Published May 1989 — Download PDF of the original newspaper column
Byrd's-Eye View By U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd Welcome Economic Signals in West Virginia Recently, West Virginians have received some uplifting economic news. A recent U.S. Census Bureau annual report states that West Virginia's per capita share in federal procurement has increased from 50th among the states in 1987 to 46th in 1988. In prime defense procurement; not including subcontracts, West Virginia moved from 49th to 45th among the states; a welcome advance for a state until recently not oriented toward defense prime-contracting. Although these rankings are still not good enough, they reflect an encouraging trend, especially in view of our state's traditional base of heavy domestic manufacturing and raw minerals extraction and processing, coupled with the overall decline of federal procurement under federal budget constraints from 1987 to 1988. Indeed, West Virginia was one of only 16 states enjoying an increase in federal procurement spending. Again, as a result of the Software Valley movement; a non-profit movement that I launched to promote research, education, and the development of a computer software industry and related high-technology businesses in West Virginia, more and more out-of-state high-tech companies have heard about West Virginia and are doing business in our state. Recently, for instance, I had a meeting in my Capitol office with the President of McDonnell Douglas Space Systems, a subsidiary of the giant aerospace corporation. He had attended the Software Valley space symposium that I held in Shepherdstown earlier this year, and had sent a representative to the March Software Valley conference I sponsored in Wheeling. This corporate president said that those meetings had spotlighted a capability in West Virginia of which he had been previously unaware, and that he was now compiling a list of West Virginia companies interested in competing for subcontracts for the projected U.S. space station. In addition, West Virginia is showing increased promise in timber, hardwood products, and tourism; areas that state business leaders in a recent survey pinpointed as industries in the state offering the greatest growth potential. I am gratified that the efforts I and others are making appear to be winning the attention of industries and enterprises that can create more job opportunities for talented and eager men and women in West Virginia. May 10, 1989