In The News

When U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine visited Waynesboro to talk downtown development in May, administrators at Fishburne Military School invited him to stop by to tour the school. Despite his interest, Kaine had to decline due to a full schedule. He didn’t forget that invitation, though, and two weeks ago requested time to tour the campus and talk to cadets. Kaine spent a little over an hour at the Waynesboro private school Thursday before leaving for an open house at his regional office in Roanoke. &...Continue Reading

Last week’s introduction of the Commonsense Permitting for Job Creation Act in Congress takes the statemate over the Commonwealth Crossing Business Centre to a new level. The act specifies that the lack of a committed end-user company shall not be a reason to deny a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permit that meets all other legal requirements. It would address situations such as the one here, where the corps, acting on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency, has refused to issue a gra...Continue Reading

Kudos to Democratic Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine and Republican Reps. Morgan Griffith and Robert Hurt for teaming up in an effort to eliminate a regulatory quirk that is stalling development of a long-planned business park in job-starved Henry County. Henry County and the Martinsville-Henry County Economic Development Corp. have been trying to secure an environmental permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for site preparation at the planned Commonwealth Crossing Business Center. The 726...Continue Reading

U.S. Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, along with U.S. Reps. Robert Hurt and Morgan Griffith, introduced a bill Thursday that would address the permit problem at the Commonwealth Crossing Business Center. The Commonsense Permitting for Job Creation Act was introduced in both houses of Congress, according to news releases from the legislators’ offices. The bipartisan, bicameral legislation would address the longstanding controversy in Henry County over the 726-acre proposed Commonwealth Cros...Continue Reading

Freshman Senator Tim Kaine's (D-VA) rise to the chairmanship of the prestigious Senate Foreign Relations Committee's Middle East panel could represent a boon to a nascent peace-process. Though subtle, the shift might best be encapsulated by comparing Kaine to his predecessor: he'll succeed outgoing chair Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA). Casey, for example, frequently declares that Jerusalem must forever remain the eternal, undivided capital of the state of Israel—a non-starter for the Palestinians, ...Continue Reading

Although they may not all agree on every issue, Northern Virginia's congressional delegation banded together last week to visit the Guantanamo Bay Prison. Opened at a U.S. Navy base in Cuba in the months after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack, Guantanamo was established by President George W. Bush to hold detainees suspected of connections to global terrorism organizations. Sen. Tim Kaine (D), Congressman Frank Wolf (R-10th), Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-11th) and Congressman Jim Moran (D-8...Continue Reading

Small business owners throughout Southwest and Central Virginia are anxiously waiting to see what happens with the Marketplace Fairness Act, also known as the internet sales tax bill. The bill would allow states to tax internet companies the same way brick and mortar businesses are taxed It took several weeks to pass the Senate, eventually doing so with 70 percent of the vote in early May. But since then the bill has stalled in the House of Representatives. Senator Tim Kaine helped pass the bill...Continue Reading

Freshman Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) is taking over the chairmanship of the high-profile Senate Foreign Relations panel on the Middle East in a committee shake-up. Former panel chairman Robert Casey (D-Pa.) left the committee two weeks ago after the Senate's newest member, Edward Markey (D-Mass.), was awarded one of the 10 Democratic spots on the full committee. Markey is expected to replace Kaine atop the subpanel on foreign aid and economic affairs. “I am honored to assume the chairmanship of...Continue Reading

Sen. Tim Kaine has been appointed Chairman of Foreign Relations Subcommittee on the Middle East. According to Sen. Kaine’s office, the subcommittee will handle matters concerning U.S. relations with countries of the Middle East as well as Arab North Africa and countries in South and Central Asia. “I am honored to assume the chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Near Eastern and South and Central Asian Affairs,” Kaine said of the appointment. “The im...Continue Reading

Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine is setting an example for bipartisanship. A July 22 editorial endorsed his legislation, co-sponsored by Republican Sen. John McCain, to rewrite the War Powers Resolution. Kaine also is joining Sen. John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, as co-sponsors of the Intergenerational Financial Obligations Reform Act. The federal government considers the economic implications of legislation over a span of 10 years. INFORM would broaden the perspective to 20, 50 or even 75 years,...Continue Reading

