I am a fan of deadlines. As a media person, I have lived by the clock all my life. Deadlines cause stress, but they also motivate.
Perhaps more importantly, deadlines provide an end point. Without them, the work may never get done.
The West Virginia Legislature reached its deadline of the 60-day regular season this past Saturday at midnight. As always, many bills that lawmakers wanted, in some cases most lawmakers, turned from carriages to pumpkins at the stroke of midnight.
The infamous Anti-Racism bill, which supporters hoped would prevent the teaching of Critical Race Theory in West Virginia public schools, fell to the clock, but just barely. As our Brad McElhinny reported, it first appeared SB 498 passed just in the nick of time following a procedural motion to halt debate.
“Senators then voted to pass the bill as amended 22-10,” McElhinny reported, and seconds later Senate President Craig Blair invoked the Latin phrase signaling an end to the proceedings. “I declare the legislature adjourned,” Blair said. “Sine Die.”
However, like basketball referees reviewing the video of a game-ending shot as the clock expires, the Senate Clerk ultimately determined the vote occurred four minutes after midnight. Sorry, too late.
That was a frustrating end for Republicans in the Senate and House who had been pushing the bill for weeks, but it came as a relief to Democrats and many school teachers who worried about the constraints it would put on educators.
A bill prohibiting abortions after 15 weeks passed the House of Delegates earlier in the session but stalled in the Senate. Supporters tried to revive the bill by rushing it through the Senate Judiciary Committee and on to the floor, but it died there.
Senate-passed legislation that would have significantly changed the state’s unemployment program by shortening the number of weeks to receive benefits and allowing individuals to work part-time but still get jobless payments collapsed in the House in the final days.
The examples go on and on.
It is possible, perhaps even probable, that a few of the more controversial bills could have made it across the line had there been more time, but given differences that exist between the House and Senate and allowing for interminable debate, it is also possible nothing would change.
A sports analogy is appropriate here; at some point, the game is over. That moment lays down a marker for completion. Stop what you are doing now, celebrate the win or lament the loss and then move on. Every end is also a beginning.
I am a fan of the citizen legislature—not everything they do certainly, especially this session—but there is beauty and functionality of the people’s elected representatives coming together to publicly debate and decide on policies for our state. I can think of no better system.
But I’m also thankful for deadlines, like the one this past Saturday. Without it, the tendency would be to continue ad nauseam rather than adjourn sine die.