SB 173 West Virginia Senate · 2025 Regular Session

Permitting hotels and public lodging establishments to provide human trafficking awareness training for employees

This bill requires West Virginia hotels and public lodging establishments to implement specific measures to address human trafficking. By January 1, 2026, hotels must establish procedures for reporting suspected trafficking to the National Human Trafficking Hotline or local law enforcement, post bilingual (English/Spanish) awareness signs in employee-accessible areas, and may provide annual human trafficking awareness training to housekeeping and front desk staff. The training must cover definitions of trafficking (including sex and labor trafficking), how to identify victims, and reporting protocols. The bill clarifies it does not create legal liability for hotels and allows the Bureau for Public Health to develop implementing rules.

Issues: ✓ Criminal Justice

Bill status in committee 1 of 4 stages cleared

Introduction

Feb 2025

Committee Review

Floor Vote

Governor

Introduced Feb 12, 2025 Last action Feb 19, 2025

Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

Introduced Version → Committee Substitute · 5 edits

MODERATE

The bill was amended to change mandatory requirements for hotels into optional permissions. The original version required hotels to provide human trafficking training, post awareness signs, and submit training for approval, with penalties for non-compliance. The new version allows hotels to voluntarily provide training and post signs, removes the requirement for local board of health approval, and eliminates administrative penalties for non-compliance.

Scope change

The bill changed from a mandatory requirement for all hotels to a permissive option that hotels may choose to implement.

REQUIREMENT

Changed mandatory annual human trafficking training and awareness sign posting to optional/permissive actions that hotels may choose to implement.

Removed the requirement for hotels to maintain and provide training records to local boards of health upon request.

ENFORCEMENT

Removed administrative penalties ($2,000 per day) and the requirement for local board of health approval of training programs.

Removed the provision allowing a 45-day correction period for violations and subsequent penalty enforcement mechanisms.

TIMELINE

Removed the January 1, 2026 deadline for implementing training and posting signs, as these are now optional.

Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Feb 19, 2025

Committee

To Judiciary

upper

Feb 19, 2025

Upper · Passed

Committee substitute reported, but first to Judiciary

upper

Feb 12, 2025

Committee

To Health and Human Resources

upper

Feb 12, 2025

Introduced

Introduced in Senate

upper

Feb 12, 2025

Committee

To Health and Human Resources then Judiciary

upper

1 primary · 2 co-sponsors