April 6th, 2005 Senators Sarbanes and Mikulski of Maryland entered bill number 719. The purpose of the bill is “To extend Corridor O of the Appalachian Development Highway System from its current southern terminus at I-68 near Cumberland to Corridor H, which stretches from Weston, West Virginia, to Strasburg, Virginia.” Now, of the 35 plus miles of road the bill would have created most would have been in West Virginia, yet neither Senator Byrd nor Rockefeller co-sponsored the bill. The bill never made it out of the Senate Environment and Public Works committee. On March 28th, 2006 Congressman Alan Mollohan introduced the same bill into the house as 5031. Congressman Mollohan had no co-sponsor and the bill went no farther than the House Subcommittee on Highways, Transit and Pipelines.
I had the opportunity to speak with Congressman Mollohan’s representative at a US 50 meeting about bill 5031. My specific question was why it had no co-sponsors. The answer I got spoke volumes. Basically I was told the Congressman introduced it, and that should have been enough, if nobody saw it that wasn’t his fault.
I’m sorry but I think communication and cooperation are important. I also think Congressman Mollohan, Senators Sarbanes and Mikulski dropped the ball on this one by not communicating. I firmly believe that the Maryland Senators should have had a staffer pick up the phone and ask Senators Byrd and Rockefeller to co-sponsor the bill. Congressman Mollohan should have done the same with Congresswoman Capito and Congressman Bartlett. On the house side this would have given the bill bi-partisan support.
This is not about partisan politics; this is about doing what these people were elected to do. This is a bill to build a 4-lane road to replace the 2-lane US 220 from Moorefield, WV to Cumberland, MD. This is not a deep dividing issue such as gun control or gay marriage; it is about building a good road where one is sorely needed. I do not fault Byrd, Rockefeller, Capito or Bartlett for not picking up on these bills. With the hundreds of bills introduced every session it would be easy to miss. I do fault Sarbanes, Mikulski, and Mollohan as they had the opportunity to make a call to make the others aware.
Without communication on the easy stuff, how do you expect to solve the hard problems?
I agree 100% with you on this one. neighboring states need to do more in the way of communication. Take a look how long it took Maryland and Virginia to agree on the Woodrow Wilson bridge. Just think how much time this would cut off of most peoples drives instead of hopping on the turnpike they can just use the new route to Pittsburgh and other points north and west.
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