Senate Minority Leader Mike Woelfel praised Senate Education Committee Chairwoman Amy Nichole Grady for a bill providing for age-appropriate education on dating violence and sexual violence for students in middle and high school. (Photo courtesy of WV Legislative Photography)

CHARLESTON — With 50 days left to go in the 2023 regular session of the West Virginia Legislature, lawmakers sent their first bills to the desk of Gov. Jim Justice.

Friday marked day 10 since the Legislature gaveled in for its annual 60-day session last week. Senators have introduced 418 bills since gaveling in Jan. 11, while 890 bills have been introduced in the House of Delegates during the same time frame.

The state Senate accepted changes the House made to two bills it passed in one day last week. Senate Bill 161 would allow the Division of Natural Resources to sell, lease or dispose of property under its control under certain circumstances. Senate Bill 162 would allow the DNR to lease state-owned pore spaces beneath state forests, wildlife management areas and other lands under DNR’s jurisdiction for use in carbon sequestration projects.

The House passed both bills Thursday after the House Judiciary Committee made changes to both bills. The Senate suspended state constitutional rules requiring bills be read on three separate days to pass the two bills in one day on Jan. 12. Since the House amended the bills, the Senate had to concur with their changes before completing the legislative process.

SB 161 and 162 now head to the governor’s desk for his signature. Both bills are intended to recruit a possible blue hydrogen manufacturing project, whereby hydrogen is produced using natural gas. Emissions from the manufacturing process would be pumped underground through the carbon capture and sequestration process.

Delegate Sean Hornbuckle thanked his fellow House members for supporting a bill to pay tribute to the lives lost in the 1970 Marshall University plane crash. (Photo courtesy of WV Legislative Photography)

The Senate has passed 29 bills as of Friday, sending those bills to the House. Senators passed two bills Friday.

Senate bill 115, providing procedure for West Virginia to select delegates to an Article V Convention to amend the U.S. Constitution, passed 29-1. Article V of the U.S. Constitution allows states to request a constitutional convention to propose amendments to the Constitution.

While all the current amendments to the Constitution have been proposed through Congress and ratified by the states, an Article V convention has not been used to amend the Constitution. According to the Congressional Research Service, it takes 34 states to trigger a convention. West Virginia, South Carolina, Nebraska and Wisconsin are the most recent states to adopt resolutions calling for an Article V convention, but only 19 states have called for such a convention since 2014 according to Convention of States Action.

The second bill passed Friday was Senate Bill 124, authorizing child sexual abuse and sexual violence prevention program and in-service training in child sexual abuse prevention passed unanimously.

SB 124 requires the West Virginia Board of Education to create an age-appropriate dating violence and sexual violence prevention program for grades 7-12. The bill would also require additional training identifying dating violence and sexual violence for key school staff.

“The bill requires that any person employed by a county board to work with students in grades 7-12 as a nurse, teacher, counselor, school psychologist or administrator complete at least four hours of in-service training and complete the training every five years,” Senate Education Committee Chairman Amy Nichole Grady, R-Mason, said.

The bill is a follow-up to a law passed by the Legislature in 2015. House Bill 2527 created Erin Merryn’s Law and established the Task Force on Prevention of Sexual Abuse of Children. The law is named for Erin Merryn who was sexually abused as a child.

The task force released its final report to the governor and Legislature in 2018, with several bills being passed over the years calling for professional development for school personnel in order to identity and prevent child abuse and clarifying the requirements for those designated mandatory reporters of suspected child abuse.

“I want to thank (Grady) for bringing this bill forward so early in the session,” said Senate Minority Leader Mike Woelfel, D-Cabell. “What we have in this bill is our addition, our improvement on Erin’s Law. The detection and recognition of child sexual abuse by school service personnel, nurses, teachers, will open the door to ending the victimization of many of these young people. It’s an important bill.”

The House has only passed five bills since the start of the legislative session, passing one bill Friday. HB 2412 would declare Nov. 14 every year a special memorial day in remembrance of the Marshall University airplane crash. The bill was unanimously passed.

The 1970 Marshall University football team, coaches and staff, along with fans, supporters and the flight crew, died when their chartered aircraft crashed in rainy conditions in Wayne County as they were returning home, 75 casualties in total.

“This tragedy was not just about football,” said Delegate Sean Hornbuckle, D-Cabell. “It wasn’t just about Huntington or Marshall University, but it was heard around the state. During that tragedy, the whole country actually stopped and came together. It was arguably the largest tragedy or incident in NCAA history. We want to make sure we honor those who have fallen.”

The 2023 legislative session ends at midnight Saturday, March 11.

Steve Allen Adams can be reached at sadams@newsandsentinel.com.