By David Beard, The Dominion Post
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — President Trump’s DOGE effort to count government waste is popular among the public — with a poll by left-leaning CNN saying 54% of voters believe the Department of Government Efficiency should have at least some influence over government spending and operations.
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito offered thoughts on the topic in response to a question from The Dominion Post during her weekly press briefing.
Acknowledging the fits and starts of some of the actions taken to trim some government office overstaffing, she said, “The goals are great. The methods are good. But the execution is probably a little rough at this point, the president’s only been in [office] between five to six weeks.”
The question came in the context of West Virginia’s dependence on federal jobs – with the Forest Service building in Elkins, NETL and NIOSH in Morgantown, the FBI in Harrison County, and more across the state – and a high proportion of the state’s population on Medicaid.
On the jobs portion, Capito said that, according to the information they have, probably the hardest hit area has been Parkersburg, where the Bureau of Fiscal Service lost more than 100 probationary jobs – people hired into jobs within the last year. [The Dominion Post received reports that NETL in Morgantown also lost more than 100 probationers, but the Department of Energy did not respond to several requests to confirm that and provide an accurate figure.]
