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August 6, 2017
WHEN TERRY McAULIFFE became the governor of Virginia, he inherited leadership of a state that had fallen behind in responding to the effects of global climate change and realizing the economy opportunities presented by the new energy economy. From the beginning of his term, McAuliffe and his team committed themselves to making the commonwealth more resilient and promoting clean-energy technologies that cut carbon emissions and create new jobs. In fact, McAuliffe and our congressional delegation secured a $120.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to fund innovative resilience projects in Norfolk. Earlier this year, U.S. Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner and I introduced the Building Up Infrastructure and Limiting Disasters through Resilience (BUILD Resilience) Act, which is modeled after the National Disaster Resilience Competition that provided the HUD grant.

April 16, 2017
This weekend, our nation marks the 10th anniversary of the horrific mass shooting that occurred at Virginia Tech on April 16, 2007. That tragedy claimed the lives of 32 people and left 17 others wounded. The effects still resonate, in our commonwealth and the nation. As we take time to remember, mourn and celebrate the lives of the students and faculty members who died, members of Congress must come together to address the epidemic of gun violence so as to make sure tragedies such as the one at Virginia Tech and so many others never happen again.

March 13, 2017
U.S. Rep. Robert C. "Bobby" Scott met with Peninsula health care providers Monday and said they voiced concerns over losing Medicaid funding under a plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Last week, the GOP-led Congress released a copy of a bill to replace the ACA called the American Health Care Act. Provisions in the bill call for eliminating the individual mandate and penalties for not having insurance, and using refundable tax credits to help participants pay for care. It also calls for changes to how Medicaid payments for care for low-income, elderly and uninsured people are paid. Scott held two meetings in Hampton Roads Monday, one at Chesapeake Regional HealthCare in Chesapeake and one at Southeastern Virginia Health System's Physicians Community Health Center in Newport News. The meetings were closed to the media, but in a phone interview after the meetings, Scott said they were productive and gave him good insight to take back to Washington.
Issues:Health Care

January 7, 2017
FOR DECADES, the nation’s leaders were at a stalemate, unable to enact real reform, even though we knew that our health care system was not working for too many Americans. Before reform, millions lost their health insurance every year. Often, individuals with pre-existing conditions, such as cancer or diabetes, were unable to afford insurance, if they could obtain it at all. The critically ill hit the lifetime limit of what their insurance policy would cover, forcing them to pay out of pocket for the rest of their care. Families were declaring bankruptcy because of unpaid medical bills. Young adults were getting kicked off their parents’ insurance when they graduated college.
Issues:Health Care

November 15, 2016
U.S. Rep. Robert C. "Bobby" Scott, D-Newport News, has championed the ACA. In a statement, Scott said when Republicans talk about repealing the law, people have to remember how broken the American health care system was before the ACA, with millions of people losing health care coverage, those with pre-existing conditions unable to get coverage, and people going bankrupt trying to pay high medical bills. "The Affordable Care Act solved many of these issues. Americans can no longer be denied access to health insurance because of a pre-existing condition. Young adults can now stay on their parents' health insurance until their 26th birthday. The Medicare trust fund is solvent well into the next decade," Scott said. Scott acknowledged that the ACA hasn't fixed all problems with the health care system, but urges Republicans to build on what's in place, not tear it down.
Issues:Health Care

September 4, 2016
IN THE 1964 LANDMARK decision Wesberry v. Sanders, the U.S. Supreme Court stated that “[n]o right is more precious in a free country than that of having a voice in the election of those who make the laws under which, as good citizens, we must live. Other rights, even the most basic, are illusory if the right to vote is undermined.” Sadly, many state and local governments responded to this assessment by continuing their sordid history of blocking access to the ballot box. To ensure that American citizens were not stripped of this precious constitutional right, Congress passed and President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

March 11, 2016
NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) – School nutrition was the topic of discussion at a Norfolk elementary school Friday morning. Congressman Bobby Scott (VA-03) talked to students at Richard Bowling Elementary School on East Princess Anne Road. Representative Scott is a member of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, which is tasked with making sure all children have an equal shot at success.

February 9, 2016
After months of hype about the historic bipartisan consensus that we must make the American criminal justice system less harsh, President Obama finally signed a justice reform bill into law Monday. There’s only one problem: Instead of making the justice system more fair and less punitive, the new law will make it more vindictive and petty. Specifically, it will require people who have been convicted of sex crimes against minors to carry special passports in which their status as registered sex offenders will be marked with conspicuous identifying marks. The point of International Megan’s Law,in the words of its House sponsor Chris Smith of New Jersey, is to prevent “sex tourism” by making it harder for people to “hop on planes and go to places for a week or two and abuse little children.” In addition to the passport stamp, this goal is supposed to be achieved through the formation of a new federal unit inside of Immigration and Customs Enforcement called the “Angel Watch Center,” which will inform foreign governments when American sex offenders have made plans to visit their countries.
Issues:Civil Rights

September 20, 2015
Bipartisanship is elusive in Washington, especially with an upcoming presidential election. But the widespread consensus behind efforts to fix our nation's broken and costly criminal justice system proves that common ground does exist. Republicans and Democrats can agree that the driving force behind fixing our criminal justice system should be an approach that delivers the most public safety at the lowest taxpayer cost. Along with many of our colleagues, we have been working to pass the Safe, Accountable, Fair, and Effective Justice Act. The SAFE Justice Act would implement targeted reforms to the federal sentencing and corrections system, drawing on research and empirical evidence about what truly works to change criminal behavior, protect public safety and control costs.

September 6, 2015
For far too long, politicians across the nation have chosen to play politics with crime policy by enacting so-called “tough on crime” slogans such as “three strikes and you’re out” or rhymes like “you do the adult crime, you do the adult time.” As appealing as these soundbites may be, they have done nothing to reduce crime — but they have overloaded our prisons. Research by The Pew Charitable Trusts shows that between 1980 and 2013 our federal prison population skyrocketed from 24,000 to 215,000. The United States now has around 5 percent of the world’s population, yet 25 percent of the world’s prisoners. It has gotten to the point that some recent studies have concluded that our level of over-incarceration is actually counterproductive, meaning that it destroys so many families, creates so many people with felony records and wastes so much taxpayer money that it generates more crime than it stops.
Issues:Civil Rights