In The News

U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine has proposed legislation to improve the quality and accountability of education and training for veterans and members of the military. Kaine, a Democrat and former governor of Virginia, outlined the legislation Friday at a veterans' breakfast in Winchester and at another stop at the University of Richmond. The Servicemember Education Reform and Vocational Enhancement Act, or SERVE, is intended to address high unemployment and low graduation rates for veterans and active milit...Continue Reading

At today’s Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Sen. Tim Kaine said people connected with the military need to tell a high powered Senate and House conference committee to get moving nail down a budget deal. His comments came as the Joint Chiefs of Staff testified on the impact of this year’s sequestration on the nation’s military. “Whether you’re active, veteran, or just a patriot, tell the budget conferees … get a budget deal by the 13th of December. Be...Continue Reading

U.S. Senator Tim Kaine arrived in Washington at a challenging time. During his first ten months in office, he's played an influential role on major issues, including the budget, immigration reform and U.S. policy in the Middle East. And while he is frustrated by political gridlock, he also says there is reason for optimism. When Kaine joined 28 other Democrats and Republicans on the budget conference committee last week, he argued they aren't as far apart as many might think. "I think much is be...Continue Reading

As a Senate candidate in 2012, I repeatedly heard the critique: “the Democratic Senate hasn’t even done a budget.” This critique was accurate — Democrats decided that it was better politics to just blast a House Republican budget than create one of their own that could be a target. After election in November 2012, I was a little chagrined to be assigned to the Budget Committee. I’ve done a lot of budgets as a mayor and governor — why be on a committee known fo...Continue Reading

After years of prodding fellow senators to adopt spending and debt reforms - through personal pleas and unofficial efforts like the "Gang of Six"- U.S. Sen. Mark Warner is joining the inner circle. Warner, along with fellow Virginia Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine, was appointed Wednesday to a House-Senate committee that has less than two months to develop a long-term blueprint for adjusting spending and tax policies. The 29-member panel, made up of the entire Senate Budget Committee and part of the H...Continue Reading

The most dysfunctional Congress in recent memory did something sadly remarkable Wednesday night - it reached a compromise. It approved a measure that reopened the federal government and averted a disastrous default on our nation's full faith and credit. And 144 members of the House and 18 members of the Senate - all Republicans, including Rep. Randy Forbes of Chesapeake and Rep. Walter Jones of northeastern North Carolina - did something remarkably sad. They opposed the compromise, voting instea...Continue Reading

Two positive aspects emerged from the 16-day government standoff: A budget conference for the eventual fiscal deal and the lesson that shutting down the government is a horrible idea, Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia said. “It has been an unnecessary pain,” the Democrat said Thursday on Morning Joe. “It has been damaging to the economy, to the people, to our reputation.” Kaine was forced to furlough 37 of his 42 staff contractors and federal workers during the closure. They ret...Continue Reading

A Senate deal to open the government and raise the debt ceiling would also grant back pay to an estimated 800,000 furloughed federal workers. The Senate Democratic leadership has told senators representing Maryland and Virginia that the final deal would take care of federal workers who have been denied pay because of the shutdown. “It’s in this agreement,” Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), an outspoken advocate for federal workers, said. Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.) also said lang...Continue Reading

With Congress still bickering over a compromise for funding a continuing resolution to reopen the government, Sens. Mark R. Warner and Timothy M. Kaine highlighted the impact of the shutdown on Virginia. In a news conference on the steps the U.S. Capitol today, Warner said that the shutdown has had an obvious impact on “many essential services that a lot of Virginians value and support,” including the National Science Foundation in Arlington, which funds 20 percent of America’s...Continue Reading

Sen. Timothy M. Kaine, D-Va., on Wednesday warned of the harmful consequences of a government shutdown and urged Congress to pass a continuing resolution and deal with improvements to the Affordable Care Act later. “Those who threaten to repudiate our fiscal responsibilities are engaging in economically destructive behavior,” said Kaine, who took the Senate floor once Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, stopped talking after 21 hours and 19 minutes — an effort he touted as a filibuster. Cr...Continue Reading

