SB 874 West Virginia Senate · 2025 Regular Session

Permitting current home confinement officers to participate in Emergency Medical Services Retirement System

SB 874 would allow current home confinement officers in West Virginia to join the Emergency Medical Services Retirement System (EMSRS). This bill amends the state code to explicitly include home confinement officers in the EMSRS eligibility requirements, which previously excluded them. The key mechanism is adding a new section (§16-5V-6f) to the EMSRS law, granting these officers access to the same retirement benefits as other EMS personnel. It directly affects current home confinement officers by providing them with retirement system participation they were previously denied. The bill does not change benefit calculations or funding mechanisms but expands eligibility to a specific group of public safety workers.

Issues: ✓ Labor & Employment

Bill status passed 3 of 5 stages cleared

Introduction

Mar 2025

Committee Review

Mar 2025

Senate Passage

Mar 2025

House of Delegates Passage

Governor

Introduced Mar 21, 2025 Last action Mar 31, 2025

Maddy AI version diff · 2 comparisons

What changed between versions

Committee Substitute → Committee Substitute for the Committee Substitute · 5 edits

MODERATE

This bill revision expands eligibility for the Emergency Medical Services Retirement System to include home confinement officers employed by county commissions, not just sheriff's offices. It also updates transfer deadlines, clarifies eligibility rules for officers with concurrent employment, and adjusts the retirement commencement date for transferring officers.

Scope change

The bill now applies to home confinement officers employed by both county sheriff's offices and county commissions, whereas previously it only covered those employed by sheriff's offices.

ELIGIBILITY

Home confinement officers employed by county commissions are now eligible to participate in the Emergency Medical Services Retirement System, expanding the program beyond just sheriff's office employees.

Home confinement officers hired on or after July 1, 2025 must not be participating in the Deputy Sheriffs Retirement System to qualify for the Emergency Medical Services Retirement System.

TIMELINE

The deadline for transferring assets from the Public Employees Retirement System was changed from December 31, 2025 to March 31, 2026, and the earliest retirement date for transferring officers was moved from January 1, 2026 to April 1, 2026.

REQUIREMENT

New provisions clarify that home confinement officers with concurrent employment in other retirement systems must choose which system to remain in based on their earliest hire date, preventing dual membership conflicts.

DEFINITION

The definition of 'Participating public employer' was updated to include county commissions that employ full-time home confinement officers.

Floor votes · Senate Mar 29, 2025

How they voted

32–0

Passed · 1 other

Total votes 33

Mar 29, 2025

D Democratic2

2 Yea

100% Yea

R Republican31

30 Yea 1

96% Yea

Vote distribution

All Yea All Nay Mixed No data

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Mar 31, 2025

Committee

To House Finance

lower

Mar 31, 2025

Committee

To Finance

lower

Mar 31, 2025

Introduced

Introduced in House

lower

Mar 29, 2025

Upper · Passed

Passed Senate (Roll No. 238)

upper

Mar 26, 2025

Upper · Passed

Committee substitute for committee substitute reported

upper

Mar 24, 2025

Committee

To Finance

upper

Mar 24, 2025

Upper · Passed

Committee substitute reported, but first to Finance

upper

Mar 21, 2025

Introduced

Introduced in Senate

upper

1 primary · 0 co-sponsors