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NEWPORT NEWS, VA – Today, Congressman Robert C. "Bobby" Scott (VA-03) announced the beginning of the 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 Friday, April 22, 2016.
An Artistic Discovery is a nationwide program coordinated by Members of the U.S. 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.
Issues:Education
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Ranking Member Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (VA-03) issued the following statement today after the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that during the month of February, the economy added 242,000 jobs:
“Today’s job report represents the 72nd consecutive month of private sector job growth with unemployment remaining steady at 4.9 percent. Our economy is steadily growing and more Americans are finding opportunities. However, more work must be done to strengthen our economy and grow working people’s paychecks.
March 1, 2016
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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the gentleman from Massachusetts not only for yielding, but also for his years of work fighting hunger. He is one of the strongest advocates we have in Congress in fighting the scourge of hunger. I want to thank him for all of those years of good work.
It is my privilege to be the ranking member of the Committee on Education and the Workforce. In that perspective, we played an integral role in the reduction of food insecurity and lowering the prevalence of debilitating health conditions, including obesity, diabetes, and others.
February 29, 2016
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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. I thank the gentleman from New York and the gentlewoman from Ohio for organizing tonight's Special Order to call on our colleagues in the Senate to do their job and provide their advice and consent on the President's upcoming nomination to the United States Supreme Court.
The Constitution is pretty clear on this issue. Article II, Section 2, doesn't say the President might or the President should. It says the President shall nominate, and by and with advice and consent of the Senate, appoint judges to the Supreme Court.
There seems to be some suggestion that, if it is an election year, he ought to skip that process and let the next President make the appointment. They say there is very little precedence for a President nominating somebody in an election year.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Yesterday, House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI), House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet Ranking Member Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), House Education and Workforce Committee Ranking Member Bobby Scott (D-VA) and House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice Ranking Member Steve Cohen (D-TN) issued a letter to U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch asking the Department of Justice (DOJ) to follow-up on a request to instruct the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) to review and reconsider an opinion issued on June 29, 2007. The opinion has been interpreted to permit federally funded faith-based organizations to use the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) to override statutory employment nondiscrimination laws.
NEWPORT NEWS, VA – Congressman Robert C. "Bobby" Scott (VA-03) issued the following statement on the death of Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia:
"Justice Scalia was a giant on the Court and in American jurisprudence. His love for the law was always evident in the expressive and often colorful opinions he drafted over the last three decades. I offer my condolences to his wife Maureen, his children, the entire Scalia family and his colleagues on the Supreme Court during their time of bereavement."
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.
Issues:Civil RightsEducation
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.
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
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.
Issues:Economy and Jobs