In The News

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) visited La Cocina VA yesterday, a nonprofit program that gives Hispanic immigrants bilingual, culinary job training in the basement of an Arlington church. Below Mt. Olivet United Methodist Church (1500 N. Glebe Road) yesterday afternoon, Kaine — who speaks fluent Spanish after spending a year in Honduras before entering politics — met with the program’s leaders and participants, eager to learn more about the benefits it provides. “This is an import...Continue Reading

U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine made a stop at the Orbital ATK campus Tuesday afternoon to hold a town hall-style discussion and to tour the satellite manufacturing plant. “I love having a company like Orbital that has such a great brand recognition,” Kaine said. “I’m also proud of you for being a great partner with Loudoun County.” The governor’s itinerary Tuesday also included a visit to the C.S. Monroe Technology School in Leesburg to meet with students on the RoboLoCo...Continue Reading

If President Obama had his way, Congress would simply keep its pesky nose out of the Iran nuclear deal. Given his critics’ behavior, it’s easy to understand such presidential bristling. Still, the better course — and, more to the point, the unavoidable course, given Republican majorities in both houses — would be for the Obama administration to switch from bristling to deal-making. It should work with Congress to find a mechanism that lets lawmakers weigh in on the Iran a...Continue Reading

U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine made a stop at the Vireol Bio Energy LLC plant in Hopewell on Monday for the first leg of his five-day spring break tour of Virginia. Kaine said he has been hoping to visit the plant since the United Kingdom-based company, Future Fuels, announced it would open a plant in Hopewell in August of 2014. “It was a big win for Hopewell and a big win for the Commonwealth of Virginia and then the plant opened here and I’ve been looking forward to coming and seeing it for m...Continue Reading

Virginia business leaders told U.S. Senator Tim Kaine (D-Va) and U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny  Pritzker on Monday about problems they face in international trade. In a roundtable discussion at the World Art Group in Richmond, Kaine told the panelists that international trade affects all sizes of businesses, and it’s important to get policies right, “so we are here to talk to you about trade issues and how we can be helpful,” he said. The event primarily focused on the ...Continue Reading

Sen. Timothy M. Kaine, D-Va., on Monday hailed the diplomatic breakthrough in reaching a nuclear deal with Iran. But he also urged stakeholders to proceed with caution to prevent the escalation of a nuclear crisis in the Middle East. “The framework that was announced Thursday is a framework, so there is a lot that has to be done to ... clarify some uncertainties” and reduce them to a verifiable deal, Kaine said in an interview in Richmond. “But I saw some very positive things i...Continue Reading

RICHMOND, Va (WVIR) - U.S. Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) started a five-day tour through Virginia on Monday. Sen. Kaine will be discussing jobs, trade and economic development for the commonwealth. The tour began with the senator and U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker holding a round-table hearing with Virginia business leaders Kaine and Pritzker said the state has seen tremendous growth and job creation from rising exports. The secretary says 93,000 Virginians have jobs from flourishing expor...Continue Reading

It may be months or even years before the ultimate outcome of the tentative nuclear deal with Iran is known but U.S. Senator Tim Kaine (D-Va.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, says the framework agreement reached today is “a positive step for diplomacy and efforts to peacefully limit Iran’s nuclear program.” The negotiations are being held against a backdrop of bitter public denunciations by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is demanding among o...Continue Reading

An effort to achieve federal recognition for six Virginia Indian tribes has started to wind its way through Congress again. Supporters in the state have failed to get the legislation passed for decades. When Virginia was settled more than four hundred years ago, the settlers found the region was already populated with Native Americans. Those tribes aren’t recognized by the US government even though they’re recognized by the British crown, as Virginia Democratic Senator Tim Kaine expl...Continue Reading

U.S. Senator Tim Kaine says he is grateful the Department of Veterans Affairs is making a change that should help more rural veterans receive medical care. In an interview with WDBJ7 Thursday morning, he said there is reason to be hopeful about other problems as well. This week, the agency announced it will consider the driving distance between a veteran's home and the the nearest VA Medical Center when deciding who is eligible for private care under the Veterans Choice program. The current stan...Continue Reading

