MORGANTOWN, W.Va. –One of the few elected Democrats a part of the West Virginia House of Delegates is prepared to have a contentious legislative session at the state capitol.
Monongalia County Delegate Evan Hansen discussed some of his early struggles to pass basic legislation on WAJR’s Talk of the Town on Thursday, where he described a situation where even simple proposals brought up by Democrats barely gained traction. Despite less than a week of the legislative session officially taking place, Hansen expressed concern that legislation as simple as adjusting the rules and procedures for the House of Delegates will be difficult to pass during the session, especially under the Republican supermajority.
“Our house committees are going to use a more deliberative process, where bills are going to be discussed and voted on over two different days, I support that, but there’s still some flaws in the new rules,” said Hansen.
The amendment to House of Delegates rules and procedures proposed by Hansen focused on maintaining the policy of offering notice ahead of a public hearing that’s scheduled to take place at the capital. In the original rules and proceedings, the public would be notified at least two days before a public hearing were to take place in the event they’re asked to speak in front of delegates or wish to attend. According to Hansen, this was rejected rather swiftly by the super Republican majority House of Delegates despite concerns about how it might affect the public.
“The previous rule was that we needed to give two days notice (if they were to testify or attend a public hearing), so if somebody has a job, they can take off work,” said Hansen. “In my district, in Morgantown, it’s two, two and a half hours to get down here, so if people from Morgantown want to weigh in on a bill, they need to know in advance,” he said.
Hansen also mentioned that an amendment to adjust House of Delegates rules related to the releasing of agendas was rejected during the first day of the legislative session. As part of the new policy, the West Virginia House of Delegates committees are no longer required to post daily agenda updates so the public can know when to attend public sessions when they’re taking place. Despite a potential interest for the public on what is being discussed and voted on during the legislative session, the amendment was also shot down quickly, which reinforces Hansen’s concerns over a Republican supermajority.
“The problem that we’re trying to fix is that there’s no requirement to post the agenda in advance,” said Hansen. “We had a separate amendment we proposed to require advanced notice of the committee agendas, and that amendment was also defeated by the Republican majority,” he said.
While the proverbial uphill battle in Charleston for Democrats is expected to take place for the near future, Hansen emphasized that party members who were elected to serve down in Charleston still aim to push legislation they feel could benefit the Mountain State. Even though the new rules for House of Delegates committees will require more time to vet bills (an area Hansen supports), there are still plans from members of his party to introduce legislation to legalize recreational marijuana as an economic booster to West Virginia. Understanding the potential limitations of being one of only 9 Democrats in the House, Hansen still plans to make his pitch on ideas he feels could help the Mountain State.
“So there are some proactive ideas that we have that are being introduced right now, and we hope that they can gain some traction,” he said.