Law and Government of West Virginia - Legislative Branch

Legislative Branch

Like all states except Nebraska, West Virginia has a bicameral state legislature, the West Virginia Legislature. The lower house is the West Virginia House of Delegates and the upper house is the Senate. The West Virginia Legislature is a citizen's legislature or part-time legislature.

The West Virginia Constitution imposes a limit of 60 calendar days the length of the regular session. Regular sessions of the Legislature commence on the second Wednesday of January of each year; following the election of a new governor, the session starts in January with the governor's address but then adjourns until February. The session may be extended by concurrent resolution adopted by a two-thirds vote of each house. The governor may also call legislators to convene in special sessions whenever the governor deems one or more issues of state government in need of timely action by the Legislature. The final day of the regular session usually includes last-minute legislation in order to meet a constitutionally-imposed deadline of midnight. Legislators usually do not make it a full-time occupation, but frequently hold a full-time job in their community of residence. This differs from neighboring states such as Pennsylvania and Ohio, who have professional full-time legislatures.

The House of Delegates has 100 members. All Delegates are elected to two-year terms and are up for election in even-numbered years, elected from 58 districts that elect a varying number of members. A majority of these (35 districts) are single-member districts, while a lesser number (23 districts) are multi-member districts that elect from two to seven delegates. The district with the most delegates is the 30th District in Kanawha County, which elects seven Delegates. The Senate has 34 members, elected to four-year terms staggered so that half the Senate is up for election every even-numbered year.