Federal Cuts Spur Protest In Morgantown

Hundreds of people rallied in front of the Monongalia County Courthouse in downtown Morgantown Tuesday in opposition of the ongoing cuts to federal staffing and funding. 

Demonstrators with the group Mountaineers Indivisible are calling on West Virginia’s Congressional delegation to oppose the Trump administration’s broad-reaching cuts to federal programs. Formed just one month ago, the group’s numbers have swelled to more than 300 attendants at a meeting over the weekend.

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., told reporters last month that she was “pretty comfortable with the direction” Elon Musk’s cuts were taking at the time and that she would need to wait and see.

“Does this ‘Make America Great Again’?” a speaker asked the crowd Tuesday. 

In January, prior to taking his oath of office for the Senate, and prior to Pres. Donald Trump’s inauguration, then-governor Jim Justice signed onto a letter with 25 other governors “supporting President Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Initiative.”

“The goal is to streamline government, cut wasteful spending, and balance the federal budget. Let’s make it happen,” Justice said via X, formerly Twitter.

“No!” they replied in unison.

Tim Buckman works at the Louis A. Johnson Veterans’ Administration Medical Center in Clarksburg. He told the crowd that he has seen firsthand the impact of DOGE cuts to workers and funding.

“They lowered all our government credit card limits to $1,” Buckman said. “They’re still open, but you can’t buy anything. That means for the buses for the disabled veterans to get back and forth to the hospital, can’t buy gas. If it snows, can’t blow the parking lot. We need critical things to keep the place running.”

Buckman said he works in the medical center’s boiler plant, which provides heating and cooling for the West Virginia Veterans Nursing Facility, as well as sterilization and humidity control capacity for the hospital. He warned that if a critical component fails, the center cannot purchase a replacement.

“That’s someone’s critical surgery. That could be life or death,” Buckman said. “Guess what? They die.”

Former state delegate Barbara Fleischauer came with a lengthy list a friend had compiled of local effects of the federal cuts.

“These are the numbers: 80 plus fired at the Parkersburg Bureau of Public Debt, 20 plus at NETL, the National Energy Technology Lab, Department of Energy,” she said. “Morgantown Veterans Administration included 10 probationary employees, four of them 100% service disabled veterans. NIOSH, there are three critical programs that are going to be affected.”

Fleischauer’s list also includes 10 inspectors at the Mine Health and Safety Administration that took deferred resignation, as well as 27 probationary employees subject to termination.

“Most of those jobs that were lost were mine inspectors or expert mine safety trainers,” she said.

Two miners  have died in West Virginia already this year.

“We want our federal representatives to stand up for us,” Fleischauer said. “The people need to be a check if Congress won’t be.”

Protestors like retired teacher Ray Wilson say they are appalled by Musk’s access to their personal information and the real-world effects of cuts to departments like Veterans’ Affairs. 

“When you cut all the projects that help the poorest to get tax breaks to the biggest billionaires in the country, that’s wrong,” he said.

Wilson said the country was built on protest. 

“Consequently, we’re telling the President and the Congress and so forth that we can’t have this anymore,” he said.

Monongalia County Commissioner Tom Bloom said the issue is bringing people together across political divides.

“If you look at the group here, there are people that, we may not get along, we may have different philosophies, but we’re here for one reason, and that’s this egregious act that’s going on that’s destroying our country, hurting our economic base, destroying individuals,” he said.

Bloom said the federal cuts have left a long-planned infrastructure project without a clear path forward, but have also taken an immediate personal toll as well.

“We have funds to build Exit 155, Harmony Grove. Are they still there or not? No one can give an answer,” he said. “On the smaller side, a lady called me up yesterday, hysterical, five and a half months pregnant, was just cut from a federal job, and all it said was, ‘You have three more weeks of medical and you’re gone.’ She’s like, ‘What am I supposed to do?’”

Organizers, who have demonstrated in front of Capito’s local offices in recent weeks, say more action is planned.