Amber Miller sat in the West Virginia House of Delegates gallery Tuesday morning and watched as her chance to have her criminal record expunged - to put a youthful mistake behind her - disappeared in a flurry of parliamentary procedure.
The House voted 54-43 Tuesday to effectively kill the Second Chance Employment Act, which would have allowed people to petition a court to have a nonviolent felony expunged from their criminal record, if they meet certain requirements.
Eight Republicans joined every Democrat in supporting the bill, while 54 Republicans voted to block the legislation.
The legislation (SB 411) passed the Senate unanimously last month, where the lead sponsor was a Republican.
It would allow people convicted of a non-violent felony to apply to have their record expunged one year after their sentence ends. An expungement could not become final until 10 years later. Anybody with more than one criminal conviction would be ineligible for expungement.
More than a decade ago, when she was 21, Miller said, she started hanging out with a bad crowd. She got into drugs and broke into her grandmother's house to steal some money.
She said she stole $30, got caught, and was charged with daytime burglary - a felony.
She served a year in jail and two and a half years on probation. Ever since being released, she's struggled to get a decent job, with employers put off when she has to reveal that she has a felony record.
Now 32, Miller has a job doing scheduling at a hospital, but it took years.
"I'd go and I could apply and apply and apply and, at some point, I would get a call back," Miller said. "But it wouldn't be an employer where I could support myself and my two kids. The issue was finding a job that could give me a future."
The Second Chance Employment Act was not actually up for passage in the House on Tuesday.
After passing the Senate on Feb. 27, the bill was assigned to the House Industry and Labor Committee, and then, to the House Judiciary Committee.
Industry and Labor is a minor committee that generally meets only once a week. It has not met since Feb. 16 and will not meet again before the end of the legislative session. The Second Chance Employment Act was the only bill that passed the Senate assigned to the committee.
So the bill was stuck. Delegate Mike Pushkin, D-Kanawha, a supporter, tried to get it unstuck.
Pushkin, who, for two years, has sponsored a similar version of the bill, moved to have the measure discharged from the committee and sent to the House floor, where the full House could vote it up or down. (Discharge motions have frequently been used by the minority party as a way to force a vote on legislation.)
But House Majority Leader Daryl Cowles, R-Morgan, made a motion to table Pushkin's motion.
The vote on Cowles' motion was, in essence, a vote on the bill. Cowles' motion passed, with solely Republican support. The eight Republicans who sided with Democrats and voted to consider the bill were Mike Azinger, Larry Faircloth, Mike Folk, Michael Ihle, John Kelly, Pat McGeehan, Matthew Rohrbach and Jill Upson.
"I don't think we're ready to deal with it, yet," Cowles said of the bill. "It's pending in committee, so I'm sure they've looked at it, considered whether or not they can get it on their agenda."
If the committee has looked at it, it was not in an open meeting. The committee's last posted meeting was more than a week before the Second Chance Employment Act was assigned to it.
Pushkin said the bill would help people get back to work and rebuild their lives. He blamed House Speaker Tim Armstead, R-Kanawha, for assigning it to the minor committee, chaired by Delegate John Overington, R-Berkeley.
"I think it is unfortunate that such a well-crafted piece of legislation, with bipartisan support, was killed when the speaker added a second reference to Industry and Labor, a committee that hasn't met," Pushkin said.
Armstead did not respond to requests for comment sent through a spokesman.
Miller was disappointed with the vote but said she would keep trying. She's been persistent to the point that Armstead's secretary knows her by name, she said.
"I'm trying to be as understanding as possible, but it is frustrating, especially when you have so much of the community support," Miller said. "But I will never give up."
Reach David Gutman at david.gutman@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5119 or follow @davidlgutman on Twitter.