In The News

In a rare bipartisan move, members of Virginia's congressional delegation have joined forces to warn that legislation pending in Congress would jeopardize funding for the planned Foreign Affairs Security Training Center at Fort Pickett. The annual House State and Foreign Operations Appropriations bill includes language that the members believe was designed as a  protest against the selection of Fort Pickett over other possible sites and part of a broader attempt to derail the process. The U...Continue Reading

Tim Kaine, Virginia’s junior U.S. senator, has never been known to pull punches or sugarcoat his opinions. He’ll be polite and gentlemanly, because that’s who he is as a person, but on issues big and small, you’ll know in no uncertain terms where he stands. And one of the biggest issues Congress is doing its best to ignore these days is an Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) to fight ISIS in Syria and Iraq. Earlier this week, Kaine, a Democrat, teamed up with S...Continue Reading

Lawmakers took modest steps this week to revive a moribund congressional effort to authorize new powers for military operations against Islamic State militants. But Congress has yet to resolve partisan sticking points that have kept the effort stalled. A bipartisan pair of lawmakers on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee this week introduced a draft of a new resolution authorizing military force against the terrorist group often known as ISIL or ISIS. The panel’s chairman, Sen. Bob Cork...Continue Reading

Sens. Tim Kaine and Jeff Flake are introducing an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that pushes for a congressional say in the U.S. fight against the Islamic State. The amendment to the NDAA – which authorizes budget authority for the Defense Department and is currently being debated on the Senate floor – does not specify policy points about an Authorization for the Use of Military Force, Kaine said, but rather indicates that it’s the “sense of the Senat...Continue Reading

First we loaded spat on shell oysters at the pier at the Norfolk Yacht and Country Club. A convenient location since we were delivering some of the 300,000 spat into the oyster sanctuary in the nearby Lafayette River. Senator Tim Kaine volunteered on this day and so I was sort of doing a Joe's and Tim's job with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF). "I really care a lot about it. The CBF does such a great job working in tandem with these other agencies, both the Elizabeth River project and NOAA a...Continue Reading

Thumbs up to Democratic U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine and Republican state Sen. Tom Garrett for the participation in a friendly roast of each other to benefit an open government foundation in Virginia. The occasion Thursday night was the annual fundraiser of the Virginia Public Access Project (www.vpap.org) in Richmond. Garrett, whose Senate district includes part of Lynchburg and Amherst County, was the emcee of the evening’s festivities; Kaine, Virginia’s junior U.S. senator, was the keynote...Continue Reading

Sen. Tom Garrett, R-Buckingham, poked some fun at his colleagues Thursday during the Virginia Public Access Project's annual fundraiser: "Lighten Up, It's Just Politics." Garrett served as master of ceremonies for the roast-style event with U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine appearing as keynote speaker. The event — which raised money for the nonpartisan VPAP — included rolling out a blooper reel of the 2015 General Assembly session (listen for a mention of Sen. Steve Newman about 42 seconds in). ...Continue Reading

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