In The News

The $1.1 trillion spending bill that just cleared Congress includes millions of dollars toward advanced aircraft, a cleaner Chesapeake Bay, stiffer standards for oil tank cars and repairs to the state's spaceport damaged by a rocket explosion in October. In fact, aeronautics and environmental efforts in Hampton Roads and the Eastern Shore are looking at tens of millions of dollars under the compromise fiscal year 2015 plan that funds the federal government through next September. The bill now mo...Continue Reading

After a fluid week of budget negotiations and bipartisan hostility in Washington, childhood cancer research advocates have reason to smile following the Senate's passage late Saturday of a $1.1 trillion spending bill that will keep most of the federal government funded through next summer. The Gabriella Miller Kids First Research Act, named after a 10-year-old childhood cancer advocate from Loudoun County who died following a vicious fight against cancer in her brain, will be funded through the ...Continue Reading

Virginia Democratic Senator Tim Kaine is glad the Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted to authorize the war against the Islamic State but says now the full Senate needs to act. The US military has dropped more than one thousand bombs or missiles in its campaign against ISIS, but Congress has yet to weigh in. Kaine's been pushing the administration to come to Congress for permission to conduct its air campaign and last week he helped the Foreign Relations Committee pass a military authorizati...Continue Reading

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) says it does not look as though the full Senate will not vote on a measure authorizing the use of military force against Islamic militants before lawmakers adjourn this week. “It looks very unlikely that there will be an opportunity to get a floor vote,” Kaine told The Hill. The Virginia lawmaker has been highly critical of his colleagues for not voting on an Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) as the Obama administration leads a international campai...Continue Reading

AMONG THE business that Congress will leave unfinished this month is legal authorization of the war against the Islamic State. Though the war has been underway for five months, President Obama has said he would welcome legislation, and congressional leaders have denounced the president’s unilateral actions in other spheres, neither the White House nor Congress has made a passage of an Authorization for Use of Military Force a priority. That puts the ongoing military operations on shaky leg...Continue Reading

With Elizabeth Warren following the Ted Cruz model last week, imploring the House faithful to defy their president even at risk of a government shutdown, you had to wonder: Is the Democratic Party heading for a schism that could rival the tea party-establishment battles on the Republican side? Warren has established herself as a leader of an anti-Wall Street, economic-populist left. Her side of the party is suspicious of international trade, big business and the economists and financiers who def...Continue Reading

The launch pad at Virginia's spaceport on Wallops Island that was damaged by a rocket explosion in October could get $20 million to fully fund needed repairs under a provision included in the proposed $1.1 trillion federal spending bill for fiscal year 2015. Democratic senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine announced Thursday they'd sought the spending provision in an effort to help the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, known as MARS, "rebound" from that catastrophic launch failure. MARS is located a...Continue Reading

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee sent a strong message about the Constitution and the fight against the Islamic State Thursday, joining Sen. Tim Kaine's five-month-long campaign to seek congressional authorization for putting troops in harm's way. The committee voted 10-8 to authorize the use of military force against the Islamic State forces that have seized large portions of Iraq and Syria, terrorizing opponents and killing those who don't share their religious beliefs. "I just feel it ...Continue Reading

The authorization by a Senate panel Thursday for use of military force against the Islamic State marks a victory for Sen. Timothy M. Kaine, D-Va., who has pushed for a vote on war powers since President Barack Obama launched airstrikes against the militant group in August. “It’s necessary for us to do our jobs after four-plus months of basically unilateral war,” Kaine told the members of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations before the vote. There are “differences of...Continue Reading

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted Thursday to ­authorize U.S. military action against the Islamic State “and associated forces” for three years, while prohibiting the introduction of ground combat troops. The 10-to-8 vote was along party lines, with Republicans on the committee voting against the measure, mostly because they believed it limited the president’s actions too much and at least one, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), because it did not limit them enough. The aut...Continue Reading

