In The News

A U.S. Senate committee and the House on Thursday endorsed separate defense spending plans for 2015 that both fund the refueling of the aircraft carrier George Washington at Newport News Shipbuilding and reject Pentagon requests to cut subsidies for commissaries and trim some health care benefits. Defense policy bills approved by the Senate Armed Services Committee and the House also turn down the Pentagon's request for base closings. But the two chambers disagree on military pay. The senate pan...Continue Reading

Work critical to Newport News Shipbuilding's nearly 24,000 workers, and the thousands more on the Peninsula whose jobs depend on the yard, passed through two key Capitol Hill gateways Thursday, as both the full House of Representatives and the Senate Armed Services Committee approved a complex overhaul and refueling of the USS George Washington. The overhaul is at risk if Congress doesn't formally approve, since across-the-board spending cuts scheduled to go into effect next year likely mean the...Continue Reading

The new Water Resources Development Act, which the U.S. Senate sent on its way today for President Obama to sign, includes amendments by Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine meant to keep two Hampton Roads water projects on track. One authorizes funds for Chesapeake Bay oyster restoration projects, the other moves the port's Craney Island expansion forward. The oyster restoration amendment authorizes $60 million for the work, a compromise between what the House of Reprensentatives and Senate wante...Continue Reading

A group of 14 senators introduced a bill on Tuesday that would effectively place a two-year moratorium on so-called inversions, halting the rush by United States corporations to reincorporate overseas to lower their tax bills. The Stop Corporate Inversions Act of 2014 would essentially disallow any more inversions for two years, giving Congress time to pursue broad changes in the corporate tax code. Such an overhaul could make the United States rates more competitive with other countries, possib...Continue Reading

BEST LOCAL POLITICIAN: U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine SECOND PLACE: U.S. Rep. Eric Cantor THIRD PLACE: delegate Jennifer McClellan The eyebrows. That smile. Those soft, understanding eyes. U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, former Richmond mayor and Virginia governor, seems to make the city swoon. Heck, for his official gubernatorial portrait in the Capitol, he shed the suit jacket, leaned against a tree and basked in the soft light down on a river bank. He also represents Virginia in a way that makes progressive types ...Continue Reading

"There has been a longstanding desire to expand the cemetery so that it can be, for generations to come, the place that it is now and offering that opportunity to those who have served and lost their lives..." Sen. Tim Kaine expressed support Tuesday for expansion of Arlington Cemetery. During the Fiscal Year 2015 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) markup Tuesday in the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness and Management Support, Kaine expressed his support for an NDAA provisio...Continue Reading

It was “a sweet moment,” U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine said, delivering the commencement address Saturday for the first graduating class of the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine. Sweet, indeed, for the 40 graduates, all with residencies safely secured, commencing new lives as resident doctors. Sweet, surely, for two of the region’s visionary leaders — Virginia Tech President Charles Steger, who is retiring next month, and Dr. Ed Murphy, at the time the CEO of Carilion Clini...Continue Reading

U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine is introducing legislation today intended to help service members pay for occupational credentials or licenses they would need for civilian jobs after they leave the military. The bill is intended to work in tandem with a measure that the Virginia Democrat successfully proposed last year to help service members use skills learned in the military to qualify for civilian jobs that do not require college degrees. The legislation introduced this week would allow service members t...Continue Reading

Turning military training into a credential for a civilian job isn’t as easy as it ought to be, in Sen. Tim Kaine’s view, and he’s introduced a bill to smooth the path, by authorizing use of the military’s Tuition Assistance Program to pay for testing fees, testing material and licensing fees. “While some servicemembers transition out of the military and decide to pursue a degree at a college or university, countless others are ready to immediately enter the workfor...Continue Reading

