Issue Position: Transforming Our Economy

Issue Position

We must end the decades-old pattern of out-of-state corporations coming to West Virginia to extract wealth from our state and exploit our people. We must bring in public and private investment to build up local businesses that will reinvest in the local economy and create living wage jobs. . We must demand federal investment in the infrastructure needed to grow diverse sectors of our economy, including tourism, farming, forestry and manufacturing. We must grow federal research funding as our chemical, energy and automotive industries innovate in response to the challenges of climate change and a changing economy.

Combined with a functional healthcare system, strong public education, forcing corporations to pay their fair share of taxes, and policies to support working families, we can build a strong economy that works for all West Virginians.

We have seen this level of economic transformation before, when the New Deal put West Virginians back to work and created state parks, bridges, dams, schools and other infrastructure across our state that we still rely on today.

As we struggle to recover from the economic impact of the coronavirus, it is time for another New Deal for West Virginia.

Federal Investment

We can put West Virginians to work with federal investment that improves our state, makes it a better place to live and raise a family, and attracts investment in growing industries. I support federal investment in:

Rural broadband. We need reliable, high-speed internet across West Virginia through investment in rural broadband. This is essential for education, health care services, small business development, and improving the quality of rural life. We must break the Frontier monopoly and need to scale up successful models of locally owned broadband (county, regional, or cooperatively-owned) by providing technical and legal support to communities that are attempting to bring internet into their areas.

Cleaning up old and abandoned mines, oil wells and gas wells. West Virginia has over $4.5 billion of clean-up work to do just on mines abandoned before 1977. That is not counting the billions of reclamation work that could be done on reclaiming abandoned oil and gas wells, or on reclaiming newer mine sites. At the very least, we need to pass the bipartisan RECLAIM Act, which would fund $1 billion in coal mine reclamation over 5 years.

Safe drinking water infrastructure. It is completely unacceptable that so many West Virginia communities lack access to safe drinking water. People will never want to move to areas that cannot guarantee safe water. Billions of dollars of federal investment is needed in rural public service districts to ensure that these entities can provide for this basic need.

Rural transportation. We need greater investment in transportation, especially to expand transit options in rural communities. This will require simplifying and streamlining access to dedicated transit funding for rural communities, providing technical assistance, and supporting integrated planning for transportation, housing and economic development to help connect people to quality housing and jobs.

Other infrastructure, including parks, recreation and transportation (such as the MARC train service in the eastern panhandle).

Taking on out-of-state monopolies and growing local businesses

We can grow local businesses and build up wealth in our state, rather than relying on out-of-state extractive industries. Over the last 40 years, as our federal government has rolled back or stopped enforcing anti-monopoly laws, we have allowed big monopoly retailers like Wal-Mart and Amazon to squeeze out West Virginia's local small businesses. We have allowed agribusiness giants like Pilgrims Pride to squeeze our poultry farmers in eastern West Virginia, turning over all aspects of their production to the control of those companies in exchange for contracts that keep them permanently in debt to the corporation.

I support:

Expanding access to capital to start and grow small businesses. This includes expanding funding for Community Development Financial Institutions and other programs that support entrepreneurs in low-income and rural areas. This is needed now more than ever as we struggle to recover from the coronavirus pandemic.

Re-enacting and enforcing anti-trust laws against monopolies to level the playing field for small businesses, farmers and entrepreneurs

Incentivizing cooperative ownership structures that give workers an ownership stake in their company so that more of the wealth generated by the company stays in the community

Federal funding for research and innovation in solutions to climate change, healthcare and other global problems

Reforming federal agricultural subsidies to support small-scale, family growers rather than corporate agri-business. This could include expanding farm-to-school programs (through the bipartisan Kids Eat Local Act) and expanding access to credit for new farmers. I support the growing hemp industry in West Virginia and policies to make sure that the benefits of this industry stay with local West Virginia farmers.

Click here to read Cathy's policy paper on Standing up for Small Businesses that keep Wealth in West Virginia.

Protecting Workers and Communities

The West Virginia economy is, like the nation's, going through an extensive period of change. West Virginia and Appalachia have historically provided much of the energy needed to fuel economic growth since the end of World War II. The federal government needs to recognize the contribution made by the state, our communities and families and to assist with the rebuilding.

Yet for the last decade, our political leadership has largely failed to protect the workers and communities that have been abandoned as a result of the unmanaged collapse of the coal industry. I will fight for:

Changes to bankruptcy law to prioritize workers' healthcare and pensions. In just 5 years, four of the largest coal companies in the United States shed $5.2 billion of their responsibilities to workers and environmental clean-up through bankruptcy proceedings. I will fight for changes in bankruptcy law that would put debts to workers as the top priority.

Securing promised healthcare and pension benefits to miners. Building off 2017 budget deal that secured retiree healthcare benefits that had been jeopardized by coal industry bankruptcies, the federal government must continue to ensure that healthcare and pension promises to workers are kept in the future. Part of the funding should come from Department of Justice legal actions against coal industry executives and companies.

Full funding for the federal black lung program. Even as the coal industry has attempted to take advantage of the COVID-19 crisis to lobby for cutting the black lung tax, I will fight to make sure the coal industry pays what it owes to miners and their families.

Federal assistance to local governments affected by plant and mine closures, modeled after the Department of Defense's Base Realignment and Closure program. These local facilities have supported our roads, police, and schools, and the federal government needs to come up with fiscal resources to help local governments navigate the changes taking place.

Robust transition assistance to workers (including transitional wages and health benefits, educational opportunities and coordination with public and private employers for job placement) as the U.S. economy transitions away from fossil fuels.

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