In The News

U.S. Sen. Mark Warner defined sequestration as “stupidity on steroids” on Monday. Simply avoiding sequestration is the answer, Warner claimed at the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce’s second annual U.S. Senatorial Forum. Hampton Roads remains one of the largest, if not the largest, location of military personnel in the country, U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine said at the event. Considering this fact, budget cuts that involve sequestration of the defense department create a ripple effect t...Continue Reading

The landscape appears to be changing at the Hampton VA Medical Center, and it goes beyond waterfront construction that is reshaping the grounds. Patient wait times are down, staff has increased, and on Monday a politician came away impressed. Such a trifecta would have been unthinkable nine months ago, when Hampton logged the nation's worst wait times for primary care patients and was trying to overcome the loss of nine doctors in six months. Sen. Tim Kaine, who toured the hospital Monday, gave ...Continue Reading

Rock and Rock Hall of Famer Joan Jett plays in Elmwood Park on Thursday night. Just typing the adjective makes us feel nostalgic, and reminds us of what Jett’s guitar player, Ricky Byrd, had to say at the induction ceremony earlier this year. His 13-year-old daughter wasn’t really impressed that her dad’s band was being honored unless it meant she could meet the chart-topping rapper Iggy Azalea. “In my world,” Byrd said, “there is only one Iggy you want to mee...Continue Reading

I urge the General Assembly to give Virginia Supreme Court Justice Jane Marum Roush fair review on her merits rather than refusing to consider her for the role [“Democrats demand hearings on pick for Supreme Court,” Metro, Aug. 11]. The Virginia Constitution is clear. When a vacancy occurs in any circuit court, the Court of Appeals, the State Corporation Commission or the Virginia Supreme Court when the legislature is not in session, the governor may appoint a replacement, subject to...Continue Reading

When Maurice "Mo" Lynch arrived as a young graduate student at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science in 1962, the place was evolving fast. "It was just at the very beginning of what I call the growth into a full-blown marine science laboratory, as opposed to a fisheries laboratory," recalled Lynch, now a VIMS professor emeritus. One of the first things he and his fellow students tackled in the summer of '63 was a directive from the General Assembly to determine whether dredging the James Rive...Continue Reading

Just a day after Metro’s board of directors gave the transit agency’s top management 10 days to explain why a defective section of rail was not repaired for more than a month, the region’s four U.S. senators are weighing in, demanding that the findings of the internal investigation be aired publicly at a board hearing. Sens. Barbara Mikulski (D) and Ben Cardin (D) of Maryland and Sens. Mark Warner (D) and Tim Kaine (D) of Virginia made it clear that they are out of patience. Al...Continue Reading

Last Saturday marked the one-year anniversary of the start of America’s campaign against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). But after some 5,000 airstrikes—with some 3,500 U.S. soldiers on the ground—Congress has yet to hold an up-or-down vote on authorization for our latest Middle East war. A year of illegal warmaking represents a new low in the erosion of constitutional checks and balances: an occasion for the country to reflect on the dangerous drift toward the normalization of presi...Continue Reading

The area’s congressional delegation recently introduced a bipartisan bill aimed at addressing regulatory problems that have impeded the progress of prospective economic development sites, including Commonwealth Crossing Business Centre in Henry County. U.S. Rep. Robert Hurt, R-Chatham, and U.S. Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, joined U.S. Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, both Democrats, in introducing the Commonsense Permitting for Job Creation Act (H.R. 3434 and S. 1914) in both houses of C...Continue Reading

The scourge of prescription drug abuse has seemingly permeated all aspects of our society here in the mountains, and the deadly epidemic shows no signs of abating. That’s why the battle must continue on the local, state and federal level. One well-known contributing factor to this deadly affliction is a process commonly known as “doctor shopping.” As its name implies, doctor shopping is the process of drug addicts going from one doctor to the another in search of prescriptions ...Continue Reading

Last month, Sens. Jeff Merkley, Tammy Baldwin and Cory Booker introduced The Equality Act in the U.S. Senate. This would be the first sweeping anti-discrimination bill, amending the Civil Rights Act of 1964, to include lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, protecting LGBT people from workplace discrimination and housing discrimination. Virginia Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine joined the three fellow Democrats as co-sponsors of the bill. Though same-sex marriage was legalized, it’...Continue Reading

