Charleston Leader

U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (Labor-HHS), has announced eight Congressionally Directed Spending (CDS) awards from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). These awards aim to enhance education and research programs, facility construction and renovations, and healthcare treatment resources in West Virginia.

The CDS awards were secured through requests made by Ranking Member Capito for Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24). They are intended to improve medical centers and treatment options, strengthen cybersecurity education, and expand educational opportunities for future healthcare workers in West Virginia.

“After partnering with organizations across our state and listening to their needs, I am excited to see these awards help West Virginia institutions meet critical goals to expand medical services offered by providers in our state in both scope and quantity. I am also particularly excited to see Marshall expanding its National Center of Excellence for Cyber Security in Critical Infrastructure, which I have championed,” said Ranking Member Capito. “These CDS awards will help deliver medical and educational outcomes in West Virginia and I am proud to have secured them. As Ranking Member of the Labor-HHS Appropriations Subcommittee, I will continue to partner with local leaders to identify their most pressing needs and work to build up our medical and educational infrastructure.”

The individual award details are as follows:

- $15 million HHS CDS award to Marshall University (Huntington, W.Va.) for cybersecurity training of critical infrastructure operators in West Virginia. This project will continue developing a cyber security lab started in 2023 aimed at researching cyber-attacks and mitigating their effects. The funding will allow the university to add more categories of critical infrastructure to its laboratories.

- $12.6 million HHS CDS award to West Virginia University (WVU) (Morgantown, W.Va.) for expanding and renovating existing WVU School of Dentistry clinical space. The upgrades aim at transforming dental education and practice while enabling the school to attract well-qualified faculty and students.

- $7.516 million HHS CDS award to Charleston Area Medical Center (CAMC) Greenbrier Medical Center Inc. (Ronceverte, W.Va.) for constructing a new facility housing an employed multispecialty physician practice on the CAMC Greenbrier Valley Medical Center campus.

- $5 million HHS CDS award to Minnie Hamilton Health Care Center (Grantsville, W.Va.) for necessary improvements including new clinical spaces for patients as well as remodeling emergency departments among other areas.

- $5 million HHS CDS award to Camden-on-Gauley Medical Center (Camden on Gauley, W.Va.) for constructing a new building that will house administrative offices along with optical, x-ray, physical therapy services.

- $3 million HHS CDS award to Summers County Commission in partnership with Appalachian Regional Healthcare Inc. (ARH) for renovating the emergency department at Summers County ARH Hospital in Hinton, W.Va.

- $1 million HHS CDS award to Potomac Valley Hospital (PVH) of W.Va., Inc. (Keyser, W.Va.) for creating a six-bed observation unit enhancing Emergency Department capacity by reducing premature discharges among other benefits.

- $300 thousand HHS CDS award each was granted respectively: one going towards Jefferson County Community Ministries Inc., Charles Town W.Va., establishing a homeless shelter; another going towards Wood County Parks & Recreation Commission replacing outdated Chiller/Air Conditioner ensuring continued success Harmony Ridge Recovery Centre operations.