Kayaks, Art And Dogs, Oh My! This West Virginia Week

On this West Virginia Week, we learned about plants that can thrive in former mine lands, we kayaked along the Gauley River, we learned about an art exhibit inspired by recent cuts at West Virginia University, and we saw dogs fly from Charleston to Michigan to reach their forever homes.

On this West Virginia Week, with a possible government shutdown looming, we learned how it might affect West Virginians. 

We also learned about plants that can thrive in former mine lands, we kayaked along the Gauley River, we learned about an art exhibit inspired by recent cuts at West Virginia University, and we saw dogs fly from Charleston to Michigan to reach their forever homes.

We also remembered longtime state legislator Chuck Romine, who passed away this week at 87.

Liz McCormick is our host this week. Our theme music is by Matt Jackfert.

West Virginia Week is a web-only podcast that explores the week’s biggest news in the Mountain State. It’s produced with help from Bill Lynch, Briana Heaney, Caroline MacGregor, Chris Schultz, Curtis Tate, Emily Rice, Eric Douglas, Liz McCormick, and Randy Yohe.

Learn more about West Virginia Week.

Head Start W.Va. Worry Ahead Of Probable Government Shutdown

Hundreds of families in West Virginia could lose the support of Head Start if the government shuts down.

Federally funded programs are bracing for a potential government shutdown if Congress cannot reach a budget solution this week. 

One of those programs is West Virginia Head Start, a child-development program for children of income-eligible families to connect them with services that support health and success in school.

Approximately 722 children and families would lose access to resources if the shutdown lasts a long time, according to Lori Milam, executive director of West Virginia Head Start.

“If it’s a short shutdown, I think our programs are equipped to handle that and have plans in place for that, should it happen,” she said. “However, if it’s any amount of a long period, they would lose access very quickly. It would hurt our staff, which we’re struggling to hire and keep, as it is right now.”

In a warning, the White House estimated 10,000 children would lose access to Head Start programs across the country as the shutdown would prevent the Department of Health and Human Services from awarding grants.

“Oh, it’d be horrible,” Milam said. ”We are universal pre-K in West Virginia, so we collaborate in the school systems. We have staff in the school systems, which we know that the school systems are struggling as well to have staff. If we can’t provide the services, there’s probably no room in the school systems for them to provide their educational services, but they lose the comprehensive services that Head Start provides.”

Capito: ‘I’m A Little Pessimistic’ Government Shutdown Can Be Avoided

Republicans in the House of Representatives, where Capito once served, have failed to come to an agreement on how to fund the government.

West Virginia Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito is usually an optimist.

But when it comes to the possibility of a government shutdown after Sept. 30, she’s not expecting a sudden turnaround.

“Maybe a rabbit will be pulled out of a hat next week, at the end of next week when this expires, but right now I’m a little pessimistic.” Capito said.

Republicans in the House of Representatives, where Capito once served, have failed to come to an agreement on how to fund the government.

Capito called a government shutdown destructive to the economy and a road to nowhere.

She noted that the Senate has passed the necessary spending bills in a bipartisan fashion.

Fairmont State Holds Appreciation Day for Federal Workers

Fairmont State University in West Virginia is hosting an appreciation day for federal workers and their families during the government shutdown.

The school said it will have a bounce house, open gym, games for children and other activities at Gym 2 in The Falcon Center from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday.

Fairmont State is also offering a hot meal and basketball tickets at no cost to federal employees and their families.

Dining hall meal tickets will be available from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. And tickets to the women’s and men’s basketball games against Notre Dame will also be available.

The Athletics Department will also offer free admission for federal employees during men’s and women’s basketball and acrobatics and tumbling events beginning Thursday and lasting until the shutdown ends.

4 Ways the Omnibus Spending Bill Affects Coal Country

President Donald Trump Friday signed a $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill funding the federal government through Sept. 30, hours after he threatened to veto the legislation.

