Rotunda Roundup
With two days left in the 2026 Regular Session, the Capitol is in full endgame mode: the House pushed major bills back to the Senate on Thursday, March 12, including the school-calendar-hours bill and a narrowed aboveground storage tank rollback, while the Senate continued reworking school-funding legislation around special education costs. The formal session context remains the 2026 Regular Session, which thru Saturday, as the 60th and final day. Official Senate postings for Thursday showed active committee traffic on education, energy, rules, and finance, including HB 5453 on the school aid formula and House economic-development bills. Outside the chambers, House Finance also advanced Morrisey-backed fiscal measures, including spending authority for roughly $200 million in rural-health funds and a 5% income-tax-cut posture instead of the governor’s original 10% ask.
Legislature
The House spent March 12 chewing through a heavy late-session floor calendar and advanced several consequential Senate bills before the Saturday adjournment deadline. WV News reported delegates took up nearly 50 bills on third reading and moved more than 80 on second reading on Day 58 of the 60-day session. Source: WV News Why it Matters: Endgame floor volume is now a policy bottleneck; what gets time gets a chance.
The chamber passed SB 59 and sent it back to the Senate after amending voter-residency challenge procedures.The bill passed 92-4 with three absent or not voting and would define legal residence standards, including tests based on physical presence, intent to remain, and a “bedroom test” for properties split by jurisdictional lines. Source: WV News Why it Matters: Election-law definitions sound dry, but they can shape who votes where and how challenges are resolved.
The House also passed SB 531, the “First Amendment Preservation Act,” over Democratic objections. The bill cleared 82-12 with five absent or not voting and would bar state agencies and political subdivisions from using media-bias and reliability monitors when placing state-funded advertising. Source: WV News Why it Matters: This is a state-advertising and media-policy fight dressed up in First Amendment clothing. Strange little bird of a bill.
Delegates passed SB 641 to loosen parts of the Above-Ground Storage Tank Act, though not without a real floor fight. The bill passed 58-37 with seven absent or not voting and would add exemptions for some small tanks, reclassify certain brine tanks, allow a nine-month upgrade window after new critical zones are created, and require DEP to allow certain remote inspection technologies. Source: WV News Why it Matters: This is a major water-protection and industry-compliance issue with obvious post-Elk River sensitivity.
The House overwhelmingly passed SB 645 after reworking the surprise ground-ambulance billing compromise.The final version passed 94-1 with four absent or not voting and would require private insurers to reimburse out-of-network EMS providers at 200% of the Medicare rate, down from an earlier 400% committee proposal. Source: WV News Why it Matters: The bill tries to thread the needle between consumer protection and keeping EMS systems financially upright.
The House narrowed but passed an aboveground storage tank rollback bill. Official history shows SB 641 passed the House on March 12 after earlier House committee-amendment action; MetroNews reported the bill would expand exemptions for smaller hydrocarbon-production tanks and some mining-permit-boundary tanks outside zones of critical concern. Source: WV MetroNews Why it Matters: This is a post-Elk River regulatory change with direct implications for water-source protections and industry compliance.
The House spent Thursday grinding through a massive floor calendar. WVPB reported delegates took up more than 130 bills as the session’s end approached. Source: West Virginia Public Broadcasting Why it Matters: Volume itself is now a procedural story; late-session bandwidth is becoming a policy filter.
A physician renewed opposition to lowering permitless concealed-carry age rules. MetroNews reported testimony against legislation extending permitless concealed carry to 18- to 20-year-olds, including the loss of current-law background-check and safety-training requirements for that age group. Source: WV MetroNews Why it Matters: The issue remains a live public-safety and youth-risk fight in the session’s closing days.
Governor
Gov. Patrick Morrisey signed the Legislature’s final budget after lawmakers sent him a compromise package centered on a smaller tax cut than he originally wanted. The budget bill, Senate Bill 250, includes about $21.5 billion in revenue collections and spending authority, along with a 5% personal income tax cut rather than the 10% cut Morrisey had pushed earlier in session.
The final budget also includes an average 3% pay raise for state employees. That pay increase was one of the headline items in the compromise version approved by the Legislature and sent to the governor.
The broader storyline is that Morrisey accepted a partial fiscal win while continuing to argue for deeper tax relief. In remarks reported March 12, he said the likely final outcome was 5% now and that he intends to keep pushing for the full 10% later.
The signing capped a tense budget process shaped by competing House and Senate approaches. West Virginia Public Broadcasting reported the Legislature’s version had already been delivered to Morrisey while some of his other fiscal priorities, including rural-health funding legislation, were still moving separately.
Net-net: Morrisey signed a compromise budget that locks in a 5% income-tax cut and 3% state-worker raise, while signaling the tax fight is not over.
West Virginia Government & Agencies
Judicial pay legislation remained alive on March 10 as the session wound down. The proposal would raise magistrate pay by $6,750 and other judges’ pay by $10,000 over two years.
Source: WV MetroNews
Why it Matters: Judicial compensation is now a recruitment-and-retention issue, not just a courthouse grumble.
Education
The House advanced the school-calendar-hours bill and kicked it back to the Senate. MetroNews reported the House passed SB 890 on Thursday, 91-1 with seven absent, after amending the Senate version to require 954 instructional hours rather than 900. Source: WV MetroNews Why it Matters: One of the session’s biggest K-12 flexibility bills is now in final-chamber negotiation.
