All eyes were on President Donald Trump Wednesday as he marked the first 100 days of his second non-consecutive term in office.

But U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, U.S. Sen. Jim Justice, and Rep. Riley Moore are also more than 100 days into new roles on Capitol Hill.

Capito, R-W.Va., has been in Congress since 2001, first as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives then as a member of the U.S. Senate since 2015. But Capito has steadily risen the ranks of Senate Republican leadership, becoming the 18th chairperson of the Republican Policy Committee and fourth ranking member in the Senate Republican majority beginning on Jan. 3.

Her nephew, former House of Delegates member and former state treasurer Riley Moore, was sworn in that same day for his first two-year term in the U.S. House of Representatives serving West Virginia’s Second Congressional District. Moore, R-W.Va., was chosen as a freshman representative to the House’s Elected Leadership Committee and is the only freshman member of the House Appropriations Committee.

For Jim Justice, the former two-term 36th governor of West Virginia, April 24 marked his first 100 days since being sworn in to the U.S. Senate seat previously held by Joe Manchin. Since arriving on Capitol Hill, Justice, R-W.Va., has won over fellow lawmakers, staff and reporters alike with his folksy demeanor and Babydog, his English bulldog companion.

For all three lawmakers, supporting the agenda of the Trump administration over the remainder of his final term is important, but they also acknowledge there is a balancing act when it comes to ensuring the interests of West Virginians are protected.

PUBLIC SERVICE

Capito’s role as the leader of the Senate Republican Policy Committee involves working with the Senate Republican majority to develop the ideas that will shape the debate on the Senate floor. The Senate Republican Policy Committee organizes weekly policy lunches with key Trump administration officials.

Earlier this week, senators heard from U.S Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Vice President JD Vance. Capito said these lunches provide senators an opportunity to update Trump administration officials about what is being said in their districts about different policies.

“This gives a chance for members and leadership to interact so that we're working hand in glove with the White House,” Capito said. “We just came off of a two-week period of time from when we were last in Washington, so the White House needs to hear what we're hearing on the ground.”

Since Trump first took office on Jan. 20, the Senate has been quickly working to confirm Trump’s cabinet officials and other nominees. Thursday afternoon, the Senate had a vote to invoke cloture to move forward with the nomination of Frank Bisignano as commissioner of the Social Security Administration. Congress also quickly passed the Laken Riley Act, placing strict penalties on illegal immigrants who commit crimes in the U.S.

“It honestly has been the busiest three months I've ever had over my last 27 years,” Capito said. “A lot of that is being in leadership…We've set some records in terms of the number of nominees we've had and the number of ambassadors we've confirmed. We did the Laken Riley Act right out of the gate. I think it's been a productive session, but it's also been really busy.”

For Justice, he said his first 100 days in the U.S. Senate have been different, transitioning from an executive of a business and the state to a role in the legislative branch. But Justice said he has always seen his role as working with others versus being a top-down manager.

“From the standpoint of being one of 100 versus the one, well, you never are the one,” Justice said. “People think, ‘oh yeah, I'm in charge, and I'm going to just be the king of the day, and I'm going to do this and that and everything.’ It doesn't work that way. It never works that way, even in business.”

Justice said the one thing that remains true, from his time running his coal and agricultural businesses to serving as governor, is that the goal is service to the people. Only this time, it’s not just serving the people of West Virginia; it’s service to the nation as a whole and beyond.

“You can be the CEO of a coal company…And all of a sudden, who are you beholden to? You're beholden to your customers,” Justice said. “You know I love West Virginia beyond good sense. I’ll never change that. But at the same time, in this role you're really doing stuff that impacts the whole world…With that, it's humbling.”

Moore is no stranger to legislative service, having served in the West Virginia House of Delegates representing parts of Jefferson County. But the Second Congressional District spans from Jefferson County in the east to Wood County in the west; from Hancock County in the Northern Panhandle to Randolph County in the south.

Moore said he and his district team are working on talking with people in the district to determine their needs to be able to better defend those funding requests.

