U.S. Rep. Alex Mooney, R-W.Va., speaks during an interview at The Parkersburg News and Sentinel on Thursday afternoon. (Photo by Evan Bevins)

PARKERSBURG — U.S. Rep. Alex Mooney, R-W.Va., said the reality of legislating in 2021 does not match the rhetoric about bipartisanship from President Joe Biden’s inauguration in January.

“This is my seventh year in office, and it’s by far the roughest I’ve seen,” he said.

In an interview at The Parkersburg News and Sentinel, Mooney said many bills are passing along party lines in the House, where Democrats have a majority. Among those was a budget proposal that did not include the Hyde Amendment, which has prohibited federal spending on abortion for more than four decades.

Mooney said the amendment has received bipartisan support over the years, including from Biden.

“We need to respect each other,” Mooney said, adding that he and many of his constituents consider abortion the taking of an innocent life. “I’m just not seeing a whole lot of respect for conservativism these days.”

Mooney said he’s friends with Democrats in the House and has worked with them on issues like opioid abuse, but the presence of metal detectors outside the House chambers makes an air of cooperation difficult “when the opening salvo is they think I want to kill them.”

The added security measure was installed after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, when a march by supporters of then-President Donald Trump evolved into a riot. Mooney said he’s following the activities of a select committee investigating the events of that day, but said the existing Oversight or Judiciary committees could have handled it.

Mooney noted that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected two of Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s appointments to the committee and said a previously proposed bipartisan commission would have had all of its staff hired by Democrats.

“The attack on Jan. 6 was terrible, never should have happened,” he said. “If there’s going to be a hearing, the American people deserve it to be fair.”

Another unusual aspect of life in the House these days, Mooney said, is the use of proxy voting. Implemented last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the practice allows members to designate a fellow Congressman to vote on their behalf and at their direction on a particular item.

Mooney said he believes it’s being used strategically by Democrats to ensure they have the votes to win close decisions when members might be absent. But voting on matters without interacting face to face prevents members from looking each other in the eyes and working out their differences, he said.

“You can’t do that when you’re sitting at home in California,” he said.

Some Republicans have voted by proxy as well, but at this point, Mooney said, he is not among them.

“I’m not ruling out doing it in the future, because I don’t think there should be a double standard” with Republicans not making key votes that Democrats do, he said. But if the GOP regains the majority in the House, “we’re going to get rid of that immediately,” Mooney said.

Mooney said he plans to run in 2022, but, due to a loss in population in the 2020 Census, West Virginia will have three incumbents and just two seats in the House. He and fellow Republican Reps. David McKinley and Carol Miller released a joint statement in April saying they all intended to seek re-election but might reconsider after new lines are drawn.

It’s possible Mooney could wind up in a district that includes Wood County, which is now represented by McKinley. He said that was unrelated to his visit to Parkersburg on Thursday, which came at the end of a four-day swing through the state.

In Parkersburg, Mooney toured Blennerhassett Island, something he said he’s been wanting to do for a while, and met with Matt Herridge, a local Burger King and Qdoba franchisee, to discuss issues facing small businesses.

“He’s very aware of our concerns right now, from a labor standpoint particularly,” said Herridge, who invited Mooney to the area after meeting him in Washington, D.C.

They crossed paths when Herridge was at the Capitol in his role as chairman of the government relations committee for Burger King’s National Franchisee Association.

Evan Bevins can be reached at ebevins@newsandsentinel.com.