WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. — More than nine months into the year, West Virginia’s two U.S. Senators provided the state’s business community an update on congressional actions, gridlock, and goals for the remainder of the year.

U.S. Sens. Shelley Moore Capito and Jim Justice spoke Thursday morning on the second day of the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce’s 89th Annual Meeting and Business Summit at Justice’s Greenbrier Resort.

Capito’s speech at the Business Summit marked her first time addressing the business community as the state’s senior senator, with former U.S. senator Joe Manchin declining to seek re-election last year. Capito is the fourth ranking member of the Senate Republican majority leadership and chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

Manchin was succeeded by Justice, the former two-term Republican governor of West Virginia. Capito and Justice both said working together has been easy.

“It’s hard for me to call him my junior senator,” said Capito, R-W.Va. “I still call him Governor Justice, but we’ve gotten along really, really well.”

“Shelly and Jim, I think that it should be that way forever,” said Justice, R-W.Va.. “We’ve been friends a long, long, long time.”

Senate Republicans have been working with President Donald Trump to get his nominees for various departments and agencies confirmed. But while previous presidents of both political parties have been able to get most of their nominees confirmed by voice vote or unanimous consent, including during Trump’s first term, all of Trump’s nominees during his second term have required up-or-down votes, slowing down the confirmations process.

“We can only confirm a maximum of about three people a day. And, you can imagine, there are 1,100 people in the queue waiting to be confirmed,” Capito said. “So, we’ve had this dysfunction. It’s been very frustrating. And some of our West Virginians are waiting in line for confirmation.”

Due to tight margins in the Senate, with Republicans only maintaining a slight majority, several of the major bills this year have resulted in late night vote-o-ramas, with dozens of amendments being offered to bills.

“I think one thing…that Jim didn’t know was going to happen was since we’ve been in, because of this situation, we’ve had to pull three all-nighters,” Capito said.

“When (U.S. Sen.) Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) came to my house in Lewisburg and tried to get me to run for U.S. Senate, there are things that he just conveniently left out,” Justice said. “The … thing he conveniently forgot when he was asking me about running for the Senate is a thing called vote-a-rama.”

Both praised the passage and signing of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act which, among other things, kept in place the 2017 Trump tax cuts which allows the average West Virginian to keep $1,423 of their tax dollars each year. The bill also benefits 5% of the state labor force by implementing taxes on tips. It eliminated taxes on overtime, cuts taxes on Social Security benefits, and will increase overall wages by approximately $2,800 to $5,000 per year.

“We made permanent a lot of the tax deductions that you all use in your small businesses, whether it’s interest or whether it’s deductibility for your capital expenses,” Capito said. “The biggest thing this bill does is prevent a $4 trillion raise in taxes on every single West Virginian. Every single West Virginian is going to have more money in their pocket because of the One Big Beautiful Bill.”

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act has received criticism from several quarters for introducing stricter oversight and eligibility requirements for Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. But Justice said the good in the bill far outweighs any of the concerns.

“There’s too much good about this bill to not absolutely all be together,” Justice said. “All of us can find stuff about this bill we don’t like. But really and truly, it’s our time right now. There’s so much good, and you are perpetuating the goodness. And you are the beneficiaries of the goodness in every way imaginable.”

Capito said she is turning her focus to infrastructure and the permitting reform needed to cut the red tape to get transportation and energy projects started. As chairwoman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, Capito said some permitting reform will likely be in the next federal transportation bill.

“One of the things that’s holding…the state up and others up for building is the permitting process. The regulatory morass of trying to build something in this country is just ridiculous. It’s overburdened. It’s timely. It’s costly,” Capito said.

“I’m working with the committee, in conjunction with the highway bill, to try to get permitting reformed, to try to have reasonable deadlines, to have it be agnostic as to what your project is,” Capito continued. “If you’re building a solar farm or if you’re building a natural gas pipeline or you’re doing a coal mine, if you can get the permit, you can go.”

Justice agreed, especially when it comes to electricity and grid infrastructure in order to provide the power needed for data centers and artificial intelligence.

“It’s energy, energy, energy. No matter what you say, no matter what you do, at the end of the day, it will all be about energy,” Justice said. “If we don’t get our act together and get our act together right this very minute…it’s an energy meltdown in this country. The grid won’t handle it.”

Both Capito and Manchin told Business Summit attendees that it was an honor to serve West Virginians.

“When I walk onto that floor of the United States Senate, I don’t think about all the trouble that we’re having or all the difficult decisions or how am I going to make this vote. I sit there and I say to myself, wow. I am one of 100 people that have been tasked to make decisions for the most powerful country in the world, for people that I love,” Capito said. “How could I not be optimistic about the future? I’m optimistic about the future.”

“Being a senator in the United States of America is an honor beyond belief,” Justice said. “I love this state beyond good sense. I’ll do anything and everything I can for you, any time, any hour.”