Published February 1999 — Download PDF of the original newspaper column
Byrd's-Eye View By U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd Budget Priorities for West Virginia
I have long worked to ensure that West Virginia's needs are addressed as Administrations craft their annual budget requests. Consequently, the fiscal year 2000 budget includes funding for a number of initiatives important to West Virginia. Education is fundamental to preparing our young people for the challenges of adulthood. In addition to increased funding to put more teachers in the classroom, the budget, at my request, includes full one-year funding of $39.9 million for the merit-based national Robert C. Byrd Honors Scholarship program. This scholarship recognizes many of the nation's best and brightest students for academic excellence. Since the program began in 1984, 520 West Virginia students have been named Byrd Scholars and benefited from this national scholarship. Improving West Virginia's network of highways is crucial to the state's continued economic development. Last year, I helped to craft a six-year highway authorization bill that will improve our ability to address the nation's infrastructure needs in the next century by effectively using the funding available from gasoline taxes in the Highway Trust Fund. As a result of those efforts, the budget for the coming fiscal year contains approximately $304 million for West Virginia highway construction, including $69 million for continuing construction of West Virginia's Appalachian Regional Commission Corridor Highways. The budget proposal also contains $311 million for operations of the FBI Criminal Justice Information Services Division in Clarksburg. This complex, which was constructed with $185 million I added to an appropriations bill in 1990, is a cornerstone in the national effort to fight crime and make our communities safer places in which to live and work. Mindful that international competition is making high technology an essential component of any state's economic plan for the future, several high-technology initiatives, with my support, are also slated to receive funding in the proposed budget. For example, three NASA initiatives based in West Virginia -- the National Technology Transfer Center and the Classroom of the Future, both located at Wheeling, and the Independent Verification and Validation facility at Fairmont -- are proposed to receive a total of $25.8 million. While West Virginia has reason to be pleased with many points in the budget request, that proposal is just the first step in the annual federal budget process. Ultimately, the Congress will craft the budget and appropriations bills that will serve as a blueprint for the nation's priorities over the coming year, and 1 shall continue to work to see that West Virginia's needs are addressed within existing budgetary constraints. February 24, 1999