In The News

Virginia's top Democratic leaders - the governor and two U.S. senators - said Thursday it's time for Republican legislators to stop blocking the expansion of Medicaid in the state under the federal health care law. In a rare joint phone call with reporters, Gov. Terry McAuliffe and Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine used the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the Medicaid program to make their case. After failing in 2014 and earlier this year to persuade the GOP-controlled General Assembly to acce...Continue Reading

Many called it socialized medicine. A rising Republican warned that we’d "spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it once was like in America when men were free.” Donald Trump talking about Obamacare in 2015? No, Ronald Reagan urging Congress to vote against the creation of Medicare. This week marks 50 years since the passage of Medicare. If addressing inequality is a real priority for Republicans officials — particularly tho...Continue Reading

Frustrated by safety problems that have persisted for years, U.S. senators from Maryland and Virginia are pushing to shake up the leadership of the Metrorail system and set new standards for emergency procedures. An amendment to the Senate transportation bill was introduced Tuesday, the latest attempt by public officials to address a deep well of financial and safety problems at the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. It follows a meeting this month with U.S. Transportation Secretary...Continue Reading

Potential U.S. and Turkish plans to develop areas in Syria free of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) are firming, according to defense officials. The move would portend a new phase in the war against the terrorist group, and could see deepening U.S. involvement in Syria.  The plans would entail American aircraft, Syrian rebels and Turkish forces working together to sweep ISIS from a 60-mile long strip of northern Syria along the Turkish border, according to The New York Times....Continue Reading

Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine had some pointed words Tuesday night about the federal budget process and the potential for another government shutdown this fall — an outcome that would have direct effects on the economy of Northern Virginia. "This is a philosophy that no other organization would follow because the basic summary is if we don't do something good, we will do something stupid," Kaine, a Democrat, said during a taping of the latest installment of "Kojo In Your Community," th...Continue Reading

As colleges grapple with the widespread problem of sexual assault, there is a growing consensus that the nation’s schools need to do more to educate young people about sex and relationships before they ever set foot on campus. A little-noticed measure tucked into the Senate’s 600-page bill to rewrite No Child Left Behind, which passed Thursday, would require the nation’s high schools to begin reporting how they teach students about safe relationships, including what i...Continue Reading

Private conversations last December between University of Virginia students and U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine led to the Senate passing legislation Thursday that would spur high schools to teach students how to deal with sexual harassment or violence. It also asks that schools discuss the meaning of consent. Kaine said he sought a closed-door meeting with U.Va. students in the weeks following the November 2014 publication of a now-discredited Rolling Stone magazine article about a supposed gang rape at th...Continue Reading

The discussion was pretty free-wheeling, when Sen. Tim Kaine gathered with members of UVa’s One Less group last December to talk about what to do about sexual assaults on campus. But he learned something then that, as of today, looks as if will  reshape federal education policy. Over two hours back in December, the senator and the students wrestled with the tough questions of whether colleges or the police and courts ought to deal with such cases. The students looked hard at their own...Continue Reading

William and Mary Professor Distinguished Visiting Professor Lawrence Wilkerson started scanning the 159 page deal on Iran's nuclear program before the sun came up. Shortly after the deal was announced, a contact in Geneva shot him a copy of the agreement, which Wilkerson said was a monumental step forward in curtailing the Iranian regime's ability to produce a nuclear weapon. But Wilkerson said Congressional support would be important for the deal, which he thinks will be critical in d...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON — Senator Angus King, the prudent independent from Maine who caucuses with Democrats, flipped through his copy of thenuclear agreement with Iran on Wednesday, pointing to scores of notes in the page margins. “The first step for me is to read the agreement word for word,” Mr. King said, noting that he also would seek to consult with a former weapons inspector and a nuclear physicist or two. Seeking clarity on the written deal is one of several steps Mr. King says...Continue Reading

