Congress

Republicans in West Virginia are touting an accomplishment this week that has historical significance for the state. For the first time in more than 80 years, Democratic voter registration has dropped to below 50 percent.

Numbers from the West Virginia Secretary of State’s Office show it is true, that number has dropped, but just barely.

Four months from Election Day, outside liberal and conservative groups have already spent about $3.3 million in ads blasting U.S. Rep. Nick Rahall and his Republican opponent Evan Jenkins.

Although it’s only the first step in a long road on Capitol Hill, Senator Joe Manchin’s Chemical Safety and Drinking Water Protection Act was passed unanimously by the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works Thursday.

 “He knows full well what happens when a community is upended because some kind of chemical gets into the drinking water supply and he went to work,” said Committee Chair Sen. Barbara Boxer of Calif.

U.S. Rep. Shelley Moore Capito is officially in the race for the U.S. Senate.

Capito filed her candidacy papers this morning. The seven-term Republican is seeking to fill the Senate seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Jay Rockefeller.
 
Another Republican, Larry Eugene Butcher of Washington in Wood County, also filed today to run for the U.S. Senate.

Williamstown Democrat David Walmsley and Parkersburg Republican Matthew Dodrill filed to run for the U.S. Senate last week.

West Virginia Internet providers say they're working hard to reach the nine percent of people who lack broadband access, but hurdles remain.

The internet providers spoke Monday at the third Discover the Real West Virginia Foundation Broadband Summit in Morgantown.

The Foundation was formed by Sen. Jay Rockefeller who noted when the last broadband summit was held four years ago, less than 72 percent of West Virginians had access to broadband. Today, 91 percent have access.

From the Associated Press: Congress has passed legislation to reopen the partially-shuttered federal government and avert a potentially disastrous default on U.S. obligations, clearing the measure for President Barack Obama's promised signature.

Passage of the bill late Wednesday in the House and Senate ended a Washington-created crisis that closed much of government for 16 days. It came on the eve of the date the Treasury Department warned it would no longer be able to borrow to pay the government's bills.

After shots were reportedly fired at the U.S. Capitol, a lockdown went into effect. Roughly an hour after those first reports, all members of West Virginia's Congressional delegation were confirmed to be safe. 

As the wrangling between the House and Senate, Democrats and Republicans over whether to fund the budget and whether to tie changes in the Affordable Care Act to that funding continues, the Director of the Robert C. Byrd Center for Legislative Studies at Shepherd University, Ray Smock, is appalled at the way Congress is handling the appropriations process.

With a vote expected in Congress next week, Senator Joe Manchin says he will not support a U.S. military strike over alleged chemical weapons attacks by President Bashar Al-Assad on the people of Syria.