In The News

WASHINGTON — One US senator believes his colleagues will provide funds to fight the Islamic State (IS) group, but he wants the strikes to cease unless Congress formally authorizes them. Democrat Tim Kaine of Virginia, a member of the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees, predicts Congress will inflate the 2015 overseas contingency operations (OCO) budget during a November-December lame duck session. The House approved $79.4 billion for war monies, but that was before the ...Continue Reading

Hours after the U.S. and allies for the first time launched airstrikes against Islamic State militants in Syria, Sen. Timothy M. Kaine, D-Va., warned Tuesday that without giving President Barack Obama clear authorization for such action, Congress is essentially accepting the “Cheney doctrine” of pre-emptive warfare. “The president has indicated that these missions are justified by the 2001 and 2002 authorizations by Congress. I think that this argument is an extremely creative ...Continue Reading

“The president shouldn’t be doing this without Congress,” Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said Tuesday of strikes against the Islamic State group, and “Congress shouldn’t be allowing it to happen without Congress.” Otherwise, Capitol Hill is embracing the policy of preemptive war favored by former Vice President Dick Cheney that it rejected back in 2001, right after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, he said at a Center for American Progress Action Fund event. Kaine, who ...Continue Reading

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said Tuesday that Congress should be debating authorization for airstrikes against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) "right now," as the U.S. began bombing targets in Syria Monday night. Kaine has led calls for President Obama to seek congressional authorization for the strikes against ISIS. On Tuesday, he said that the military mission had changed, requiring a new authorization. "I think the mission has now switched to an offensive mission," Kaine said on MSNBC, ...Continue Reading

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) on Tuesday urged the White House to seek congressional authorization to conduct airstrikes on the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), or call off the military campaign against the terrorist group. “If we’re going to engage this mission we got to do it right or not do it. And if we don’t get Congress on board with it, we aren’t doing it right,” Kaine said during a speech at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, stepping up his criti...Continue Reading

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) intensified his calls for Congress to debate the authorization of expanded U.S. military operations in the Middle East Tuesday: failing to take up the issue later this fall, he said, would essentially be an endorsement of the Cheney Doctrine of preemptive war they'd once rejected. "If we’re going to engage this mission we got to do it right or not do it. And if we don’t get Congress on board with it, we aren’t doing it right," Kaine said during a speech a...Continue Reading

The hardest call during my first year in the Senate was my vote to authorize military force in Syria to punish President Bashar al-Assad for using chemical weapons against his citizens.  When I was sworn in on January 3rd, 2013, I expected difficult votes.  But I did not anticipate such a profound vote within my first nine months.  Only the 18 Senators who serve on the Foreign Relations Committee had to take that vote on September 4, following President Obama’s decision to a...Continue Reading

U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine said Thursday he believes in the approach President Obama has laid out to combat the Islamic State terrorist group, including plans to arm and train Syrian rebels to aid in the fight. That proposal, approved by Congress this week, has drawn skepticism from both ends of the political spectrum. Some legislators believe the plan is too limited to be effective while others worry it will end up backfiring. But Kaine, D-Va, said working with rebel groups in Syria is an important pi...Continue Reading

Every teacher at some point gets tested by their students. Someone will act up in class or do something because they think they can get away with it. How that teacher handles the situation most of the time sets the tone for the rest of the school year. In many ways, it’s the same with our country’s foreign policy. There comes a time when threatening speeches just aren’t enough, you need to take action. That’s why, with a few qualifiers, we support the legislation Virginia...Continue Reading

Tim Kaine won his seat in the Senate in 2012. It has taken him only two years to establish himself as one of the chamber’s most informed members regarding war powers. Kaine believes, rightly, that presidents must seek congressional authorization for military interventions. Although responses to direct attacks on American interests sometimes must be launched before Congress can act, presidents still must seek advice and consent. Kaine believes that President Barack Obama needs congressional...Continue Reading

