Proposed bill to change Senate rule goes down to defeat

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Putnam County Senator Chris Walters tried but failed Monday to get his colleagues to amend a Senate rule.

Sen. Chris Walters

Walters proposed a 24-hour advance notice of committee agendas. Currently, he said, those agendas can come out just minutes before a meeting.

“Last week there was a bill that was introduced on the blue list of this floor. An hour later it was in the committee ready to be discussed,” said Walters.

That bill was 20-pages long and Walters stressed he didn’t even have time to read it through let alone really consider the legislative implications.

“As a senator, I want to do my job better. I want to be able to represent my population better, my constituency to the best of my ability and this rule would have been a step in the right direction,” according to Walters.

He said another factor to consider is giving voters a say in important legislation.

“[His proposal] would have given us the ability to put proper notice online to our constituents so that they could know to be here, so they could be more involved in this public process,” explained Walters.

The proposed rule change was defeated 23-11.





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