In The News

WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama asked Congress for new powers to wage military operations against the Islamic State militant group, kicking off a renewed national debate over the scope of wartime powers that should be afforded to the commander-in-chief. American warplanes have pounded Islamic State targets for six months, but Mr. Obama on Wednesday said the proposed resolution authorizing military force is important not only for the U.S. strategy against the group, but also to the cohesi...Continue Reading

In a move that is sure to set off a new round of debate over how the U.S. should fight ISIS, the Obama administration has sent Congress a request for formal authorization to use military force against the extremist group. A copy of the new Authorization for the Use of Military Force, or AUMF, has been posted by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; it says ISIS "poses a grave threat to the people and territorial integrity of Iraq and Syria, regional stability, and the national security interes...Continue Reading

After months of prodding from Sen. Tim Kaine and others, President Obama this week finally presented Congress with the draft of a document calling for approval of U.S. action against the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL). The president asked for congressional authority for military action, but pledged not to engage in a lengthy ground war. Mr. Kaine argues that current U.S. involvement against the brutal terrorist group exceeds approved parameters. The question is important because it addresses the cruc...Continue Reading

Persistence pays off. As soon as it grew apparent that the Islamist State posed a clear and present danger to American interests, Sen. Tim Kaine said U.S. military intervention would require congressional authorization. He argued that President Barack Obama lacked the power to act on his own. The U.S. has been actively engaged against ISIS for many months; yesterday, the administration formally asked Congress to approve a new war. Kaine addressed war powers at an Oct. 21 Times-Dispatch Public Sq...Continue Reading

Six months after beginning airstrikes against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, President Obama asked Congress on Wednesday to approve U.S. military action. The proposed new Authorization for the Use of Military Force, or AUMF, against the Islamic State “and associated forces” includes no geographic limitations, in keeping with the administration’s description of the group as seeking expansion beyond Iraq and Syria, and the Islamic State’s own claim to head a “ca...Continue Reading

RICHMOND, Va. — Members of Virginia’s congressional delegation are reintroducing legislation to grant federal recognition to six Virginia Indian tribes. The legislation is being introduced Wednesday by Sen. Tim Kaine and Rep. Rob Wittman in their respective chambers. Others backing the legislation include Sen. Mark Warner and Reps. Bobby Scott, Gerry Connolly and Don Beyer. The legislation would grant federal recognition to the Chickahominy, the Eastern Chickahominy, the Upper Mattap...Continue Reading

In 2010, the Virginia Department of Corrections spent nearly $750 million housing fewer than than 30,000 prisoners. That comes out to about $25,000 per inmate. Multiply that by 50 states. The United States leads the world, by a large margin, in incarcerations, with well over 2 million people locked up. U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine has a better plan for spending taxpayers’ money. The former Virginia governor recently introduced, along with six other senators, a bill called Providing Resources Early ...Continue Reading

After hearing “good things” about Lewis and Clark Elementary School’s pre-kindergarten classrooms, Senator Tim Kaine stopped by for a visit on his way to work Monday morning. Kaine introduced legislation in the U.S. Senate last week designed to expand access to educational programs for children from birth to age 5. Titled the Providing Resources Early for Kids (PRE-K) Act, its goal would be to ensure more children are prepared to enter kindergarten. Caroline Superintendent Greg...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON -- As universities and colleges face heightened scrutiny over their handling of campus rape, two Democratic senators want high schoolers to be required to learn about sexual assault. The Teach Safe Relationships Act of 2015, introduced on Tuesday by Sens. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) and Tim Kaine (D-Va.), would expand health education in public secondary schools to include learning on "safe relationship behavior" aimed at preventing sexual assault, domestic violence and dating violence. ...Continue Reading

A talk with  U.Va. students back in December started Sen. Tim Kaine thinking after he heard them say they’d never really learned about dating violence and consent in relations between the sexes before going away to school. But members of U.Va’s One Less organization, a group that speaks up for survivors of rape and sexual assault, thought sessions in high school about those subjects would be a big help in preventing sexual assaults on campus. So Kaine teamed up with Sen. Claire ...Continue Reading