Last December, in the wake of the now-discredited Rolling Stone article on campus sexual assault, I went to the University of Virginia to meet with members of One Less, a group that advocates for survivors of rape and sexual assault on campus. I needed their advice. According to the Justice Department, young women between the ages of 16 and 24 consistently experience the highest rate of intimate partner violence. Even though Rolling Stone would soon be retracting the piece, there was no denying ...Continue Reading

Una legislación federal que ayude a prevenir el aumento de víctimas de violaciones y acoso sexual será discutida muy pronto en el senado, luego de que elementos claves para la enseñanza sobre relaciones saludables en las escuelas públicas, fueran incluidos en un proyecto de ley sobre educación presentado esta semana.Esta adición fue aplaudida por los senadores Tim Kaine y Claire McCaskill, quienes presentaron en febrero la Ley de Enseñanza ...Continue Reading

On Tuesday in Cincinnati, Major League Baseball pauses for its mid-season All-Star Game. In that same spirit, let’s recognize the political all-stars in Virginia who have had notable performances so far this year. Just as Tuesday’s game will have both rival Yankees and Red Sox on the same team, our All-Star roster includes both Republicans and Democrats. If you’re counting, we’re fielding five Republicans, two Democrats – and two who don’t fit in either party....Continue Reading

Kaine and Warner, both Democrats, are Virginia’s senators. In 2012, Virginia exported nearly $38 billion of goods and services. With dramatic growth in advanced industries across the commonwealth — from cybersecurity and big data, to energy and manufacturing — Virginia is well-positioned to succeed in the coming decades. Trade is an important part of that equation. Various international organizations, including the United Nations and the World Trade Organization, state as a p...Continue Reading

Welcomed legislation introduced in Washington this week by lawmakers representing both West Virginia and Virginia would correctly ensure the promise of lifetime health care and pensions to retired miners and their families The Miners Protection Act was introduced Tuesday by U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito , R-W.Va., U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., and U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio. The legislation would specif...Continue Reading

Over the July 4 recess, I led a bicameral congressional delegation to Kuwait, Iraq and Turkey to visit American troops and diplomatic personnel and assess the war against ISIL and the dire humanitarian situation in the region. I believe Congress has two primary jobs regarding the battle against ISIL — to authorize the war and provide appropriate budgetary support to succeed. We have yet to do either. For nearly a year, I have been pushing Congress to do its constitutional job and authorize...Continue Reading

The Pamunkey Indians, Pocahontas’ tribe, had an obvious, historical and reasonable claim to federal recognition. But this is Virginia, where no Native American tribe has ever received federal acceptance. And this is 2015, where naked avarice and decades of institutional racism still provide the fuel necessary for opposition. Overcoming a fierce campaign by MGM, which is opening a casino in Prince George’s County, Md., the Pamunkeys won due recognition from the U.S. Bureau of Indian A...Continue Reading

Senate Democrats are drawing red lines on an Iran deal as negotiators race toward a final agreement. Democrats will be crucial to making sure a deal survives the Republican-controlled Congress, and are outlining what they want to see in any agreement accepted by the United States and its six negotiating partners, collectively known as the P5+1.  Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said the level of inspections allowed at Iran's facilities, including military sites, will be the most closely scrutinized a...Continue Reading

City and community leaders expressed relief after the Army announced Thursday it would cut fewer than 100 people from Fort Eustis over the next two years as part of an effort to trim the Army's ranks by 40,000. They had been bracing for cuts of up to 4,200 at Fort Eustis. Only 94 soldiers are on the chopping block, according to Lt. Col. Richard Stebbins, a spokesman for the Newport News post. The figure comes as a happy surprise after the Army spent more than a year looking at 3,400 active duty ...Continue Reading

The decision this year by state lawmakers to set aside $400,000 as compensation for Virginians forcibly sterilized decades ago marks a small but meaningful gesture of societal penance. The payments, capped at $25,000 per individual, can never fully compensate for the injury the state inflicted on some 7,000 Virginians in the name of eugenics. That doesn’t mean the government shouldn’t try, or that today’s leaders are absolved from acknowledging the barbaric injustices of their ...Continue Reading