2023 WV Legislative Scorecard

HB2862 prohibits the West Virginia Investment Management Board and the Board of Treasury Investments, as well as their fiduciaries, from casting shareholder votes for the purpose of furthering “Environmental, social, corporate governance, or other similarly oriented considerations.”

The House passed HB2862 on March 1, 2023, by a vote of 73 to 23. We have assigned pluses to the yeas because the State’s investment decisions should be based on the financial interests of West Virginian taxpayers and pensioners—not ‘woke’ ESG factors. As a political and ideological scam that seeks to proliferate worldwide, implement a ‘social credit’ rating system, and advance the United Nations’ Agenda 2030, the ESG movement rejects private property and freedom of association. Its radical proponents attempt to restrict free-market access to financial and other services by preventing both individuals and companies from entering into contracts voluntarily based on their own interests, which violates the due process and equal protection clauses of the Fifth and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

HB3556, the Uniform Recognition and Enforcement of Canadian Domestic Violence Protective Orders Act, allows law enforcement in West Virginia to enforce protective orders issued in Canada without requiring that such orders be registered with a court in the United States.

The House passed HB3556 on February 25, 2023, by a vote of 84 to 8. We have assigned pluses  to the nays because all law enforcement and judicial officers in each of the several States are bound by oath to support the U.S. Constitution. Article IV, Section 1, of the Constitution confers recognition to only “the public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings of every other State”—not the judgements of foreign nations. In addition, the Bill of Rights and 14th Amendment protect “due process of law” and provide that “No State shall make or enforce any law” abridging the “privileges or immunities” of American citizens. Protective orders that do not satisfy the Constitution’s Article VI requirement that U.S. courts apply the “supreme Law of the Land,” which “Judges in every State shall be bound thereby,” are not valid or enforceable.

HB2036 would exempt state employees, K-12 school children, and students in public institutions of higher education from mandatory immunizations based on a “conscientious or personal objection.”

The House failed to advance HB2026 on February 22, 2023, by a vote of 14 to 84. We have assigned pluses to the yeas because vaccine mandates should be opposed, as an individual’s non-injurious activities, including personal health care decisions, are private matters that should not be under federal, state, or local jurisdiction in the United States. To compel American citizens to receive medical treatment would be to violate their fundamental rights of conscience protected by the Bill of Rights and the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

SB10, the Campus Self-Defense Act, authorizes concealed handgun license holders to carry firearms on public college and university campuses.

The House passed SB10 February 21, 2023, by a vote of 84 to 13. We have assigned pluses to the yeas because this bill eases blatantly unconstitutional gun control restrictions on college campuses in West Virginia. Every person has a natural and individual right to self-defense, regardless of their location, which is why the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution expressly declares that “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

HB3199 removes the requirement that a “termination of an ectopic pregnancy” be reported in West Virginia.

The House passed HB3199 on February 14, 2023, by a vote of 65 to 31. We have assigned pluses to the nays because the care of human life—not its destruction—is the greatest responsibility of government. West Virginia ought to forbid abortion entirely and uphold the sanctity of life for every person, especially preborn children. The right to life is the most fundamental, God-given, and “unalienable” right asserted in the Declaration of Independence and protected by the Fifth and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.