In The News

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

ORANGE COUNTY, Va (WVIR) - U.S. Senator Tim Kaine visited the town of Orange Wednesday as part of his statewide tour focusing on improving Virginia's economy. Sen. Kaine met with county supervisors and members of the chamber of commerce before touring several businesses in town. Leaders suggested that the senator consider reforming railway shipping safety regulations, increase training for trade jobs, and improving high-speed internet access in the area. "You want your citizens at home to be abl...Continue Reading

Older, puncture-prone tankers hauling crude oil would be taxed to pay for new rail safety measures under a bill backed by Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine. The bill, announced Thursday on the anniversary of Lynchburg’s downtown derailment, attaches a fee to the controversial DOT-111 tankers used to move crude oil, ethanol and other flammable liquids across the country. The fee wouldn’t extend to newer CPC-1232 cars — the model that ruptured and caught fire in Lynchburg — ...Continue Reading

A year after a train carrying millions of gallons of crude oil derailed in downtown Lynchburg, U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine co-sponsored legislation today that would apply a fee to every old-model rail car transporting highly volatile crude from the Bakken shale fields in North Dakota. The proposed annual fee of $175 per rail car would raise money that would be used to pay the clean-up costs of rail accidents involving Class 3 flammable liquids, provide training grants for local emerg...Continue Reading

U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott will be in the thick of a Democratic push on the federal minimum wage, sponsoring legislation to increase the floor $12 over the next five years. Democrats plan to roll out the particulars this afternoon in a press conference with the U.S. secretary of labor and Democratic minority leaders from both chambers. Scott, D-Newport News, will sponsor the House version. The bill would bump the minimum wage up 75 cents next year, then another dollar a year to hit $12 by 2020. It's ...Continue Reading

There’s much to love about the Old Dominion: its history, its heritage, its natural beauty. But with growth and progress, those natural treasures of the commonwealth come under increased pressure from development. That’s why an initiative Gov. Terry McAuliffe launched last week is so important. “Virginia Treasures” is designed to protect, in perpetuity, ecologically sensitive sites, lands that harbor endangered or threatened species and locations such as boat landings and...Continue Reading

There's likely to be some political posturing over an Iran nuclear agreement as the Senate considers giving Congress review authority this week, but Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., is confident the measure won't be derailed. Kaine has been a leader pushing for congressional oversight, despite his longtime support of President Barack Obama. He's working closely with Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and ranking Democrat Ben Cardin of Maryland on how to respond to any amendme...Continue Reading

AFTER HOUSE Republican leaders announced last week that they would not act on President Obama’s request for an authorization of military force against the Islamic State, critics asked a fair question: How come legislators who insisted on congressional review of the pending nuclear accord with Iran see no need to vote on the military campaign now underway in Iraq and Syria? The obvious answer is that Republican leaders are eager to go on record opposing the deal with Tehran but have little ...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON — The deaths of two hostages in a drone strike in Pakistan shouldn't raise questions about the use of drones, says Sen. Tim Kaine, a leading voice on foreign policy on Capitol Hill — but he says they should raise questions about the mission the United States is pursuing in the region nearly 14 years after the 9/11 attacks. "A drone isn't any different than a bomb; it's not any different than other weapons that are used, where there is always a capacity for people to be kil...Continue Reading

A bipartisan group of senators called on President Obama Wednesday to immediately establish humanitarian safe zones for civilians in Syria. “With the brutal Syrian conflict entering its fifth year, the Syrian people are facing a humanitarian nightmare of unspeakable proportions,” said a letter to the president by Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.). “More than 200,000 Syrians have been killed in the past four years, m...Continue Reading

Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine as asking the  Senate Appropriations Committee to increase funding for maintaining the nation's harbors. They said additional funding could help expand the Port of Virginia’s capacity and bolster commerce along Virginia’s inland waterways. Warner and Kaine joined 18 others asking to increase the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers allocation from the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund. The Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund is paid for by user fees, but only a ...Continue Reading

The National Association of State Directors of Career Technical Education Consortium (NASDCTEc) announced April 17 that Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) is the winner of its Congressional Star of Education Award for his leadership, vision and dedication to Career Technical Education (CTE). “Senator Kaine is a vocal advocate, passionate spokesperson and true champion for Career Technical Education,” NASDCTEc Executive Director Kimberly Green said. “From the very beginning of his tenure in ...Continue Reading

STAUNTON — Kids should start learning about career options in technical fields before they get to high school, said U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, who lobbied for a vocational counseling provision included in federal legislation this week. Since joining the senate two years ago, Kaine, D-Va., has made education and employment in vocational areas one of his personal causes. The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee made early technical education counseling part of a bill to renew No ...Continue Reading

Getting legislation recognizing six of Virginia’s historic American Indian tribes through Congress has been a personal goal of U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine ever since his days as Virginia’s governor. Today, he may be closer than he’s ever been in the past. It’s been a long, hard slog for the Monacan Indian Nation and the Chickahominy, Eastern Chickahominy, Upper Mattaponi, Rappahannock and Nansemond tribes during the past decades in their quest to gain federal recognition. One hur...Continue Reading