I rise today for a sad occasion, and that is to remember the lives of two Virginians, Alison Parker and Adam Ward, the journalists who were gunned down on live TV in Roanoke, VA, just a couple of weeks ago, as they covered a local news…

If President Obama had not started the bombing campaign on Mount Sinjar on August 8th, we would not be here today.

we are about to start our traditional August recess. Congress is in an interesting place because we not only get a recess--a vacation--as many Americans do, but we are legally required to take one. That is right. By an act of Congress…

in November 2013, the United States and five global powers, the P5+1, announced an interim deal to freeze Iran's nuclear program and negotiate a diplomatic resolution to one of the most challenging issues affecting global security. Since…

I ask unanimous consent to speak for up to 10 minutes, recognizing that it is after 12:30 p.m. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection? Without objection, it is so ordered. Nuclear Agreement With Iran

I also rise to celebrate this important anniversary. Fifty years ago today, President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed into law Medicaid and Medicare with my favorite President sitting next to him, President Harry S. Truman. Mr. President, I…

by 2020, it is estimated that 65 percent of all jobs will require at least some form of postsecondary education and training. The National Skills Coalition estimates that nearly half of all job openings between now and 2022 will be middle…

today, I am pleased to join my bipartisan Virginia colleagues Senator Mark Warner and Congressmen Robert Hurt and Morgan Griffith in introducing the Commonsense Permitting for Job Creation Act of 2015, a bipartisan, bicameral piece of…

Virginia has a proud tradition of academic excellence dating back to Thomas Jefferson and a deep appreciation for our beautiful and bountiful coastal waters that predates that. For 75 years, one Virginia academic institution has built a…

It's important to recognize it. It's also important not to take it for granted.

Whenever I hear that, I say, 'Come with me to see American workers who build and manufacture the largest items on the planet, a nuclear aircraft carrier.'

This is a huge and important task to do this important work to keep our country safe.

The more certainty that we provide to our public and private shipyards, the more you can then structure the work.

on Friday, July 24, 2015, as a result of a clerical error, I was inadvertently listed as a cosponsor on McConnell amendment No. 2328. Today, a unanimous consent request was filed by the majority leader's office to remove my name as a…

between 2006 and 2014, Medicare spending on opioids went up from $1.5 billion to $3.9 billion

This is not opioid-specific. This is general systemwide improvement to try to track, right?

A lot of challenges with opioids. We are seeing them all across the Nation.

if you start political maneuvering for the purposes of accomplishing a goal, then, in addition to the human rights and trafficking question, you would have to worry about labor rights and environmental issues

I really grieve to see a nation that is actually more violent with a, quote, 'democratic government' than it was under a military dictatorship.

It is difficult for the United States to understand trials and prosecutions and imprisonments of journalists.

Mexico is one of the top legislative priorities of Freedom House.

Colombia is an important partner of the United States, and it has much to admire, but there are serious problems.

It is a bargain to invest in civil society to be able to speak up for their rights.

I thank my colleague from Maryland, and I second the comments she has made about the status of our employees who have been jeopardized. I am excited to work together on the legislation introduced last Friday to provide them some…

I rise to speak on amendment No. 2096. CTE is a core academic subject. I grew up working in my dad's iron- working and welding shop. I ran a school that taught kids to be carpenters and welders in Honduras many years ago, and what I…