The Legislature Today

While any 60-day legislative session focuses on the hundreds of bills introduced and considered, Republican supermajorities this year helped push three proposed constitutional amendments to the ballot for voters to ponder.

The state legislature's latest bill for broadband offers new consumer protections to users, allows local governments to deploy their own infrastructure and expands on existing data-collection efforts to identify areas of the state that need high-speed internet.

A bill to restrict transgender girls and women from playing female sports is on its way to Gov. Jim Justice. The West Virginia House of Delegates voted to accept the Senate’s version of HB 3293 on Friday evening.

Education has been a top issue for lawmakers in this year's West Virginia legislative session as learning was upended significantly amid the coronavirus pandemic. Among those priority bills in the 60-day session included measures advancing school choice in K-12 education and establishing the Jumpstart Savings Program in higher education.

A bill to rewrite the state’s criminal code won’t go into effect this year, but state lawmakers have introduced a resolution suggesting they plan to keep at it.

West Virginia Public Broadcasting continues a decades-long tradition by covering the Final Hours of the 2021 legislative session, Saturday, April 10 beginning at 8 PM. Dave Mistich and Emily Allen will report live from the Capitol as viewers follow the action of the Senate and House of Delegates up to the session’s midnight deadline. Join the WVPB broadcast for floor debates, lawmaker interviews, and analysis.

On this West Virginia Morning, as the 2021 West Virginia Legislative session draws to a close, lawmakers are looking back on their time in Charleston, reflecting on the bills they have passed and the atmosphere in which they worked. Also, we have updates on some legislation that is moving forward, and we bring you our Mountain Stage Song of the Week featuring Marty Stuart and his Fabulous Superlatives.

House Judiciary Chair Moore Capito, R-Kanawha, and House Judiciary Minority Chair Chad Lovejoy, D-Cabell, discuss criminal justice reform, election, and pandemic-related bills. We also take a look at the state budget process and the personal income tax repeal plans.

West Virginia senators have removed a presumption of 50-50 custody from a “Best Interests Of The Child Protection Act" that passed the House of Delegates three weeks ago, along with a provision to reopen closed custody cases in which parents were not considered for equal time.

Updated on April 9, 2021 at 10:45 a.m. A bill to restrict transgender students' access to women's sports in middle, high school and college has passed out of the West Virginia Senate. The bill passed 18-15 and now heads back to the House for consideration.