By Charles Young, The Exponent Telegram
WASHINGTON — Sen. Joe Manchin, I-W.Va., presided over his last business meeting as chair of the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on Tuesday.
Manchin, who chose not to seek re-election and will soon be retiring from the Senate, reflected on his 14 years sitting on the committee, during the last six of which he has been ranking member and chair.
“This committee has maintained an enduring commitment to bipartisanship that has served us, and the country, well,” Manchin said. “That doesn’t mean that we’ve always agreed, but rather that we know the meaning of compromise and not letting the perfect be the enemy of the good.”
Since 2019, the committee has passed more than 350 pieces of legislation, with impacts ranging from “global to national to hyperlocal,” Manchin said.
“We started 2019 with the John Dingell Act, which was the largest bipartisan package of public land bills in over a decade. The centerpiece was the permanent reauthorization of the Land and Water Conservation Fund,” Manchin said. “We complemented that with the Great American Outdoors Act in 2020, which provided $900 million in mandatory annual funding for the LWCF and $9.5 billion for the deferred maintenance backlog on our federal lands.”
