West Virginia governor on food stamps and Rural Health Transformation Program

(CBS, KYMA) - Gov. Patrick Morrisey (R-WV) spoke with Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation Sunday about the government shutdown and food stamps.

Before the interview started, Gov. Morrisey talked about a mining accident in the state of West Virginia that happened over the weekend.

"We have teams down looking for a missing miner. I just want to say that our hearts and prayers go out to the family of that miner. We're doing everything we can to locate that person," the governor shared.

When asked if he's able to help those in need right now amid the shutdown and how rural his state is, Morrisey said:

"When it comes to the government shutdown, we're doing everything we can to help those in need. At the very beginning, I started standing up for the federal workers, and we announced that, to address some of the concerns with food, we were going to send significant dollars to the food banks. By tomorrow, that'll be up to $13 million. I've activated the National Guard and we're doing things to make sure that no one in West Virginia goes hungry. Our people are hurting right now, and I'm doing everything I can to solve the problems while Washington bickers. But I do want to be clear, this shutdown could come to an end right away. It's up to Chuck Schumer or just having six more Democrats step across the line. There's been a clean CR on the table available for some time. People should take advantage of that, and let's get the government reopened and then we can go about the business of fixing the many other problems facing our country."

On the topic of food stamps, Brennan brought up her previous interview with Gov. Wes Moore who said he was told his state would be essentially punished for fronting the money, prompting her to ask Morrisey if the federal government also gave him a similar message, to which he said:

"No, well, first of all, I want to emphasize the Trump administration has been a great partner to work with throughout the past year in terms of the economic progress that we're making here in West Virginia. But also we've reached out, I was the first person to reach out to the federal government, so we had our national parks reopened. And now we're working by activating the guard and putting resources at the food banks. We're actually making a difference to keep people from getting hungry. So we've been in very close contact with the Trump administration, and they've been very cooperative. Look, I think they know, and everyone's frustrated, that you're six votes short. These Democrats are saying no to reopening the government. It's a Schumer shutdown. I think President Trump is bending over backwards to be helpful, and I'm excited about the things he's doing in terms of how he's handling this and the broader economic issues at large."

During the interview, Brennan and Morrisey talked about the Rural Health Transformation Program Congress set up, where his state could receive $100 million a year for the next five years.

However, according to Brennan, the West Virginia Hospital Association says the hospitals are going to lose "more than a billion dollars per year because of this latest Big Beautiful Bill Republicans passed."

This led Brennan to ask how Morrisey will make up that kind of shortfall, and he said:

"I think what President Trump and RFK and Dr. Oz are trying to do is common sense. If you subscribe to the adage a ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, what they're trying to do is invest the single largest amount of money in improving rural health. And in West Virginia that means everything because we're a very rural state. So the resources can go to invest in our people, to invest in our hospitals, our providers and the technology that actually can move the needle in terms of improving health care outcomes up front. Attacking obesity and COPD and substance use disorder So we're really excited about that, because if we apply the resources the right way, I don't think we're going to have the diminution of public expenditures at the back end."

To watch more of Brennan's interview with Morrisey, click here.