In The News

Virginia Democrat Tim Kaine, 57, was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2012. He previously served as governor of Virginia and mayor of Richmond, where he and his wife live. They have three children. You worked with Jesuit missionaries for a year in Honduras during law school. Is that a good experience for a U.S. senator? Oh, it’s fantastic. It made a public servant out of me. It made me relatively fluent in Spanish, which is more and more helpful every day. And the Jesuits themselves kind of b...Continue Reading

MARION, Va.— On a day when many Americans paused to honor fallen veterans, U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine called for Congress to assume a greater role in shaping U.S. policy toward terrorists. Kaine, D-Va., spoke with the news media Monday while participating in Memorial Day activities in Marion and touring the new Wayne Henderson School of Appalachian Arts. The former Virginia governor serves on both the Senate’s Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees and discussed his vision for the ...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. (NEWSPLEX) -- An outdoor arboretum at Richmond's McGuire VA Medical Center may get a new name, honoring a woman who spent years advocating for prisoners of war. Phyllis Galanti died in April 2014, and now U.S. Senators Mark Warner, Tim Kaine and John McCain want to honor her. Warner said, "Phyllis Galanti's story is a tremendous testament to what is possible through unselfish service to others. It is our hope that permanently honoring Phyllis Galanti in this way will allow us to...Continue Reading

U.S. Senator Tim Kaine wants to include information about relationship behavior and dating violence in sex education courses. Kaine believes the timing is right, because Congress is scheduled to re-authorize a law that deals with K-12 public schools. He says he gained new appreciation for this issue after he met with a UVA group known as One Less. ###

WASHINGTON, D.C. (NEWSPLEX) -- At the U.S. Senate, 21 senators, including Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, are urging Congress to increase funding for technology that could prevent future train derailments. The National Transportation Safety Board has advocated for Positive Train Control technology for years. However, a report from the American Public Transportation Association in 2013 stated many publicly funded commuter railroads have been forced to choose between installing the technology or making...Continue Reading

The Revolutionary War and the Civil War ended in Virginia, which was involved, by the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon, in the beginning of today’s war with radical Islam. Now a senator from Virginia is determined that today’s war shall not continue indefinitely without the legitimacy conferred by congressional involvement congruent with the Constitution’s text and history. Tim Kaine, former Richmond mayor, former Virginia governor and former national chairman of the Democratic Part...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said Thursday that members of Congress haven't "earned the right to be critics" of President Barack Obama's strategy for defeating the Islamic State because they haven't taken the time to debate or vote on authorizing the war. "Congress has been a spectator,” Kaine said during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing. "There’s not been a declaration of war. There’s not been an Authorization for Use of Military Force. There's been no House c...Continue Reading

The Senate blueprint for a new defense budget cleared committee Thursday, and some provisions are good news for shipbuilding giant Huntington Ingalls Industries. It would fund the mid-life overhaul of aircraft carrier USS George Washington, due to arrive at Newport News Shipbuilding in 2017. It would also allow advance funding for the next scheduled overhaul, the USS John C. Stennis. The Senate Armed Services Committee approved the bill, known as the National Defense Authorization Act for 2016. ...Continue Reading

Did Speaker of the House John Boehner’s comment suggesting Congress not act on President Barack Obama’s reluctantly-offered request for an authorization for the use of military force make at least some of Virginia’s Congressional delegation bristle a bit? After all, Sen. Tim Kaine and Rep. Scott Rigell (whose Hampton-to-the Eastern Shore district has about the heaviest concentration of the Americans we send, and have sent, in harm’s way) have been pretty firm on the need ...Continue Reading

Virginia’s original inhabitants are seeking formal recognition from the federal government, but they face opposition from casino interests and other groups. The Pamunkey, whose most famous member was Pocahontas, and other Native American tribes in Virginia want federal recognition that would open the door for housing, education and other financial assistance. The casino giant MGM, which is building a gaming resort on the Maryland side of Washington, D.C.’s National Harbor, is urging ...Continue Reading

