Media
Latest News
Coastal Virginians don’t need us to educate them about sea-level rise and recurrent flooding. They see with their own eyes how often severe flooding occurs in their region and they know that the number and intensity of these floods has increased when comparing past decades to today. That’s why they are coming together in a bipartisan, locally driven effort to work on this issue as a unified Hampton Roads community.
And that’s why we, as bipartisan members of Virginia’s congressional delegation, are part of that effort. Like the constituents we represent, we have different views on many national issues. But we are Virginians first, and our constituents have the right to expect us to find common ground on issues of importance to Virginia.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the United States Sentencing Commission voted unanimously to apply a reduction in the sentencing guideline levels applicable to most federal drug inmates retroactively. Unless Congress disapproves the amendment, beginning November 1, 2014, eligible inmates can ask courts to reduce their sentences. Courts will review a number of individualized factors, including public safety, in consideration of whether to grant these reductions.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – In a joint letter, U.S. Senators Mark Warner, Tim Kaine and U.S. Congressmen Bobby Scott, Randy Forbes, Scott Rigell and Rob Wittman urged Secretary of the Air Force Deborah James to consider Virginia’s Joint Base Langley-Eustis as a location for the future Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center (AFIMSC). Locating the new facility there would help minimize the impact of 742 positions being eliminated at Langley-Eustis as part of the Air Force’s consolidation plans announced this week.
“Virginia is more connected to the military than any other state,” the members wrote. “We believe the existing infrastructure, military-friendly environment, and close proximity to major commands and other Service installations, make it an ideal location for this headquarters.”
WASHINGTON, D.C. – A bipartisan group of House members today introduced legislation that would strengthen support for youth who are victims of sex trafficking. The proposed bills would improve identification and assessment of child sex trafficking victims and enhance existing support for runaway and homeless youth.
Issues:Civil RightsEducation
July 9, 2014
|Article
Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. As our Nation continues to recover from the Great Recession, we must continue to prepare our Nation's workers for the jobs of the future.
The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act will make long-needed improvements in workforce investment programs and services, including many that will benefit those who are often left behind. The legislation contains an enhanced definition of ``individuals with barriers to employment'' that explicitly includes workers over the age of 55 as well as the long-term unemployed. This means State and local workforce plans must include goals and strategies for serving these and other disenfranchised groups.
Issues:Economy and JobsEducation
RICHMOND – Hampton Roads' congressional leaders no more agree on how to respond to the surge of Central American children massing at the United States' southern border than they do on broader immigration reforms.
U.S. Rep. Robert C. "Bobby" Scott, D-Newport News, said he wants to see the details of the president's plan before offering his support, including where the $3.7 billion would come from. But like Kaine and Warner, Scott focused on the situations these children, as well as adults, are running from.
He said there's "more push than pull" driving the exodus and called on Republican leaders in the House to bring the Senate's immigration reform package, which passed last year with bipartisan support, to the floor. If Republicans ignore pressure from the party's conservative Tea Party wing and work with Democrats, there are enough votes to pass the bill, Scott said.
Issues:Immigration
NEWPORT NEWS, VA – Congressman Robert C. "Bobby" Scott issued the following statement on the passing of former Newport News School Board Chairwoman Effie Ashe:
"It was with great sadness that I learned of the passing of former Newport News School Board Chairwoman Effie Ashe. Effie spent most of her life in service to her community. For 33 years, she served our nation at Fort Eustis working in several civil service positions, and was often one of the few African Americans on base who worked in an office. She was never drawn to the limelight of public office, but her community and the schools and students of Newport News desperately needed her tenacity and straightforwardness.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) and Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigations Ranking Member Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (D-Va.) sent a letter to the Chair of the U.S. Sentencing Commission Patti Saris. This letter comes at the close of the Commission’s comment period on a “drugs minus two” amendment, a proposal that fixes a flaw in the sentencing guidelines that has resulted in excessive sentences for approximately 51,000 currently incarcerated federal drug offenders who have been sentenced since 1987. The Commission has acknowledged that since 1987 the drug guidelines have been higher than necessary for years, due to a miscalculation at the “low end” of the drug sentencing guidelines wherein a low level offense carriers a prison term higher than the mandatory minimum sentence.
Issues:Civil Rights
NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) – Several members of Congress representing Virginia and Hampton Roads hosted a regional conference on Monday about the local threat from sea level rise, particularly in Norfolk.
The conference was held at the Ted Constant Center at Old Dominion University in Norfolk. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA), Rep. Rob Wittman (VA-01), Rep. Scott Rigell (VA-02) and Rep. Bobby Scott (VA-03) organized the event, alongside mayors Paul Fraim of Norfolk, Will Sessoms of Virginia Beach, and Kenny Wright of Portsmouth.
Issues:Energy & Environment
In the United States today, we have a problem with our prisons. We incarcerate our people at nearly six times the rate of most other industrialized nations, and yet we have higher rates of crime.
While our crime rate has dropped substantially over the past 20 years, crime and our high level of incarceration continue to have massive social and economic costs to our nation. According to the Pew Center on the States, state and federal spending on corrections has grown 400 percent over the past 20 years, from about $12 billion to about $60 billion. Corrections spending is currently among the fastest growing line items in state budgets, and 1 in 8 full-time state government employees works in corrections. Clearly we have a long way to go still, but there are methods we can use to make our communities safer while reducing incarceration, with its massive associated costs.
Issues:Youth PROMISE Act