Nearly five months and 1,100 airstrikes into the American-led war against the Islamic State, Congress has barely begun to fulfill its constitutional war-making responsibilities. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday belatedly opened debate on legislation that would authorize the use of force, but there’s no expectation that the work can be finished before the session ends on Thursday. That means it will be put off at least until January, when the new Congress convenes. The dela...Continue Reading

America is at war. Four months since the president commenced military action in Iraq against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the mission has involved more than 1,100 coalition airstrikes in Iraq and Syria, the vast majority carried out by American service members. Three American troops have died. There are already 1,400 U.S. ground troops deployed in Iraq to train and advise regional forces, and the president has authorized an additional 1,500 U.S. troops to serve in a train and...Continue Reading

For U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, rising oceans and other climate issues are not just about predictions of what might or might not happen tomorrow. “When you’re seeing it today, it’s a bit different,” he said. “And in Virginia we are seeing it today; we’re seeing the effects of sea level rise in Hampton Roads in a most dramatic way.” Kaine made this observation as keynote speaker at a Dec. 5 conference, “Adaptive Planning for Flooding and Coasta...Continue Reading

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said late Tuesday that a “conspiracy of silence” among his colleagues is allowing the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) to continue without congressional authorization. “I'm frustrated that we're now more than four months into war — that's what the administration calls it — 1,100 air strikes, 1,500 combat advisers there, another 1,500 coming, three deaths in Operation Inherent Resolve of American troops, over a billion d...Continue Reading

U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia knew enough about the work being done at AidData, the influential student-faculty global research initiative at William & Mary, that when he had the chance, he just had to see it for himself. That opportunity came on Dec. 5 when Kaine visited AidData, housed at the Institute for the Theory and Practice of International Relations (ITPIR), for a conversation with students, faculty and staff about research initiatives. Helping to organize the visit were William &...Continue Reading

Millions of children know the story of Pocahontas. They know that, thanks to the help of the Powhatan tribe, the first permanent English settlement in the Americas survived when others had failed. As Virginians, we know Indian tribes have played an integral role in the commonwealth and the country’s history from the very beginning. The Monacans, who call Amherst County home, have lived in Virginia for an astounding 10,000 years. Yet even today, the federal government has yet to recognize a...Continue Reading

Millions of children know the story of Pocahontas. They know that, thanks to the help of the Powhatan tribe, the first permanent English settlement in the Americas survived when others had failed. As Virginians, we know Indian tribes have played an integral role in the commonwealth and the country's history from the beginning. Yet even today, the federal government has yet to recognize any of Virginia's historic tribes. Many Virginia Indian tribes were situated here in 1607, when Jamestown was f...Continue Reading

Tim Kaine and other senators who for months have loudly opposed President Barack Obama's use of military forces against Islamic State terrorists without congressional approval are going to get their hearing next week. On Thursday, a day after Kaine scolded Obama - and Congress for failing to challenge the president - in a floor speech, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Robert Menendez called for a committee hearing Monday. It's expected to be followed days later by a vote on legislatio...Continue Reading

There are probably few things that Democrat Tim Kaine and Republican Rand Paul, junior U.S. senators from Virginia and Kentucky respectively, agree on politically, but when it comes to war, they’re on the same page. Kaine — a moderate, left-of-center former governor and early backer of Barack Obama in 2008 — and Paul — the isolationist, libertarian son of former U.S. Rep. and presidential candidate Ron Paul — are locked in a battle with the White House to force Pres...Continue Reading

Tim Kaine dropped by the office this week. He wasn’t campaigning for re-election. He didn’t have an agenda. He didn’t have a complaint. He didn’t ask for anything except a little time. He was in the neighborhood and just wanted to chat. So chat we did. We started with the Middleburg Film Festival. It was good to see you there. Then we moved to the issues that confront a senator from Virginia: the federal budget, sequestration, the economy of the commonwealth, the war on t...Continue Reading