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Republicans Increase Their Supermajority In W.Va. Senate

Sen. Glenn Jeffries, formerly D-Putnam, has announced that he has filed to switch his party affiliation. Jeffries, now R-Putnam, will join the Republican caucus in the state Senate.

This is a developing story and may be updated.

Story updated at 12:14 p.m.

Sen. Glenn Jeffries, formerly D-Putnam, has announced that he has filed to switch his party affiliation. Jeffries, now R-Putnam, will join the Republican caucus in the state Senate.

The switch now has Republicans occupying 31 of the 34 Senate seats.

Jeffries said he thinks he can get more accomplished as a republican.

“I believe with some of the momentum that I’ve got going with economic development, stuff that I’ve been involved with, I believe that making this move will help me be more effective,” Jeffries said. “The majority party ends up making decisions that I want to be involved with, and want to make sure that they’re going in the right direction.”

In 2021, Jeffries wrote a letter to Berkshire Hathaway (BH) Chairman Warren Buffett inviting him to visit West Virginia. During the past year, Jeffries has hosted BH executives in West Virginia dozens of times. His persistence helped lead the company to bring two BH subsidiaries, Precision Castparts Corporation (PCC) and BHE Renewables, into Jackson County, where they will build a state-of-the art titanium melt facility that manufactures products for the aerospace and other industries on the site of the old Century Aluminum Plant.

Jeffries said that when he first ran for election in 2016, he pledged to work in a bipartisan way to find solutions for the biggest problems in West Virginia. He said he plans to continue those efforts.

“I am not a politician. If a Republican constituent or a Democrat constituent calls me, if an independent or mountain party person calls me, I’m there for them,” Jeffries said. “You can probably ask any of them that spoke with, I never asked what party they’re affiliated with, I’m there to help.”

In a press release, Tony Hodge, chairman of the Putnam County Republican Party and co-chair of the West Virginia Republican Party said he recently met with Jeffries to discuss his party switch.

“Glenn described himself to me as a ‘conservative,’” Hodge said. “We agreed his policy efforts in the state Senate would be elevated if he joined the majority Republican caucus.”

The only Putnam County seat that was not held by a Republican was the 8th Senatorial District seat occupied by Jeffries, who is not up for re-election until 2024.

Governor Ends COVID-19 Emergency In W.Va. Effective Jan. 1

Two weeks ago, Gov. Jim Justice signed a proclamation quietly ending emergency rules for COVID-19 effective Jan. 1, 2023.

In his Wednesday coronavirus briefing, Justice said, “There was no reason to make a big announcement on this, no reason to get on a soap box and turn this into a political situation.”

He said the state will still receive the federal rescue funds it is entitled to receive.

The governor’s Chief of Staff, Brian Abraham, said in the briefing that the public will not see any real change with the lifting of the COVID-19 emergency proclamation.

“The only things that have been in effect and continue to remain in effect, and will be through the end of the year, are things that we’ve put in place to help healthcare workers,” Abraham said. “For instance, with regard to their licensures, it gives extended time for them to renew their licenses to get their educational credits.”

Abraham said COVID-19 vaccines will continue to be available at pharmacies and county health departments. He said the pandemic response Joint Interagency Task Force will remain in operation.

“The governor had funded the task force previously through CARES dollars,” Abraham said, “That will remain in place as a headquarters to operate support for any of those agencies that do need it.”

The governor originally declared a state of emergency March 16, 2020. The state reported its first positive COVID-19 case the following day.

The emergency order mobilized the state’s response to the pandemic and allowed state agencies to suspend rules that could interfere with the emergency response.

Justice’s proclamation notes that there is “still work to be done, but the time for the emergency response has ended.”

All emergency rules put in place and all additional related executive orders will be lifted as well, and Justice said that the Jan. 1 deadline will give time for the changes “without harmful effect on West Virginians.”

Throughout the pandemic, more than 7,600 West Virginians have died from COVID-19. On Tuesday, the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources reported 11 more deaths attributed to COVID-19.

The governor’s 2020 emergency order mobilized the West Virginia National Guard and the West Virginia Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management to respond to the pandemic. Retired Maj. Gen. James A. Hoyer helped lead the state’s vaccination efforts. Around 78 percent of West Virginia residents 61 and older received both doses of COVID-19 vaccinations, according to DHHR data.

Justice and state health leaders have continued to urge residents to use DHHR’s online vaccine calculator to stay up to date on vaccinations.

The federal COVID-19 emergency order remains in place, and officials have indicated that they will give 60 days notice before ending the order.

Major Staffing Changes, Hiring Freeze Next Steps For DHHR Restructuring

A press release notes that DHHR is centralizing the reporting structures of the staff who work in the job functions of Finance, Management Information Services, Human Resources Management and Purchasing.

Department of Health and Human Resources Secretary Bill Crouch announced Wednesday morning additional changes as a result of the organizationalstudy of DHHR by the McChrystal Group. The announcement follows notices this week promoting two DHHR upper level staffers to Deputy Secretary positions.

Finance staff in each bureau and office will report to Tara Buckner, DHHR’s Chief Financial Officer. Technology staff will report to Shaun Charles, DHHR’s chief information officer. Purchasing staff will report to Warren Keefer, director of the Office of Administration. All human resources staff will report to Angie Ferris, DHHR’s director of the Office of Human Resources Management.

DHHR has also instituted a temporary hiring freeze. Positions of critical need will still be filled, but requests to hire must be approved by the respective Deputy Secretary and sent to the Office of Human Resources Management for review and final approval by the Secretary. Crouch said positions will still be filled like in Child and Adult Protective Services.

