We’re on the countdown to Crossover Day Wednesday, when state Senate bills must cross over to the House of Delegates and vice versa in order to ensure these bills have a chance of making it to passage by midnight on Saturday, April 12, when the 2025 legislative session ends.

That means we have slightly less than two weeks until the 60-day regular session ends. For some, that day could not come soon enough. For others, such as Gov. Patrick Morrisey, he is already clamoring for a special session.

“The more work the Legislature gets done now, the less time it will spend in Charleston during the long, hot summer,” Morrisey posted on social media last Tuesday. “We are not going to accept West Virginia’s decline any longer. There’s no excuse for inaction. There’s no excuse for failing to move the needle on issues that matter. There’s no excuse for just doing things the way they’ve always been done.”

Morrisey’s post came one day after the House of Delegates rejected Senate Bill 460, Morrisey’s bill to codify his executive order allowing for religious and philosophical exemptions to the state’s compulsory immunization program for school-age children.

The House Health and Human Service Committee had amended the religious and philosophical exemptions out of the bill and replaced that with reforms to the medical exemption process, but a religious exemption was put back in by amendment on March 21. But the weekend provided time and pressure on lawmakers to consider how they would vote, and by last Monday, SB 460 was rejected in a 42-56 vote.

This was the second time the House dealt a blow to Morrisey’s legislative agenda. The House Health and Human Resources Committee voted down House Bill 2007, repealing the certificate of need program for healthcare services, in a 12-13 vote on Feb. 24. An attempt was made that same evening to reconsider the vote in committee on HB 2007, a parliamentary move that allowed committee members to vote the motion down and keep the bill from being reconsidered further.

Despite an attempt to discharge HB 2007 Friday by Del. Chris Anders, R-Berkeley, that bill remains stalled in the House. And the Senate version of the bill appears to be stuck in the Senate Health Committee.

So far, the only major piece of Morrisey’s legislative agenda to make it to his desk outside of two boilerplate tax definitions bills that are always passed quickly the first week of session is Senate Bill 456, defining “male” and “female” in State Code and protecting single-sex spaces.

There are plenty of Morrisey’s agenda items still moving. SB 458, the Universal Professional and Occupational Licensing Act, is set for passage Monday in the House, though it will need to go back to the Senate for that body to concur with changes made to the bill, which would create occupational licensing reciprocity with certain limitations.

The following bills are also up for passage in the House Monday. HB 2002, establishing a one-stop shop permitting process, would speed up the permitting process for energy and infrastructure projects. HB 2010, the real estate broker office requirement, states that “a nonresident broker who maintains a definite place of business in his or her jurisdiction of residence may not be required to maintain an office in this state.”

HB 2013 would transfer state employees of Bureau of Senior Services, Department of Administration, Department of Environmental Protection, Department of Revenue, and Department of Veterans’ Assistance from the classified civil service system and exempt them from the state employee grievance procedures. That bill is also up for passage Monday.

On Tuesday, the House could also consider HB 2014, Morrisey’s certified microgrid program bill. I wrote about this bill in detail when it was first introduced in the House, and I had a deep dive into some of the bill’s provisions dealing with requirements on coal-fired power plants over the weekend.

Could HB 2014 be the next bill to go down in flames for Morrisey next week in the House? It’s possible. I’ve heard numerous complaints from House Republicans about the bill being too big, too complicated, having too many moving parts, and introduced too late in the session. And with Morrisey throwing fuel on the fire with his social media post threatening to drag members back into a special session later this summer, the motivation to give Morrisey a win in that body may be lacking.

It’s unclear whether or not he was motivated by Morrisey’s social media post or not, but the day after that post, House Speaker Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay, took to the House floor to praise the work of the House during this session.

“To those who are hopefully listening outside our chamber today, I want you on behalf of this body to know that we are doing something,” said Hanshaw. “We’re doing much on as many problems as we’re able to solve.”

The last time a governor bullied the House, it was Jim Justice over a 2021 proposal to eliminate personal income tax where Justice and the Senate had come to an agreement. The House hadn’t taken up the Senate message and Justice accused the House of being afraid to vote.

To prove Justice wrong, the House took up the bill and refused to concur with the Senate in a 0-100 unanimous vote, killing the bill. Hanshaw and the House of Delegates don’t respond well to bullying tactics. Threatening them with summer school will not likely work.