In The News

Sen. Tim Kaine is a moderate Democrat who boycotted Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress. Nathan Guttman, the Forward’s Washington bureau chief, asks him about Iran and whether Democrats are drifting away from Israel. Nathan Guttman: Did you face any political cost for deciding not to attend Netanyahu’s speech? Senator Tim Kaine: I’m not dumb, I knew not going to the speech might make some folks mad with me — there would be a political price, but I felt so strong...Continue Reading

The Pentagon should consider other ways of shedding unnecessary infrastructure without resorting to the formal Base Realignment and Closure process, one senator told defense officials Wednesday. At a hearing Wednesday on the Defense Department's request for another BRAC round, members of the Senate Armed Services Committee made clear they are not keen to reprise that potentially rancorous process for a variety of reasons, including the considerable up-front costs required. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va.,...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON — The Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday questioned the nation’s top defense leaders on President Barack Obama’s proposal for new war powers to fight the Islamic State. Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, joined Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Ash Carter in testifying at a Foreign Relations Committee hearing about Obama’s proposal. The debate comes amid Democratic worries that it could lead to a full...Continue Reading

Back last summer, Sen. Tim Kaine sat in on a training session ‘way down in Southwest Virginia showing people how to administer naloxone, a drug that prevents overdoses. Earlier this year, he watched the Virginia General Assembly easily pass a bill urged by Attorney General Mark Herring that says when someone administers that drug in good faith to prevent an overdose, he or she shouldn’t be held liable for damages. So, he figured it might make sense for Congress to do its part to clea...Continue Reading

U.S. Sens. Timothy M. Kaine and Mark R. Warner, D-Va., on Wednesday sharply criticized a letter earlier this week signed by 47 Republican senators warning Iran’s leaders that an accord with President Barack Obama’s team could expire the day he leaves office. Kaine called the letter, posted Monday by freshman Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., “foolish, disrespectful and extremely counterproductive.” He said it attempted to “scuttle a negotiation” in the midst of an atte...Continue Reading

U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine was among the senators who introduced legislation Wednesday that seeks to protect people who are trained in administering an opioid overdose prevention drug from potential lawsuits or liability for attempting to save a life. Kaine, a Democrat from Virginia, visited Lebanon in August to attend a two-hour training session for administering naloxone in an overdose emergency. He said opioid abuse has become an “epidemic that poses significant economic and public health chal...Continue Reading

More than 400 people turned up fashionably at the Ritz-Carlton in Tysons Corner March 7 to honor a young girl from Loudoun who seized their hearts in her too-short 10 years. The second annual Smashing Walnuts Cracking the Cure Gala honoring the late Gabriella Miller of Leesburg gathered tears, laughter and $200,000 dedicated to finding a cure for childhood cancer, the culprit of Gabriella's death in October 2013. Current and former NFL players were in attendance – including the ogled-at al...Continue Reading

Almost a year and a half after 10-year-old childhood-cancer research advocate Gabriella Miller of Leesburg died of an inoperable brain tumor, hundreds of her friends, fans and supporters gathered Saturday at the Ritz Carlton in Tysons Corner to help honor her final request: finding a cure for pediatric cancer. Saturday’s second annual Smashing Walnuts Foundation “Cracking the Cure” Gala, a fundraiser hosted by the cancer research foundation that Gabriella created with her famil...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, both Virginia Democrats, introduced legislation today 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 — which marked the beginning of the end of the Civil War. Warner and Kaine’s legislation looks to protect some of the most endangered Civil War battlefields in the country by authorizing the National Park...Continue Reading

More than eight months after U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine and others began agitating for the Obama administration to seek congressional approval for military action against the Islamic State group, senior administration officials will make their case to a Senate panel Wednesday. Secretary of State John Kerry, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the joint chiefs, are set to appear before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday morning. After their testimon...Continue Reading

