Media

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.

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.”