Trump’s signature on the more than 2,200-page bill averts a government shutdown. Broadly, the bill rejects many of the White House’s proposed budget cuts and actually boosts spending for both the military and domestic agencies.

Across Appalachia, many programs aimed at supporting coal country are slated to get a boost in funding. From bolstering the cleanup of abandoned mines to funding black lung clinics, here are four ways the region is affected by the new spending bill:

Full Funding for Black Lung Clinics

The Department of Heath and Human Services will get an additional $2.7 million over fiscal year 2017 levels to fund black lung clinics and support medical, educational and benefits counseling services for disabled coal miners. In total, appropriators set black lung clinic funding at $10 million.

Funding for the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), which monitors black lung rates and funds mining research, remains flat at $59.5 million.

Appalachian Regional Commission Boosted

The independent agency that focuses on regional economic development across 13 states is set to get $155 million, a $3 million increase over fiscal year 2017. This is highest funding level in the 53-year-old agency’s history, and a sharp rebuke to the Trump administration, which proposed eliminating it.

A third of the commission’s budget is earmarked for the POWER Initiative, a program that funds job retraining in counties hit hard by the decline of the coal industry. Broadband deployment efforts in economically-distressed counties in central Appalachia will be funded at $10 million. 

Billions to Fight the Opioid Epidemic

Overall, the omnibus bill funds efforts to combat the opioid crisis at $4.6 billion, 192 percent increase over last year’s funding levels, or at an additional $3 billion.

That money will be split among a myriad of federal agencies and states across the country. West Virginia has a high opioid-related mortality rate. As such, the state will get at least $150 million through the State Opioid Response Grant program.

Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito praised the boost in resources for fighting the opioid crisis.

“This legislation provides critical support for so many West Virginia priorities and is an important investment in the future of our state,” she said in a press release. “These resources will help us fight the opioid crisis through enforcement, prevention, treatment, and recovery efforts and improve our communities through economic growth and development.”

Other opioid-related funding increases include money for opioid research at the National Institutes of Health, overdose prevention and monitoring programs as the Centers for Disease Control, and a $415 million increase to improve access to treatment in rural areas.

The omnibus also includes instructions to the Department of Health and Human Services to develop a protocol to flag past opioid use if that information is provided by hospital patients. Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, a strong advocate for Jessie’s Law, said in a press release the goal of the measure is to prevent unnecessary opioid overdoses.

Economic Development Grants and Federal W.Va. Facilities Maintained

The Commerce Department’s Economic Development Administration, which provides a suite of grants to rural communities including West Virginia, will continue to get $30 million to assist coal communities. Overall, the agency’s budget increased by $26 million. The Trump administration proposed doing away with the agency.

The bill also provides a slew of financial commitments to FBI, NASA and U.S. Coast Guard facilities.

The budget for NASA’s independent verification and validation facility in Fairmont is restored at $39.1 million. The center updates and engineers many of NASA’s systems and software.

More user fees are headed toward the FBI’s criminal justice information services center located in Clarksburg. The bill also dictates that Congress cannot slash funding at the Coast Guard facility in Kearneysville.

This story was changed on 03/24/18 to correct information about the agency that will receive funding for black lung clinics under the 2018 omnibus federal spending bill.

The Latest on Government Shutdown: Ryan: Democrats Should Vote for Short-term Bill

The Latest on the government shutdown (all times local):

11:30 a.m.

House Speaker Paul Ryan says that if Democrats want to protect young immigrants in the country illegally, they should vote for a short-term spending bill.

The Wisconsin Republican says, “Open the government back up and then we’ll get back to negotiating.”

The federal government entered the second day of a shutdown Sunday.

Appearing on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Ryan says good-faith negotiations on an immigration deal are taking place, though Democrats take issue with that assessment.

As a citizen, Donald Trump criticized President Barack Obama during the 2013 government shutdown for failing to “lead” and getting everyone in the room.

Ryan says on the current shutdown, “you can’t blame Donald Trump for the Senate Democrats shutting down the government.”

