MORGANTOWN – What does DOGE mean for West Virginia? The answer is in flux as the White House battles in court over the Department of Government Efficiencies’ various actions. But the answer is tightly bound to another question: What does federal money mean for West Virginia?
Gov. Patrick Morissey’s projected Fiscal Year 2026 budget (which starts July 1, 2025) shows that nearly half of West Virginia’s revenue – 48%, $9.48 billion – will come from federal funds.
Tracking the closing of federal offices and the distribution of federal money within the state provides some clues to the effect that DOGE actions are having on West Virginia.
Closing of federal offices
The DOGE website shows that nine federal offices in West Virginia have been closed.
One is the Social Security Administration office in Logan, closing temporarily. The office is 7,852 square feet with a $196,028 annual lease. DOGE estimates a $45,650 total savings from the closure. It says it calculates savings based on the difference between the total value of the site and the amount currently obligated.
We note that none of the descriptions of office closures mentions how many employees are or will be affected.
The rest all indicate “termination via mass mod,” which means agency offices were closed simultaneously through a government-issued modification.
- The IRS national office in Parkersburg is 7,671 square feet, with a $184,015 annual lease. DOGE expects total savings of $306,692 by closing it.
- The National Park Service is Martinsburg is 2,230 square feet with a $62,811 annual lease. DOGE doesn’t report an estimated savings from the closure.
- The National Park Service office in Charles Town is 39,037 square feet with a $947,520 lease. Estimated savings are $9,396,239.
- The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration office in Charleston is 1,692 square feet with a $51,245 annual lease. It reports zero ($0.00) savings from the closure.
- The U.S. Geological Survey office in Charleston is 10,875 square feet with a $222,716 annual lease. Total savings are again zero dollars.
- The Mine Safety Health Administration Office in Summersville is 5,020 square feet with an annual lease of $107.456. DOGE estimates savings of $402,961.
- The MSHA office in Rock View is 20,781 square feet with a $563,693 annual lease. Estimated savings are zero dollars..
- The Employment and Training Administration Office of Apprenticeship in Martinsburg is 525 square feet with a $12,066 lease. Estimated savings are $48,262.
- And the “Office of the Secretary” in Charleston is 3,122 square feet with a $48,913 lease. Estimated savings are $118,206.
On the people-side of DOGE actions, probationary employees – on their job for less than two years – at various agencies across the country were dismissed in mid-February. This may be reversed.
Exact numbers of people affected are unknown, but reports indicated that the effort was clumsy, dismissing people with longer experience who’d been promoted and were merely probationary on their higher-level jobs.
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-WV, said in early March that the Bureau of Fiscal Service in Parkersburg lost more than 100 probationary jobs.
And The Dominion Post received word that the National Energy Technology campus in Morgantown lost more than 100 probationers. A question to NETL about that was referred to the Department of Energy, which did not respond to three requests for information.
The firings may be undone, however. As news reports indicate, federal judges in Maryland and California issued orders on Thursday to halt the effort and reinstate the employees, saying the firings were not based on individual performance assessments, but were collective and unconstitutional.
The White House said on Friday it will fight the orders, calling them unconstitutional actions by partisan activists.
Some federal dollars
The DOGE site includes a tab titled “Payments.” It says it will begin posting payments to show the public how taxpayer funds are actually being distributed on a daily basis.
DOGE said it is starting by posting all of the grant payments issued from the Program Support Center, which disperses about $215 billion in grant payments per year. This will be expanded to all payment systems over time.
Included is a sampling of payments that have come into West Virginia on March 5, 6 and 7.
DOGE notes that the payments listed under the tab have been approved by the applicable agency and funds have been disbursed; DOGE has not approved nor disapproved any of these payments.
Most of what is listed here has gone to WVU and the WVU Research Corp. WVU commented: “Federal funding is essential to providing the research experience afforded to students at West Virginia University as they apply what they have learned to developing solutions for real world problems. This in turn prepares them to be job ready when they leave WVU. It is also important to note that much of the funding supports salaries and stipends of citizens in our region and therefore has substantial trickle-down impacts on the regional economy.”
One other note is that DOGE will list separate payments from an agency to a grant recipient but the money often goes into a pool. WVU explained that in its case, many of the university’s federal awards utilize the cash drawdown processes from the various federal agency payment systems and the payments come from each individual award.
On March 6, NASA provided 18 payments to WVU Research Corp. (WVURC) totaling $68,384, for space, astronomy and astrophysics research. They ranged from a low of $1,360 to a high of $15,056.
On March 7, WVU received $31,974 from NASA.
The Health Resources and Services Administration gave two payments to WVURC. One was from MSHA, for $10,145. The other was from the Department of Labor Office of Disability Employment Policy for $254,056.
The Health and Human Services Administration for Community Living gave WVURC three payments on March 6: $28,715; $747; and $8,339.
HHS gave the state Health Department four payments on March 6: $13,205; $500,961; $289,041; and $4,603.
The CDC made four payments to WVURC on March 6: $23,482; $3,204; $9,356; and $10,837.
And on the same day, CDC made three payments to WVU: $121,448; $11,799; and $35,323.
On March 6, HHS Health Resources & Services Administration made 14 payments to WVURC totaling $54,719.
And WVU received two payments: $144,242 and $27,146.
The Charleston-based West Virginia Perinatal Partnership received two HHS payments on March 6: $15,205 and $5,268. It describes itself as “a statewide collaboration of health care professionals, public and private organizations and individuals working together to improve perinatal health outcomes for women and infants.”
On Feb. 7, the National Institutes of Health announced that it will reduce indirect cost recovery at research institutions to a flat 15% from any previously negotiated rates. WVU predicted this will cost it $12 million.
DOGE listed a total of 74 payments from NIH to WVRC on March 6, totaling $1,241,726. They range from a low of $247 to a high of $128,095.
The HHS Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration made a single payment to WVURC on March 6 of $1,397.
The Department of Labor Employment & Training Administration paid the state Bureau of Employment Programs $630 on March 6 and paid WVURC $24,933 on the same day.
DOL made three payments to the Randolph County Housing Authority for its Randolph WORC program: $19,465; $24,256 and $4,338.
