A special session bounced back and forth between the House of Delegates and state Senate, with consideration of 15 bills and a simmering disagreement about the details of legislation to bolster funding to support people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
“There’s a time to think this is the best we can do, and there’s a time to fight,” said Delegate Joey Garcia, D-Marion.
“We’ve been here for, really, really two days. I know a lot of people want to go home or think ‘OK, let’s just get done with this; let’s get everything we could have gotten done.’ But this is the time we can actually stand up and fight for the things we’ve said are important in this house.”
At the center of conflict were the specifics of a bill meant to improve the level of state funding for intellectual and developmental disabilities waivers, commonly called IDD waivers.
After the regular legislative session ended in March, Gov. Jim Justice referred to “a dog’s mess” — saying a budget that passed during the regular legislative session left human services funding far short of where it needs to be.
The special session allocation would provide a little more than $5 million to the state Department of Health and $183,437,463 to the Department of Human Services in a new reserve funds that can be accessed by the agency secretaries when or if the money is needed.
Delegates largely wanted to provide the funding, but sought greater assurances that the money would be used for its intended purpose. They had backed an amendment by House Health Chairwoman Amy Summers, R-Taylor, to require increasing the very low reimbursement rates for companies and their employees providing services for people with disabilities.
“We all know that if we don’t have the workers to take care of individuals in these settings then we will take care of these individuals in state psych hospitals,” Summers said in committee.
When senators removed that provision and kicked the bill back over, delegates had a long debate over what to do.
“And now we’re supposed to take that?” Summers asked.
Delegate Michael Hite, R-Berkeley, was also incredulous. “We roll over all the time. It’s time to say no,” he said.
Delegates wound up refusing to concur and sent the bill back to the Senate, so the matter remains a live ball on day three of the session.
“We can just reject this amendment from the Senate and send it back the way we all agreed that it should have gotten out of here to begin with, and I think we should do that,” said Delegate Evan Worrell, R-Cabell.
The session, which started its second day on Monday, rolled on until about 9 p.m. It will continue on Tuesday with the Senate returning about noon and the House resuming about 1 p.m.
The governor put 15 bills on the call, and 13 of those have passed both chambers so far.
The special session schedule aligns with legislative interim meetings that were already planned for lawmakers at the state Capitol early in the week. Much of the interim schedule wound up being scheduling wreckage, though, as the special session bulled its way from chamber to chamber.
One of the bills under consideration will provide more than $80 million to the state’s colleges and universities to help provide funding for students affected by ongoing problems with the Federal Free Application for Federal Student Aid, also known as FAFSA.
Additional financial matters for lawmakers to resolve during special session are surplus spending priorities. The regular session ended with passage of “a skinny budget” that left many surplus spending possibilities undone because of other uncertainties.
Supplemental spending measures include $150 million for highway maintenance and equipment, $50 million for new state agricultural lab facilities at West Virginia State University, $10 million for the Posey Perry Emergency Food Bank Fund, $27.3 million for Hope Scholarship funding and $2 million to the Department of Veterans Assistance for medical expenses.