Manchin Secures West Virginia Priorities, Urges Bipartisan Compromise To Pass FY22 Budget

Source: United States Senator for West Virginia Joe Manchin

October 18, 2021

“I am pleased to see the draft Democratic appropriations bills include many West Virginia priorities that I fought for including water and wastewater upgrades, healthcare and education investments, transportation projects and economic development opportunities for West Virginia. While these draft bills are a first step, we must find a bipartisan compromise to pass a reasonable, fiscally sound spending bill. As I have said numerous times before, I will not vote for legislation that does not include the Hyde Amendment and I fully expect the final spending bill to include that language. These nine draft bills have huge wins for the Mountain State, and I will keep fighting to ensure West Virginia gets our fair share in the final spending bill. There is still work to be done, and I will continue to work with my bipartisan, bicameral colleagues to pass this vital legislation.”

**These are preliminary funding numbers, subject to final bill passage**

West Virginia Congressionally Directed Spending Requests Included:

Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies: $55,059,000

• Charles Washington’s Home Rehabilitation and Revitalization: $500,000 for historic rehabilitation and restoration on the property of Happy Retreat estate, a Washington Family Home in Charles Town, WV.
• Trail Connectivity to New River Gorge National Park and Preserve: $1.5 million to construct multi-use trails in Fayette County.
• Burnsville Wastewater Collection System Rehabilitation Project: $669,000 to upgrade the existing wastewater management system in the city of Burnsville due to concerns about lack of capacity.
• Canaan Valley Public Service District Water Plant: $8 million to provide funding for the development of a new water plant in Canaan Valley to supply treated water to residents.
• City of Weirton Water Treatment Capacity Project: $22.47 million to increase the City’s water treatment system capacity.
• Grafton Wastewater Systems Improvement Project: $3 million to improve the wastewater system in Grafton, WV.
• Greenbrier County Phase II Waterline Extension: $1.5 million to provide water service to approximately 275 new customers in Greenbrier County.
• Kermit Rehabilitation of Water Treatment Facility: $2.747 million to support the rehabilitation of a water treatment plant and waterlines in Kermit, WV.
• McDowell County Septic Tank Solutions: $495,000 to design and install 35 on-site residential septic systems in McDowell County, West Virginia.
• Parsons Sanitary Sewer Compliance: $1.6 million for removal and replacement of parts of the sanitary sewer system to remain compliant with state guidelines.
• Ravenswood Pump Station Improvements: $2 million to support the further development of the wastewater system in Ravenswood, WV.
• Ripley Wastewater Treatment Plant Improvements: $3 million to construct a new water treatment facility in the city of Ripley in order to mitigate concerns about lack of capacity.
• Rowlesburg Sanitary Sewer System Upgrade: $7.578 million to upgrade Sanitary Sewer System in the city of Rowlesburg in order to address lack of capacity.

Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies: $42,662,000

• American Red Cross Central Appalachia Region: $165,000 to procure three Ram ProMaster 3500 vehicles and one Ford Transit Connect to maintain blood services vehicles.
• Cabell Huntington Hospital: $267,000 to expand an existing program for families with babies in the Neonatal Therapeutic Unit (NTU) at Hoops Family Children’s Hospital at Cabell Huntington Hospital (CHH).
• Charleston Area Medical Center: $5,000,000 to fund an advanced, enterprise imaging system.
• City of Charleston, West Virginia: $500,000 to upgrade and outfit an existing building to create and launch the Hope Community Development Corporation’s Affiliate Workforce Center.
• City of Wheeling, West Virginia: $500,000 to undertake the design and engineering of public infrastructure, including HVAC and energy efficient systems, needed to reopen the Ohio Valley Medical Center (OVMC) hospital and health complex.
• Community Care of West Virginia: $1,250,000 to provide Behavioral Health in all of its fifty-four School Based Wellness Center locations, spanning six rural counties in North Central West Virginia.
• Concord University: $850,000 to establish a school of professional nursing with an emphasis on rural health solutions.
• Generation West Virginia: $167,000 to support Generation West Virginia’s (GWV) NewForce program, a six-month, technology skills training program addressing the worker-skill mismatch in the state.
• Golden Girl Group Home: $100,000 to provide supplemental education to female foster youth at the Golden Girl Group Home in Ceredo.
• Grafton-Taylor County Health Department: $75,000 to procure equipment and furnishings for newly constructed Health Department.
• Marshall University Center of Excellence for Recovery: $4,961,000 to enhance and increase efforts to address mental and behavioral health needs in rural and underserved areas.
• Marshall University Robert C. Byrd Institute: $4,500,000 to support Apprenticeship Works, which is administered by the Robert C. Byrd Institute at Marshall University (MU).
• Morgan County Partnership: $200,000 to provide substance abuse prevention education to students ages 9-18 attending Morgan County Schools.
• Mon Health Preston Memorial Hospital: $580,000 to construct and equip a chemotherapy infusion center and renovate the hospital pharmacy.
• New River Health Association: $5,000,000 to transform a large medical complex and community conference center into a single, expanded medical facility.
• Potomac Valley Hospital: $750,000 to fund construction and renovation of Potomac Valley Hospital’s Drug Addiction Center in Keyser.
• Shepherd University: $36,000 for new equipment, technology, and an education software that would assist students with everything from learning disabilities, to visual impairments, to international students whose first language is not English.
• Thomas Health Systems, Inc.: $1,200,000 to fund the renovation of a floor of the Medical Office Building South on the campus of Thomas Health’s St. Francis Hospital in Charleston, West Virginia.
• West Virginia 211: $500,000 to support, sustain and enhance West Virginia 211, West Virginia’s critical statewide information and resources center.
• West Virginia Health Right: $4,000,000 to support a clinic expansion.
• West Virginia Rural Water Association: $6,341,000 to support and expand workforce development and apprenticeship activities consistent with National Guideline Standards of Apprenticeship for Water and Wastewater Systems Operation Specialists.
• West Virginia University Children’s Hospital: $2,790,000 to complete the construction of a new West Virginia University (WVU) Medicine Children’s Hospital.
• West Virginia University Wastewater Testing: $930,000 to develop the infrastructure for early detection of disease outbreaks and dangerous drug use.
• Williamson Health and Wellness Center: $2,000,000 to reopen the Williamson Memorial Hospital, which would be the only hospital in Mingo County.

Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies: $26,767,000

• Barbour & Harrison Homeless Housing ($2,000,000): Construct and rehabilitates 10 units of housing in Barbour and 10 units of housing in Harrison for a total of 20 units of new housing.
• Bluefield Historic District Restoration ($600,000): Fund for the City of Bluefield to support renovations to historic district building restoration.
• Braxton County BAD Buildings Fund ($500,000): Upgrades, repairs, conducts asbestos abatement and demolishes blighted, abandoned, and dilapidated buildings in Sutton, Gassaway, and Burnsville.
• Coalfields Expressway ($500,000): Funding for a planned four-lane highway beginning at the confluence of Interstate 77 and 64 near Beckley, WV and ending in Pound, VA to open up portions of the state.
• Clarksburg Airport Earth Moving ($5,000,000): Complete the necessary earth movement to provide a site for CKB Airport’s new terminal facility.
• Elkins Tygart Hotel ($1,750,000): Renovate the Tygart Hotel in Elkins to clean up downtown and help improve regional tourism.
• Fairmont Regional Tech Hub ($1,000,000): Funds a planned mixed-use development that will have a tech workforce training program, co-working space, entrepreneurial incubator, and mixed-income residential units.
• Mingo County Airport Access Road ($3,300,000): Access road at the Appalachian Regional Airport, enabling Mingo County to develop new industry and grow economic sectors.
• Parkersburg Airport Main Terminal Improvements ($398,000): Improvements to the main terminal at the Mid-Ohio Valley Regional Airport to improve confidence and increase enplanements.
• Parkersburg Airport Parking Area Repairs ($339,000): Improvements to accommodate increasing enplanements and other factors.
• Smithers Trail System ($4,688,000): Constructs an integrated trail system in the City of Smithers.
• Thomas Multi-Use Co-Working and Small Business Center ($622,000): Multiuse co-working and small business center in Thomas, WV to address workforce housing shortages and spur economic development.
• WV Community Development Hub Skill Training ($150,000): Support an entry-level training and skill development program for community leaders.
• WV Land Stewardship RAISE Pilot Program ($1,000,000): Establishes a pilot program to issue grants to communities with established dilapidated building inventories to demolish or rehabilitate buildings.
• WV Municipal League Cities Forward ($300,000): Helps the West Virginia Municipal League and WVU establish an initiative to boost the ability of West Virginia’s cities to boost their economies
• Wheeling Grow Ohio Valley Food Hub ($620,000): Completes critical building renovations and program-specific fixtures and furnishings, including commercial kitchen appliances, food processing equipment, and other equipment for the Wheeling Food Hub.
• Brooke County Port of WV Railroad Bridge Improvements ($4,000,000): Rail infrastructure and upgrades at the site.

Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies: $9,859,000

• I-79 High Technology Park Joint Technology Consortium: $2 million to create a consortium with the NOAA Technology Partnership Office to facilitate proposals related to the NOAA Big Data Program.
• Marshall University Law Enforcement Training Center in Forensic Sciences: $1.75 million to establish a center to train state and local law enforcement in forensic science.
• Shepherd University Campus Security Upgrades: $4 million to provide an integrated security camera system across campus, additional vehicles, a communication system, an integrated locking system and other improvement.
• Charleston Drug Market Intervention Initiative: $300,000 to establish an interagency program to target and shut down drug markets in Charleston’s most distressed neighborhoods.
• Wheeling Law Enforcement Technology Program: $1.001 million to outfit the new Wheeling Police Department headquarters with additional technology including computers, data servers, and security.
• New Martinsville Law Enforcement Cameras: $58,000 to purchase vehicle and body cameras for law enforcement officers in New Martinsville, which currently does not have the funding to provide body cameras to all its officers.
• Charleston Eyes & Ears Police Technology Initiative: $750,000 to launch a community-based “Eyes and Ears in the Neighborhood” to deploy doorbell cameras at homes and apartments to provide a tool for police to identify threats, as well as additional funding requests for gunfire detection technologies.

Financial Services and General Government: $1,870,000

• FASTER WV: $300,000 to provide business coaching, entrepreneurial training course work, and access to capital for new and expanding small businesses.
• Marshall University Aerospace Manufacturing Training: $1 million to assist Marshall University in standing up training programs related to the aerospace sector.
• West Virginia University’s Agribusiness Development Accelerator: $570,000 to assist WVU-Parkersburg to establish, on existing farm property, an agribusiness including production, community and workforce education, and provide small business incubator opportunities for entrepreneurs.

Homeland Security: $2,925,000

• Fourpole Creek Pump Station Design and Engineering: $2.925 million to conduct critical design and engineering for the replacement of pumps and electronics for the Fourpole Creek Pump Station at the Huntington-Ohio River Levee system and its Floodwall.