Published September 1989 — Download PDF of the original newspaper column
Byrd's-Eye View By U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd More Defense Dollars for West Virginia As Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, I recently won Committee approval of new funds for West Virginia in the Defense and Military Construction Appropriations bills. Most notably, I obtained approval of $30 million for a high-tech research program being conducted in conjunction with West Virginia University by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). In this program; the Concurrent Engineering Initiative, West Virginia University (WVU), in cooperation with several other academic institutions and major defense-related corporations, will coordinate research and technology transfer programs to harness information and knowledge -processing technologies to improve American manufacturing productivity, allowing us to update our products to meet market demands more efficiently. Additionally, the DARPA-WVU program could help West Virginia diversify its economy, bringing new jobs and challenging opportunities for West Virginians. The Committee also approved my requests for $2.9 million for a Navy high-tech teaching factory for which Marshall University is competing, and $7 million for a model factory to produce advanced defense materials for which Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing's plant in Jefferson County is competing. Further, I won Committee approval of $4.5 million for renovations at Allegany Ballistics Laboratory in Mineral County, one of only 64 federally owned, contractor-operated defense plants in the country. In the military construction bill, I obtained approval of $5.3 million for a National Guard aviation-support facility and armory in Wheeling, $1.5 million for an addition and renovation at the Guard's property and fiscal office in Buckhannon, $3.8 million for a jet-fuel storage complex and training facility at Martinsburg, $546,000 for a Guard armory addition at Huntington, and $245,000 for a Guard security police operations addition at Charleston. Also approved were my requests for Army Reserve construction for centers and maintenance shops in each of the following places: $3.2 million for Beckley, $2.2 million at Rainelle, $1.9 million at Morgantown, $1.4 million for Elkins, and $1.4 million for Kingwood. The military construction bill also includes my requests for $900,000 to purchase land for a new Army Reserve Center in Charleston and $300,000 for the Air National Guard to purchase added land at Yeager Airport in Charleston. Cumulatively, these construction projects would mean $27.2 million in new military facilities for West Virginia, bringing more jobs and federal funds into our state's economy. September 27, 1989