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CHARLESTON -- While many took the rest of the week off after Christmas, 2nd District Rep. Alex Mooney was in his downtown Charleston office at 8 a.m. Friday preparing for meetings with constituents.
It's one of his favorite things to do.
"I love meeting people. That part of the job is just great," Mooney said in an interview Friday morning. "If I go to a really small town somewhere in Wirt County or anywhere, I just love doing that."
Mooney, a Republican, is a former Maryland state senator and state Republican Party chairman. He has served three terms in the House of Representatives, in 2014 winning the seat previously held by U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito.
The 2nd Congressional District resembles a snake, stretching across the middle of West Virginia, from Jackson County and the Ohio River in the west to Jefferson County and the Potomac River in the east.
The district includes the state capital in Charleston and the fastest growing region of the state, the Eastern Panhandle.
All three terms have been different for Mooney. During the first term, Republicans held the majority in Congress, but there was a Democratic president in Barack Obama. During his second term, Donald Trump was elected president, giving Republicans both the executive and legislative branches. During his third term, The U.S. Senate remained Republican-controlled, the House is controlled by Democrats and a Republican is president.
Nowhere is this power struggle between the parties and the branches of government more evident than the impeachment of Trump. The House passed two articles of impeachment Dec. 18 against Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress regarding the attempted withholding of military aid to the Ukraine in exchange for announcing an investigation into former vice president and Democratic candidate for president Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
The articles of impeachment passed along party lines, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has not handed the articles over to the Senate as the body determines procedures for Trump's impeachment trial. Mooney has been an outspoken opponent of impeachment and how the House conducted its inquiries, including interviewing witnesses behind closed doors.
"It's a power play by the House, a total power play," Mooney said. "They want to still control the process. Even when the bill leaves to the Senate, which is a separate chamber, (Pelosi) is still trying to dictate terms over there...I think they're really afraid that the Senate might expose their bad doings."
Regardless of who is president, Mooney believes Congress has given up much of its power of the purse. When Congress passed two bills in mid-December for fiscal year 2020 totaling more than $1.4 trillion, Mooney voted for the one that included funding for the United Mine Workers of America's 1974 Pension Plan, but voted against the other one.
"I was the only one in our state to vote against one of those bills," Mooney said. "That's still not how you're supposed to do it. Those are supposed to be individual votes."
According to Truth in Accounting, the U.S. national debt is more than $23 trillion. When unfunded Social Security and Medicare promises, as well as other assets and liabilities, are counted the number increases to $121 trillion. Mooney is mindful of the national debt and Congress' power of the purse.
Mooney also understands the power of the appropriations process to stop bad policies.
"The way the founders of our country designed the country to stop that overreach from the executive, the president United States, was through the appropriations process and the House of Representatives," Mooney said. "I was serious about it when I said I was going to fight that (overspending) when I got there."
While Mooney has been a watchdog for federal spending, he has also helped steer more federal funding to West Virginia and the 2nd Congressional District for various projects, including $356,000 for Berkeley County Schools for opioid overdose prevention, $125,000 for the Putnam Wellness Coalition, and more than $200,000 for USDA programs in Morgan, Hardy, Hampshire, Kanawha and Clay counties.
Mooney also introduced H.R. 4896, Advancing Infrastructure Development in Appalachia Act, in November, with 1st District Rep. David McKinley and 3rd District Rep. Carol Miller, both Republicans, as co-sponsors. Capito introduced the Senate version.
The bill would require states with unused funding from the Appalachian Regional Commission to return that money for use in infrastructure projects, such as Corridor H. Those states would then receive unrestricted Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act grant funds.
"It's something like nearly $900 million lying around in Appalachian regional development funding," Mooney said. "It's a win-win for everybody. Every state is going to get money and we'll get the funds. There's no downside."
On the opioid front, Mooney takes credit for ending sanctions against doctors who refuse to prescribe certain addictive pain medications when requested by patients. Under the Affordable Care Act, doctors could see their federal reimbursements delayed if they declined to write the prescription for the pain medication. A bill introduced by Mooney would have done away with that, but the Department of Health and Human Services changed the policy making it mirror Mooney's legislation.
"Doctors felt pressured to give drugs. Literally it was a perverse incentive. They would be penalized for not writing prescription drugs," Mooney said.
Mooney continues to work with West Virginia's congressional delegation to secure federal funding for drug abuse prevention, treatment and long-term recovery. Mooney gathers feedback from constituents from tele-town hall meetings. His staff also work with Recovery Point to place interns in his state offices.
With three terms in, Mooney is seeking a fourth term. He's being challenged in the Republican Party primary by Morgan County doctor Matt Hahn. Cathy Kunkel, an environmental activist, is challenging Mooney as a Democratic candidate. Mooney is used to being challenged, but he believes the people of the district will once again put their trust in him.
"I owe it to the people who put me in this job to defend their interests through the appropriations process, through the funding process. I'm going to continue to fight for that," Mooney said. "I'm proud of my voting record and I just asked to be judged on that."
(Adams can be contacted at sadams@newsandsentinel.com)