Media

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the Virginia Congressional delegation announced that the U.S. Navy will position its newest carrier, the Gerald Ford, at Naval Station Norfolk for the next several years given its unique capabilities and capacity. This will provide an additional aircraft carrier to the region until 2018 when the USS Lincoln returns to its home port. In addition the Navy has decided to reverse an earlier decision and will maintain Little Creek as a deep water amphibious port and homeport four amphibious ships at Little Creek through 2020. The delegation worked with the Navy to fund critical infrastructure upgrades for Little Creek, including a $30 million electrical grid upgrade in 2012.

NEWPORT NEWS, VA – Today, Congressman Robert C. "Bobby" Scott (VA-03) announced the beginning of the 22nd 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 Wednesday, April 22, 2015. 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.

SELMA, AL – Today, Congressman Robert C. “Bobby” Scott joined President Obama, Congressman John Lewis, and other Members of Congress at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday. On March 7, 1965, a group of brave civil rights marchers marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge on their way to Montgomery to demand that African American citizens be given their constitutional right to vote. At the bridge, the marchers were attacked by Alabama State troopers, with billy clubs, cattle prods, and tear gas. Many of the marchers were injured, some of them severely.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Yesterday, Congressman Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (VA-03) and Congressman Trey Gowdy (SC-04) introduced H.R. 1251, the Federal Defender Ex-Officio Act in the House of Representatives. This bill would add a non-voting Federal Defender representative to the U.S. Sentencing Commission. Currently, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has two non-voting representatives, but the Federal Defenders lack even one, despite the sizable number of defendants in federal criminal proceedings represented by Federal Public Defender organizations.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congressman Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (VA-03) introduced several bills targeted at improving the nation’s broken criminal justice system. “The bills I introduced today would make targeted but much needed improvements to our criminal justice system,” Scott stated. “For example, making the Fair Sentencing Act retroactive is just commonsense. There is absolutely no reason that individuals sentenced under the old crack cocaine sentencing laws should not be able to petition a court, which can conduct case-by-case determinations that it is in the interest of public safety, to grant the benefit of reductions enacted pursuant to the Fair Sentencing Act. Research has demonstrated that treating crack more severely than powder cocaine is not based upon any scientific or otherwise empirical evidence of increased dangerousness to the user or to the community. It is time Congress does away with this discriminatory disparity once and for all.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Tomorrow, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in David King, et al v. Sylvia Burwell, Secretary of Health and Human Services, et al. The Ranking Members of the House Committees on Ways and Means, Energy and Commerce, and Education and the Workforce today reiterated their support of the affordability provisions within the Affordable Care Act, as previously noted in an Amicus Brief before the Court. Ranking Members Sander Levin (D-MI), Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), and Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (D-VA) released the following joint statement: “Since day one, our commitment has been to provide quality and affordable health insurance for all Americans, regardless of whether a state chose to operate its own marketplace or let state residents purchase insurance in the federal marketplace. Let us be clear: the Affordable Care Act was structured and designed to improve health insurance coverage and access across the entire country

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) and Congressman Bobby Scott (D-VA) led a bicameral group of Democratic lawmakers in filing an amicus brief opposing the District Court ruling that would maintain the outdated exclusion of home care workers from basic worker protections like minimum wage and overtime. “For too long, home care workers have been denied bedrock minimum wage and overtime protections,” said Congressman Scott. “ As this workforce grows, these workers deserve to be recognized as the professionals they are. I hope that the D.C. circuit court will overturn this misguided decision and extend Fair Labor Standards Act protections to the nearly 2 million workers who would benefit from the Department of Labor’s rule.”