Legislation backed by both of West Virginia’s U.S. senators to reform the Electoral Count Act of 1887 was signed into law late on Thursday.
The Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act, which Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., crafted alongside Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and a bipartisan group of senators, was included in the Fiscal Year 2023 Omnibus Appropriations bill signed by President Joe Biden.
“After nearly a year of bipartisan negotiations, we are delighted that the Senate’s ECA reform is now law,” said Manchin and Collins in a joint statement. “We were grateful to have the support of so many of our colleagues. Through numerous meetings and debates among Senators, along with conversations with a wide variety of election experts and legal scholars, we reached consensus on an historic piece of legislation. This law fixes the flaws of the archaic and ambiguous Electoral Count Act of 1887 and establishes clear guidelines for our system of certifying and counting electoral votes for president and vice president.”
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., was one of the legislation’s cosponsors. Other cosponsors included Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, and Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
According to information from Manchin’s office, the bill contains the following provisions:
Manchin and Capito both voted for the $1.7 trillion omnibus federal spending, which had to be signed prior to Friday to avert a partial shutdown of the federal government.
The package includes more than $228,000,000 for Congressionally Directed Spending Requests for West Virginia, according to Manchin.
“Many of the West Virginia priorities that I proudly fought for, such as increased funding to fight the drug epidemic, resources to boost West Virginia’s growing defense industry and billions of dollars to upgrade water and wastewater infrastructure are included in this omnibus legislation.”
Capito celebrated passing the legislation ahead the Friday deadline.
“As a member of the Appropriations Committee, our task is to craft legislation that fully funds our government,” Capito said. “This process can be a challenging one, but after negotiation and compromise, I am pleased that so many West Virginia priorities I have fought for since I came to the Senate were addressed.”