Riley Moore, who was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, is shown in the West Virginia Judiciary on March 8, 2023. (Will Price | West Virginia Legislative Photography)
Complicated things — like how the federal government distributes $6 billion plus in spending, funding and allocations — over time develop into axioms so everyone involved can have a soundbite to explain the unexplainable.
“Follow the money” is a universal saying for investigating truth that, when applied to government, leads to the appropriators: the elected representatives on the respected committees of the same names in the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate. Which leads to one of the best axioms in all of government, “there are three political parties: the Democrats, the Republicans, and the appropriators.”
The designation beyond just party affiliation is for good reason. By virtue of having their hands directly on the government money faucets, appropriators are some of the most influential and important members of our representative democracy. Trending on social media and doing media hits is fine enough for attention, but for the truly savvy and ambitious member of the legislative branch the real power always is, has been and ever will be the ability to point the federal funding firehose at whatever political hotspot nationally or back home that is needed. Money is power, and being an appropriator puts one in charge of the biggest money pile in all the land. Being an appropriator is a much sought, usually fought over, often leveraged-into sort of position.
So it is notable that the newly elected member from West Virginia’s 2nd district Riley Moore was appointed to the coveted House Appropriation Committee for the incoming 119th Congress. While not unheard of for a freshman member of Congress to get on the committee of 61 out of a Congress of 435 individuals, the coveted assignment shows someone who enters the south wing of the U.S. Capitol with some considerable traction.
West Virginia will now have a brace of appropriators in Washington, with Moore’s aunt, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, sitting on the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee. Like her nephew in the house, Capito went straight to appropriations when she first reached the U.S. Senate a decade ago.
While both are Republicans, and open supporters of President-elect Donald Trump while representing a heavily pro-Trump state, there are some notable differences rhetorically. Fitting of the traditional differences in senators and house members, Moore is comfortable talking about going to Washington as part of “fighting back this woke left culture that’s out there” while Capito usually keeps her verbiage a level or two above the current buzzwords of the day. There are also probably some generational differences there in approach, even while there is little if any disagreement on key issues between them. Anyone looking for Manchin-like levels of intraparty rebellion for legislative horse trading will be disappointed.
Rhetoric and politics will always be intertwined, but as appropriators the old axioms of how Washington, D.C. works will be applicable to how the related half of West Virginia’s federal representatives are really doing their jobs. Whatever is said at the microphones, in the gaggles, in news releases, on social media, appropriators’ intentions are easy to discern using that universal rule of investigating truth: follow the money.
A freshman congressman will not have the pull that the fourth most powerful Republican in the incoming U.S. Senate majority has, but Rep.-elect Moore is entering Congress already seated at the big funding table. Together though, West Virginia should be well represented when it comes time to hand out funding.
The secret sauce to politics in general, and especially when West Virginia elects someone to federal office in the modern era, is to rhetorically rage at Washington, D.C. and shake one’s fist at “they” and “them” of the government while getting deep enough into that government to stick the other hand as deep into Uncle Sam’s pocket as possible. The late Robert C. Byrd was a master of the tactic and has his name on dozens of those funded things scattered across the state. Retiring U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin learned it, with the added spin of being publicly contrarian to necessitate legislative placation. We aren’t sure what, if anything, Sen.-elect Jim Justice will be doing committee-wise. Rep. Carol Miller sits on the influential House Ways and Means committee, among others.
Capito has spent a decade working her way up the committee assignment and power structure ladder to be in a position to do the same. She has quietly become one of the key members of the GOP Senate, and with an incoming majority will be a major player for the legislative fights to come. Moore will now get a chance to see how he funnels money back home, based on how well he masters the politics inside the politics of congressional committees. Just getting onto that committee shows influence, but wielding his position in ways his constituents will see, and feel is now up to him and how he performs.
West Virginia’s electorate is one of the reddest in America, a 180-degree political turn in the last 25 years. While the Republican Party dominates all levels of state government, West Virginia now has two elected officials designated in the most powerful political grouping funding-wise in America. In Washington, the old axiom goes, there are three political parties: the Democrats, the Republicans and the appropriators. Pay close attention to what Capito and Moore do going forward as members of the vaulted appropriator class, and follow the money that comes from their decisions and votes. And judge accordingly.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.