In The News

CAPITOL HILL— Legislation restricting America’s acceptance of refugees from Syria and Iraq failed in the Senate Wednesday after passionate debate about U.S. security needs and the nation’s long history as a destination for the oppressed. Senate Democrats banded together to block debate on a bill requiring the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Director of National Intelligence to certify that Syrian and Iraqi refugees posed no security risk before they could...Continue Reading

Virginia lawmakers are laying down their legislative priorities for the new year, but Republicans doubt they can get much done with a Democrat in the White House. President Obama is fresh off a quick campaign style jaunt across the nation where he tried to rally support for his agenda, which ranges from gun control to finding a cure for cancer. But Republicans, like Virginia Congressman Randy Forbes, say even where they agree with the president it's hard to find common ground.  “We&rs...Continue Reading

Later this year, the United States will mark the 75th anniversary of its entry into World War II. The way we waged that war and financed it stand in contrast to how we have conducted the war on terrorists for the past 14 years. When war erupted in Europe in 1939, most Americans had no desire to join the conflict. Still suffering from a decade-long depression and questioning the nation’s involvement in World War I, they endorsed President Franklin Roosevelt’s call for American neutral...Continue Reading

RICHMOND — Governor Terry McAuliffe along with U.S. Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine announced today NASA awarded a new multiyear contract to Orbital ATK, a Virginia based company, to deliver cargo and supplies to the International Space Station from spaceports, including the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) located at Wallops Island.“This is a big win for Virginia and space exploration,” said Governor McAuliffe, “As a result of collaboration with our federal part...Continue Reading

Virginia will be in the commercial space business for more years to come, its spaceport launching more resupply missions to the International Space Station at least through 2024 under a new set of contracts NASA unveiled Thursday. Dulles-based Orbital ATK was one of three space transportation companies each awarded a contract for at least six more space station missions beginning in late 2019. Orbital is already ferrying cargo from Wallops Island to the space station under a $1.9 billi...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Two Virginia senators are teaming up to help vets who did their duty decades ago and who are now paying the price. Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine are pushing the V.A. to expand its list of which Vietnam veterans who receive treatment and benefits related to exposure to Agent Orange. During the war, the United States sprayed an estimated 20 million gallons of chemical herbicides and defoliants collectively known as Agent Orange on Vietnam, Laos and Camb...Continue Reading

“Tonight, President Obama reflected on the significant progress our country has made over the past seven years and challenged us to reach higher,” said Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.). “After assuming office in the midst of a global fiscal collapse and two open-ended wars, President Obama has patiently worked to rebuild a more sustainable economy, inspire an innovative and cleaner energy future, advance the equality and health of all citizens and reinvigorated diplomacy as a major measu...Continue Reading

The father of a University of Virginia graduate who died of an opioid overdose will be at President Barack Obama’s final State of the Union address Tuesday night. Don Flattery, whose son Kevin overdosed on the painkiller OxyContin in 2014, will be the guest of Sen. Timothy M. Kaine, of Virginia, at Tuesday’s address. Kaine and Flattery are both hoping Obama will touch on the problem of opioid addiction during the speech. “Don is such a powerful advocate because his story shows...Continue Reading

About 300 people of various faith traditions continued in a centuries-long journey to understand one another and fight against prejudice Sunday at a forum in Richmond. The “Standing Together” gathering at Congregation Beth Ahabah included U.S. Sen. Timothy M. Kaine, D-Va., and was sponsored by the Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities with the support of the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy and the Virginia Muslim Coalition for Public Affairs. The five panelists were...Continue Reading

AN estimated 260,000 Filipino soldiers fought alongside American troops during World War II, helping us win one of our most important victories. In recognition of their bravery and sacrifice, they were promised citizenship by the United States government and to give them the same benefits that all of our veterans deserve. Despite this promise, Filipino World War II veterans were not naturalized until 1990 –  45 years after the war had ended. These Filipino soldiers also had to leave t...Continue Reading

