2014 Legislative Session
This year two bills were introduced to the House by Delegate Kelli Sobonya. They were:
HB 4273 - Herd Shares (history)
HB 4274 - Raw Milk Sales (history)
Both bills were double indexed, meaning they had to be reviewed by both the Ag committee and the Health committee before they could be moved to the house floor for a vote. Only the herd shares bill was ever voted upon. While it DID pass the Ag committee, the Health committee never voted on it. The Ag committee asked that the second index be waived so the bill could go on to the full House, but Speaker Tim Miley declined to do so. The WV legislature is only part time, so only lasts 60 days. Time is up for this year.
There was also a single bill introduced in the senate by Senator Daniel Hall:
SB 478 - Raw Milk Sales (history)
This bill was never voted on by the Senate Ag committee.
2014 Submitted Letters
Here is the letter I wrote and emailed to every member of the House Health Committee urging them to support the Herd Shares bill. Of the twenty four members, only two ever responded. Delegates Carol Miller and Kelli Sobonya (who were both sponsors of the bill) graced me with a reply. Not one of the twenty-two other members could be bothered to reply at all.
Letter to House Health Committee
As I learned more about just who was in charge of the next step, I learned it was the committee chair who controls the agenda. In this case, it was Delegate Don Perdue who needed convincing. Word came he had been "heavily influenced" by several department of health head physicians, as well as the WV Department of Health, but that he would listen to evidence from the pro-milk side. Here is my letter to him. Of course, he never bothered to respond.
Letter to House Health Committee Chair, Delegate Don Perdue
2014 News Articles
Here are all the links I could find to articles relating to the 2014 legislative session. As you can see, there aren't many. We need to do a better job next year of getting the word out about any pending legislation!
September 26, 2013: WOWK TV
Jackson County, WV mother and farmers criticize state's raw milk stance
February 4, 2014: Charleston Daily Mail
Proposed bill would allow raw milk sales in WV
February 12, 2014: The Charleston Gazette
W.Va. House moves on raw milk consumption bill
February 12, 2014: WOWK
Clay County, WV woman joins others in fight to legalize raw milk sales
February 19, 2014: The Clay County Free Press
Raw Milk bill approved by House Committee
The Legislative Process
Throughout this process, I learned my education in how the government works is sorely lacking. For example, each year the state legislature only meets for 60 days. That's it. They do not work all year long. Time is very short to get a bill passed. The official WV page about how a bill becomes law can be found here. This is important to understand as once you do, you'll know who to contact when and what to ask for. The very simplified, bare bones idea is this:
- A member of the house sponsors a bill.
- The bill is read before the entire house and is assigned to a committee. Sometimes it is assigned to multiple committees.
- The head of the committee places the bill on the agenda for a meeting of that committee. The head is not required to place the bill on the agenda, and many bills die in committee, never having been voted upon.
- The committee votes on the bill. If it passes, it goes to the main house floor for a vote. In the case of herd shares, it was assigned to two committees and so it went to the second committee instead of the main house floor.
- The main house floor must vote on the bill before "cross over day", which is when bills that passed the House are sent to the Senate for a vote there.
- The process then repeats in the Senate. If the bill passes a vote on the main Senate floor it then becomes law.