In The News

Learning is a lifelong endeavor. We begin teaching our children about the world the day they are born. At a young age, we send them to school to learn the basics of reading, writing and counting; before we know it, they are thumbing through novels, composing essays and mastering algebra. After school, we watch them enter the workforce, find their own career paths and continue to learn about the world as they grow. If our children are learning all throughout their time in public schools, then our...Continue Reading

The Senate Budget Committee approved amending its version of the federal budget to set up a fund that would be used to help Defense Department facilities better withstand the impacts of climate change. Sen. Tim Kaine proposed the measure. “The Hampton Roads region in my state is home to the largest naval installation in the world, Naval Station Norfolk, as well as nearly 15 other installations," he told his fellow committee members. "In this defense-heavy region, sea level rise is occurrin...Continue Reading

A Senate committee Wednesday cleared a bill that would grant federal recognition to six Virginia tribes, taking the first step toward matching Virginia’s recognition of these tribes. The Thomasina E. Jordan Indian Tribes of Virginia Federal Recognition Act of 2015, introduced in February by Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, recognizes the Chickahominy, Eastern Chickahominy, Upper Mattaponi, Rappahannock, Monacan and Nansemond tribes of Virginia. The six tribes, which have around 3,000 membe...Continue Reading

Virginia senators Timothy M. Kaine and Mark R. Warner have joined those voicing unease after the bloody arrest of a University of Virginia student early Wednesday morning. Kaine tweeted late Wednesday that he was “troubled” by reports of the force used by Alcohol and Beverage Control agents when arresting Martese Johnson, a 20-year-old student who had been denied entrance to an Irish bar near campus. Warner likewise called the incident “disturbing.” Both Democrats praised...Continue Reading

Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine say Virginia seafood businesses got a break with a request filed by federal agencies for a court decision to hold off enforcing a ruling stopping  officials from processing visas for seasonal workers. The unopposed request by the Departments of Labor and Homeland Security would allow immigration officials to keep processing those visa applications through April 15. The labor and homeland security departments asked the court to stay its ruling after a bipar...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., is part of a bipartisan effort to pass a “good Samaritan” law for people administering a drug that can prevent an opioid overdose. The former Virginia governor, along with Sen. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., and Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., introduced the Opioid Overdose Reduction Act on Wednesday, according to a news release from the senators. The release states that it would exempt from civil liability individuals such as family members, fi...Continue Reading

Sen. Tim Kaine is a moderate Democrat who boycotted Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress. Nathan Guttman, the Forward’s Washington bureau chief, asks him about Iran and whether Democrats are drifting away from Israel. Nathan Guttman: Did you face any political cost for deciding not to attend Netanyahu’s speech? Senator Tim Kaine: I’m not dumb, I knew not going to the speech might make some folks mad with me — there would be a political price, but I felt so strong...Continue Reading

The Pentagon should consider other ways of shedding unnecessary infrastructure without resorting to the formal Base Realignment and Closure process, one senator told defense officials Wednesday. At a hearing Wednesday on the Defense Department's request for another BRAC round, members of the Senate Armed Services Committee made clear they are not keen to reprise that potentially rancorous process for a variety of reasons, including the considerable up-front costs required. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va.,...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON — The Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday questioned the nation’s top defense leaders on President Barack Obama’s proposal for new war powers to fight the Islamic State. Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, joined Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Ash Carter in testifying at a Foreign Relations Committee hearing about Obama’s proposal. The debate comes amid Democratic worries that it could lead to a full...Continue Reading

Back last summer, Sen. Tim Kaine sat in on a training session ‘way down in Southwest Virginia showing people how to administer naloxone, a drug that prevents overdoses. Earlier this year, he watched the Virginia General Assembly easily pass a bill urged by Attorney General Mark Herring that says when someone administers that drug in good faith to prevent an overdose, he or she shouldn’t be held liable for damages. So, he figured it might make sense for Congress to do its part to clea...Continue Reading

