WVE: How do you determine which bills reach the
floor for a vote?
RH: We start with what has to be done. For example, there’s
a series of bills that have to be passed every year to make sure
the state of West Virginia conforms with applicable federal
law, like the tax code. Those bills have to be passed no matter
what else happens, otherwise our state tax code is out of sync
with the federal tax code and accountants and people doing
taxes don’t know how to proceed. Under the Constitution, our
biggest and most important obligation is to pass the budget,
so it is a big priority for me that we do that and do it on time.
From there we start down the list of what other bills will have
the highest, most important and biggest impact on, for example,
the state’s economy.
WVE: Senate Bill 451 drew a lot of attention in the
regular session. What are your thoughts on that bill
and how it turned out?
RH: I liked the bill. I voted for it, and I would vote for it
again. I thought it did a lot of good things for every student
in the state. With that being said, I think the biggest outcome
of the bill was getting people talking about the need for public
education reform in our state. I say from time to time when
I give speeches on public education that I consider the public
school system in Clay County to have changed my life. Because
of that, I want as many kids as possible to have that same kind
of opportunity and the same kind of experience I had. Unfor-
tunately, we had a lot of people—in some cases people with
vested self-interests—spewing a lot of misinformation. It be-
comes very difficult for the public to properly engage on a bill
like that when they aren’t provided with complete or accurate
information. Ours is a democracy, not a republic. The voters
choose the 134 members to make these decisions. Neverthe-
less, we like to get the public involved in the decision-making
process. That only works, though, if the public is willing to
get educated on what we are actually trying to do.
to educate the public on what we are doing. I find that social
media, for all the value it brings, has nothing positive to add
to the government because people don’t let the facts get in the
way of a good story when it comes time to talk about what
we do in the government. That quickly turns into folks be-
lieving things that are demonstrably untrue. When folks are
not willing to put in the time and energy to learn the truth
but instead rely on other people’s interpretations of the truth
through social media, then there’s no hope for getting it right.
My advice is to always, always, always start by reading the
bill. Before people begin taking to their computers—I some-
times call them keyboard warriors—they need to actually take
the time to read. Every bill, every resolution, every amendment,
every conference report, every committee report considered
by this Legislature is available online before it’s ever voted
on. We spend an incredible amount of money making sure all
those resources are available to the public in every corner of
the state. You can’t just rely on someone’s synopsis of the bill
and you can’t just rely on someone’s opinion of the bill. You
actually have to do a little bit of work. If you aren’t willing to
do a little bit of work, maybe you should consider if you are
in a position to comment on what we are doing.
WVE: What’s the next item on your to-do list?
RH: I am now squarely focused on the upcoming special
session on education and the 2020 session. My objective is to
make it an easier choice for people to stay in West Virginia.
That means people have to be able to get a job, educate their
children and have something to do in their community. So
much of that depends on people just deciding we are going to
choose to make West Virginia the best. Public education is one
of the finest examples. We are going to spend an awful lot of
time, effort and money over the course of the special session
looking at how we can change public education in West
Virginia. We will make some good changes, but the most
important change has to come from parents deciding they want
to take a more active role in their child’s education. There’s
nothing we can do to make that happen—the parents have to
decide to do that.
WVE: How can West Virginians play a bigger role
in determining legislation that needs to be passed?
RH: People have to want to be educated about the issues
and legislation. Plenty of accurate information was available
with Senate Bill 451 if people were willing to read it and un-
derstand it. We are there 60 days a year. We can’t spend all 60
days focused on a single bill, and we cannot take all 60 days
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