Both U.S. Senators Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito were involved with negotiations on hard infrastructure and social spending bills. (Photo by Steven Allen Adams)
CHARLESTON — While many hoped for a return of normalcy after 2020, the last 12 months of 2021 showed no signs of being boring either under the golden dome of West Virginia’s State Capitol Building or the larger cast iron dome of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.
The first month of 2021 began with a state lawmaker being arrested for taking part in the election certification riot at the U.S. Capitol. The final month of 2021 ended with West Virginia’s senior Democratic U.S. Senator leading a one-man stand against President Joe Biden’s domestic agenda on Capitol Hill. In between, a number of items captured headlines and the public’s attention.
MR/MRS SMITH GO TO WASHINGTON
West Virginia’s two current U.S. Senators — Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va. — entered the limelight this year for their roles in passage of the $1.2 trillion hard infrastructure bill, as well as Manchin’s response in blocking Biden’s more than $2 trillion Build Back Better social spending plan last week.
In April, Biden unveiled his American Jobs Plan aimed at hard infrastructure projects. Capito and Senate Republicans unveiled their own infrastructure plan, called the Republican Roadmap. Those early negotiations would become foundation for the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework (BIF).
Gov. Jim Justice receives one of the first COVID-19 vaccines at the end of 2020. (Photo courtesy of the WV Governor’s Office)
The BIF package of hard infrastructure projects represents $1.2 trillion over eight years with $550 billion in new infrastructure spending. Traditional infrastructure projects include a multitude of transportation, water and wastewater, clean energy and broadband expansion projects. The bill is paid for with unused COVID-19 relief dollars and additional fees and revenue sources.
Negotiations between Capito and the White House continued until the beginning of June, when Biden and Capito went their separate ways. The negotiations continued with a bipartisan group of senators, including Manchin. BIF passed the Senate in August and passed the House in November. In an interview last week, Capito said BIF was one of her best accomplishments in 2021.
“The bipartisan infrastructure package, I think, is a big win for the country and for our state, both for the roads and transportation, water, broadband deployment, airports, and other physical infrastructure,” Capito said.
The fate of BIF at one point was tied to the negotiations on the Build Back Better Act, an omnibus bill of social spending programs with a price tag of more than $2.2 trillion over 10 years. The bill included billions for national universal pre-kindergarten, childcare and paid family leave, healthcare and elder care and affordable housing, prescription drug price negotiation for Medicare, and climate change and clean energy projects.
Build Back Better passed the House in November and was sent to the Senate, though negotiations started long before its passage. The bill was part of the budget reconciliation process, which allows certain bills to pass the Senate with only a simple majority instead of the 60 votes needs to overcome a Republican filibuster.
First District Congressman David McKinley, left, and 2nd District Congressman Alex Mooney will face each other in the 2022 Republican primary for the new northern 2nd District. (Photo Provided)
While many Senate Democrats were on board for Build Back Better, Manchin — a moderate Democrat — raised numerous concerns since the spring about the cost of Biden’s social agenda and its effects on the deficit and inflation. Negotiations helped bring the final cost of Build Back Better down from $6 trillion to $3.5 trillion to $1.85 trillion, though other estimates showed the bill likely would cost twice as much if some of its programs were made permanent.
Negotiations continued weekly and nearly daily with Manchin and the White House with the goal of getting Build Back Better passed by the end of the year. But Manchin deflated those hopes last weekend by going on national TV and releasing a statement that he could not support the bill.
“I have always said, ‘If I can’t go back home and explain it, I can’t vote for it.’ Despite my best efforts, I cannot explain the sweeping Build Back Better Act in West Virginia and I cannot vote to move forward on this mammoth piece of legislation,” Manchin said.
Both the BIF and Build Back Better have shown the level of influence that Senators Manchin and Capito wield on Capitol Hill.
DO IT FOR BABYDOG
House Speaker Roger Hanshaw observes the voting board as all 100 members of the House of Delegates vote down a personal income tax phase-out proposal supported by Gov. Jim Justice and state Senate Republicans. (Photo courtesy of WV Legislative Photography)
Once again, COVID-19 dominated the state for another year. But unlike 2020, West Virginia entered 2021 with coronavirus vaccines and early successes. However, those successes gave way to vaccine hesitancy and the spike of the delta variant of COVID-19, giving the state its worst number of hospitalizations and deaths.
By January 2021, the state had access to the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, both requiring two doses spread out over a few weeks. While the state saw its highest number of active cases, hospitalizations, and deaths in January, those numbers began to come down fast.
The state focused on distributing vaccines to nursing homes and long-term care facilities, and to state healthcare workers. The vaccine program was opened up to more eligible residents as more vaccines became available, starting with older West Virginians in phases.
“I think our vaccination strategy and the fact that we’ve been able to vaccinate so aggressively and target the most vulnerable of us as West Virginians — our nursing home residents, our assisted living residents, our residents age 65 and older … it’s extraordinary,” said Dr. Clay Marsh, the state coronavirus czar, in February.
Vaccines were soon available for adults with pre-existing medical conditions and teachers and school service personnel. By May, vaccines were largely available for most West Virginians, including children between the ages of 12-15. By West Virginia’s birthday in June 20, the state was celebrating some of its lowest case numbers, hospitalizations and deaths.
