In The News

Every teacher at some point gets tested by their students. Someone will act up in class or do something because they think they can get away with it. How that teacher handles the situation most of the time sets the tone for the rest of the school year. In many ways, it’s the same with our country’s foreign policy. There comes a time when threatening speeches just aren’t enough, you need to take action. That’s why, with a few qualifiers, we support the legislation Virginia...Continue Reading

Tim Kaine won his seat in the Senate in 2012. It has taken him only two years to establish himself as one of the chamber’s most informed members regarding war powers. Kaine believes, rightly, that presidents must seek congressional authorization for military interventions. Although responses to direct attacks on American interests sometimes must be launched before Congress can act, presidents still must seek advice and consent. Kaine believes that President Barack Obama needs congressional...Continue Reading

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) introduced a proposal Wednesday authorizing President Obama to use military force against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) but barring ground troops except for rescue missions. Kaine, perhaps the most outspoken voice among Senate Democrats calling for Congress to authorize action, is introducing the bill one day after Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey raised the possibility that ground troops could be used to fight ISIS. The proposal from Kaine w...Continue Reading

Sen. Tim Kaine is introducing a limited war authorization against ISIS, even as Congress is set to jet out of town without an authorization vote before the elections. The Virginia Democrat, who has led the push for Congress to go on record, would limit the use of ground forces in the conflict to rescue missions and to go after high-value targets. The authority against ISIS, also known as ISIL or the Islamic State, would expire after a year. He also proposes to repeal the 2002 authorization to us...Continue Reading

Sen. Tim Kaine is giving voice to his longstanding concern that Presidents aren’t paying careful enough attention to the War Powers Act and what the Constitution says about the role of Congress when war looms, with legislation would specifically authorize the use of force against the Islamic State (aka ISIL or ISIS). As it happens, he's doing so on Constitution Day. Kaine said his intention is to be specific and to narrowly define that authorization, to focus on key objectives President Ob...Continue Reading

U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine has introduced a congressional resolution that would authorize the use of military force against the Islamic State, known as ISIS, but would prohibit using American ground troops. Kaine has been a vocal opponent of President Barack Obama’s view that he can launch offensive military strikes against the terrorist group without congressional approval. The Virginia senator said Congress must not ignore its responsibility under the Constitution to decide when the U.S. should...Continue Reading

Sen. Timothy M. Kaine, D-Va., introduced legislation Wednesday to authorize limited use of military force against the Islamic State, in response to President Barack Obama’s speech on U.S. strategy for dealing with the terror group. Islamic State poses a serious and imminent threat to stability in Iraq, Syria and regional neighbors, said Kaine, a member of the Armed Services Committee and chairman of the Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Near Eastern and South and Central Asian Affairs. &ld...Continue Reading

Sen. Tim Kaine’s (D-Va.) is set to unveil a proposal Wednesday to authorize military force in Iraq that would strictly limit the engagement of U.S. ground forces. The Associated Press reported Tuesday evening that the Virginia lawmaker, who is a member of both the Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees, seeks to repeal the 2002 authorization that two presidents have cited as their authority for military operations against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS or ISIL). Kaine's...Continue Reading

Virginia, Ohio, Wisconsin and Wyoming might have economic differences, but senators from these four states see a common problem that could choke off any recovery: a lack of workers in the skilled trades. In Virginia, the challenge is evident in shipbuilding and ship repair, where the average worker age is 55 and 18,000 will leave the industry by decade's end, according to one survey. In Ohio, the same story surfaces in manufacturing, where a tool-and-die maker called a legislative town hall to p...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON — THE current threat posed by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, will test not only the resolve and strategic judgment of America and its allies, but also our nation’s fidelity to a basic constitutional principle. Our Constitution reserves to Congress the power to declare war and designates our president as the commander in chief, but our recent history has been characterized by executive overreach and legislative abdication in the initiation of military action....Continue Reading

Officials from Newport News Shipbuilding will join Sen. Tim Kaine in Washington Tuesday morning to discuss the challenge of filling jobs in technical fields and the skilled trades. The panel discussion, which includes other leaders in government, education and business, will be live-streamed starting at 11 a.m. In a recent visit to the shipyard's Apprentice School, Kaine criticized government policies that favor the pursuit of college degrees at the expense of people seeking jobs that require a ...Continue Reading

Democratic Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia says the question of whether Congress needs to authorize President Barack Obama's declared war on Islamic State was settled by Thomas Jefferson when that president went after the Barbary pirates more than 200 years ago. Jefferson, a founding father, dispatched ships to the Barbary Coast of North Africa as a protection force in 1801 because Muslim pirates were seizing American merchant vessels. He then declared that he was "unauthorized by the Constitution...Continue Reading

RICHMOND, Va (WVIR) - The White House along with U.S. Senator Tim Kaine honored the 20th anniversary of the Americorps service program Friday. Kaine applauded the work of the volunteers, and spoke about the importance of putting others first during the annual Service and Volunteerism Conference in Richmond. Thousands across the nation took the pledge, at the same time, to continue helping others. "If you make your life about serving others, you'll always have something to do, and you'll always b...Continue Reading

When Rob Spilman thinks about the New College Institute, a cathedral comes to mind — and he’s not envisioning the state-of-the-art new building that NCI will dedicate today on the Baldwin Block. Spilman is thinking of NCI itself, the way it has evolved in the decade since local leaders began working to create it and the many ways he believes it can transform this community. “Someone once told me ... ‘Hey, when you’re involved in something like this (the creation of ...Continue Reading

The U.S. Constitution makes it clear: Only Congress can declare war on behalf of the American people. The president, of course, is the commander in chief of the military, with commanders reporting to the executive branch. But when it comes to committing the American people to war, only Congress — the people’s branch — can take that step. In the latter half of the 20th century, as conflicts morphed from country vs. country to regional hotspots and flare-ups and after the debacle...Continue Reading

• Rep. Frank Wolf (R-10 th) plans to introduce legislation authorizing the use of military force against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) as well as against al-Qaida, Boko Haran and similarly sinister groups. The Wolf bill also would call for close coordination among the U.S., NATO and regional allies. Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine is a keen scholar of war powers. He, too, favors congressional authorization. We stand with Wolf and Kaine. Presidential action authorized by Congress woul...Continue Reading

Eyeing middle school as prime territory for career exploration, U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine is pitching legislation to get young secondary students career technical education. The proposal comes at a time when Roanoke education leaders say career tech is booming and nearing capacity. The Middle School Technical Education Program Act, or Middle STEP, aims to connect middle schoolers to potential careers and the skills they’ll need. The legislation would create a pilot program for schools to partner...Continue Reading

On the heels of a recess swing through Virginia that focused on career and technical education, including a stop at the Apprentice School, Sen. Tim Kaine today introduced a bill to set up a pilot program for middle school technical education. The aim is give middle school students a chance to see what career and technical education programs (the jargon is CTE) could offer. Kaine's idea is to link middle schools with colleges and businesses that offer CTE or apprenticeship or similar programs, ho...Continue Reading

The threat from the Islamic State feels enough like a threat of war to trigger what the Constitution says is Congress' task: to decide if it should tell the president to send American troops in harm's way, say members of the Hampton Roads delegation on Capitol Hill. President Barack Obama believes he doesn't need Congress to authorize the kind of military action he plans to launch against the Islamic State, sometimes called ISIS or ISIL. But key members of the Hampton Roads delegation believe th...Continue Reading