Press Releases

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, Congressmen Bobby Scott, Don Beyer, G. K. Butterfield, Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, and Hilary Shelton, Director of the NAACP Washington Bureau introduced the 400 Years of African American History Act (S. 2548/H.R. 4539) – legislation that would establish a commission to plan programs and activities in 2019 across the country to recognize the arrival and influence of Africans in America. Similar commissions have been established to recognize English & Hispanic heritage, including the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, Virginia and the 450th anniversary of the founding of St. Augustine, Florida. This commission would be charged with recognizing and highlighting the resilience and contribution of African Americans since 1619, as well as acknowledging the painful impact that slavery and laws that enforced racial discrimination have had on our nation’s history.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Ranking Member Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (VA-03) released the following statement today in response to President Barack Obama’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2017: “President Obama’s FY 2017 budget makes the necessary investments that will continue our economic recovery by ensuring all America’s students, families and workers share in the gains we have made over the last seven years. “Building on the success of the Every Student Succeeds Act, the President’s budget includes a proposal to provide high-quality universal pre-K, new funding to help more than 1 million youth enter the workforce and gain valuable work experience year-round, and proposals to provide two years of free college and year-round Pell Grants. It also makes investments to reduce child hunger during the summer and provides funding for juvenile justice and delinquency prevention programs to support vulnerable youth in communities across the country.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, along with Governor Terry McAuliffe, U.S. Representatives Bobby Scott, Randy Forbes, Rob Wittman, Gerry Connolly, Robert Hurt, Dave Brat, Don Beyer and Scott Rigell released the following statement welcoming the groundbreaking of a Foreign Affairs Security Training Center (FASTC) at Fort Pickett in Blackstone, Virginia.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Ranking Member Robert C. “Bobby” Scott of the Committee on Education and the Workforce made the following remarks on the House floor this evening during a Special Order hour on the Flint, Michigan water crisis: “Thank you, Congresswoman Watson Coleman, for your leadership and coordinating this Special Order. And thank you to the Michigan Representatives who've been working so hard to try to respond to this tragedy. “There will be a lot of investigations designed to find out what happened, whose fault it was, whether or not any crimes were committed and how to prevent this from happening in the future. But there's one thing we know and that is that children have been poisoned by lead exposure. As the ranking member of the Committee on Education and the Workforce, we've begun the process to determine how to appropriately respond because we know that lead poisoning creates severe challenges to the public school system. Children are entitled to equal educational opportunity, and that goes back to the Brown v. Board of Education case, where the Court found 'it is doubtful that any child may be reasonably be expected to succeed in life without an education' and that right – and that opportunity – is 'a right which must be made available to all on equal terms.'

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today Senators Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Bob Casey (D-PA) and Congressmen Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Bobby Scott (D-VA) urged the Obama Administration to strongly support agricultural conservation programs to ensure a clean Chesapeake Bay in its FY 2017 budget. To increase the economic benefits from the lands and waters throughout the Bay’s watershed, states are working to achieve the Chesapeake Bay Clean Water Blueprint, but progress is in jeopardy if programs are not sufficiently funded. “Great progress has been made in the last six years… Unfortunately, recent program reviews conducted by the Chesapeake Bay Program reveal that in particular geographies, we are not on track to meet the goals of the Blueprint,” the Members wrote in a letter to Office of Management and Budget Director Shaun Donovan. “All that has been accomplished, and all that stands to be accomplished, will be threatened if our rural areas cannot receive the support and assistance they need at this critical time.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the Obama Administration announced that the President’s Fiscal Year 2017 Budget will invest $12 billion over ten years to reduce child hunger during the summer through a permanent Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer for Children (Summer EBT) program to provide supplemental food benefits during the summer months for all families with children eligible for free and reduced price school meals. Full committee Ranking Member Bobby Scott and committee and House Democrats have sought to expand innovative feeding programs that help kids stay healthy year-round as well as increase access to school meals. “The proposal to make permanent and expand the summer EBT program nationwide ensures that an effective option for reducing hunger is available to those in need throughout the country,” said Ranking Member Bobby Scott (VA-03).

NEWPORT NEWS, VA – Congressman Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (VA-03) issued the following statement on today’s announcement by Congressman Scott Rigell (VA-02) that he will retire at the end of the 114th Congress: “In both the private and public sector, Scott Rigell has dedicated his life to serving the Hampton Roads community. In his short time in Congress, he has developed a well-deserved reputation as a pragmatic leader on addressing our nation’s fiscal issues and reforming how Congress operates. I have personally enjoyed working with him on issues critical to Hampton Roads, including protecting our region’s military assets and supporting our shipbuilders.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congressman Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (VA-03), Ranking Member of the Committee on Education and the Workforce, introduced H.R. 4376 the Pay Stub Transparency Act – legislation to protect American workers from the rampant problem of wage theft. “Wage theft is all too common, especially among low-wage workers,” said Ranking Member Bobby Scott. “Given the prevalence of this problem, we must work to ensure that hardworking Americans have the tools necessary to fight back against the injustice of wage theft. This legislation would do just that.” In 2012, victims of wage theft recovered $933 million in stolen wages through complaints filed with federal, state, or local agencies or through private litigation, according to the Economic Policy Institute. But this staggering figure represents only a fraction of the total amount of stolen wages every year, which is estimated to be as much as $50 billion nationally.