Tag: US Senate

HUD Sends $12.3 Million For W.Va. Affordable Housing

The U.S. Senate allocated more than $12.3 million to affordable housing projects in West Virginia, taking part in an effort to support individuals experiencing homelessness across the state.

With a new slate of funding, federal lawmakers hope to address homelessness by strengthening affordable housing options in states like West Virginia.

The U.S. Senate allocated a new $12,368,832 to West Virginia housing authorities through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). This money will go toward 28 organizations supporting housing access across the state.

The largest amount of funding will be granted to the West Virginia Coalition to End Homelessness in Bridgeport, with a total of more than $2.5 million.

HUD regularly invests in community housing organizations across the country, and last year granted housing authorities in West Virginia $17.6 million to modernize public housing projects.

In a press release Wednesday, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., expressed his support for the new funding, and for housing projects in West Virginia at large.

“Every West Virginian deserves a roof over their head and a warm, safe place to sleep at night,” Manchin said. “I’m pleased HUD is investing more than $12.3 million into these important organizations that support West Virginians who are in need.”

The following housing authorities will receive portions of the new funding:

  • West Virginia Coalition to End Homelessness: $2,662,938
  • Huntington West Virginia Housing Authority: $1,599,853
  • Raleigh County Community Action Association: $1,020,211
  • Cabell-Huntington Coalition for the Homeless: $774,441
  • Telamon Corporation / Renewal Project: $579,389
  • Huntington City Mission: $573,735
  • Clarksburg Housing Authority: $467,839
  • Task on Domestic Violence, HOPE: $453,942
  • Covenant House, Charleston: $414,557
  • YWCA Charleston: $364,510
  • Bartlett House, Morgantown: $364,163
  • Kanawha Valley Collective: $336,945
  • Goodwill Industries of Kanawha Valley: $274,300
  • Branches-Domestic Violence Shelter of Huntington: $268,154
  • Randolph County Housing Authority: $260,564
  • Mountain CAP of WV, Kanawha County: $254,566
  • Hagerstown Goodwill Industries: $235,151
  • Eastern Regional Family Resource Network, Moorefield: $210,038
  • Rape and Domestic Violence Information Center, Morgantown: $209,741
  • Charleston-Kanawha Housing Authority: $202,992
  • Shenandoah Women’s Center, Martinsburg: $121,233
  • Family Crisis Intervention Center, Wood County: $117,798
  • Young Women’s Christian Association of Wheeling: $111,726
  • North Central WV Community Action: $111,072
  • Prestera Center for Mental Health Services, Barboursville: $105,000
  • Catholic Charities West Virginia, Wheeling: $87,003
  • Southwestern Community Action Council, Huntington: $76,275
  • City of Wheeling: $50,000

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.

January 3, 1959: Robert C. Byrd Sworn into US Senate

On January 3, 1959, Democrat Robert C. Byrd was sworn in as a member of the U.S. Senate—in the presence of three future presidents: then-Vice President Richard Nixon and Senators John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson.

Byrd was assigned to the powerful Appropriations Committee. He used his political skills to become Democratic majority whip in 1971, upsetting the incumbent, Ted Kennedy. Byrd’s mastery of the rules and popularity among fellow senators helped him defeat Hubert Humphrey to become majority leader in 1976.

In 1989, Byrd became chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee and announced plans “to be West Virginia’s billion-dollar industry.” Over the next two decades, he more than fulfilled that promise.

With the assistance of Senate historian Richard Baker, he also wrote a two-volume history of the institution—first delivered as speeches on the Senate floor. And he staunchly defended Congress’s power of checks and balances—for instance, challenging the constitutionality of the line-item veto and of President George W. Bush’s call for war against Iraq.

Robert C. Byrd remained in the senate for 51 years, making him the longest-serving senator in American history.

November 18, 2009: Senator Robert C. Byrd Longest Serving Member of Congress

  

On November 18, 2009, Senator Robert C. Byrd became the nation’s longest-serving member of Congress.  He was first elected to public office in 1946.  After serving two terms in the West Virginia House of Delegates and one in the state senate, he was elected to three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives.  In 1958, voters sent him to the U.S. Senate, where he would remain from 1959 until his death in 2010 at age 92.

In his early years, Byrd primarily was a conservative. He notably led a filibuster against the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Over time, he became more liberal and eventually became one of President George W. Bush’s staunchest critics.

He served as the Senate’s Democratic leader for 12 years. And in 1989, he became chairman of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee.  In this role, Byrd famously brought billions of federal dollars to West Virginia, including an FBI center in Clarksburg, IRS offices in Parkersburg, and a Fish and Wildlife Training Center in Shepherdstown. 

For Byrd’s career of service, Governor Bob Wise and the legislature named him West Virginian of the 20th Century.

December 18, 1842: Senator Nathan B. Scott Born

Businessman and U.S. Senator Nathan B. Scott was born in Ohio on December 18, 1842. From a meager start as a boy working in a general store, he eventually would become one of the four richest men in West Virginia.

After serving in the Union Army during the Civil War, Scott became a glass manufacturer in Bellaire, Ohio. He quickly amassed a fortune in business and banking. He then moved to nearby Wheeling, where he accumulated even more wealth as president of the Central Glass Company. He also made hefty sums of money in the coal industry and founded Dollar Savings and Trust, which is now WesBanco.

Shortly after moving to Wheeling, Scott began to dabble in Republican politics. He swiftly moved up the political ladder—from Wheeling City Council, to West Virginia State Senate, and finally, to the United States Senate, where he served for 12 years. After leaving the Senate in 1911, he retired from politics and lived out the rest of his life as a banker in Washington, D.C. Nathan B. Scott died in Washington in 1924 at the age of 81.

November 21, 1810: US Senator Allen Taylor Caperton Born

Allen Taylor Caperton was born on November 21, 1810, on his family’s estate in Monroe County. During the 1840s and 1850s, he served as a Whig in the Virginia House of Delegates and Senate. 

As the Civil War approached, Caperton was personally opposed to secession.  However, in April 1861, he served as a delegate to the Virginia secession convention and voted with the majority to join the Confederacy.

From 1863 until the end of the war two years later, he represented Virginia in the Confederate Senate. He was one of only three Virginians to serve in the Confederate Senate during the Civil War.

In 1875, the West Virginia Legislature elected Caperton, now a Democrat, to be a United States senator.  In doing so, Caperton set two precedents. He became the first ex-Confederate elected to the U.S. Senate.  He also was the first and only former Confederate senator to serve in the U.S. Senate after the war.  His time in the senate, though, was brief—less than 17 months. 

He died in July 1876 at the age of 65 and was buried in his hometown of Union.

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