“I'm blessed to be in the position that I am to be able to advocate for the constituents or the Second Congressional District,” Moore continued. “And part of that is advocacy. We have places right now in West Virginia that have lead in the water. Ritchie County's got an arsenic problem. I mean, this is terrible stuff. We’ve got to take care of it. I'm working really hard to be able to help on those types of things through the appropriations process and my position here in Congress.”

FISCAL NOTES

Earlier in April, the House and the Senate agreed on the framework for a budget resolution for fiscal year 2025. After a two-week recess, the House is taking the lead on the next steps: a budget reconciliation package which would allow the Senate to skip the 60-vote cloture requirement to move bills along to a vote.

Goals of the budget reconciliation process involve keeping in place the 2017 tax cuts put in place in Trump’s first term. Those tax cuts expire at the end of the year.

“I think you could see pre-COVID the growth in our economy, more people working, wages up, more minorities working, more young people working. It really was having a great effect,” Capito said. “We want to make sure that we're not going to have a $7 trillion dollar tax increase on the American people.”

Other goals for the reconciliation process include making cuts to federal entitlement programs, such as Medicaid, without cutting services; increasing the debt ceiling; and cutting miscellaneous spending. Justice said he is for cutting waste, fraud, and abuse from federal programs, but cutting just for the sake of cutting would be a bad move, he said.

“What we're going to have to do is we're going to have to assess this situation and get rid of as much waste as we can without cutting into the bone,” Justice said. “If we start cutting into the bone, people are going to dive into the ditch. And when these people, as politicians, start diving in the ditch, we're going to get nothing done. Absolutely nothing. And I'm going to protect West Virginia every way I possibly can.”

Moore said the goal of the House is to let every committee work on a piece of the reconciliation package and pass those pieces through regular order, providing members’ input in the final product, including needed West Virginia projects.

“We want to go back to regular order and pass all these bills,” Moore said. “The great thing about being on appropriations is that since I've been in this office, a lot of the meetings that I'm having are actually with constituents, towns, and municipalities in my district in West Virginia talking about community projects that we can try to do, that we can try to help with. What I've been focused on is how can I help folks back home with some of these community projects at a higher national level.”

West Virginia’s congressional delegation members are keeping a close eye on tariffs proposed by the Trump administration, though both Capito and Justice voted against a measure Wednesday to end the national emergency declared by Trump allowing him to implement the tariffs on foreign nations. That measure failed in a 49-49 vote, and Vance – as president of the Senate – went to the Senate to break a tie in order to permanently kill the motion.

The tariffs - particularly the 145% tariffs on Chinese goods with China placing reciprocal tariffs on the U.S. - could have negative effects on West Virginia coal exports, as well as other industries that rely on Chinese goods and machinery. But with some tariffs on other countries being reduced or some products being exempted from tariffs, lawmakers urged patience with the Trump administration.

“In terms of tariffs, I think the president's goal of getting even, reciprocal tariffs with countries is a great goal,” Capito said. “That uncertainty that you see surrounding this in your investments, jobs and everything can sort of be tamped down if there's anxiety out there over this in the business community. I'm hoping that we reach some kind of agreement with a lot of people so that the American people can really say, yes, this is going to work better for us. I think that remains to be seen quite honestly.”

“President Trump will watch things, and oftentimes he says things to get reactions out of people to help him negotiate things and everything. But he will adjust as we go forward, guaranteed,” Justice said. “The problem is all these trade imbalances are crazy. Somebody's got to try to do something, and that's what he's doing.”

“I think it is a real reorientation of the whole international order and the ties with China and some isolation tactics and strategy on our side in terms of recapturing some of that domestic manufacturing base,” Moore said. “So, we have to reach balance in this, and I'm not talking about a total balance of trade with China, but across the board in totality. We want to have more balanced trade.

“The way to think about this is no country in the world has ever been made great by consuming,” Moore continued. “They were made great by producing, and that's what we're trying to get back to.”

First Congressional District Congresswoman Carol Miller, R-W.Va., was unavailable for an interview.