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10:05 a.m.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is calling on Republicans to “sit down and talk” with Democrats on immigration in an effort to reopen the government.

The former Democratic presidential candidate said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that the reality is that it takes 60 votes in the Senate to get anything done.

He says, “What we should be doing is negotiating.”

Sanders maintains that government funding legislation must provide legal status for the roughly 700,000 young immigrants brought illegally to the U.S. as children.

The White House has said it won’t negotiate on immigration until Democrats vote to reopen the government.

Sanders is unapologetic about his own criticism of Republicans for shutting down the government in 2013, saying President Barack Obama wasn’t going to repeal his health care law.

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9:55 a.m.

Vice President Mike Pence is blasting Congress for playing politics with military pay by failing to keep the government open.

Pence told U.S. soldiers stationed near the Syrian border on Sunday: “You deserve better.” He says the soldiers and their families “shouldn’t have to worry about getting paid.”

Pence spoke to troops in the Middle East as Democrats and Republicans in Congress show few signs of progress on negotiations to end the government shutdown.

The vice president says President Donald Trump’s administration will will not reopen negotiations “on illegal immigration” until Congress reopens the government and until soldiers and their families receive “the benefits and wages you’ve earned.”

Uniformed service members and law enforcement officers are among the essential government employees who will be working without pay until the federal government reopens.

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9:50 a.m.

Republican Sen. Rand Paul is calling the shutdown blame game “ridiculous on both sides.”

The senator from Kentucky said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union”: “It’s gamesmanship and it’s partisanship.”

Paul was among a handful of Republicans who voted with most Democrats against the House bill to keep the government open. He says he’s opposed to short-term fiscal bills.

Paul called on Republican leadership in both chambers of Congress to commit to a week of debate and a vote on immigration legislation in the next month, to win over Democratic votes to reopen the government.

But Democrats are insisting that long-term funding legislation include protections for roughly 700,000 young immigrants brought illegally to the U.S. as children — not just a vote on their status.

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9:40 a.m.

President Donald Trump says if the government shutdown drags on, Republicans should consider changing the rules in the Senate to make it easier to pass legislation without votes from Democrats.

But Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois says that would mean the end of the Senate as the Founding Fathers envisioned it.

The shutdown is now in its second day. Lawmakers are set to return to work on Capitol Hill later Sunday but there’s no sign of a possible deal.

The Republican president is floating the idea of doing away with the 60-vote threshold to advance legislation and deny the minority party the chance to stall.

Senate Republicans now hold a 51-49 edge.

Durbin tells ABC’s “This Week” that “we have to acknowledge a respect for the minority.”

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9:20 a.m.

White House budget director Mick Mulvaney is defending himself from charges of hypocrisy in his attacks on Democrats over the government shutdown, given his own role at the center of the last fiscal clash in 2013.

Mulvaney said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union: “Everything that was in the bill Democrats support and have voted for previously.” He says, “This is pure politics.”

Mulvaney was a conservative member of the House in 2013 when a showdown over “Obamacare” funding led to the last shutdown.

Mulvaney reiterated Sunday that the administration won’t negotiate with Democrats on immigration or a longer-term spending bill until they vote to reopen the government.

He says, “They need to open the government tonight or tomorrow and then we can start talking.”

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12:45 a.m.

Feuding Democrats and Republicans in Congress are trying to dodge blame for a paralyzing standoff over immigration and showing few signs of progress on negotiations needed to end a government shutdown.

The finger-pointing played out in both the House and Senate, where lawmakers were eager to show voters they were actively working for a solution — or at least actively making the case the other party was at fault. The scene highlighted political stakes for both parties in an election-year shutdown.

Democrats refused to provide votes needed to reopen government until they strike a deal with President Donald Trump protecting young immigrants from deportation, providing disaster relief and boosting spending for opioid treatment and other domestic programs.

The Senate planned a vote by early Monday on a spending extension.

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