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) introduced a proposal Wednesday authorizing President Obama to use military force against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) but barring ground troops except for rescue missions. Kaine, perhaps the most outspoken voice among Senate Democrats calling for Congress to authorize action, is introducing the bill one day after Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey raised the possibility that ground troops could be used to fight ISIS. The proposal from Kaine w...Continue Reading

Sen. Tim Kaine is introducing a limited war authorization against ISIS, even as Congress is set to jet out of town without an authorization vote before the elections. The Virginia Democrat, who has led the push for Congress to go on record, would limit the use of ground forces in the conflict to rescue missions and to go after high-value targets. The authority against ISIS, also known as ISIL or the Islamic State, would expire after a year. He also proposes to repeal the 2002 authorization to us...Continue Reading

Sen. Tim Kaine is giving voice to his longstanding concern that Presidents aren’t paying careful enough attention to the War Powers Act and what the Constitution says about the role of Congress when war looms, with legislation would specifically authorize the use of force against the Islamic State (aka ISIL or ISIS). As it happens, he's doing so on Constitution Day. Kaine said his intention is to be specific and to narrowly define that authorization, to focus on key objectives President Ob...Continue Reading

U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine has introduced a congressional resolution that would authorize the use of military force against the Islamic State, known as ISIS, but would prohibit using American ground troops. Kaine has been a vocal opponent of President Barack Obama’s view that he can launch offensive military strikes against the terrorist group without congressional approval. The Virginia senator said Congress must not ignore its responsibility under the Constitution to decide when the U.S. should...Continue Reading

Sen. Timothy M. Kaine, D-Va., introduced legislation Wednesday to authorize limited use of military force against the Islamic State, in response to President Barack Obama’s speech on U.S. strategy for dealing with the terror group. Islamic State poses a serious and imminent threat to stability in Iraq, Syria and regional neighbors, said Kaine, a member of the Armed Services Committee and chairman of the Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Near Eastern and South and Central Asian Affairs. &ld...Continue Reading

Sen. Tim Kaine’s (D-Va.) is set to unveil a proposal Wednesday to authorize military force in Iraq that would strictly limit the engagement of U.S. ground forces. The Associated Press reported Tuesday evening that the Virginia lawmaker, who is a member of both the Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees, seeks to repeal the 2002 authorization that two presidents have cited as their authority for military operations against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS or ISIL). Kaine's...Continue Reading

Virginia, Ohio, Wisconsin and Wyoming might have economic differences, but senators from these four states see a common problem that could choke off any recovery: a lack of workers in the skilled trades. In Virginia, the challenge is evident in shipbuilding and ship repair, where the average worker age is 55 and 18,000 will leave the industry by decade's end, according to one survey. In Ohio, the same story surfaces in manufacturing, where a tool-and-die maker called a legislative town hall to p...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON — THE current threat posed by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, will test not only the resolve and strategic judgment of America and its allies, but also our nation’s fidelity to a basic constitutional principle. Our Constitution reserves to Congress the power to declare war and designates our president as the commander in chief, but our recent history has been characterized by executive overreach and legislative abdication in the initiation of military action....Continue Reading

Officials from Newport News Shipbuilding will join Sen. Tim Kaine in Washington Tuesday morning to discuss the challenge of filling jobs in technical fields and the skilled trades. The panel discussion, which includes other leaders in government, education and business, will be live-streamed starting at 11 a.m. In a recent visit to the shipyard's Apprentice School, Kaine criticized government policies that favor the pursuit of college degrees at the expense of people seeking jobs that require a ...Continue Reading

Democratic Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia says the question of whether Congress needs to authorize President Barack Obama's declared war on Islamic State was settled by Thomas Jefferson when that president went after the Barbary pirates more than 200 years ago. Jefferson, a founding father, dispatched ships to the Barbary Coast of North Africa as a protection force in 1801 because Muslim pirates were seizing American merchant vessels. He then declared that he was "unauthorized by the Constitution...Continue Reading