I support President Barack Obama's efforts to find a diplomatic path to end Iran's nuclear ambitions. When many in the United States and abroad criticized the start of the negotiations in November 2013, I pointed out that such diplomacy is in the best traditions of our country. All recognize the danger of an Iran with nuclear weapons and share the same goal - to guarantee Iran does not have the capacity to develop a bomb. If we can eliminate such a danger through diplomatic means, we should do s...Continue Reading

With more than $40 million in sales, Virginia is the third largest exporter of agricultural goods to Cuba - after Georgia and Louisiana. Some lawmakers hope to normalize trade relations - but some feel it’s best to maintain our distance.  After recently venturing down to Cuba, Virginia Democratic Senator Mark Warner describes how the embargo hurts Virginia farmers. “Well it’s really difficult because the Cubans have to pay all in cash up front. We have no financial arrange...Continue Reading

NORFOLK -- Senators Mark Warner (D-VA) and Time Kaine (D-VA) have signed onto a letter to the Government Accountability Office asking the agency to investigative the process currently used to approve roadside safety devices. In the letter, the senators say their request to the GAO--an independent agency commonly referred to as Congress' watchdog--was prompted by the ongoing controversy surrounding a once-popular guardrail that critics have called unsafe. The Trinity ET-Plus has come under fire a...Continue Reading

When tens of thousands of unaccompanied children began arriving at America’s Southern border last summer, I felt as if I knew them. Many of these kids were coming from northern Honduras where I worked as the director of a Jesuit-run technical school 35 years ago. Last month, I went back to Honduras to visit my school and reconnect with the missionaries and young people who have played such a major role in my life. I was a 21-year-old first-year student at Harvard Law School. I was racing t...Continue Reading

A pair of moderate Democratic senators introduced a bill Thursday that would increase federal support for “clean coal” technology. Sens. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) and Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said their legislation is meant to provide a viable path forward for coal-fired electricity as the country moves to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. “Talking about adhering to an all-of-the-above energy strategy in America is easy — and there’s a lot of talk — but actually seeking...Continue Reading

Cuando decenas de miles de niños no acompañados comenzaron a llegar a la frontera sur de los Estados Unidos el verano pasado, sentí como si yo los conociera. Muchos de estos niños venían procedentes del norte de Honduras, donde trabajé como director de una escuela técnica jesuita hace 35 años. La semana pasada, regresé a Honduras a visitar mi escuela y volver a conectarme con los misioneros y los jóvenes que han jugado un pape...Continue Reading

El senador demócrata de Virginia, Tim Kaine, pidió más atención de EE.UU. a la región latinoamericana al concluir esta semana una visita a Colombia, México y Honduras. Al igual que Estados Unidos tiene relaciones con otros países de Europa, Oriente Medio, Rusia o China, su relación con los países del sur son “igualmente importantes”, anotó Kaine en una teleconferencia la tarde del lunes 23 de febrero. Pero con frec...Continue Reading

It's not quite the same thing, being a city councilman in Richmond when it  was the second deadliest city in nation, and trying to get a handle on the violence in Honduras, where murder rates are among the highest in the world. But, pausing for a moment to think about his return to the Honduran community where he worked with Jesuit missionaries at a technical school, Sen. Tim Kaine found some hopeful parallels from his days in Richmond city government, back in the 1990s. They come down to b...Continue Reading

A Congress accustomed to issuing steady denunciations of President Obama’s executive actions as unconstitutional — the separation of powers thing — finds itself in an unwanted place: The president has asked lawmakers for an Authorization for Use of Military Force against the so-called Islamic State, whose acts of barbarism seem to be designed to foment an apocalyptic religious war. Hawkish Republicans are not pleased with Obama’s request. Nor or many of his dovish fellow...Continue Reading

Después de 35 años, el senador demócrata por Virginia, Tim Kaine visita los lugares donde trabajó y enseñó como parte de su voluntariado social. Durante la visita de tres días al país centroamericano, Kaine estuvo acompañado de su colega, el senador republicano por Texas, John Cornyn. En años recientes hemos entrevistado y seguido la trayectoria del senador Kaine, como gobernador del estado de Virginia, como presidente del Com...Continue Reading