On May 7, I spoke on the Senate floor to recognize an anniversary. “Today marks the completion of nine months of America’s war against ISIL,” I told my colleagues. “Tomorrow, May 8, starts the 10th month of this war.” As I spoke, I reminded my fellow senators of all that our country has sacrificed since the United States began its military mission against ISIL. We have deployed thousands of troops to the region, including the Norfolk-based Roosevelt Carrier Strike G...Continue Reading

Virginia businesses and farmers rely upon key assets such as the Port of Virginia and Dulles International Airport to export goods and services totaling nearly $38 billion in 2012. More than 7,600 companies exported from Virginia locations in 2013, more than four-fifths from companies with fewer than 500 employees. In 2014, 11.7 million jobs in the United States were supported by trade, up by 18 percent since 2009. More than 90,000 jobs in Virginia are supported by goods exports. Meanwhile, work...Continue Reading

President Barack Obama’s fast-track trade bill is officially back on track in the Senate, after easily topping the 60-vote threshold needed to overcome a filibuster and open debate. The trade bill will face amendment votes next week and possibly continue beyond the Memorial Day recess. The 65-33 vote came after Senate Democrats filibustered the bill Tuesday, spurring a furious salvage operation from the president and Senate leaders. Before moving to the bill Thursday, the Senate passed two...Continue Reading

The House of Representative easily passed legislation today that gives Congress a chance to review any nuclear deal with Iran, as The Chicago Tribune reports here. It had already passed the Senate, and president Obama is expected to sign it. U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-VA, was pretty heavily involved in this bill, and put out this statement following the vote: “I’m thrilled that overwhelming bipartisan majorities in both houses of Congress have now committed to a constructive process for ...Continue Reading

No one doubts the so-called Islamic State, ISIS, ISIL or whatever it calls itself is a grave threat to the stability of the Middle East and, indirectly, to U.S. national security interests. From its gruesome beheadings of Western captives in the deserts of Syria to the mass decapitations of Coptic Christians on the beaches of Libya and wannabe terrorists in Garland, Texas, ISIS is about as scary as they come these days. Rising last year from the ashes of Saddam Hussein’s Iraq and the disas...Continue Reading

President Obama met with Senate Democrats on Tuesday afternoon in an attempt to break an impasse over his controversial trade agenda. The president huddled with 10 pro-trade Democrats shortly after members of his own party dealt him a stinging defeat in the Senate on one of his top agenda items: a trade promotion authority bill (TPA). "They had a constructive session and discussed the need to advance legislation to give the president the authority he needs to complete negotiations on the Trans-P...Continue Reading

Senate Democrats are in full revolt against the president and his trade agenda, jeopardizing a legacy-defining pact strengthening the economic ties of the United States and 11 countries around the Pacific Rim. Some senior Republicans already are pointing fingers at Democrats for opposing a preliminary vote simply to move on to the bill. When asked if he had confidence that the Senate would get the requisite 60 votes Tuesday to advance, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, a principal n...Continue Reading

Foreign policy and national security define the federal government’s ultimate obligations. Democrat Tim Kaine seems intent on establishing himself as an indispensable senator. Last week, he assailed his colleagues for not asserting congressional prerogatives regarding the waging of war against the Islamist State. His remark came as the Senate was approving legislation allowing Congress to review a nuclear deal with Iran. He conceded that the Senate had focused on Iran during recent weeks b...Continue Reading

WINCHESTER — Tabitha Diaz and her children will likely wake up in her van the morning of Mother’s Day. Making slightly more than minimum wage, she says she is unable to find affordable housing. But a federal bill co-sponsored by U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine , D-Va., could help Diaz and people in similar circumstances. Kaine  is one of 32 Democratic senators to join a bill sponsored by Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., called Raise the Wage Act, that would raise the federal minimum wage in incr...Continue Reading

Yesterday, the U.S. Senate, with a 98-1 vote, approved the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act, which gives Congress the chance to review a future nuclear deal between Iran and world powers. While it might be tempting to dismiss this overwhelmingly bipartisan vote as an accident or an aberration, we hope that it signals a reemergence of the Senate, and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC) in particular, as an indispensable player in the foreign-policy arena. Foreign Relations Committ...Continue Reading