(Reporter's Notebook by Steven Allen Adams - Photo Illustration - MetroCreativeConnection)

As I write this Sunday morning following the end of this year’s 60-day session of the West Virginia Legislature, I’m trying to wrap my head around everything.

When one looks back at this particular session, I have no idea what the takeaways will be. I stand by my contention a few weeks ago that this was largely a lackluster session.

I decided to do some compare and contrast. As of the stroke of midnight Saturday, 280 bills had completed the legislative process, meaning they were passed by both the House of Delegates and the state Senate (38 of those bills have already been signed by Gov. Jim Justice).

This is a presidential election year. Compared to the 356 bills that completed legislation in 2020, that 280 number is more than a 21% drop. However, only 276 bills were passed during the 2016 election year. Looking at the 2012 election year (when the Democratic Party held the majority of seats in the House and Senate), only 214 bills completed the legislative process.

So, definitely fewer bills passed compared to the most recent presidential election year, but not as bad as I thought overall.

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I think when people look back at the 2024 legislative session, they’ll think about the focus on red meat bills aimed at Republican and unaffiliated primary voters that ultimately never made it across the finish line.

The misnamed Women’s Bill of Rights, a bill that only really tried to cement in state code protections for biological girls and women and ensure that transgender men and women can’t use the same spaces, died. The Senate version of the bill was put at the bottom of the House’s Saturday bill calendar after Democratic lawmakers loaded it down with amendments. An attempt by the Senate to revive the House version was going to have the same problem, and the Senate instead decided to adjourn sine die 20 minutes before midnight.

I had figured if any of the social conservative bills would pass, it would have been that one. The Independent Women’s Forum (they prefer to be called a radical feminist group, not a conservative group) rolled out the Women’s Bill of Rights with a big press conference with Justice, a Babydog statute, and banners. They brought in a prominent college athlete and applauded her, took photos, and presented resolutions.

Sometimes I wonder whether lawmakers think it is more important to be seen doing these kinds of bills, particularly during primary years, versus actually completing these bills. The Women’s Bill of Rights received all sorts of coverage from me and others in the media. I guess they think the public has short memories. They’re not wrong.

The bill that the House Judiciary Committee amended to include provisions from a different bill that lifted criminal obscenity liability protections for librarians also died. So now librarians can rest easy knowing they won’t be hauled out in handcuffs if a teen gets their hands on “50 Shades of Grey.”

Other red meat bills that died: the bill requiring schools to show a scientifically questionable video showing fetal development produced by a pro-life advocacy group; allowing teachers to be armed; banning the very narrow exceptions for certain kinds of medicine-based gender affirming care treatments; banning concepts connected to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI); requiring “In God We Trust” be placed in all K-12 and college buildings; and additional work requirements for those on SNAP benefits.

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Who had the worst session? Perhaps Senate Education Committee Chairwoman Amy Grady, R-Mason. Last year, her big bill was the Third Grade Success Act and she managed to get it through by the skin of her teeth. But this year she focused on school discipline issues in elementary school, and that bill failed to make it.

Instead of doing what the Department of Education wanted, which was to fund the creation of alternative classrooms in all 55 counties, her bill focused more on giving teachers veto powers over administrators to give disruptive students the boot from classrooms. The House had a similar bill that passed early in session, but she refused to consider it.

The House waited until late in the session to consider her bill. The House Education Committee had to postpone action on the bill once because the back-and-forth between Grady and committee members got so heated. Back-and-forth amendments on the bill between the House and Senate led to the bill simply not making it.

Grady also spent most of the session being weirdly hostile to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Trump, R-Morgan, including refusing to yield to questions from him on bills at least twice – a major sign of disrespect in the Legislature. Her focus early on was pushing social conservative bills instead of bills improving the educational attainment of students.

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Who left an impression on me? Del. Diana Winzenreid, R-Ohio. She sometimes voted on the opposite side of her caucus, but she did so when the interests of the Republican majority collided with the interests of the people she represented in the City of Wheeling. That can be a scary thing, especially for a freshman lawmaker who was appointed.

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