HartmanCosco Government Relations

Debriefing the 2021 WV Legislative Session – Domestic Violence

Brian Skinner April 30, 2021 Domestic Violence, Legislation

By Brian Skinner, Esq. The 85th West Virginia Legislature spent little time on domestic violence issues during its first regular session. Although, several bills were introduced to strengthen the state’s response to domestic violence, few received any consideration and only one was enacted. House Bill 2830, passed by the legislature and approved by Governor on …Read More

Debriefing the 2021 WV Legislative Session – Law-Enforcement

Brian Skinner April 28, 2021 Law-enforcement, Legislation

By Brian Skinner, Esq. Of the subjects that you can count on the legislature addressing each regular session, are matters related to crime and law-enforcement. The first session of the 85th West Virginia Legislature was no exception. Crimes While no new crimes were created, the legislature did address issues related to punishment. Senate Bill 392 …Read More

Debriefing the 2021 WV Legislative Session – COVID-19

Brian Skinner April 23, 2021 COVID-19, Legislation

By Brian Skinner, Esq. As expected, one of the priorities of the Legislature going into the 2021 regular session was addressing the concerns of businesses and health care providers that they were likely to beset by a wave of pandemic-related lawsuits seeking to blame them for customer, patient, or employee exposure to COVID-19. In response …Read More

Bipartisan Policy Center Forming Opioid Task Force

Brian Skinner April 21, 2021 Opioid Drug Crisis

The United States, especially West Virginia, is seeing significant increases in drug addiction and overdose deaths while at the same time battling the COVID-19 pandemic. Preliminary CDC data show that more than 90,000 Americans died from drug overdose deaths from October 2019 to September 2020, a nearly 30% increase from the previous year. The Substance Abuse and …Read More

Debriefing the 2021 WV Legislative Session – Firearms

Brian Skinner Firearms, Legislation

By Brian Skinner, Esq. During the 2021 regular session of the West Virginia Legislature, 45 bills and one joint resolution were introduced that involve firearms in one way or another — 17 bills and one joint resolution in the Senate and 28 bills in the House of Delegates. Of the 45 bills introduced, six were …Read More

Debriefing the 2021 WV Legislative Session – Women’s Health

Brian Skinner April 19, 2021 Health Care, Legislation, Women's Health

By Brian J. Skinner, Esq. During the 2021 regular legislative session, approximately 19 bills were introduced that would have impacted women’s health, if enacted. While the vast majority of the introduced legislation were related to abortion, three bills, unrelated to abortion, were enacted and are likely to increase women’s access to health care. The first …Read More

Debriefing the 2021 WV Legislative Session – Marijuana

Brian Skinner April 14, 2021 Legislature, marijuana

By Brian Skinner, Esq. Even though a total of 17 bills related to marijuana were filed for introduction in the West Virginia Senate and House during the 2021 legislative session, only two received any consideration and none crossed the finish line to become law. Of those 17 bills, three would have lowered or extinguished …Read More