“That does not include CPS and APS workers and others in those areas,” Crouch said. “We have job fairs scheduled and our state facilities will not be impacted by this freeze.”

Crouch said the latest changes will help break down the department “Silos” that the study said has impeded communication and positive outcomes.

“DHHR has important work to do to help the residents of West Virginia,” Crouch said in the release. “We strongly believe that these organizational changes are steps in the right direction, and we will continue to make wise decisions going forward. By getting the right people in the right places, we continue the critically important work of the Department to meet the needs of both the people and the State of West Virginia.”

For more information on DHHR’s organizational changes, visithttps://dhhr.wv.gov/Pages/DHHR-Moving-Forward.aspx.

State Medicaid Fraud Office Expansion To Include CHIP Fraud Investigations

The Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit is expanding to include investigations of Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) fraud across the state.

CHIP offers health insurance to children whose families earn too much money for Medicaid.

Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said this expansion puts West Virginia’s fraud unit more in line with the majority of states and that investigating claims of CHIP fraud will save taxpayers more money.

“I just view that if you have the ability to save an extra dollar more with really not much effort, why wouldn’t you do that for the taxpayers and for the beneficiaries of the program?” Morrisey said.

The expansion was announced during a Tuesday press conference scheduled by Morrisey, who touted the successes of the fraud control unit under his office over the past three years. During that time the unit was expanded from 12 individuals to 21 with the average amount of civil recoveries from fraud per year climbing 268 percent.

Investigations of Medicaid fraud were previously housed under the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources before being placed under the jurisdiction of the Attorney General’s office in 2019.

Flood Disaster Declarations Approved After Summer Storms

The Federal Emergency Management Agency issued two disaster declarations to help clean up the mess in McDowell and Fayette counties based on the July 12 and 13 floods and the August 13 and 14 floods respectively.

Rains from the middle of July to the middle of August made for the wettest summer on record in West Virginia, spurring flooding and mudslides.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) issued two disaster declarations to help clean up the mess in McDowell and Fayette counties based on the July 12 and 13 floods and the Aug. 13 and 14 floods respectively.

From July 12 to Aug. 15, the state received up to 200 percent of its normal precipitation and did not see one 24-hour period without rainfall. This led to multiple flooding events.

On July 14, Gov. Jim Justice declared a State of Emergency for McDowell County due to significant flooding that damaged more than 75 homes, approximately a dozen bridges and numerous roads throughout the county.
On July 28, Justice declared a State of Emergency for Fayette, Greenbrier, Logan, McDowell, Mingo, and Wyoming counties after severe thunderstorms, heavy rains and high winds caused significant local flooding, downed trees, power outages, disruption to potable water systems, and road blockages.
On Aug.15, Justice declared a State of Emergency for Fayette and Kanawha counties due to significant flooding that damaged more than 100 homes, roads and bridges throughout the counties.

In October, the Justice administration applied for relief from FEMA based on the damage as a whole instead of a singular flood event. These are the first two declarations from that request.
“Due to the damages incurred by these communities in the wake of the wettest summer on record for West Virginia, supplementary federal assistance is necessary to ensure the protection of life, property, public health, and safety, and to avert the threat of further disaster,” Justice said at the time. “I hope that President Biden and FEMA agree and approve our request quickly.”

Typical disaster declarations are specific to a singular flooding event, but the unique nature of the month-long flooding prompted state officials to request a singular flood designation for all the affected areas.

FEMA announced that federal disaster assistance has been made available to the state of West Virginia to supplement local recovery efforts in the areas affected by severe storms, flooding, landslides and mudslides.

Federal funding is available to state and eligible local governments and certain private nonprofit organizations on a cost-sharing basis for emergency work and the repair or replacement of facilities damaged by the severe storms, flooding, landslides and mudslides in McDowell County.

Federal funding is also available on a cost-sharing basis for hazard mitigation measures statewide.

Jeffrey L. Jones has been named the Federal Coordinating Officer for federal recovery operations in the affected areas.

Damage assessments are continuing in other areas and additional counties may be designated for assistance after the assessments are completed.

Justice requested that the federal government provide Public Assistance and certain Individual Assistance programs to support the state’s response. In addition to addressing the damages and impact outlined in this request, West Virginia is managing eight open federally declared disasters.

For more information on the disaster declaration process, please visit How a Disaster Gets Declared or www.fema.gov.

Moore Capito Announces 2024 Run For W.Va. Governor

Del. Moore Capito, R-Kanawha, announced Tuesday on social and commercial media he is running for West Virginia governor in 2024.

Capito represents the 35th district in the House, where he serves as Chairman of the Judiciary Committee. In 2020, as Chairman of the West Virginia Republican Legislative Committee, he was the architect of the first Republican supermajority in history of West Virginia.

Capito calls himself a West Virginia conservative Republican. In a press release, he said his administration would reduce taxes, incentivize investment in the state’s natural resources and improve student achievement.

On his website, Capito said after graduating college, he worked in Washington, D.C., to begin his career in public service. He said he worked for the Republican Majority in the United States Congress, and served on the staff of the Secretary of Defense.

Capito is the son of U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito and the grandson of former governor and congressman Arch Moore. Capito’s cousin, State Treasurer Riley Moore, recently announced he is running for U.S. Congress.

Businessman Chris Miller, the son of U.S. Rep. Carol Miller, R-W.Va, has announced he is running for governor. State Auditor J.B. McCuskey announced Tuesday morning he is considering a run for governor, and Secretary of State Mac Warner wrote a letter to supporters hinting at a run for governor in 2024. All are Republicans.

No Democrats have announced a run for governor yet.