dbeard@dominionpost.com
MORGANTOWN – President Trump’s DOGE effort to count government waste is popular among the public – with a poll by left-leaning CNN saying 54% of voters believe DOGE should have at least some influence over government spending and operations.
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito offered some thoughts on the topic in response to a question from The Dominion Post during her weekly West Virginia press briefing.
Acknowledging the fits and starts of some of actions taken to trim some government office overstaffing, she said, “The goals are great. The methods are good. But the execution is probably a little rough at this point, the president’s only been in [office] between five to six weeks.”
Our question came in the context of West Virginia’s dependence on federal jobs – with NETL and NIOSH in Morgantown, the FBI in Harrison county, and the Forest Service and more across the state – and a high proportion of the state’s population on Medicaid.
On the jobs portion, Capito said that according to the information they have, probably the hardest hit area has been Parkersburg, where the Bureau of Fiscal Service lost more than 100 probationary jobs – people hired into jobs within the last year. [The Dominion Post received reports that NETL in Morgantown also lost more than 100 probationers, but the Department of Energy did not respond to several requests to confirm that and provide an accurate figure.]
“The big goal,” Capito said, “is government efficiencies. is making the bloated bureaucracies that we have match better what our needs are, and to slim it down. So I support DOGE. … There’s a lot of [public] enthusiasm. When it starts to hit close to home, like at NETL, or Bureau of Fiscal Service, or Forest Service, it hurts.”
Capito said that she thinks what we’ll see in the long run is everything settling out, finding the jobs that are critical, and if people have been cut from them, they’ll get hired back. “You’re already seeing some of that happen. I saw CDC was hiring back some of the folks that they had originally let go.”
On the Medicaid issue, Capito said “Almost one third, 28%, of West Virginians are on Medicaid. Quite a healthy number, and anytime somebody starts talking about Medicaid, I become very concerned about what the impacts will have on families.”
Congress plans to extend the Trump tax relief legislation passed back in 2017, she said, and try to get a hold on the $34 trillion national debt “and make some meaningful tightening of our belt. And because of that, other programs are going to be looked at. But President Trump himself has said Medicaid and Medicare will not be touched.”
But, Capito said, they will review Medicaid for any abuse or waste, to make the program run better without cutting anybody’s benefits. “And I think this can be done. I think there are certain areas, and all the conversations that I’ve had, that can make Medicaid, which is now the largest of the government programs, run more efficiently and work better for people without cutting benefits.”
She cautioned that lowering the total costs of this massive program “is very much a moving target. As the weeks go by, this will become clearer. It may be that Medicaid is totally off the table.”
HIDTA Enhancement Act
Among other topics covered during the briefing, Capito mentioned her co-sponsorship of the HIDTA Enhancement Act.
The High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas program is administered by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy and supports collaboration between federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies to reduce drug trafficking and misuse.
There are 33 regional HIDTAs across the U.S., and Capito said there are three in West Virginia, with 24 counties that are designated a HIDTA. “They do great work. And I wanted to see us capitalize on that because I’m very committed to making sure that West Virginians become healthier and addiction free.
The HIDTA Enhancement Act would reauthorize the HIDTA program and provide them with greater resources to cover more activities to enhance fentanyl prevention and seizures.
The HIDTA Enhancement Act reauthorizes the HIDTA program at $333 million annually through 2030; increases authorization for competitive grants to $14,224,000 and expands use of funds to include enhanced fentanyl seizure and interdiction activities.
