Members of the House of Delegates
disagreed along party lines Thursday on a change in the way the body will
conduct its daily business.
The Democratic leadership proposed
the change and it was approved on a party line vote after several minutes of
debate during Thursday’s floor session.
The change will allow the powerful
Rules Committee to consider whether or not bills should be stopped on their way
to the full House for consideration. The Rules Committee will be
able to make those moves for the entire session. The old rule
put the House’s special calendar in effect during 31st day of the
session each year and that’s when the work of the Rules Committee would pick
up.
Some Republicans called the move a
power grab by new House Speaker Tim Miley and the Democratic leadership.
There’s a slim Democratic majority
in the House which gives the Democrats the majority of members on the Rules
Committee.
House Finance Committee Chairman
Brent Boggs, D-Braxton, argued the change would actually mean the Rules
Committee, which can have long meetings toward the end of the session, will
meet less allowing more time in regular committees.
The House provision will now mirror what the state Senate has done
for years with its Rules Committee. That committee usually meets only a handful
of times a session while the House committee would meet dozens of times in the
final half of the 60-day session.
