In The News

Nineteen senators introduced a bipartisan resolution on Thursday requesting that the White House beef up its humanitarian aid to Syria. The effort underscores growing frustration in Congress as Syria prepares to mark the third anniversary of an uprising that has left more than 140,000 people dead. While nonbinding, the resolution could be a prelude to increased congressional pressure on the administration to step up its involvement in the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. &ldquo...Continue Reading

Innovation is needed to combat climate change, according to Democratic U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia. Kaine was one of about two dozen senators who took part in an all-night session Monday into Tuesday to bring attention to issues coming from climate change. The Environmental Protection Agency says the Earth’s temperature on average has gone up nearly 1.5 degrees in the past 100 years, and in the next century is expected to go up another 2 to 11.5 degrees. Greenhouse gases, mainly from t...Continue Reading

U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine visited Northern Virginia Community College's (NOVA) Alexandria campus Monday to discuss the importance of career and technical education (CTE) and Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) programs like SySTEMic Solutions, a program at NOVA that strives to equip students with the skills needed in today’s workforce. “This is a good thing for students because they are acquiring skills that are in high demand among Northern Virginia employers right now...Continue Reading

In a rare instance of Senate Democrats and House Republicans working together, Congress agreed Tuesday to shift funding formerly allocated to presidential conventions to programs focused on pediatric medical research. The bill, the Gabriella Miller Kids First Research Act, was approved unanimously by the Senate, without a roll call vote, after being championed by Virginia Democrats Sen. Mark R. Warner and Sen. Timothy M. Kaine as well as by Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), a veteran advocate for fe...Continue Reading

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) spoke with Alhurra’s Congressional Correspondent Rana Abtar about the humanitarian crisis facing Syria’s neighboring countries as refugees continue to stream across borders. He noted that while the U.S. is the biggest provider of humanitarian aid in the world, the Syria refugee crisis is “the biggest humanitarian challenge since World War II.”  Dealing with this crisis, he added, “is going to require an awful lot of nations. The U.S. has t...Continue Reading

My memories of Tim Kaine from high school are of a skinny Irish Catholic kid with wavy dark hair – very smart, outgoing, confident. He was a National Merit Semifinalist and Student Body president. He sang in the school choir, worked on the student newspaper, was even a cheerleader our senior year. In a class of 200 high achievers at that all-boys college-prep school in Kansas City, Mo., Kaine stood out as one who would be among the cream. Tim and I didn’t hang out a lot together, but...Continue Reading

Increasingly, America's wars have little connection to average U.S. families, and are waged without their consent. Only a handful of young people — mostly those with few civilian job prospects — enlist in the all-volunteer military services. Congress never declares war, as the U.S. Constitution requires. Instead, the White House alone jumps into "police actions" — mostly using the CIA's drones to kill targeted foreigners. Modern U.S. warfare has become a half-hidden search-and-...Continue Reading

A photo from Syria is grabbing the world's attention: a sea of people lining up for food amid the rubble of a Palestinian refugee camp inside Syria. Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia was so moved by the image, he took to the Senate floor, saying "a country of 23 million people, a proud country, is being transformed before our eyes to a land of rubble, skeletons, refugees and ghosts." Syria was once a destination country for refugees. Now, it is fast becoming the world's biggest source of them. United N...Continue Reading

Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine have urged Taishan Gypsum, a Chinese drywall manufacturer, to settle with builders and homeowners after a federal appeals court in Louisiana last month confirmed U.S. jurisdiction in the dispute. A federal court has ordered Taishan to pay $2.7 million to seven Hampton Roads homeowners. Another 300 Virginia families are suing Taishan Gypsum. “On behalf of thousands of Americans that continue to deal with the effects of problem Chinese drywall, we again wri...Continue Reading

Leaders should always look for opportune moments to shift policy toward the long-term good. The Keystone XL oil pipeline is such a moment, and I oppose the project because I believe it sends an affirmative market signal to dirty energy at a time when our national interest lies with clean energy. Keystone XL supporters have trumpeted a recent State Department projection that the 830,000 barrels per day from the Alberta tar sands would find their way to market one way or another — if not by ...Continue Reading

