Source: United States Senator for West Virginia Shelley Moore Capito
To watch Senator Capito’s questioning, click here or the image above.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, participated in a subcommittee hearing today to review the FY2023 budget request for the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). During the hearing, Senator Capito asked DOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg to approve the proposed Harmony Grove Interchange in Morgantown, which she urged him to do earlier this week in a letter, and pressed him to ensure states have the flexibility guaranteed to them in administering funding from the bipartisan infrastructure law.
HIGHLIGHTS:
URGING APPROVAL OF NEW I-79 INTERCHANGE IN MORGANTOWN: “I didn’t want to leave this opportunity unchecked for me. Senator Manchin and David McKinley and I wrote you a letter just recently asking you to review and approve the interchange justification report for the Harmony Grove Interchange on I-79 near Morgantown. If safety’s your priority, this is a safety issue because of the business park that is associated, which is growing, and you know, that’s been difficult for us to be able to grow in our state. We’re excited about the possibilities here, but it would take a lot of truck traffic out of those local areas. So, I just want to put that on your radar screen again and hope you can take a look at that.”
ENSURING STATE FLEXIBILITY IN ADMINISTERING INFRASTRUCTURE FUNDS: “The [DOT] guidance memo that has caused a lot of consternation, you and I had a conversation about this and had several conversations about this. It still remains an issue. And I think the fact that you’re stating that it’s clear in the memo that you’re going to do everything within the bounds of the law, you still are adding it as an anecdote there…But in my view, you’re putting your foot on the scale for certain types of projects rather than letting the states have the flexibility that they’ve enjoyed for so long. So, I would say that it’s not clear because we’re still hearing from our DOTs, and also my understanding is that not only do you have the memo from the December, but you’ve doubled down in terms of the same types of concepts going toward certain grant programs and other kinds of funding opportunities. So it is causing a lot of consternation….We specifically avoided these types of prioritizations when we formulated a bipartisan product, you know that.”
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