CHARLESTON — House Speaker Roger Hanshaw and the Republican supermajority of the West Virginia House of Delegates laid out their Christmas list for the next legislative session in January focused on job creation and economic development.

During a press conference in the House of Delegates chamber Tuesday afternoon, Hanshaw was joined by nearly 50 members of the 91-member Republican House majority in unveiling the “Jobs First — Opportunity Everywhere” legislative agenda, which will include a number of bills to be introduced during the 2026 regular session of the West Virginia Legislature beginning Wednesday, Jan. 14.

“This is the time of year that we all reflect on what the past year has meant to us and look forward to what the future year holds for us to begin to make plans for,” said Hanshaw, R-Clay.

“We know that for many West Virginians who follow the machinations of our government… this is the time of year when our members are home and people begin asking, ‘What are you going to do,'” Hanshaw continued. “We want to take time today before we disperse and end our regular December interim meetings and talk to you today about the economic development and job creation agenda that our majority caucus will be introducing and considering when we convene here next month in January.”

Hanshaw said the Jobs First – Opportunity Everywhere agenda was developed after surveying members of the House Republican caucus, a majority of which said their priorities included creating job opportunities, creating economic growth, and empowering West Virginians to make economic development decisions, about their future, for themselves and their families.

“We have the perspective of every West Virginian represented here in the front of the room today. And that means that opinions are different,” Hanshaw said. “But what unifies those opinions, what unifies all those communities, is the reality that putting jobs first works everywhere, whatever the issue, it’s most effectively solved in an environment that has a robust jobs economy, that has a robust jobs program that puts people to work in good paying jobs and gives them the capacity to make decisions for themselves and their families.”

Jobs First – Opportunity Everywhere is broken down to three core pillars: workforce-ready education, a job-creating business climate, and responsible economic growth.

Pillar one will include legislation to raise teacher and school service personnel salaries; a bill to expand an existing program to support local businesses that invest in upskilling their employees; legislation designed to expand co-op programs and provide more hands-on learning opportunities for 16- to 18-year-old students; and an aviation technician, maintenance repair, and operation program.

The final platform in pillar one involves legislation to create a program to link lawmakers and state government more closely to the state’s higher education system to fund research to solve West Virginia-specific problems.

“We’ll introduce a bill modeled on a very successful program out of North Carolina that we’ll call the West Virginia Collaboratory Program that will more closely tie our Legislature and state government to higher education in West Virginia to fund research that’s important to public policy here in West Virginia so that we can get West Virginia solutions to problems that face West Virginia,” Hanshaw said.

Pillar two will involve legislation to update State Code to allow existing chemical and manufacturing sector employers to use additional materials in order to create new job growth opportunities; legislation to provide workers with “modern solutions for retirement flexibility;” and a bill to create certainty and finality regarding the timelines for Public Service Commission decisions.

Other items in pillar two include an act designed to give the Division of Economic Development the flexibility to award tax credits and incentives to a broader range of industries; a plan to create more hangar space at local and regional airports; an initiative to ensure that integrated resource plans filed by electric utilities take advantage of advanced transmission technology; and the creation of “Team West Virginia,” modeled after the Jobs Ohio program.

“The concept of Team West Virginia is to take economic development into a direction that removes all political considerations from it and makes economic development decisions based on what’s best for West Virginians,” Hanshaw said. “Because we want to double down on the belief that creating a job, putting men and women in good paying jobs, is priority number one for the government.”

Pillar three includes legislation aimed at addressing the state’s housing shortage by making it easier and more affordable to build new housing; a commitment to “double down” on the existing site readiness program to address the lack of suitable sites for development; and an initiative to address the housing shortage by ensuring that housing developers do not incur “disadvantageous tax treatment” in West Virginia.