The bomb went off, about five miles to the south, just as U.S. senators Tim Kaine and Angus King were leaving the U.S. Embassy in Beirut to meet Lebanese President Michel Suleiman. "We could hear the explosion, we could see the smoke," said Kaine, D-Va. The bomb at the Iranian Cultural Center last week killed six and injured more than 120, the latest in an alarming spike of terrorist incidents as the conflict in Syria spills over into Lebanon. "But the sad thing to me was, we thought we'd have t...Continue Reading

Israel’s stance on acceptable terms for a final Iran nuclear deal remains as uncompromising as that which divided Washington and Jerusalem on the merits of an interim nuclear deal last fall, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Virginia) said Monday following a trip last week to the Middle East. “Their position is no, no, no: No enrichment, no centrifuges, no weaponization program,” Kaine, referring to Israeli leaders, said in answer to a question on a conference call briefing with journalists Mo...Continue Reading

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) demanded Sunday that Syrian President Bashar Assad allow humanitarian assistance for Syrians struggling in the ongoing civil war. Kaine’s comments came a day after the United Nations (UN) Security Council unanimously approved a resolution requiring all factions in the ongoing civil war to let assistance be delivered to millions of Syrians. “It is now incumbent on the Syrian regime to allow unhindered access of humanitarian goods to all Syrians. Opposition group...Continue Reading

CAIRO: Terrorism is a real challenge Egypt is facing, said U.S. Senator Tim Kaine during a congressional delegation visit to Cairo on Wednesday. “We are worried about terrorism not only in Egypt but around the world, and Egypt has a legitimate fight against terrorism, as even government opponents realize the threat posed by terrorism,” said Kaine, who is also chairperson of the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee During a Thursday press conference, Kaine said there should be an equ...Continue Reading

During the weeklong trip to the Middle East that ends on Saturday, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) expressed guarded optimism that a framework for peace will be worked out between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, and praised Secretary of State John Kerry for his work on the matter. “This is the best chance we’ve had in quite some time,” Kaine said during a phone interview while still in the Middle East. “With all appropriate skepticism, I do detect a kind of practical optimis...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The chairman of the U.S. Senate subcommittee on the Middle East urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to cooperate with John Kerry in advancing Middle East peace. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) is touring the Middle East with Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), and met Sunday with Netanyahu and his defense minister, Moshe Yaalon. The senators also toured an Iron Dome anti-missile facility in southern Israel. The system, credited with reducing damage from rocket attacks from the...Continue Reading

Senator Tim Kaine (Democrat-Virginia), speaking to Al-Monitor Friday before he embarked on a Congressional delegation to the Middle East, said while there is cautious optimism about current U.S. efforts to advance a diplomatic resolution with Iran and an Israeli Palestinian peace agreement, U.S. Syria policy is not going well. And Russia is partly to blame, he said.  “I think Secretary [of State John] Kerry is pretty candid about it,” Kaine told Al-Monitor in a telephone intervi...Continue Reading

Congress pulled back Wednesday from its decision two months ago to reduce cost-of-living pension increases for working-age military retirees. Veterans groups deluged legislators with complaints after Congress voted in December for the change, a tiny part of a large budget deal. Legislation reinstating the increase easily passed the House 326-90 on Tuesday, and the Senate 95-3 on Wednesday. It now goes to President Barack Obama. The effort would cost more than $6 billion over 10 years and would b...Continue Reading

Military retirees have spoken, and Congress has listened. The Senate on Tuesday approved legislation restoring military pension benefits that prompted a firestorm of criticism. In a bit of horse trading, the Senate abandoned its own bill and accepted a House proposal. Virginia senators Tim Kaine and Mark R. Warner supported the measure. Kaine said Wednesday he knew cutting benefits was problematic even before complaints began coming in. The controversy started with passage of December's budget b...Continue Reading

This is the latest edition of our Five Questions series.  Each week, we feature an expert, practitioner, or leader answering five questions on a topic of current relevance in the world of defense, security, and foreign policy.  Well, four of the questions are topical.  The fifth is about booze. We are War on the Rocks, after all. This week, I spoke with Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA), a member of the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committees and Chairman of the Senate Subco...Continue Reading