Upcoming Events

Wednesday, July 12

Senator Manchin will Skype with 4-H campers.

Monday, July 17

Manchin Mobile Monday - Senator Manchin's Regional Coordinator, Mary Jo Brown, will be available to assist constituents at the Hampshire County Development Office in Taggart Hall, 91 South High Street, in Romney from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

To invite the senator to your event, click here.

Manchin's Mountain Message

Fighting Drug Abuse

This week, I applauded the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) decision to strengthen training and prescribing practices for immediate release opioids by adding them to the FDA’s Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS). I have fought for years to convince the FDA to recognize the dangers of opioid medications and take steps to reduce the risk to patients. This is a significant step because approximately 90 percent of the 200 million annual opioid prescriptions written are for immediate release opioids.

One key to effectively ending the opioid epidemic is to change the way we prescribe opioids and that begins with our doctors, pharmacists and nurses. I strongly support mandatory prescriber education, and I am grateful that the FDA will finally begin taking steps to strengthen prescriber education for immediate release opioids. This is a necessary step to start dramatically reversing the opioid crisis, but I hope that FDA will take the next step and make this education mandatory. As we know now, the risks associated with prescription opioids are high and prescriber education will enable prescribers to prescribe these powerful opiates correctly and ensure that their patients know the risks. Although this is a good first step, I believe the FDA must go further in order for us to effectively end the opioid epidemic.

Immediate release (IR) opioids, like Vicodin and Percocet, will now be subject to the Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS), which includes prescriber education. It also expands the scope of prescriber education and extends it to nurses and pharmacists. At a meeting in May, the Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee and the Anesthetic and Analgesic Drug Products Advisory Committee voted unanimously to modify the REMS, including extending it to IR opioids and making the prescriber education mandatory.

To review a timeline of Senator Manchin’s efforts in the Senate to combat prescription drug abuse, please click here.

On the Road

Third Annual Ride For Fallen Service Heroes

July 8, 2017

I sincerely appreciate the Gold Star Families, Harley-Davidson of WV, the WV National Guard, WV Vietnam Veterans of America, the Capitol City WV Chapter #5439 Harley Owners Group, Gold Star Families, iHeart Radio, the Hershel Woody Williams Medal of Honor Foundation, and all of our supporters for making this year's ride the biggest and most successful yet with more than 225 riders.

Medal of Honor Recipient Woody Williams was among the riders.

Hundreds of flag-waving spectators lined the streets of Ripley to greet the riders.

The third annual ride was the largest and most successful motorcycle ride to date.

This year's ride stretched from South Charleston to Millwood and back to Charleston for a community picnic at the WV National Guard.

Rick Perry Visits WV

July 6, 2017

Senator Manchin and Secretary of Energy Rick Perry toured the Longview Power Plant in Maidesville and the National Energy Technology Laboratory in Morgantown.

Senator Manchin hopes Secretary Perry will work with us to help seize upon our state’s energy opportunities, whether it be through pushing advanced coal technologies or cultivating innovative infrastructure systems for natural gas and natural gas liquids.

Alderson 4th of July Parade

July 4, 2017

Senator Manchin participated in the Alderson 4th of July Parade.

Many thanks to the parade organizers, volunteers and members of the community who came out to celebrate Independence Day.

West Virginia Spotlight

West Virginia GEAR UP

Last month, West Virginia GEAR UP – a federally-funded program that prepares students in high-need counties for education or training beyond high school – hosted a four-day, three-night summer academy on the campus of Concord University. Approximately 200 high school sophomores attended the academy, experiencing life on a college campus, attending classes based on their chosen major, and honing their leadership skills. West Virginia GEAR UP is managed by the state’s Higher Education Policy Commission, Community and Technical College System, Department of Education, and Department of Education and the Arts. For more information, visit www.wvgearup.org.

Do you have a nomination for a Spotlight Feature? Click here to inform my office.

Key Federal Resources

When West Virginians compete, they win.

Below are a few grants that are currently available. I encourage West Virginia communities to apply for these federal funding opportunities, and will be happy to provide a letter of support for eligible applications. For further information, please contact my Martinsburg office at 304-264-4626 or click here to email me.

Infrastructure for Rebuilding America (INFRA). The INFRA program will make approximately $1.5 billion available to projects that are in line with the Administration’s principles to help rebuild America’s crumbling infrastructure, which is a top pr. INFRA improves an existing grant program established in the FAST Act of 2015 and utilizes updated criteria to evaluate projects that align national and regional economic vitality and leverage more non-federal funding. The new program will grow the impact of projects by leveraging more capital and allowing innovation in the project delivery and permitting process. INFRA will also target performance and accountability in project execution. More information can be found by clicking here.

2017 Assistance to Coal Communities (ACC 2017) initiative.The $30 million in ACC 2017 funds available for application are targeted to directly assist communities and regions severely impacted by the declining use of coal through activities and programs that support economic diversification, job creation, capital investment, workforce development and re-employment opportunities. More information can be found by clicking here.

U.S. Department of Homeland Security Federal Emergency Management Agency Fiscal Year (FY) 2017 Continuing Training Grants Program. The Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2017 (P.L. 115-31) provided $26,000,000 to the Homeland Security National Training Program (HSNTP), Continuing Training Grants (CTG) Program. Of that total, $18,000,000 will be allocated to the Naval Postgraduate School’s Center for Homeland Defense and Security (CHDS) for its executive education programs and accredited master’s degree program in homeland security. The remaining $8,000,000 will fund competitive grant awards (cooperative agreements). More information can be found by clicking here.

To learn more, call my office Toll Free at (855) 275-5737, email me,or find me on social media:

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