Delegate Joe Statler was at an education conference out of state when he heard the governor vetoed a bill intended to provide $2 million support groundbreaking research at West Virginia University’s Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute.
Statler, R-Monongalia, was gobsmacked. “You talk about something that caught me completely off guard,” he said.
His colleague, Delegate John Williams, heard about the veto by text message. “I thought that it was a joke because I was so shocked by it,” said Williams, D-Monongalia.
“When you think about the applications of this technology for Alzheimer’s and PTSD — two things West Virginia has a large per capita share of — the fact that we wouldn’t give seed money to expand this technology was just shocking to me, so much so that I didn’t even believe it.”
WVU has made a national splash for its use of ultrasound technology to help with Alzheimer’s disease and addiction treatments. The prominent national news program “60 Minutes” has focused on the treatment of brain diseases and disorders there.
Statler and Williams were both sponsors of H. B. 5014 which was meant to provide $2 million as a state surplus allocation to support medical research into using ultrasound technology to treat eating disorders and post-traumatic stress disorder. The bill wound up including another $4 million characterized as supporting hospital grants and research programs.
WVU officials had described kickstarting the latest applications for their research right away.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has provided final approval to start clinical trials, officials said, and studies on the effects of ultrasound therapy on people with eating disorders could commence as soon as April or May. Coordinators would have to be hired for the FDA trials, along with meeting other expenses like scans, brain imaging and blood tests.
Dr. Ali Rezai, executive chairman of the Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute, spoke to the House Finance Committee about the funding on Jan. 29.
House Speaker Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay, publicly extolled the support during that House Finance meeting and then again when the bill passed the full House of Delegates on Feb. 2. “I cannot think of a better way to spend this $2 million, and do it now,” Hanshaw said at the time.
The bill lagged in the Senate, though. It wasn’t taken up in the Senate until March 4, and then it finally completed legislative action on March 9, the final day of the regular session.
Gov. Jim Justice vetoed the bill last Thursday with a message that called the legislation too vague.
“While I wholeheartedly support our hospitals and medical centers and the advancement of vital medical care for the citizens of West Virginia, these two appropriations direct the grant of large sums of money with little context or direction for the use of such funding,” Justice stated in his veto message.
“The language of the bill is ambiguous as to the Legislature’s intent and just what types of research may be funded from this appropriation, and no context or background has been provided to date to my Office regarding this appropriation.”
Justice’s message suggested the appropriation could be considered again later, possibly in a special session that has been discussed for this spring.
“I believe it is imperative that we take a prudent approach and address important outstanding questions regarding the State’s budget for the next fiscal year before making discretionary supplementary appropriations such as this,” Justice stated.
“The Legislature will need to convene prior to the end of the fiscal year to address budgetary matters, and this supplementary appropriation may be considered along with other priorities for funding at that time.”
WVU Medicine has said nothing about the veto.
“We have no comment at this time,” said Angela Jones, media relations director for WVU Medicine.
Lawmakers like Statler and Williams were still trying to wrap their minds around the veto. Each hoped the bill could be resurrected in special session.
“Were they out of the loop when this request was made? Speaker Hanshaw was very much behind it, and WVU Medicine brought in the people we needed to talk to. It had the notoriety where it had the episode on CBS,” Statler said.
“I can’t see how he figures it was ambiguous. Something is just not in synch. Maybe the governor’s office feels out of the loop.”
Williams also couldn’t figure out the contention that the bill’s purpose was ambiguous.
“I’m incredibly disappointed. Anyone who was paying attention to the Finance Committee meeting and the floor session and has cable television has heard about this program and knows about how transformative it is going to be for Alzheimer’s patients,” Williams said.
“We now see there are other applications for its use, and we were going to help with that process. To have that veto of such a small expenditure to put us on the map, I just think it’s mind blowing.”
Williams hopes to try again as soon as possible.
“Time is of the essence. It’s an FDA trial that’s going to begin in April. So time is most certainly of the essence,” he said.
“We’d better have that session soon then to have this money directed. I don’t understand the veto at all.”