HCR 78 West Virginia House of Delegates · 2025 Regular Session

Urging the Commissioner of Highways to prioritize completion of I-73, the King Coal Highway

HCR 78 is a non-binding resolution urging West Virginia's Division of Highways to prioritize completing I-73 (the "King Coal Highway") across Wayne, Mingo, McDowell, Mercer, and Wyoming counties. It requests the highway agency treat the project as a high priority to improve economic development and emergency access, especially after recent flooding exposed transportation challenges in the region. The resolution asks the state to provide necessary funding and executive support to expedite the highway's completion but does not allocate new funds or create new law. It directly affects the Division of Highways and residents of the five specified counties by formally advocating for this infrastructure project.

Issues: ✓ Transportation

Bill status passed both 4 of 5 stages cleared

Introduction

Mar 2025

Committee Review

Mar 2025

House of Delegates Passage

Mar 2025

Senate Passage

Mar 2025

Governor

Introduced Mar 7, 2025 Last action Apr 1, 2025

Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

Introduced Version → Committee Substitute · 3 edits

MINOR

The bill was amended from an Introduced Version to a Committee Substitute, which added formal legislative headers and modified the resolution's language to emphasize federal partnership over direct state funding. The substitute version also expanded the distribution of the certified copy to include the Governor and Congressional delegations, broadening the resolution's outreach.

Scope change

The scope of the resolution's implementation was broadened by shifting the funding approach from direct state provision to federal partnership and by expanding the recipients of the certified copy to include executive and federal legislative branches.

FISCAL

Changed the funding mechanism from requiring the State of West Virginia to provide all necessary funding to requesting the State to partner with federal agencies and members of Congress to expedite funding.

REQUIREMENT

Added the Governor of West Virginia and West Virginia's Congressional delegations as additional recipients of the certified copy of the resolution.

TECHNICAL

Added formal legislative headers including session details, committee origin, and reporting date that were absent in the Introduced Version.

Floor votes

How they voted

This bill passed the Senate by voice vote (no roll call recorded).

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Mar 31, 2025

Upper · Passed

Adopted by Senate (Voice vote)

upper

Mar 29, 2025

Upper · Passed

Reported be adopted

upper

Mar 19, 2025

Introduced

Introduced in Senate

upper

Mar 18, 2025

Lower · Passed

Adopted by House (Voice vote)

lower

Mar 18, 2025

Lower · Passed

By substitute, be adopted

lower

Mar 7, 2025

Committee

To House Rules

lower

Mar 7, 2025

Introduced

Introduced in House

lower

1 primary · 84 co-sponsors