Press Releases

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, Congressman Scott Taylor, joined by Representatives Bobby Scott (VA-03), Walter Jones (NC-03), and G. K. Butterfield (NC-01), sent a bipartisan letter to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), urging them to establish the Virginia Beach-Norfolk (VA-NC CSA) locality pay area by January 2019. Since 2015, the Federal Salary Council has recommended to the President's Pay Agent that Virginia Beach-Norfolk be established as a separate locality pay area. However, despite receiving approval from the Pay Agent, OPM has yet to act on the recommendation, leaving this issue unresolved for the approximate 30,500 federal employees who live and work in this locality area.

WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman Bobby Scott (VA-03), ranking member of the Education and the Workforce Committee, released the following statement after the Department of Education (ED) Office of Inspector General (OIG) released their recommendations for H.R.4508. “Independent analysis continues to confirm what we have said about H.R. 4508 from the beginning, it makes college more expensive for students and is a wish list for for-profit schools. Our claim that it will make college more expensive was supported by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office’s analysis that the bill slashes $15 billion from federal student aid. And today, the Office of the Inspector General has confirmed that the ‘accountability’ provisions in H.R. 4508 could result in less scrutiny of the sector responsible for the overwhelming majority of OIG investigations and monetary recoveries.

WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman Bobby Scott (VA-03), ranking member of the Education and the Workforce Committee, released the following statement after the Department of Education announced their final list of priorities last Friday March 2, 2018. “As with many recent actions by the Department, I am deeply disappointed with Friday’s announcement. I am disappointed by the Secretary’s failure to heed the advice of many commenters, including Members of Congress, who urged her to abandon school privatization proposals and focus on making sure every public school succeeds. I am disappointed that the words espoused in the final priorities –‘ to support the needs of students with disabilities and improve school climate’ – do not align with recent actions taken by the Department to remove protections for students of color with disabilities and undermine the efficacy of the Office of Civil Rights.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Congressman Bobby Scott (VA-03) issued the following statement after voting against H.R. 1865, the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act of 2017: “While I support the underlying goal of prosecuting those who facilitate sex trafficking online to the fullest extent of the law, I am opposed to how this bill accomplishes that goal. There are laws already on the books that have been successfully used by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to send executives of websites that promote prostitution to federal prison. Further, the bill will apply not only to online advertisers of sex trafficking, which Congress already criminalized in 2015 when we passed the SAVE Act (see 18 U.S.C. 1591), and punishes conduct that is much less serious than what is ordinarily viewed as 'sex trafficking.'

WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman Bobby Scott (D-VA), ranking member of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce and Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions issued the following statement after the U.S. Department of Education (ED) announced a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for a two year delay of the Equity in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) rule, which addresses disproportionate identification, placement, and disciplinary treatment of students of color in special education. When Congress last reauthorized the IDEA in 2004, it sought to correct disparate treatment of students of color with disabilities by requiring states, for the first time, to identify school districts with, and direct federal resources to address, gross inequities.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Education and the Workforce Committee Ranking Member Bobby Scott (VA-03) issued the following statement after being appointed by House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi to the Joint Select Committee on Solvency of Multiemployer Pension Plans​ (Joint Select Committee). Ranking Member Scott is one of only 16 Members of Congress to be appointed to it. Established by the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018, the Joint Select Committee is responsible for putting forward solutions to Congress before the year’s end to significantly improve the solvency of multiemployer pension plans and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC).

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congressman Robert C. "Bobby" Scott (VA-03) announced the beginning of the 25th Annual Third Congressional District High School Art Competition. The competition is open to all high school students (grades 9-12) residing in the Third Congressional District of Virginia. Entries are due by 5:00 PM, April 27, 2018. An Artistic Discovery is a nationwide program coordinated by Members of the United States House of Representatives to recognize the artistic talents of our youth. The nationwide competition involves more than 50,000 talented high school students. In the past, over 200 Members of Congress have participated in the program.

WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman Bobby Scott (VA-03), a vice chair of the House Democratic Caucus’ Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, released the following statement on the shooting yesterday at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida: “Once again our hearts go out to families and a community devastated by the epidemic of gun violence. While sending thoughts and prayers is important, they are useless without meaningful action. Yesterday was the 18th school shooting and 29th mass shooting in 2018 alone. When is enough finally enough? We cannot accept these atrocities as inevitable. While the parents and loved ones of the victims try to bear the unbearable, Congress cannot sit idly by. We have the power to take action and I urge my colleagues to bring commonsense legislation to the floor.”