Former Wayne County Republican delegate Derrick Evans takes the oath of office prior to joining an attack on the U.S. Capitol Building on Jan. 6, resulting in federal charges and his resignation. (Photo courtesy of WV Legislative Photography)
The good news was short-lived, as delta — a more contagious variant of COVID-19 — made its presence known in the state. The growth of delta and a slowdown in vaccination rates in the state created a perfect storm. Gov. Jim Justice had already implemented several vaccine incentive programs prior to the delta wave, including the first round of lotteries named in honor of Justice’s English Bulldog. Additional vaccine incentives programs were launched, though new vaccinations have been sparse.
Now, even booster doses among those already fully vaccinated have been slow. Justice and state health officials, however, have remained consistent in encouraging residents to get vaccinated and boosted.
“We’ve still got a lot of work to do, don’t we,” said Justice last week. “We’ve still got many, many that we need to get across the finish line and get vaccinated.”
IN BETWEEN THE LINES
It was no surprise to many politicos that West Virginia’s population loss over the last decade was going to result in the state losing one of its three congressional districts. Regardless, lawmakers were under a time crunch to pass new redistricting maps for state senatorial districts, House of Delegates districts, and two new congressional districts.
Lawmakers settled on two congressional districts dividing the state into the southern 1st Congressional District and the northern 2nd Congressional District. But by doing this, the put two of West Virginia’s three members of Congress into the new 2nd District — David McKinley and Alex Mooney.
Wheeling native McKinley is in his sixth term in the House, while Charles Town resident and former Maryland lawmaker Mooney is in his fourth term in the seat held by Capito prior to her getting elected to Jay Rockefeller’s Senate seat.
Both McKinley and Mooney announced their intentions to seek election to the new 2nd District, pitting them against each other in the 2022 Republican primary. They butted heads recently over the vote for the BIF. Mooney voted no, while McKinley was one of 13 Republican House members who supported the bill.
“I’ve waited 11 years to try to bring back something to West Virginia that will markedly improve our quality of life,” McKinley said last month. “If I wanted to make a political statement, I could have done a no vote. That’s not what I did. I voted for West Virginia, and I have no qualms.”
“This ‘win’ was enabled by 13 House Republican sellouts who voted for the companion non-infrastructure bill,” Mooney said.
The vote resulted in an endorsement for Mooney from former president Donald Trump. Starting the week of Thanksgiving through the end of the year, Mooney launched YouTube and TV ads promoting his Trump endorsement and attacking McKinley for his infrastructure vote, laying the groundwork for a tough election fight next year.
SENDING A MESSAGE
During the 2021 legislative session, a debate on how to best phase out the personal income tax put Justice and state Senate Republicans on one side and House of Delegates Republicans on the other side, resulting in first 0-100 vote in state history.
House Bill 3300, based on negotiations between Justice and Senate Republicans, would have phase out the personal income tax by 50 percent starting Jan. 1, 2022, with reductions going forward. The cut would be paid for with an 8 percent consumer sales and use tax and removal of multiple sales tax exemptions.
A version of HB 3300 preferred by House Republicans would have phased out of the personal income tax by $150 million every year until the tax was gone over a decade. It also included a fund using parts of existing tax streams to accelerate the phase-out of the personal income tax. Justice accused the House of sitting on the bill and refusing to act on it.
“They’re not even going to vote on it,” Justice said. “They’re not going to vote on it because they’re afraid to vote on it … they’re not even going to vote on the most important thing this state has ever, ever had in front of it.”
The House called Justice’s bluff, unanimously voting against a motion to concur with the Senate’s changes to the bill. The unanimous vote by 78 Republicans and 22 Democrats lit up the voting board solid red, with Hanshaw observing with crossed arms.
“… The governor asked or perhaps suggested that we were afraid to take a vote, so we were happy to do that, and we did,” Hanshaw said after the vote.
The move effectively ended talk of phasing out the personal income tax for the rest of the 2021 session.
A DAY OF INFAMY
One of the most infamous events of 2021 involved several West Virginians, including a newly elected member of the House of Delegates.
Derrick Evans, a Wayne County Republican who was elected to the House of Delegates in 2020, was charged by a federal grand jury in June on a felony for his role in storming the U.S. Capitol Building on Jan. 6 to stop the electoral vote certification of Joe Biden as President of the United States.
The 35-year-old Evans was charged two days later by the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia and taken before a federal judge. His case has been delayed several times since his grand jury indictment.
Evans used his cell phone to record himself with other members of the Trump mob trying to gain entry through one of the doors leading to the Rotunda.
“We’re in, we’re in! Derrick Evans is in the Capitol,” he yelled after the mob was able to force its way through the door and into the rotunda.
Multiple Republican and Democratic state lawmakers called for Evans to resign or be expelled from the House of Delegates, including Justice and Hanshaw. Evans resigned from the House on Jan. 9, days before the House gaveled in for session.
“I take full responsibility for my actions, and deeply regret any hurt, pain or embarrassment I may have caused my family, friends, constituents and fellow West Virginians,” Evans said in a statement following his resignation.
Steven Allen Adams can be reached at sadams@newsandsentinel.com
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