Republicans (!) Help Defeat WV Forced Pooling at 11th Hour

| | | |

celebrateIn a stunning upset at the eleventh hour, WV House Bill (HB) 2688, a bill that allows forced pooling (and a bill that seemed assured of passage just last Friday) died in a rare tied vote. On Friday, we told you HB2688 was all but a done deal (see Looks Like Forced Pooling is, After 5 Years, Coming to WV). So what happened? As predicted, the bill went to the WV Senate where it was passed on a vote of 24-10. The House had previously passed it on a vote of 60-40, but the bill had amendments that took it back to the House for final passage on the very last day of the regular session (Saturday). The last vote on the bill ended up in a rare tie of 49-49. When a vote on a bill ends in a tie, it doesn’t pass. And there it ended. Why did the vote swing from a comfortable margin the first time it passed in the House to a tie the second time? It largely appears to be the efforts of House member Pat McGeehan, a Republican, who calls forced pooling “legal plundering”…

Please Login to view this content. (Not a member? Join Today!)
You do not have permission to view the comments.