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West Virginia Treasurer Riley Moore said Monday he will resign later this week to take his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. (File Photo)

CHARLESTON — West Virginia Treasurer Riley Moore will resign Thursday from the office he has held for four years to take his place as the 2nd District representative to the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday when Congress returns from recess.

Treasurer-elect Larry Pack will be appointed to the office 12 days early.

Speaking by phone Monday morning, Moore said he will resign to allow Gov. Jim Justice to appoint Pack, the secretary of the Department of Revenue, to replace him. Pack was uncontested in the November general election and easily won a contested May Republican primary.

With Justice waiting to resign as governor and take his U.S. Senate seat until Jan. 13, Moore said this will allow a seamless transition for Moore with Pack being quickly appointed to take Moore’s place with no disruption in the many financial services offered by the treasurer’s office.

“Luckily, Gov. Jim Justice has decided to see out the rest of his term as governor of the State of West Virginia, which has actually really provided a lot of certainty in all of this. So, I want to thank him justice for doing that,” Moore said. “There would’ve been this gap in between which would’ve created some uncertainty in terms of appointment into the office, but now we have certainty.”

While Republicans will hold a 53-seat majority in the 100-member U.S. Senate beginning in January, Republicans in the House of Representatives will have 220 seats, a five-seat majority in the 435-seat body. With such a narrow majority, Moore said it was important for him to be sworn in as soon as Congress resumes Friday.

“The House is very, very tight in terms of our margins, so I have to be sworn in Jan. 3 to ensure that we’re electing a Republican Speaker (of the House),” Moore said. “Jan. 3, I will be in Washington, D.C., being sworn in and voting on the next speaker of the House and then off to the races.”

Moore is former Jefferson County Republican member of the House of Delegates and national security adviser to the Foreign Affairs Committee in the House of Representatives. He was elected as treasurer in 2020, defeating long-time Democratic incumbent John Perdue.

During his tenure as treasurer, Moore created the Jumpstart Savings Plan for those pursing vocational and trades work to save money tax-free for starting their careers. Moore helped manage the early years of the Hope Scholarship educational voucher program. He also cracked down on financial institutions that limit investments based on environmental, social and corporate governance factors that are contrary to the interests of West Virginia.

Moore praised the staff of the treasurer’s office for its work over the years in helping implement his vision for the office.

“They have been successful years and a lot of that is attributed to my staff,” Moore said. “I think at the end of the day, having great personnel makes great policy, and I had really great personnel…I was very blessed to have good folks around me in that office and help me execute my vision for the office and we ended up really elevating the state treasurer’s role.”

Moore will attend a House Republican leadership retreat this weekend. Moore was chosen as a freshman representative to the House’s Elected Leadership Committee. Moore also was chosen as the only incoming freshman member of the House Appropriations Committee. He will receive subcommittee assignments upon being sworn in.

With the U.S. paying more than $1 trillion a year to service the national debt, Moore said Congress needs to return to fiscal prudence, including returning to regular order and passing individual appropriations bills instead of rushed continuing resolutions.

“(The national debt) is literally a nuclear weapon hanging over our heads. We’re going to have to get on a path to fiscal responsibility,” Moore said. “I want to go back to regular order, I want all those (appropriations) bills to get on the House floor and get passed and while doing that, also fighting for the interest of the State of West Virginia in those bills.”

Moore also wants to quickly work in the coming days to advance an increase in the debt ceiling through the first four years of the second term of incoming President Donald Trump. And effort to include a debt ceiling extension in a continuing resolution failed earlier this month.

“If you think about this in terms of four years of destruction to this country in our economy presently, Trump is in essentially a bankruptcy and restructuring phase of this if you want to think about it in ÀÏ˾»úÖ±²¥ terms,” Moore said. “He’s going to need some liquidity and some credit to be able to maneuver to be able to fix these things. We have to be able to deliver that for President Trump for him to be successful so he doesn’t get bogged down that in that his first hundred days.”

Another early decision for Moore will be choosing a House Speaker for the next Congress. Moore said he supports the current House Speaker, Mike Johnson, R-La. Earlier Monday, Trump posted on social media his endorsement of Johnson remaining as House speaker.

“Trump is the leader of our party…and having that support is going to be critical for Mike Johnson retaking the gravel,” Moore said. “I like Mike Johnson. He’s a good man. He’s a man with a lot of faith, a very religious man, and he’s a good person and he is a conservative. We all just need to kind of pull this rope together to accomplish President Trump’s agenda.”

Moore succeeds Alex Mooney, who lost the May Republican primary for U.S. Senate to Justice.