By Stephen Smoot
“It’s a really special moment when you’re standing there in the House Chamber. They ask you to take the oath of office and you look around. What an important job you’ve been asked to fill. It’s really tremendous, really inspiring. It makes you want to work even harder.”
Thus said Riley Moore, former member of the House of Delegates, until last week the Treasurer of West Virginia, now a sworn in member of the United States House of Representatives – part of the greatest deliberative body on the planet.
Moore is the third generation of his family committed to elective public service. His grandfather was the legendary Governor Arch Moore, his aunt the respected United States Senator Shelley Moore Capito.
And now he assumes the same office that both of those in his family who came before him served in before reaching their final roles in public service.
Moore’s initial priorities in office show him starting out as a sort of demolition man – working with others to break down policies of President Joe Biden’s administration that harm West Virginia specifically and much of the United States as a whole.
He first wishes to work on a reconciliation package that will remove certain federal priorities and policies implemented over the past four years. “What I want to see,” Moore explained, “is tax credits taken away from green energy and given to coal and natural gas – fields that are actually producing energy.”
Moore added that “I’m certainly focused on dismantling the Inflation Reduction Act.” The Heritage Foundation, a non profit policy research center in Washington DC, predicted in June of 2023 that the IRA would “likely increase the deficit and increase inflationary pressure, especially in the near term.” It added at the time that the law created an advantage for “green companies” that permitted “them to skirt the law’s new minimum tax.”
The Act’s reach extends past economics and taxes. In July of last year, Capito voiced concerns that the IRA provided $100 million to a radical left wing group called the NDN Collective. The Senator said at the time that their activities “include calls to defund the U.S. police and military. NDN Collective also expresses alignment with the slogan, ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,’ which refers to the elimination of Israel,” a prime goal of anti Semites.
Moore called eliminating the IRA “a critical focus for me” and “important for all of the people in West Virginia.”
He shared also that he has been “speaking with President Trump’s team to see how I can be helpful.” One issue that he has pledged to support the incoming president on is a robust tariff policy.
Moore explained that both he and Trump believe in free trade and agree that free trade must also be fair. Other countries have “closed their markets to our products,” Moore stated, but continue to sell their wares in the U. S. market without consequence for discrimination against American-made goods.
Red China remains America’s most significant international competitor, but policies such as using slave and school age child labor to manufacture goods give them significant advantages when trading with “the free world.” Moore urges that the United States rescind their permanent status as a “most favored nation” trading partner with the United States.
In 1998, the United States General Accounting Office published testimony by JayEtta Z. Hecker, Associate Director, International Relations and Trade Issues, National Security and International Affairs Division concerning attempts by President Bill Clinton to secure Red China a place in the World Trade Organization. This would also link the United States and that country through most favored nation trading status.
Hecker’s statement included “it will be important to evaluate China’s accession package, and the advantages and disadvantages of providing China permanent MFN. This would include determining if the accession package has met the administration’s objective of producing a ‘commercially meaningful’ agreement.”
In 2021, the Council For Foreign Relations reported that the Clinton Administration had believed that including Red China in the WTO and conferring most favored nation would spur reforms in that country, forcing a more open economy and society.
Instead, the CFR shared that “China has incurred criticism for carrying out certain market-distorting practices, and has been accused of cheating the system in various ways. Sometimes it violated the letter of the law, sometimes the spirit.”
It also said that once allowed into the WTO, “China wrote its own script.”
Additionally, against the spirit and letter of most favored nation, the CFR explained that “China promotes its exports while remaining largely closed to foreign goods, making it more difficult for companies to do business in China.”
At the same time, the Red Chinese economy expanded tremendously. The CFR states that “China’s economy is 11 times larger (in 2021) than it was in 2001.”
Moore’s solution to hold China accountable lies in removing the permanent most favored nation status in favor of one that requires reauthorization yearly to hold that country accountable for its trade malpractices.
Another priority lies in “fighting back against woke social movements,” particularly the drive to include transgender male to female individuals from participating in girls’ and women’s sports due to the inherent danger and the disadvantages faced by women competing against biological men.
Moore shared that he will work to “get us back to a sense of decency and normalcy in this country.”
He also shared his personal impressions that he has collected as he has made the transition from the Statehouse to the United States Capitol. Moore remarked on “how friendly people are on our side of the aisle” and noted that Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Republican representing Georgia’s 14th Congressional District, has helped considerably.
A Congressman’s work does not end in DC, however. Offices in the district help constituents and others living in the district with any issues that they might have with the federal government. That includes veteran needs from the Veterans’ Administration, issues with social security, and other problems.
“We’re going to be laser-focused on constituent service,” Moore said, encouraging those in his district to “reach out if you need anything.”
Moore has assumed the seat vacated by Alex Mooney when he ran for United States Senate after 10 years in office. He said of the former Congressman elected in 2014 that “Alex represented us very well” and was “very conservative” with a “stellar voting record.” Moore said “I thank him for his service and his support.”
With a career path that started with welding and working with a coal operation through foreign affairs and elected office, Moore brings broad experience along with a family tradition of public service into his new role.
