Robert C. Byrd

During my career, I have devoted significant time and energy toward attracting federal operations and installations to West Virginia as a means to provide well-paying, stable employment to the state and to provide the federal government with low-cost and quality operations. As a result of these efforts, today, more than twenty-five federal operations have relocated to the state. In total, these agencies support nearly 10,000 federal and contractor personnel and represent a $1.4 billion annual infusion into West Virginia’s economy for general operations. These figures do not account for the numerous private sector firms that have also come to the state to conduct business with these federal facilities thereby creating even more jobs and opportunities.

Equally important to me has been enhancing and expanding the operations of existing federal agencies and operations in the state, including the following:

Veterans Administration Initiatives: Our nation’s veterans bear a tremendous load when they take their oath to defend our country and should expect that our government will do everything in its power to care for them. Through the federal appropriations process, I have supported major renovations of, and additions to, each of the four Veterans Affairs Medical Centers (VAMC) in West Virginia – Huntington, Clarksburg, Beckley, and Martinsburg. I am also responsible for the establishment of a national cemetery in Pruntytown; the establishment of several VA outpatient clinics in the state, including clinics in Charleston, Franklin, and Petersburg; the implementation of an outreach program between the Clarksburg VAMC and West Virginia University to provide specialized in-state care for veterans; and the creation of a cyber security program headquartered at the Martinsburg VAMC to protect the sensitive computer records of the VA.

WV National Guard Initiatives: To help ensure that the West Virginia National Guard has the adequate facilities and resources to do its job across the state and in defending the homeland, I have secured funding for the construction of new armed forces reserve centers, readiness centers, and maintenance facilities throughout the state; ensured that the aging fleet of helicopters assigned to the WV Army National Guard would be replaced with the new UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters; made significant investments at both the Charleston and Martinsburg Air National Guard Bases; funded the construction of the Regional Training Institute and other major improvements at Camp Dawson; and supported the operations of the Joint Interagency Training and Education Center and the West Virginia Counterdrug program.

National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL): The current NETL facility in Morgantown has been in operation since 1954 to carry out high-risk, high-value research that can accelerate the development of new technologies for producing energy from coal, oil, and natural gas in a more environmentally friendly and efficient manner. With the designation of NETL as a federal lab in 1999, it became apparent to me that the nearly fifty-year old infrastructure and out-of-date research equipment at NETL would impede its ability to become a world-class national laboratory. I initiated a several-year capital improvement plan in early 2000 that set forth an aggressive effort to recapitalize NETL -- to bring the lab’s facilities and research equipment up to par with the country’s other key energy laboratories.