Relating to authorizing the Department of Administration to promulgate a legislative rule relating to general administration of records management and preservation.
Summary
HB2221 is a rule-authorization bill that gives legislative approval to a Department of Administration legislative rule governing the general administration of records management and preservation. The bill does not itself create a new records-management program or substantially rewrite substantive policy; instead, it confirms that the agency may proceed with the rule that was filed in the State Register on March 27, 2024, under existing statutory authority.
In practical terms, the bill amends and reenacts the section of the West Virginia Code that lists authorized legislative rules, adding approval for 148 CSR 12, the Department of Administration rule on records management and preservation. The effect is to validate the agency’s regulatory framework for how state records are managed, maintained, and preserved, which can affect state agencies and any entities subject to those administrative recordkeeping requirements.
Impact
The bill’s main legal effect is to authorize a specific administrative rule under West Virginia’s legislative rulemaking process, thereby allowing the Department of Administration to implement and enforce its records management and preservation rule. It impacts state administrative law by confirming the rule’s validity and incorporating it into the set of approved legislative rules, but it does not appear to alter private rights or impose new substantive obligations beyond the rule itself.
Sentiment
Because HB2221 is a narrow rule-authorization measure and there are no recorded committee transcripts or votes in the provided materials, the available context suggests little visible controversy or debate. The bill appears procedural and administrative in nature, with the likely general sentiment being neutral or routine support for allowing the Department of Administration to carry out records-management functions through rulemaking.
Contention
No specific points of contention are documented in the provided materials. If any concerns were raised, they would most likely relate to the scope of the Department of Administration’s records-management authority, compliance burdens on agencies, or the details of the underlying rule itself, but none of those issues are reflected in the available transcripts or voting history.
Supplementing and amending appropriations to the Higher Education Policy Commission, Higher Education Policy Commission – Administration – Control Account
Expiring funds to the unappropriated surplus balance in the State Fund, General Revenue, from the Department Revenue, State Budget Office, PEIA Rainy Day Fund