The defense industry in Hampton Roads - jittery about big reductions in military spending - likes what it sees in Congress's first attempt to draft a defense spending plan for 2015. Rank-and-file sailors probably do, too. The proposal approved by a House committee last week would keep intact most major purchase contracts and calls for bigger pay raises, in contrast to what the Pentagon wants. But it would do it at the expense of training and operations for active-duty commands. The congressional...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Wednesday backed bipartisan efforts to reexamine the controversial law passed in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks that opened the door to the ever-expanding “war on terror.” Although Reid did not take a specific stand on how the law should be changed, in an interview with BuzzFeed he argued the time has come to revisit the Authorization of Use of Military Force. “It’s easy to be a Monday morning quarterback, bu...Continue Reading

Sen. Tim Kaine may be one of the Silver Line's biggest fans, and he's not letting the delays in Phase One of the nearly $6 billion project dampen his feelings. "This is the most complex single project I've ever been connected with in my 20 years in elected office," said Kaine, who worked to fund the first stretch as Virginia governor. "It is so big and complicated, there's going to be challenges." In the end, he believes the construction and the wait will all be worth it. "The experience of Metr...Continue Reading

RICHMOND - U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine honored the achievements not only of students but of mothers when he spoke during Virginia State University's spring 2014 commencement on Mother's Day. Nearly 600 graduates and their friends and family attended the ceremony at the Richmond Coliseum. Kaine, D-Va., specifically recognized the work of graduates who were both students and mothers, and asked them to stand. "All of you had to achieve a lot on this day but a lot of you had to achieve this while being moth...Continue Reading

Jameelah Johnson is leaving for the Peace Corps in April. “I want to receive more international experience and eventually become an ambassador,” said Johnson, who is from San Diego. Christopher Thornton, from Appomattox, is going to Brooklyn, N.Y., where he will teach writing at a middle school. He also will start on his master’s degree as part of Teach for America, a nonprofit organization that enlists high-achieving college graduates to teach for at least two years in low-inc...Continue Reading

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — A Defense Department commission will issue a report in February 2015 on a politically charged topic: how to save money in military compensation and benefits. But before that happens, Sen. Tim Kaine wants the commission to survey military personnel on what pay and benefit packages they most value. Kaine and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, introduced legislation Tuesday to direct the commission to conduct a formal survey of military personnel before the February 2015 report. T...Continue Reading

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) – Dominion Virginia Power will receive $47 million over the next four years to construct two wind turbines 26 miles off the coast for testing in ocean waters subject to hurricanes, the U.S. Department of Energy said Wednesday. The demonstration project, among three nationally announced by DOE, is intended to speed U.S. development of wind power in vast ocean tracts. The nation lags behind Europe and Asia in the development of offshore wind, making wind power an expensive...Continue Reading

Virginia can resume exporting chicken feet to China after a seven-year ban. Gov. Terry McAuliffe's administration announced Monday that the Chinese government had lifted its ban on imported Virginia poultry products. China blocked Virginia chicken exports in 2007 after a case of pathogenic avian influenza was reported on a single farm in Virginia. Secretary of Agriculture and Forestry Todd Haymore said he estimates Virginia could sell $20 million a year in poultry products to China now that the ...Continue Reading

BLACKSTONE — Local leaders in communities near Fort Pickett hope a planned $461 million training facility for U.S. diplomatic and government personnel will give struggling Southside Virginia a much-needed economic boost. “This is a culmination of a dream we’ve had, and it’s very encouraging for a rural area that has seen some tough times,” said Del. Thomas C. Wright Jr., R-Lunenburg, who was among local and state officials who toured the site Monday. When the U.S. S...Continue Reading

The derailment of a crude oil train in Lynchburg last week prompted Virginia's two U.S. senators to call for action from federal transportation officials on proposed regulations to protect communities from the threat of potentially catastrophic rail accidents. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Timothy M. Kaine released a letter they sent today to Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx in response to the derailment of a CSX train on April 30 in downtown Lynchburg, sending 17 oil-filled tanker cars off the ...Continue Reading

Earlier this week, The Constitution Project’s resident scholar Louis Fisher weighed in on the War Powers Consultation Act of 2014, a bill I’ve introduced with Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Angus King (I-Maine) to repeal the War Powers Resolution of 1973 and replace it with a more workable process for making the most serious decision entrusted to Congress—whether to initiate military action. I agree with Fisher that “the decision to go to war demands full debate within t...Continue Reading