The Senate is still rewriting the school-funding package around special education. MetroNews reported senators made another late change to HB 5453 focused on special-education costs, while West Virginia Watch reported lawmakers were dropping most broader formula changes and considering only special-education funding. Source: WV MetroNews Why it Matters: This is a live budget-policy pivot that could define what, if anything, schools get this year.
The West Virginia Board of Education seated a new member. WVDN reported Dr. James Paul was sworn in during the board’s March meeting after Governor Patrick Morrisey appointed him to a full nine-year term. Source: West Virginia Daily News Why it Matters: Board composition changes can have real downstream effects on K-12 governance and charter policy.
Health Care
House Finance moved Morrisey’s rural-health funding authority bill. WVPB reported the committee advanced SB 570, appropriating close to $200 million from the federal Rural Health Transformation Fund to the Department of Health. Source: West Virginia Public Broadcasting Why it Matters: This is a nine-figure health-system funding vehicle with immediate end-of-session stakes.
Child Welfare
Senate Finance moved the childcare package HB 4191 on Wednesday and kept it on a final-days track. Lootpress and WVDN both reported the committee approved the bill, which would expand the employer-provided child-care tax credit and make other subsidy-system changes. Source: Lootpress Why it Matters: Child care is increasingly being framed as workforce infrastructure, not just social policy.
Child care legislation is being sold as economic-development policy. Lootpress and WVDN reported supporters say HB 4191 would expand the employer child-care tax credit and better align subsidy payments with actual care economics. Source: Lootpress Why it Matters: Employers, developers, and workforce planners are increasingly treating child care as core business infrastructure.
Federal Watch
Capito backed the Trump administration’s military action against Iran while arguing U.S. goals can be met without ground troops. In a March 12 call with West Virginia reporters, she said the administration is achieving its stated objectives of degrading Iran’s navy, missile capability, and nuclear capacity, and added she hopes there will be no “boots on the ground,” even if she would not rule the option out entirely. Source: WV MetroNews Why it Matters: This puts West Virginia’s senior senator squarely behind the operation while drawing a line against a larger U.S. ground war.
The Fourth Circuit upheld West Virginia’s ban on Medicaid coverage for gender-affirming surgeries. Reuters reported the appeals court reversed a lower-court ruling and became the first federal appeals court to uphold such a law. Source: Reuters Why it Matters: This is a major federal-court win for the state with direct Medicaid-policy implications.
Capito and Justice joined a bipartisan push for stronger trade enforcement on imported rebar. Capito’s office said the senators asked the U.S. International Trade Commission to review antidumping and countervailing-duty cases involving Algeria, Bulgaria, Egypt, and Vietnam. Source: Sen. Shelley Moore Capito Why it Matters: West Virginia’s steel and construction-supply chain interests are squarely in the frame here.
USDA highlighted $294.2 million invested across West Virginia communities. USDA Rural Development said Administrator J.R. Claeys visited the state Thursday to spotlight manufacturing, economic-development, and domestic-energy opportunities. Source: USDA Rural Development Why it Matters: That is fresh federal money-and-messaging aimed directly at WV growth sectors.
Business & Industry
The Greenbrier County Commission approved a $6.16 million broadband contract. WVDN reported commissioners approved a recommendation to award the “Gig Ready” broadband project contract to Telecommunications Solutions LLC for $6,155,157.67. Source: West Virginia Daily News Why it Matters: Local broadband buildout remains one of the clearest statewide economic-competitiveness and infrastructure stories.
The Grid (Energy/Utilities/Regulatory)
HB 4983 remains one of the session’s marquee grid-and-data-center bills after Senate passage with amendments.Official history shows the Senate passed the bill March 11 and requested House concurrence; Marcellus Drilling reported the bill sets the certification process for microgrid districts and high-impact data centers. Source: Marcellus Drilling News Why it Matters: This is the state’s most concrete live vehicle for gas-to-data-center development policy.
The Senate’s official Thursday committee slate kept utility-regulation legislation moving. The Senate calendar posted HB 4012 in Energy, Industry and Mining and finance consideration of HB 4004 and HB 4006 later in the day. Source: West Virginia Legislature Why it Matters: The economic-development and grid package is still very much alive in the final stretch.
The House-passed storage-tank rollback remains a major water-policy fight. Official history and multiple outlet reports confirm SB 641 is headed back to the Senate after House amendment and passage. Source: WV MetroNewsWhy it Matters: This is squarely in the post-2014 chemical-spill compliance-and-risk lane.
PSC oversight orders piled up for municipal water and sewer utilities. March orders directed numerous systems to file overdue 2025 annual reports or face June hearings. Source: Public Service Commission of West Virginia Why it Matters: Administrative compliance now can become operational stress later for small utility systems.
DEP opened a new Title V air-permit comment window for Saint-Gobain in Buckhannon. DEP lists the proposed permit materials and a March 11-April 10 public comment period. Source: West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection Why it Matters: Industrial air permitting remains one of the most practical choke points in project and plant timelines.
Legislative Info Desk — (Committee Schedule + Floor)
It’s the 59th Day of the Session, 2 days to go.
Today on the House side:
9:45 a.m. – the Committee on Rules will meet in the Speaker’s Conference Room, 218M
10:00 a.m. – the House is scheduled to convene in the Chamber
House Calendar (inactive)
House Special Calendar (active)
Rules of the House
Joint Rules of the House and Senate
Rules of the Senate
…and on the Senate side
9:45 a.m.: Committee on Rules (219M, Senate President’s Conference Room)
10:00 a.m. – the Senate will convene in the Chamber
Senate Calendar
Legislative Bulletin Board
Official schedule
Committee times and agendas are subject to change |
