MORGANTOWN – Bridges, defense spending, permitting reform and the southern border were among the topics of Sen. Shelley Moore Capito’s Thursday conversation with West Virginia reporters.

Bridges came up as a question following Gov. Jim Justice’s Wednesday announcement that the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act will bring an additional $548 million across five years to West Virginia to address its ailing bridge system.

Capito said she worked on specifically negotiating bridges into the IIJA package. “We need to make sure that they’re safe. … I’m proud of my efforts on the bridges it’s important to West Virginia traveling public for the safety aspect and for our ability to grow.”

Separately, but related, The Dominion Post asked Senate Environment and Public Works staff about a Government Accountability Office decision issued Wednesday that says a December 2021 memorandum from the Federal Highway Administration titled, “Policy on Using Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Resources to Build a Better America” is a rule, and therefore subject to the Congressional Review Act.”

Capito is ranking member of the committee and her release issued from the committee said, “Today, the GAO confirmed what we have been pointing out for the past year: in its December 2021 memo, the Federal Highway Administration went beyond simply restating existing legal requirements for states; it expressed a policy preference and took steps to implement that preference. The IIJA was crafted and negotiated in a purposeful way, but through memos and guidance documents issued to states the administration has since attempted to contradict the law and impose policies that were specifically left out of the law.”

Capito said in a prior letter to U.S. Transportation Secretary Peter Buttigieg that the FHWA memo discouraged state flexibility and imposed a one-size-fits-all approach. It discouraged projects that increase highway capacity and prioritized projects that advance non-motorized transportation options, which differ from the provisions negotiated and agreed to in the law.

On this topic, FHWA said in its memo, “FHWA will implement policies and undertake actions to encourage— and where permitted by law, require — recipients of Federal highway funding to select projects that improve the condition and safety of existing transportation infrastructure within the right-of-way before advancing projects that add new general purpose travel lanes serving single occupancy vehicles.”

Committee staff told The Dominion Post that the FHWA wrongly prioritizes projects that maximize the existing right-of-way for accommodation of non-motorized modes and transit options that increase safety, accessibility, and/or connectivity.”

Capito said in her letter to Buttigieg that the memorandum is not specific in how staff will carry out this policy, creating uncertainty for the states about the funding, which could impair their ability to move forward with projects.

Because of the problems posed by the memorandum, Capito said Wednesday she plans to introduce a Congressional Review Act resolution of disapproval “to ensure the IIJA is implemented as written, our states have the flexibility we provided them, and we maximize the investments made in America’s highways, roads, and bridges.”

National Defense Authorization Act

During the lame duck session, the National Defense Authorization Act will be up for its annual renewal, Capito said. Included in the renewal will be the termination of the COVID vaccine mandate that led to 8,000 service members losing their jobs for refusing the vaccine for various reasons, some religious.

“It’s past due coming and we don’t need to penalize the men and women in uniform for making a personal choice on something,” Capito said. Especially now that the vaccines don’t prevent CVID but minimize the possibility of severe illness and death.

The updated act will include raises for military members, Capito said, and money for West Virginia’s Mountaineer ChalleNGe Academy, the Green Bank Observatory, and to keep the C-130J transport planes at Yeager Airport.

Border crisis

On Tuesday, Sen. Joe Manchin joined with Sen. John Cornyn R-Texas, and Reps. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas and Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, in a letter to urge President Biden to extend the CDC’s Title 42 order beyond the Dec. 21deadline.

They said, “We have a crisis at our southern border. Never before in our nation’s history have we experienced this scope and scale of illegal border crossings, and we remain concerned that your administration has not provided sufficient support or resources to the men and women of the Department of Homeland Security who are tasked with maintaining border security.”

Capito and Manchin have long been in agreement on that issue and Capito reiterated that on Thursday, saying the border currently sees 9,000 illegal crossings per day. When Title 42 ends, “We are going to have more and more. It’s very very frustrating.”

The flow of illegals brings with it a huge flow of illegal fentanyl into the country, she sad, and the increased traffic will make it that much harder for DHS and the Border Patrol to disrupt the drug flow. “I think dropping Title 42 will have very bad effects.”

Permitting reform

Also on Tuesday, Manchin, who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, urged his Senate colleagues to support the inclusion of bipartisan, comprehensive permitting reform as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act.

He said, “There has never been a more critical time in our nation’s history for Congress to act to protect American energy security and reclaim energy independence. I cannot go home and explain to West Virginians why the Senate would fail to support creating new energy jobs, producing more energy, and enhancing American energy security quickly.”

The White House has gotten behind Manchin on this and Capito said Thursday that while Manchin’s version doesn’t go quite as far as she would like, it provides for completion of the Mountain Valley Pipeline and she will vote for it.

She believes the measure may not make it to the finish line, though, she said, but she will keep fighting to make permitting reform a reality should it fail this time.

Equal pay

Finally, Capito celebrated the Senate passing her Equal Pay for Team USA Act, which she co-led with Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash. The act requires all Team USA players to be paid equally regardless of gender.

“I think that’s only fair. I’m excited about that,” she said. The bill is now in the U.S. House.