The patients gathered before an Appalachian sunrise. Some had traveled from nearby states and slept in cars at the muddied fairgrounds. Others came on foot from miles away. All had unmet medical needs — and the most urgent was dental. On this morning, they were willing to suffer a little bit longer, if it meant some relief from their pain at the sprawling clinic rising here. Founded in 1985, Remote Area Medical — known as RAM — is an all-volunteer organization that provides fre...Continue Reading

Virginia's U.S. senators hope a recent federal report will reopen the possibility of moving the military's Africa Command from Germany to the United States, a move that could save the Defense Department tens of millions of dollars and provide an economic boost to any state that lands it headquarters. Africa Command covers the entire continent, with the exception of Egypt. When the Defense Department created AFRICOM in 2007, it temporarily located its headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany, with the ...Continue Reading

Sen. Timothy M. Kaine is a fan of Richmond’s Hardywood Park Craft Brewery. Kaine, D-Va., paid his first visit to the brewery Friday night, arriving to hear a band that included an old friend of his wife, Anne Holton. He told Hardywood co-founder Patrick Murtaugh that Holton and the couple’s children had made prior visits and urged him to stop by. The senator also said he had enjoyed the brewery’s beers at home. On Friday night, Kaine was enjoying the brewery’s Fall Line F...Continue Reading

IT'S AN IDEA with bipartisan roots. It could save taxpayers millions in Virginia--billions across the United States. It requires just a bit of federal legislative tweaking. So what's not to like? Well, it's a simple idea, perhaps not so simply conveyed, and it requires that a splintered Congress agree to it, which we all know is a lot to expect. Residents of Fredericksburg have saved themselves millions, and done the local community a world of good, by using federal and state rehabilitation tax ...Continue Reading

Sen. Tim Kaine looked around the table Friday at a roomful of men and women who know firsthand what war entails and put forth his stance on U.S. military action against Syria. One: If the U.S. doesn't launch an attack on Syria, President Bashar Assad will only be emboldened to continue using chemical weapons, he said. Two: It is the role of Congress, not the president, to authorize war. The first-term senator and former Virginia governor held a roundtable with nearly two dozen veterans at Old Do...Continue Reading

Timothy M. Kaine arrived in the Senate in January ready to focus quietly on domestic policy and forge partnerships with Republicans. The “quietly” part hasn’t quite worked out — but working with the GOP certainly has. This month, Kaine (D) finds himself at the center of Congress’s debate over whether to allow President Obama to launch military action against Syria. He is in charge of the subcommittee that handles Middle East policy. And he is standing with a Republi...Continue Reading

Sen. Tim Kaine spoke Thursday to over 20 cadets in Virginia State University's Army ROTC program about a political decision with the potential to impact their futures as servicemen and women. Kaine discussed his stance on limited military intervention in Syria as a response to chemical weapons attacks. Kaine's visit took place before a Senate debate on the matter which will occur next week. Kaine voted Saturday in favor of limited military intervention in the country during a Senate Foreign Rela...Continue Reading

Sen. Tim Kaine must have sensed something. Long before Congress began debating intervention in Syria, the Virginia Democrat raised questions regarding war powers. He focused on the congressional role in authorizing military operations. On May 16, he said, “I think it is highly important that we stress to this administration that commencing hostilities that put American troops or materiel in harm’s way in Syria without fresh discussion and approval … would be enormously controv...Continue Reading

Sen. Tim Kaine broke free of the Syria debate last Friday to hear out state fisheries officials on how Washington can help continue the success of its oyster industry. Kaine was taken aboard the J.B. Baylor where he viewed public and private oyster grounds. Virginia’s state officials would like watermen to have access, on a rotational basis, to oyster sanctuaries. Jim Wesson, who heads the state’s oyster conservation and replenishment said sanctuaries, while important to the industry...Continue Reading

Senator Tim Kaine (D – Virginia) spoke to several ROTC cadets at Virginia State University Thursday about the difficulty in clearing the way to allow the use of force in Syria by the U.S. military. Sen. Kaine, who had served of Virginia Governor and Richmond Mayor, must know tackle foreign policy in his new role as U.S. Senator. Kaine, who sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, voted this week to support a military strike in Syria. “It was a very hard vote and the vote in th...Continue Reading