Public-high-school health-education classes would be required to include lessons about preventing sexual assaults and relationship violence under a bill introduced by Sens. Timothy M. Kaine (D-Va.) and Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) Tuesday morning. Kaine met with student leaders at the University of Virginia in December, following national attention being drawn to the issue of rape and relationship violence on campus. A now-discredited magazine article about a gang rape horrified a campus already imm...Continue Reading

U.S. Sen. Timothy M. Kaine plans to introduce legislation Tuesday would expand public school health education to teach middle and high school students about sexual assault prevention and dating and domestic violence. “With the alarming statistics on the prevalence of sexual assault on college campuses and in communities across the country, secondary schools should play a role in promoting safe relationship behavior and teaching students about sexual assault and dating violence,” Kain...Continue Reading

As a freshman senator, I came to Congress in 2013 as the new guy in town and was unsure of what to expect. Two years later, I’m proud of the work I’ve done for Virginia and eager to keep working across the aisle to tackle our nation’s challenges. In my first two years in office, Congress passed my legislation to improve the credentialing process for servicemembers, which will help ease their transition to civilian employment. My bill with Congressman Rob Wittman to protect Civi...Continue Reading

Politics and business intersected in a bigger-than-usual way last week when Sen. Tim Kaine (D) paid a visit to the Prince William Chamber of Commerce’s Northern Virginia Executive Forum. About 60 local business and political leaders were invited to the forum breakfast to hear Kaine speak on trade, infrastructure and politics. If Virginia is a battleground state, “Prince William is the battleground of the battleground,” Kaine said, highlighting the reason for his appearance. Kai...Continue Reading

In 1971, Ron Dellums did not seem to be a guy preparing to change the tide of American foreign policy. As a brand new member of the House from Oakland, California, Dellums had come to Washington as a bit of a rabble-rouser—Vice President Spiro Agnew had described him as “a dangerous radical” during his race for Congress. But when, as a freshman member of Congress, Dellums sat down with two camera company employees from the other side of the country, he began a quest that eventu...Continue Reading

Earlier this month, the 113th U.S. Congress — and my first two years in office — came to a close. As my team and I gear up for the start of the 114th Congress in 2015, I wanted to share some highlights of what we’ve been able to accomplish for Virginia over the past two years: Serving Virginians • Since I took office two years ago, my office has responded to nearly 400,000 pieces of correspondence and helped more than 3,000 Virginians tackle casework issues. This assistanc...Continue Reading

U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine said he is optimistic that Congress will pass a budget this year that reduces the effects of sequestration while containing the growth of the national debt. Kaine, a Democrat from Virginia, addressed about 50 local business leaders Thursday morning at the Prince William Chamber of Commerce’s Executive Forum, at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Gainesville. Kaine told the audience that when he was first appointed to the Senate Budget Committee, he wasn’t sure he...Continue Reading

U.S. Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner are getting down to business in the 114th Congress – and bipartisan business at that. Virginia's Democratic senators – now in the upper chamber's minority following the Republican thumping in last year's midterms – have been abuzz in the session's opening weeks, tacking their names to several GOP-backed proposals. First came legislation calling for biennial budgeting (S.150), something Kaine, Warner and other “regular order” a...Continue Reading

Both U.S. senators and all 11 representatives from Virginia signed a letter Wednesday expressing their support of the nation's 11 aircraft carrier fleet in advance of the release of the president's fiscal year 2016 budget proposal, expected in early February. Last year, the Navy talked of retiring the USS George Washington, which is due into Newport News Shipbuilding for its midlife overhaul and refueling in March 2017, if steep budget cuts returned in 2016. But in December, a spending bill incl...Continue Reading

Although the military is getting smaller, lawmakers representing Virginia say the nation's fleet of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers - and the massive industry required to support them - should be exempt from defense cuts. All 13 members of the state's congressional delegation, including Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, have signed a letter reaffirming their support for maintaining an 11-carrier fleet. It's being sent to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel today, more than a year after he warned that...Continue Reading