By Neil H. Simon
Media General News Service
Media General News Service
Rep. Glenn Nye, D-2nd, (center without helmet) and U.S. Army soldiers from the Joint Security Station at Sab Al Bor, Iraq, walk through a marketplace in a suburb of Baghdad on Feb. 1.
By Courtesy Office of Rep. Glenn Nye
By Courtesy Office of Rep. Glenn Nye
Email to a Friend
Stumble It!
Most Popular Stories
CHAIRMAN WEBB
Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., will be the top senator handling East Asian affairs in the 111th Congress.
Webb was last week named chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's East Asian and Pacific Affairs Subcommittee.
The senator, who fought as a Marine in the Vietnam War, has worked and traveled throughout the region for nearly four decades, as a defense planner in Guam, a writer in Japan, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines, and business consultant in Vietnam.
"I believe we need to be more engaged in this part of the world and I look forward to doing all that I can to strengthen relations between our country and the countries in this region," Webb said in a statement.
SAFETY SCOTT
The U.S. House unanimously passed Wednesday a school safety bill introduced by Rep. Robert C. Scott, D-3rd.
The CAMPUS Safety Act (H.R. 748) would create a National Center for Campus Public Safety to train campus police, promote college security research and share best practices in school safety techniques.
"After the tragedies at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University, I commend the House for passing this important bill that will help keep our college campuses safe," Scott said in a statement. The bill still requires Senate and White House approval.
FEDERAL WORKERS
Reps. James P. Moran, D-8th, Frank Wolf, R-10th, and Gerald E. Connolly, D-11th, banded together Tuesday introducing a bill to give former federal workers a greater incentive to return to the government work force.
The Federal Employee Retirement System Redeposit Act (H.R. 828) would let former government workers who return to civil service from the private sector reinvest their federal retirement annuity without losing credit for previous years of service.
Under the current system, individuals who leave the federal government and cash out their annuity or roll it into a private savings account cannot redeposit those funds if and when they return to government service.
Currently this redeposit benefit is available to federal employees enrolled in the Civil Service Retirement System, which covers people who began working for the government prior to 1984.
NYE IN IRAQ
Rep. Glenn Nye, D-2nd, returned Tuesday from his first trip to Iraq as a congressman.
The situation had improved since he'd left at the end of 2007, Nye spokesman Clark Pettig said. "He was able to walk around areas he was not able to walk around at that point." Nye spent nearly a year in Baghdad working with the State Department in 2007.
Last Sunday, he and fellow members of the House Armed Services Committee met with Ambassador Ryan Crocker and General Ray Odierno, the senior U.S. commander in Iraq. Nye also visited a marketplace in a Baghdad suburb, where he met with American troops and Iraqi security forces.
The taxpayer-funded trip included stops in Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Kuwait and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization headquarters in Belgium.
WITTMAN ON THE WEB
Rep. Rob Wittman, R-1st, is going high-tech - using Web-based tools to reach his constituents along the Northern Neck. On top of his official home page at wittman.house.gov, the second-term Republican has launched his own YouTube channel and pages on Facebook and Twitter, a miniature blog site.
Friday morning, he announced to constituents and anybody following him on Twitter: "I'm in the district today meeting with my health care advisory committees."
Wittman is a co-chair of the House Republican New Media Caucus. He was among the first lawmakers to provide short text updates via Twitter from the House floor last August when Republicans staged an energy debate after the chamber had been closed for the summer recess.
Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., will be the top senator handling East Asian affairs in the 111th Congress.
Webb was last week named chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's East Asian and Pacific Affairs Subcommittee.
The senator, who fought as a Marine in the Vietnam War, has worked and traveled throughout the region for nearly four decades, as a defense planner in Guam, a writer in Japan, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines, and business consultant in Vietnam.
"I believe we need to be more engaged in this part of the world and I look forward to doing all that I can to strengthen relations between our country and the countries in this region," Webb said in a statement.
SAFETY SCOTT
The U.S. House unanimously passed Wednesday a school safety bill introduced by Rep. Robert C. Scott, D-3rd.
The CAMPUS Safety Act (H.R. 748) would create a National Center for Campus Public Safety to train campus police, promote college security research and share best practices in school safety techniques.
"After the tragedies at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University, I commend the House for passing this important bill that will help keep our college campuses safe," Scott said in a statement. The bill still requires Senate and White House approval.
FEDERAL WORKERS
Reps. James P. Moran, D-8th, Frank Wolf, R-10th, and Gerald E. Connolly, D-11th, banded together Tuesday introducing a bill to give former federal workers a greater incentive to return to the government work force.
The Federal Employee Retirement System Redeposit Act (H.R. 828) would let former government workers who return to civil service from the private sector reinvest their federal retirement annuity without losing credit for previous years of service.
Under the current system, individuals who leave the federal government and cash out their annuity or roll it into a private savings account cannot redeposit those funds if and when they return to government service.
Currently this redeposit benefit is available to federal employees enrolled in the Civil Service Retirement System, which covers people who began working for the government prior to 1984.
NYE IN IRAQ
Rep. Glenn Nye, D-2nd, returned Tuesday from his first trip to Iraq as a congressman.
The situation had improved since he'd left at the end of 2007, Nye spokesman Clark Pettig said. "He was able to walk around areas he was not able to walk around at that point." Nye spent nearly a year in Baghdad working with the State Department in 2007.
Last Sunday, he and fellow members of the House Armed Services Committee met with Ambassador Ryan Crocker and General Ray Odierno, the senior U.S. commander in Iraq. Nye also visited a marketplace in a Baghdad suburb, where he met with American troops and Iraqi security forces.
The taxpayer-funded trip included stops in Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Kuwait and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization headquarters in Belgium.
WITTMAN ON THE WEB
Rep. Rob Wittman, R-1st, is going high-tech - using Web-based tools to reach his constituents along the Northern Neck. On top of his official home page at wittman.house.gov, the second-term Republican has launched his own YouTube channel and pages on Facebook and Twitter, a miniature blog site.
Friday morning, he announced to constituents and anybody following him on Twitter: "I'm in the district today meeting with my health care advisory committees."
Wittman is a co-chair of the House Republican New Media Caucus. He was among the first lawmakers to provide short text updates via Twitter from the House floor last August when Republicans staged an energy debate after the chamber had been closed for the summer recess.