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It remains to be seen if the House Judiciary Committee will take up House Bill 4071, which would prohibit county school systems from implementing COVID-19 face mask requirements or testing requirements for non-symptomatic or asymptomatic students and staff.
The bill passed the House Education Committee on Jan. 18 in an 18-6 vote, so there are obviously a majority of Republican lawmakers that want this bill. But it's a double-referenced bill and still has to get put on the House Judiciary Committee's agenda.
Committee chairman, particularly of major committees such as judiciary and finance committees are very powerful. Delegate Moore Capito, R-Kanawha, chairs the House Judiciary. If he doesn't like a bill that's been referenced to his committee, he doesn't have to put it on the agenda.
There are ways to get around this of course, including a motion from the floor to discharge a bill that's in a committee. Democratic lawmakers attempt this all the time to move bills, such as the Fairness Act, out of committee and onto the floor for consideration. Since Democrats don't have the votes, those motions usually get tabled or other parliamentary moves.
A discharge motion was successfully used a few years ago to move the medical cannabis bill to the floor. The House Judiciary Committee chairman at the time, Mercer County Republican John Shott, and former House Speaker Tim Armstead were opponents of medical cannabis legalization. But enough Republicans in the House caucus were able to override that opposition, successfully discharge the bill to the floor, and vote to approve it.
I've not heard whether Capito supports HB 4071, but I have overheard lawmakers hoping the bill gets on the Judiciary Committee's agenda. I did see some masked protestors sitting out front of the Governor's Reception Room during Gov. Jim Justice's COVID-19 briefing last Wednesday seeking support for the bill.
Folks, you're protesting in front of the wrong office door.
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The other thing I keep overhearing from lawmakers and supporters of HB 4071 when responding to opponents who accuse them over eroding local control is something along the lines of "there's nothing more local than a parent."
I don't completely understand this argument. While we did have statewide mask mandates in 2020 and parts of 2021, including in schools, state officials decided going into the 2021-2022 school year to leave decisions on masking up to county school boards. Justice wasn't going to issue a new mandate, and state Board of Education and Department of Education officials decided that those kinds of decisions needed to be made by local communities.
County boards of education are elected. While they are working closely with county health officials (who are unelected but are accountable to county commissions), the call on masks in schools is being made by county boards of education. I think the only requirements on county boards from the state were for written plans dealing with COVID-19 mitigation.
We have 55 county boards of education made up of people elected from those communities. As a parent, you have power through your county board of education. And if you don't like a decision by your county board of education, you can either vote board members out, you can run for the board yourself, or you can turn to the courts if you feel some right has been violated by a school board decision.
If you're wanting more control than that, why even have local governments at all? Abolish county boards of education and run the schools as a true mob democracy. Better yet, staff the schools yourself. Why have city governments? Let's run things ourselves and see how quickly modern society crashes to the ground.
It's all fun and games until your trash piles up, your water mains go unpatched when they burst, and when all you get is a dial tone when you try to call 911. We entrust governments with decision-making power because we, as individuals, can't run the whole show on our own.
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The campaign of Congressman Alex Mooney had to replace a TV commercial attacking Congressman David McKinley in the 2nd Congressional District race with a new one last week after I wrote about the first ad using footage from U.S. House of Representatives floor sessions and committee meetings in violation of House rules and the House Ethics Manual.
With Mooney already under investigation by the House Ethics Committee after the Office of Congressional Ethics found numerous campaign finance violations by Mooney, it's not a great look to come into conflict with House ethics rules again.
Mooney campaign consultant Mark Harris told me this was the first time he had ever encountered those rules before since two incumbents running against each other is rare. I'm not sure I buy that line, considering the ad didn't just use McKinley committee footage. It also used committee footage from Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and floor footage from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. So even if the campaign had not used the McKinley footage it still would have run afoul the rules.
Others have gotten dinged for violating these rules. In 2020, former Republican Georgia congressman Doug Collins had an ethics complaint filed against him for using House floor footage in ads when he made a failed run for U.S. Senate according to the Augusta Chronicle. According to The Hill, former Florida Republican congresswoman Sandy Adams was accused of doing the same in a 2012 campaign ad against fellow former Republican Florida Congressman John Mica.
The issue might not come up all the time, but it must come up often enough for the rules prohibiting using House floor and committee footage for political purposes to exist in the first place.