Earlier this month, U.S. Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, both Virginia Democrats, introduced legislation that would more than triple the size of Petersburg National Battlefield as the state and nation marks the 150th anniversary of the battles fought in the Siege of Petersburg. Warner and Kaine’s legislation looks to protect some of the most endangered Civil War battlefields in the country by authorizing the National Park Service to acquire more than 7,000 acres to add to the battlefield,...Continue Reading

More veterans in rural Virginia, including the Eastern Shore, will be eligible to seek health care outside the Veterans Affairs system thanks to a regulatory change announced Tuesday. The change involves the Veterans Choice Program. It allows eligible veterans to seek care at preapproved sites if they live 40 miles from a VA medical facility or wait longer than 30 days for an appointment. The program is up and running in Virginia, with 22 approved sites around the state. That includes five on th...Continue Reading

Republicans, broadly speaking, used to be a lot more environmentalist than they are now. Teddy Roosevelt, a great conservationist, expanded the national parks. Richard Nixon created the EPA. Even Ronald Reagan took action on acid rain. Polarization has diluted red America’s green streak. Many Republicans refuse to accept the possibility that humans contribute to global warming. Others won’t say so out loud. But others are coming around. George Shultz, secretary of state under Ronald ...Continue Reading

PAMUNKEY INDIAN RESERVATION, Va. – By the end of this month, the chief of the Indian tribe that greeted the country’s first English settlers and claims Pocahontas as an ancestor will receive a phone call that could change the tribe’s fate and perhaps its fortunes. Kevin Brown and the 207 other members of the Pamunkey Indian tribe are waiting to find out if the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs will recognize them as a federal tribe, making them the first in Virginia to receive that...Continue Reading

Learning is a lifelong endeavor. We begin teaching our children about the world the day they are born. At a young age, we send them to school to learn the basics of reading, writing and counting; before we know it, they are thumbing through novels, composing essays and mastering algebra. After school, we watch them enter the workforce, find their own career paths and continue to learn about the world as they grow. If our children are learning all throughout their time in public schools, then our...Continue Reading

The Senate Budget Committee approved amending its version of the federal budget to set up a fund that would be used to help Defense Department facilities better withstand the impacts of climate change. Sen. Tim Kaine proposed the measure. “The Hampton Roads region in my state is home to the largest naval installation in the world, Naval Station Norfolk, as well as nearly 15 other installations," he told his fellow committee members. "In this defense-heavy region, sea level rise is occurrin...Continue Reading

A Senate committee Wednesday cleared a bill that would grant federal recognition to six Virginia tribes, taking the first step toward matching Virginia’s recognition of these tribes. The Thomasina E. Jordan Indian Tribes of Virginia Federal Recognition Act of 2015, introduced in February by Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, recognizes the Chickahominy, Eastern Chickahominy, Upper Mattaponi, Rappahannock, Monacan and Nansemond tribes of Virginia. The six tribes, which have around 3,000 membe...Continue Reading

Virginia senators Timothy M. Kaine and Mark R. Warner have joined those voicing unease after the bloody arrest of a University of Virginia student early Wednesday morning. Kaine tweeted late Wednesday that he was “troubled” by reports of the force used by Alcohol and Beverage Control agents when arresting Martese Johnson, a 20-year-old student who had been denied entrance to an Irish bar near campus. Warner likewise called the incident “disturbing.” Both Democrats praised...Continue Reading

Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine say Virginia seafood businesses got a break with a request filed by federal agencies for a court decision to hold off enforcing a ruling stopping  officials from processing visas for seasonal workers. The unopposed request by the Departments of Labor and Homeland Security would allow immigration officials to keep processing those visa applications through April 15. The labor and homeland security departments asked the court to stay its ruling after a bipar...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., is part of a bipartisan effort to pass a “good Samaritan” law for people administering a drug that can prevent an opioid overdose. The former Virginia governor, along with Sen. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., and Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., introduced the Opioid Overdose Reduction Act on Wednesday, according to a news release from the senators. The release states that it would exempt from civil liability individuals such as family members, fi...Continue Reading