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West Virginia House Democratic leaders lay out priorities for remainder of 2025

House Minority Leader Sean Hornbuckle speaks to media Wednesday morning during a press conference at the State Capitol Building. Hornbuckle was joined by Del. Evan Hansen, left, Del. Hollis Lewis, second from left, and Del. Mike Pushkin, right. (Photo by Steven Allen Adams)

CHARLESTON — With 2025 more than halfway done and a new fiscal year starting earlier this week, members of the House Democratic caucus laid out their public policy priorities and raised concerns about the One Big Beautiful Bill Act being negotiated in Congress.

House Minority Leader Sean Hornbuckle was joined by Dels. Mike Pushkin, Evan Hansen, and Hollis Lewis for a press conference Wednesday morning in the lower rotunda of the State Capitol Building.

“Our House Democratic caucus has listened to the kitchen table issues statewide and will keep pushing forward ideas that help people, but not split people,” said Hornbuckle, D-Cabell. “Under my watch, we have always been and will always try to work in a bipartisan manner, but we will always stand up for the people of West Virginia when the Republicans are not putting them first, and instead putting extremism on a political pedestal.”

Hornbuckle laid out a four-point call of action to Gov. Patrick Morrisey and the Republican-led West Virginia Legislature: address flooding issues across the state, protect the state’s health care system, fix the Public Employees Insurance Agency, and work to reverse job losses.

The state has dealt with several flood events since the beginning of the year in Southern West Virginia, the Northern Panhandle, the Potomac Highlands, and North Central West Virginia. During the recent legislative session, Hornbuckle offered an unsuccessful amendment to the budget bill to appropriate $50 million from the state revenue shortfall fund – also called the Rainy Day Fund – to the state’s flood resiliency trust fund for fiscal year 2026 which began Tuesday.

SB 677, passed by the Legislature in 2023, created the West Virginia Flood Resiliency Trust Fund within the State Resiliency and Flood Protection Act. The fund would be used to encourage local governments to work on flood protection and prevention projects. However, the Legislature has never appropriated money for the Flood Resiliency Trust Fund.

“My heart goes out to each and every one in our state that’s been impacted by this flooding and will continue to be impacted by this flooding. And I want to make it clear as well, we can’t just pray away this issue,” Hornbuckle said. “The supermajority is playing politics over the people right now, and we’re not going to stand for it…We just want to make sure the job gets done for the people of the West Virginia, and they deserve money in the flood resiliency trust fund. They need it now.”

Hansen, D-Monongalia, pointed out the lack of progress during the recent legislative session on clean drinking water. Both Hansen and Hornbuckle sponsored an unsuccessful amendment to the budget bill to appropriate $10 million to the state Water Development Authority to fund improvements to distressed and failing water utility systems.

“No matter what part of the state you live in, no matter your income, everybody deserves access to clean drinking water, and we’re facing some obstacles in getting that done here in West Virginia,” Hansen said.

Hansen criticized recent actions by the administration of President Donald Trump to rescind promised grant funding to states, such as West Virginia, for reducing the amount of PFAS chemicals – also known as forever chemicals – in drinking water. The state Department of Environmental Protection was supposed to receive a $1 million grant.

“The State of West Virginia got a million-dollar grant from the federal government, which the Trump administration terminated just a couple months ago,” Hansen said. “That means less safe drinking water and potentially more cancer-causing chemicals in West Virginians drinking water.”

Democrats also criticized parts of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the budget reconciliation package that passed the U.S. Senate Tuesday in a narrow 51-50 vote. While the main part of the bill is to continue the 2017 Trump tax cuts, other parts of the bill would roll back tax credits for renewable energy projects and make cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and to Medicaid.

“This isn’t a big, beautiful bill. This isn’t an ugly bill. This is a moral bill,” said Lewis, D-Kanawha.

“What does this mean for West Virginia? it’s going to mean that approximately 75,000 West Virginians will lose access to health care. Another 80,000-plus will lose access to SNAP benefits. We’re going to have approximately seven rural hospitals closed…That is going to mean health care worker jobs are going to be lost. That’s going to mean that the proximity to your health care facility is going to be lost so if you have an emergency, you may be forced to drive hours.”

Pushkin, who also chairs the West Virginia Democratic Party, criticized Morrisey for giving state employees the Thursday before the July 4 Independence Day holiday while not providing state employees Juneteenth off, a federal holiday honoring the end of Black slavery at the end of the Civil War. All while providing no state workers relief on the new PEIA premium increases that went into effect Tuesday.

“He is giving state workers a day off (today) ahead of the July 4th holiday, and that’s a good thing,” said Pushkin, D-Kanawha. “Unfortunately, many of our state workers might have to use that day off to look for other jobs in the private sector, because as they look at their paychecks this week, they’re going to be getting a pay cut because this Governor and the Republicans in the Legislature failed to address PEIA during the regular session.”

Morrisey has hinted at calling a special session focused on PEIA costs. According to the state’s six-year financial plan through 2030, PEIA premiums are projected to increase by $49 million in fiscal year 2027. That special session could come in the next 30 days.

“While there’s been a lot of talk of a special session to address PEIA, so far, all that’s amounted to is talk,” Pushkin said. “There’s been no groundwork laid for a special session on PEIA, and the Governor and the Republican supermajority are simply kicking the can down the road.”

Pushkin also criticized the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which could harm several economic development projects in the state with renewable energy components, putting jobs at risk. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, West Virginia saw the worst decrease in non-farm jobs in the nation between May 2024 and May 2025.

“We’re seeing a bill that crushes West Virginia…a bill that has really been the nail in the coffin on a lot of West Virginia jobs,” Pushkin said. “This bill is bad for West Virginia.”

In closing, Hornbuckle called on the Governor’s Office and GOP leaders in the Legislature to include Democratic lawmakers in future decision making.

“Let’s be real: we need balance,” Hornbuckle said. “It takes two to tango, and no political party has a monopoly on all ideas. It just simply doesn’t exist…We want to work together. That’s it. I’m here now, I’m here to lead on that. Cut the games, cut the lies, cut the rhetoric. Let’s get down to business.”

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

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