’s office to contract for outside legal services. It is up for final vote on the Senate floor on Friday.

• SB 248 requires individuals involved in a car accident to provide insurance information to the other driver. Originally the bill included a provision requiring law enforcement officials at the scene of the accident to collect and distribute insurance and contact information between each of the drivers. This provision was removed in a committee meeting. The more limited version of the bill is up for a second reading on the Senate floor on Friday.

• Finally, SB 278 is a hunting bill that would prohibit the use of night vision in hunting and would permit crossbow hunting in the state. It will be on second reading this Friday.

And that’s all the hubbub that we’re following this week at the Legislature!