As my colleagues and I prepare for another session of Congress this year, I have been thinking back on what I had hoped to accomplish for Virginians at beginning of 2015 — education reform, long-term transportation funding, a congressional role in shaping our country’s foreign policy and a budget that supported Virginia’s families and businesses were among my top priorities. I’m pleased that we were able to address these issues in a significant way in 2015, and I’ll...Continue Reading

What if we were to tell you there’s a way the state could generate $54 million in new revenue without raising taxes by even so much as a penny? What if we were to also tell you there’s a way to put $1 billion — that’s billion, with a “b” — into the pockets of hard-working private citizens to spend as they see fit? Again, without raising taxes a cent. This seemingly fantastical scheme is laid out in an otherwise rather prosaic report that the chancellor ...Continue Reading

"Prescription drug abuse, misuse and opiod/heroin overdose deaths represent a public health crisis across the U.S. and in the city of Martinsville and Henry County," said Dr. Jody Hershey, director of the West Piedmont Health District. Opiods are prescription painkillers, such as hydrocodone (for example, Vicodin); oxycodone (for example, OxyContin); oxymorphone (for example, Opana); methadone (especially when prescribed for pain), according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. Hershey made...Continue Reading

RICHMOND, Va. - Virginia conservationists are thanking Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner for crucial votes to protect wetlands. Real estate developers, mining companies and some farm groups have been pressing Congress to stop an Environmental Protection Agency decision defining the Waters of the U.S. rule. The decision clarifies that many American wetlands that had been in legal limbo do qualify for Clean Water Act protections. Skip Stiles, executive director with Wetlands Watch, says ther...Continue Reading

Should any president be able to send U.S. forces into combat abroad without the consent of Congress? Our Constitution says no. But this Congress refuses even to hold hearings on whether Barack Obama should be authorized to deploy large forces into Iraq and Syria to crush ISIS terrorist strongholds. Virginia’s senator, Tim Kaine, tried unsuccessfully over several years to generate public discussion and congressional hearings on the war-powers issue, but has stimulated no action. His frustra...Continue Reading

The omnibus spending bill Congress passed this month includes several explicit mentions of the military campaign against the Islamic State and a $58.7 billion budget line that will allow the Pentagon to continue fighting the terrorist group in Iraq and Syria with bombs and, increasingly, troops on the ground. That may be as close as Congress comes to authorizing war against the Islamic State for the foreseeable future. After a couple of halfhearted attempts, the White House and leaders in the Ho...Continue Reading

Last week, when U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine dropped in on the Head Start program at the Original Walker–Grant School in Fredericksburg, perhaps he granted himself a moment of reflection as he engaged the young children in their learning environment. Sixty years earlier, Virginia’s priority had been to resist public school desegregation. Now, he had the opportunity to not only partake of this setting of welcomed cultural diversity, but also to see the fruit of his labor as a longtime champion...Continue Reading

U.S. Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine applauded Senate passage of the Fiscal Year 2016 Omnibus Appropriations bill, which provides discretionary funding for the entire federal government for the next fiscal year. “The bipartisan budget deal helped pave the way for this legislation, which restores some of the most harmful sequester cuts and provides certainty to our military and to Virginia shipyards. It provides much-needed additional resources to improve cybersecurity across the federal...Continue Reading

Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Tuesday expressed support for considering an authorization for the use of military force (AUMF) against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), even though he said President Obama can wage his military campaign without it. "I do believe we have legal authorization under the 2001 [AUMF]. I do also believe that it would be a good sign for American foreign policy to have a new one updating our AUMF to declare our mission with respect to ISIS," he said at a breakfas...Continue Reading

It’s not every day that a U.S. senator visits your school to bring a present. But Head Start students and staff members at Fredericksburg’s Original Walker–Grant School enjoyed seeing Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine on Tuesday as he delivered news about a bill that will replace the federal No Child Left Behind legislation and help schools such as theirs. And the little ones gave Kaine gifts, too: ornaments to hang on his Christmas tree. Last week, President Barack Obama signed the Ev...Continue Reading