WASHINGTON, D.C. — During a budget hearing this week, U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito praised the Bureau of the Fiscal Service office in Parkersburg and invited Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to come see it himself.
The Republican senator from West Virginia also supported a Department of Transportation budget that increased funding for Essential Air Service — which subsidizes commercial flights at the Mid-Ohio Valley Regional Airport — by $5 million over the House of Representatives version.
Capito, R.-W.Va., chairs the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government, which held a hearing Wednesday to review the administration’s budget request for the Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service.
The Bureau of the Fiscal Service, a major employer in downtown Parkersburg, is a part of the Treasury Department dealing with financial integrity and operational efficiency in the federal government.
“I’m proud of the work that’s being done in Parkersburg, W.Va., at the Bureau of Fiscal Service,” Capito said while questioning Mnuchin in a video from the hearing posted on YouTube. “We have 2,000 folks there that are doing a lot of great things, and one of the things that they’re doing is to promote government efficiency through a shared services model.”
Before asking how that shared services model was being applied in other areas, Capito invited the secretary to come to visit the office.
“I will take you up on that,” Mnuchin said. “It’s a very important facility of ours.”
The subcommittee reported the appropriations bill for the Transportation and Housing and Urban Development departments out Tuesday. As a result of Capito’s efforts, a spokeswoman for her office said, the budget for Essential Air Service was increased to $155 million from $150 million in the House version.
“The Essential Air Service program supports our local airports and ultimately contributes to our state’s economy,” Capito said in an emailed statement. “I was glad to ensure that the program is funded properly so areas like the Mid-Ohio Valley and the City of Parkersburg can continue to benefit from the program’s services.”
The EAS number remained the same after the committee’s markup of the bill Thursday, a committee staff member said.
President Donald Trump’s budget plan earlier this year called for the elimination of the program, which subsidizes flights to 115 communities in the contiguous 48 states that otherwise would have no commercial service.
Via Air currently flies between the Mid-Ohio Valley Regional Airport and Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina, with an annual EAS subsidy of $1.9 million.
