Sen. Manchin holds end of year press conference

PARKERSBURG, W.Va. (WTAP) -

Senator Joe Manchin (D) West Virginia held a virtual end of the year press conference on Wednesday discussing a wide range of topics including the final government funding package, Title 42, the Electoral Count Act reform, and more.

Senator Manchin started out the conference saying they just passed the The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which he says funds the military that defends our country everyday.

In a press release, Senator Manchin refers to this as bipartisan legislation critical to combatting enemies seen and unseen. In that same release, he said the funding included W.Va. priorities such as training center support, intelligence gathering at Green Bank and cybersecurity.

He then went into discussing the Omnibus bill. The $1.7 trillion Omnibus appropriations bill is for the fiscal year 2023.

Sen Manchin discusses the Omnibus bill in End of Year press conference

Senator Manchin listed several West Virginia spending requests that were secured for sites across the state including Weirton Steel Site, Augustine Trail in Charles town, and WVU Hospitals.

The next topic discussed was the reform and modernization of the Electoral Count Act 1887. Senator Manchin referred to this as one of the most important things that we can do to make sure something like January 6th never happens again.

Sen. Manchin believes it will pass. He detailed out the four main things that will be changed:

Sen Manchin discusses Electoral Count Act 1997

Sen. Machin went on to talk about the “crisis at the border”. He said Title 42, or something of that equivalent has to change immediately. The Supreme Court has put a stay on the lifting of Title 42, but he says there needs to be a more permanent fix. He believes we will see something from the administration soon.

He briefly discussed Zelenskyy coming to the United States and says he believes we must do everything we can to make sure that Vladimir Putin does not win, and Ukraine does not fall to Russia.

WTAP will have more on that discussion, the Coalfields Expressway, and more in the coming days.

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