WESTON, W.Va. — An advocate of foster care legislation in the West Virginia House of Delegates says he’ll continue to push for help for kids who haven’t been adopted who are aging out of the system despite a veto from Gov. Patrick Morrisey.
Del. Adam Burkhammer, R-Lewis, said he was hoping Morrisey would sign HB 4730.
“It’s always a little disappointing when you put a lot of work into legislation and gets to the governor’s desk and he vetoes it,” Burkhammer told MetroNews. “I respect that’s part of the process and we’re going to keep working to find solutions to very complicated problems.”
The bill would have provided services to the young adults until they were 21. In his veto message, Morrisey said the cost of the expansion, an estimated $5 million, was a lot especially when the state is already providing services through its Independent Living and Transitional Living programs. Morrisey applauded Burkhammer for the bill and promised to work with him on the issue.
Burkhammer said his concern is that the number of those aging out without being connected to a family will continue to grow along with the risks.
“These are very vulnerable youth that are likely, if we don’t catch them, if we don’t get them headed in the right direction, are homeless, have substance abuse issues, incarceration rates are high, the statistics stack up against these youth,” Burkhammer said.
He added the state has returned federal dollars in recent years that would help with the issue.
“Maybe there is some concern we were going to hinder their (DoHS) approach but that was never my intent,” Burkhammer said. “My intent was to partner with them, support them. I thought this was a very strategic approach to try and get those folks housing, get them headed in the right direction with education or workforce opportunities.”
Burkhammer said the bill also lined-up with President Donald Trump’s executive order on foster care that he signed last November.
Morrisey’s also used his veto pen on Burkhammer’s bill that would have worked toward preventing children from entering the foster care system.
Morrisey also vetoed SB 744 that would have changed the makeup of the state’s Critical Incident Review Team that takes a look at certain abuse and neglect cases involving children. It would have placed the team under the Office of Inspector General.
In his veto of the bill, Morrisey said it wouldn’t be wise to change who makes up the review team after just one year of it being in existence.
Burkhammer supported the bill.
“I felt that was a good move so that we had an outside audit going on in these really tough cases, complex cases of fatalities or near fatalities, so getting that outside view seemed like a better approach,” Burkhammer said.
Morrisey did sign a handful of foster care bills into law including increasing the subsidiary for those caring for foster children through kinship care to equal the amount that foster parents receive,
Burkhammer said he’s glad for the victories but the work isn’t over.
“At the end of the day we still have a crisis and we still have a lot of work to do, so I’m not going to bask in those couple of wins, I’m going to get right back to work,” Burkhammer said.