CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Next legislative session, members of the House of Delegates will be restricted again to a scheduled, weekly evening session if they want to give their general remarks about various topics.
The House approved a resolution Friday to continue ‘remarks by members’ separate from regular daily floor sessions in the 2022 regular session.
Delegates agreed earlier this year to move the remarks because of the desire by the House leadership to make floor sessions as effective and efficient as possible because of the pandemic. The remarks have generally been held on Wednesdays at 5:30 p.m.
House Majority Leader Amy Summers, R-Taylor, said during Friday’s floor session a decision was made to make the change stick for at least one more regular session.
“It seems to be going very well. Everyone’s really been enjoying it and we thought it was being successful and we wanted to offer the opportunity to extend that if you agree,” Summers said.
Several Democrats who spoke during Friday’s debate criticized the Republican leadership for attempting to keep down their voices and the voices of their constituents.
Delegate Shawn Fluharty, D-Ohio, said the pandemic has become a convenient excuse for Republicans.
“We hid it behind COVID. COVID is an excuse for everything,” he said. “Now we’re going to move things forward in a way that lacks transparency.”
Delegate Mike Pushkin, D-Kanawha, said ‘remarks by members’ carry more weight when they are heard during the daily floor sessions.
“It works better when there are people in the room,” Pushkin said. “It’s very easy to sweep it under the rug and allow people in here in the evenings way past the deadline when any kind of media could pick up on it for the next day.”
Veteran Delegate Brent Boggs, D-Braxton, shared a story about how his remarks in a past session were key to getting a state agency to respond to an issue in Burnsville.
“We’re missing an opportunity to represent our people in a way, I believe, they intended us to,” Boggs said.
A handful of Republicans also spoke against the resolution.
Delegate Caleb Hanna, R-Nicholas, said he has attended each 5:30 session this legislative session because he enjoys hearing what other delegates have had to say on various issues, He said he does support moving the remarks back to the daily floor sessions.
“I come every Wednesday to listen to your concerns from your community because that’s our job. I know each of us are busy but our time is not so valuable that we cannot listen to each other,” Hanna said.
Delegate Pat McGeehan, R-Hancock, said the House should move back to the old way of hearing remarks.
“At least is gives all of us a voice, we all represent different regions of this state that have different interests and different priorities, and we need to hear about it,” McGeehan said.
The resolution, which includes another evening ‘remarks’ session next week, was approved 52-46.