Nebulous orders are an invitation to disaster on the battlefield. Likewise, a nation whose leaders are at war with each other cannot give adequate priority to protecting its citizens from external threats. Yet ambiguity has been an accepted if not acceptable part of decision-making on U.S. military engagements for generations. That gives presidents freedom to be reckless, and members of Congress cover to do nothing and then criticize executive misjudgments. “Stuck in the middle are the Ame...Continue Reading

Sens. Timothy M. Kaine, D-Va., and John Thune, R-S.D., today introduced a bipartisan bill that would provide for detailed analyses of how Congressional budgets and major pieces of new legislation would impact future generations. “As we look to make tough budget decisions, more information is critical to making prudent fiscal choices,” Kaine said. “A better understanding of the long term impacts of changes in the economy, or new spending and tax policies, will help us evaluate t...Continue Reading

As a society, we do too much short-term thinking. In Washington, that has meant passing bills that paper over fiscal problems in the short term while ignoring long-term consequences for future generations. The result is a fiscal gap that places unknown financial burdens on today's young people. We may have different prescriptions for how to address our budget challenges, but from a personal standpoint, we both worry about how a lack of information about long-term budget realities will affect our...Continue Reading

Sen. Tim Kaine is teaming up with South Dakota Republican John Thune to sponsor a bill that would require detailed analysis far into the future of Congressional budgets and major new legislation. The bill would require analysis of the budget impact of measures on future generations — that is, 20, 50 and 75 years in the future. Congress now gets such analysis over a 10-year time frame. The bill would also require the Congressional Budget Office and the Government Accountability Office provi...Continue Reading

Sens. John Thune (R-S.D.) and Tim Kaine (D-Va.) will introduce legislation on Wednesday that would require the investigative and budget score keeping arms of Congress to produce annual reports on the long-term economic impact of government debt levels. They say the bill — dubbed The Intergenerational Financial Obligations Reform Act — would help Americans understand the long-term costs of government debt. It requires the Congressional Budget Office and the Government Accountability O...Continue Reading

U.S. Senator Tim Kaine visited the assembly plant for Volvo in Dublin yesterday to tour the facility. The stop included a town hall type meeting in an assembly room. After a welcome from Volvo’s Communication Manager Marcus Thompson and a brief introduction from Director of Operations Joel Fenstermaker, Kaine took the microphone and briefly addressed the assembled Volvo employees before answering questions. He commended Volvo for receiving a certification for its energy efficiency work and...Continue Reading

FLOYD — During the second bluegrass piece that the senator joined in on, a waitress and a friend came out flatfoot dancing; by the fourth, Sen. Tim Kaine had ditched his BlackBerry, and at a nod from banjo player Alan Graf, took up the melody line to the song “New River Train” on his harmonica. Deep in the heart of reddest Virginia, the state’s junior, and definitively Democratic, U.S. senator was doing one of his favorite things: listening carefully, then unobtrusively j...Continue Reading

It started in the fifth grade classroom where students were first instructed not to make faces as media jostled for position waiting for Sen. Tim Kaine to arrive. No faces? What a bummer. During the entire hour the Senator was at Westside Elementary School it was hard to tell who was having the most fun – Sen. Kaine, the kids or the media. In the 1st grade class media joined in guessing what were the other members of the arachnid family besides spiders. Dave Tate of WSET 13′s Roanoke...Continue Reading

Sen. Timothy M. Kaine, D-Va., has announced a collaboration with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., to reform the 1973 War Powers Resolution. The senators want to streamline consultation between Congress and the president on whether and when the nation should engage in military action. “The changing nature of armed conflict and technology are raising challenging new war-powers questions that our founders never could have envisioned,” the senators said in a joint statement. “We are both...Continue Reading

The Constitution invests Congress with the power to declare war. It also says the president serves as commander in chief. Crucial debates at the nation’s founding focused on the military. Americans at the time were leery of standing armies, an attitude suggested by the Third Amendment, which restricts the quartering of troops in private homes. The Second Amendment, which protects the right to bear arms, cites the role of militias in defending the security of the state. The president’...Continue Reading