2013 Legislative News #6

West Virginia Delegate Larry D. Kump, District #59 (Berkeley-Morgan Counties) has been carefully watching the proposed legislation on education as it is debated in the West Virginia State Senate. After the Senate works its will on this legislation, the Falling Waters Delegate will carefully scrutinize the amended version when it comes up for a vote in the House of Delegates. However,  he laments that the Governor's proposed legislation on education reform falls short of doing enough to reduce State Board of Education bureaucracy and empower local school boards, as well as the teachers' ability to be effective in their classrooms. He also believes that further citizen participation and "ownership" of education, through increased voter participation, would be much improved  by moving county Board of Education elections from the Primary to General elections (HB 2555).

On the issue of bar closing times in the Eastern Panhandle and the problems they create by encouraging over indulgent boozers from Maryland and Virginia to bring their rowdy and dangerous behavior to West Virginia, Kump believes that the most effective and straightforward solution would be to empower individual West Virginia counties to set their own rules and regulations regarding alcohol consumption, as is done in other States. He will be introducing legislation to do just that, as well as making these rules and regulations subject to voter referendums.

 Other legislative bills being sponsored or cosponsored by Delegate Kump are:

HCR 51 & HCR 61 Our State & Citizen Rights (Rules Committee) Requests the Joint Committee on Government and Finance to establish a post session Interim Study on the impact of federal laws and regulations upon the sovereign rights of the State of West Virginia and our citizens, as protected by the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

HB 2594  Teaching Our American Heritage (Education) Would require schools to teach about the Declaration of Independence, our Constitution and Bill of Rights, and other relevant historical documents and events from the era of our Founding Fathers.

HB 2828 Protecting Vulnerable Children (Judiciary) Would make it a crime to solicit a child to enter a vehicle in order to commit an offense against that child.
  HB 2871 Drivers' License Reform (Judiciary) Would remove the mandatory requirement for Mountaineer citizens to submit to the arcane and stifling regulations that make it so difficult to obtain new and renewed West Virginia driving licenses. This measure  was passed in previous legislative session by the West Virginia Senate, but never approved by the House of Delegates.

  HB 2882 Budget Reform (Finance) Would reduce West Virginia budget expenditures by one percent (1%) each year for ten (10) successive years.

  HB 2884 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Reform (Judiciary) Would reform the West Virginia Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to remove loopholes and make it easier for West Virginia citizens to ask for and obtain information and accountability regarding what our West Virginia government agencies are doing.

  All bills first must be heard and voted upon in their assigned legislative committee before receiving further legislative consideration (Committee assignments are listed after each bill number and title above).

More information on legislative issues and other legislation sponsored and cosponsored by Delegate Kump is available at other entries at this website.

For information on bills not listed at this website and which legislators are assigned to which committee (and how to contact them), click on the "WV State Legislature" link under "Links" on the right hand side of this webpage.