West Virginia lawmakers to meet Monday to allocate federal funds
(The Center Square) — West Virginia lawmakers will convene a special session starting June 7 to make decisions related to the allocation of federal COVID-19 relief funds, Gov. Jim Justice announced.
Lawmakers will meet at noon Monday and the session will coincide with June interim committee meetings. Those meetings had already been scheduled, so lawmakers already planned to be at the capitol in Charleston.
“We appreciate the Governor allowing us to work on these issues during our regularly scheduled interim committee meetings as we requested, so we’re saving taxpayer dollars, which is always our goal,” House Majority Leader Amy Summers, R-Taylor, told The Center Square.
During the session, lawmakers will make decisions on federal funding allocations for two supplementals provided to the Department of Health and Human Resources for Fiscal Year 2022. It will also make decisions on federal funding for two supplementals provided to the Department of Education for Fiscal Years 2021 and 2022 and increasing spending authority for the reimbursable grants for the school lunch program.
Lawmakers will also consider transferring $150 million from the General Revenue Fund to the State Road Fund and providing the spending authority for those funds in Fiscal Year 2021.
“We intend to quickly get those dollars out to the Department of Health and Human Resources and Department of Education, as he has asked,” Summers said. “I do think dedicating $150 million in excess funds to roadwork is worthy of some discussion during our session Monday, just as it will be important to take our time to assess the crucial needs we have throughout the state for allocating the remainder of our federal relief dollars.”
Amanda Kieffer, the communications director for the free-market Cardinal Institute, told The Center Square the nonprofit would like the legislature to work on more issues, but that the governor’s call for a special session restricts the topics that can be worked on.
“While we would love to see the legislature pick up issues that died during regular session, such as universal licensing recognition and repeal of certificate of need laws, Governor Justice called this special session specifically in order to appropriate [federal relief] funds,” Kieffer said. “It’s a good sign of a healthy government that the legislature will be guiding this process.”
In the last session, West Virginia lawmakers passed House Bill 2014, which requires that certain state spending of federal allocations be approved by the legislature and prohibits the governor from making unilateral decisions on how some of the money is directed. The legislature passed this bill after Justice made numerous decisions without consulting the legislature, despite requests from lawmakers for him to call a special session.
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