Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Robert C. Byrd letter of August meeting in Washington

United States Senate
Committee on Appropriations
Washington, DC 20510-6025

August 21, 2007

The Honorable and Mrs. Wayne C. Spiggle
Commissioner
Mineral County Commission
150 Armstrong Street
Keyser, WV 26726

Dear Commissioner and Mrs. Spiggle:

Thank you for taking the time to visit my office when you were in Washington, D.C., recently. I regret that my schedule precluded my joining you for your meeting with a member of my staff, but I have since been advised of your discussion about the need to upgrade U.S. Routes 50 and 220.

I recognize the importance of this project to you, and whenever possible, I want to be of assistance. However, the failure of the 109th Congress to pas the Fiscal Year (FY) 2007 appropriations legislation in a timely manner has resulted in the suspension of earmarks for the duration of FY 2007. That, in addition to the Administration's requests for steep reductions in domestic investments, in order to help pay for its multi-trillion-dollar tax cuts, will to as significant extent, make in increasingly difficult to fund such projects during FY 2008.

While I cannot be encouraging about the ability of the Congress to adequately fund many priority projects the year, I will keep your views in mind as the appropriations process continues.

In addition, thank you for the nice gifts! the picture of the ATK campus will certainly add to the decor of my Martinsburg office.

With kind regards, I am
Sincerely yours,
Robert C. Byrd

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