U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine was among the senators who introduced legislation Wednesday that seeks to protect people who are trained in administering an opioid overdose prevention drug from potential lawsuits or liability for attempting to save a life. Kaine, a Democrat from Virginia, visited Lebanon in August to attend a two-hour training session for administering naloxone in an overdose emergency. He said opioid abuse has become an “epidemic that poses significant economic and public health chal...Continue Reading

U.S. Sens. Timothy M. Kaine and Mark R. Warner, D-Va., on Wednesday sharply criticized a letter earlier this week signed by 47 Republican senators warning Iran’s leaders that an accord with President Barack Obama’s team could expire the day he leaves office. Kaine called the letter, posted Monday by freshman Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., “foolish, disrespectful and extremely counterproductive.” He said it attempted to “scuttle a negotiation” in the midst of an atte...Continue Reading

More than 400 people turned up fashionably at the Ritz-Carlton in Tysons Corner March 7 to honor a young girl from Loudoun who seized their hearts in her too-short 10 years. The second annual Smashing Walnuts Cracking the Cure Gala honoring the late Gabriella Miller of Leesburg gathered tears, laughter and $200,000 dedicated to finding a cure for childhood cancer, the culprit of Gabriella's death in October 2013. Current and former NFL players were in attendance – including the ogled-at al...Continue Reading

Almost a year and a half after 10-year-old childhood-cancer research advocate Gabriella Miller of Leesburg died of an inoperable brain tumor, hundreds of her friends, fans and supporters gathered Saturday at the Ritz Carlton in Tysons Corner to help honor her final request: finding a cure for pediatric cancer. Saturday’s second annual Smashing Walnuts Foundation “Cracking the Cure” Gala, a fundraiser hosted by the cancer research foundation that Gabriella created with her famil...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, both Virginia Democrats, introduced legislation today that would more than triple the size of Petersburg National Battlefield as the state and nation marks the 150th anniversary of the battles fought in the Siege of Petersburg — which marked the beginning of the end of the Civil War. Warner and Kaine’s legislation looks to protect some of the most endangered Civil War battlefields in the country by authorizing the National Park...Continue Reading

More than eight months after U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine and others began agitating for the Obama administration to seek congressional approval for military action against the Islamic State group, senior administration officials will make their case to a Senate panel Wednesday. Secretary of State John Kerry, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the joint chiefs, are set to appear before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday morning. After their testimon...Continue Reading

I support President Barack Obama's efforts to find a diplomatic path to end Iran's nuclear ambitions. When many in the United States and abroad criticized the start of the negotiations in November 2013, I pointed out that such diplomacy is in the best traditions of our country. All recognize the danger of an Iran with nuclear weapons and share the same goal - to guarantee Iran does not have the capacity to develop a bomb. If we can eliminate such a danger through diplomatic means, we should do s...Continue Reading

With more than $40 million in sales, Virginia is the third largest exporter of agricultural goods to Cuba - after Georgia and Louisiana. Some lawmakers hope to normalize trade relations - but some feel it’s best to maintain our distance.  After recently venturing down to Cuba, Virginia Democratic Senator Mark Warner describes how the embargo hurts Virginia farmers. “Well it’s really difficult because the Cubans have to pay all in cash up front. We have no financial arrange...Continue Reading

NORFOLK -- Senators Mark Warner (D-VA) and Time Kaine (D-VA) have signed onto a letter to the Government Accountability Office asking the agency to investigative the process currently used to approve roadside safety devices. In the letter, the senators say their request to the GAO--an independent agency commonly referred to as Congress' watchdog--was prompted by the ongoing controversy surrounding a once-popular guardrail that critics have called unsafe. The Trinity ET-Plus has come under fire a...Continue Reading

When tens of thousands of unaccompanied children began arriving at America’s Southern border last summer, I felt as if I knew them. Many of these kids were coming from northern Honduras where I worked as the director of a Jesuit-run technical school 35 years ago. Last month, I went back to Honduras to visit my school and reconnect with the missionaries and young people who have played such a major role in my life. I was a 21-year-old first-year student at Harvard Law School. I was racing t...Continue Reading