Advanced jobs training would be put on an equal footing with traditional college courses under a new Pell Grant bill backed by U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va. Kaine, a co-founder of the Senate Career and Technical Education Caucus, is aiming to expand the federal program and cover students enrolled in short-term industry certification programs. Currently, Pell Grants are only available for courses that are at least 15 weeks long — the length of an average college semester. Kaine’s bill wo...Continue Reading

For one, full year, U.S. fighter jets have been involved in punishing airstrikes on the forces of the so-called Islamic State. And for one, full year, U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia has been like a biblical prophet of old, a voice crying in the wilderness, calling on Congress to give its approval and backing to the combat mission. But to no avail. President Obama committed U.S. forces to a campaign of airstrikes against ISIS, as the terror state is also known, after weeks of stunning military ...Continue Reading

Happy Anniversary! Congress is about to celebrate a full year of dawdling over America’s war against the Islamic State by going on vacation. Having despaired of passing a bill with “Cyber” in its name that nevertheless would do little to protect America against cyberattacks, the Senate just closed up shop for the summer. They’ll be back on September 8 for a debate about whether or not to reject the Iran nuclear deal in favor of starting ...Continue Reading

Thursday is the 50th anniversary of President Lyndon B. Johnson signing the Voting Rights Act that outlawed discriminatory voting practices adopted in many southern states after the Civil War, including Virginia, including literacy tests as a prerequisite to voting. In recognition of the important anniversary, U.S. Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, Democrats from Virginia, have renewed their call for the Senate to adopt legislation that would that would restore and advance voting protections f...Continue Reading

The war against ISIS began with airstrikes a year ago this week and lawmakers have spent significant time in the last 12 months debating the strategy and, in many cases, criticizing the way the Obama administration is conducting the fight. But one thing members of Congress have yet to do is have a vote – or even a substantive debate – over authorizing the military campaign. Instead, President Obama has relied on past authorizations for the use of military force (AUMFs) against al-Qae...Continue Reading

Today, three Democratic Senators came out for the Iran deal: Tim Kaine of Virginia, Bill Nelson of Florida, and Barbara Boxer of California. The math now looks increasingly difficult for the deal’s opponents. Kaine and Nelson are both quite significant. They are both genuinely moderate; previously, the only ones who had come out for the deal were liberals or were always all but certain to do so: Dianne Feinstein; Martin Heinrich, Tom Udall, and Dick Durbin, who is rounding up sup...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON -- Three key swing Democrats announced support for the Iran nuclear agreement on Tuesday, citing it as an improvement over the status quo. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), the first to declare his position, gave a speech on the Senate floor lauding the international community's use of diplomacy over force to bring about a peaceful agreement that will require Iran to dismantle the bulk of its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. He was followed by Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and...Continue Reading

Hace 50 años, el Presidente Lyndon Johnson aprobó la ley Medicare y Medicaid. A su lado se encontraba mi presidente favorito, Harry S Truman. La creación de Medicaid y Medicare fue uno de los logros legislativos más importantes para él y para nuestro país. Medicare es el emblemático programa que asegura que los ciudadanos de la tercera edad tenga acceso a cuidado médico. Medicaid, otro programa de suma importancia, ha ayudado...Continue Reading

Citing a "moral obligation" to leave our children a healthy planet, the White House on Monday released its final Clean Power Plan calling for even stricter curbs on power plant carbon emissions than it proposed last summer. The final plan imposes a 32 percent reduction in emissions from existing coal-fired plants from 2005 levels, but also gives states more flexibility and a 2030 deadline to achieve it. The draft plan had set a 30 percent reduction. Supporters, including conservationists, health...Continue Reading

This week marks the first anniversary of our latest war in the Middle East, but after some 5,000 airstrikes in two countries, and with 3,500 U.S. troops on the ground, we’ve yet to have an up-or-down vote in Congress on authorization for the use of military force against ISIS. We’re recognizing—“celebrating” isn’t the right word—that unhappy anniversary at Cato with a talk by Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA), who holds the unfashionable view that Congress ought to vote on the wars we fight, and has been...Continue Reading