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MILITARY MONEY
Republican Sen. John Warner and Democratic Sen. Jim Webb hailed committee passage of a $612.5 billion defense bill Thursday that would give service men and women a pay hike higher than the increase proposed by President Bush.
Both Virginians are members of the Senate Armed Services Committee that unanimously passed the legislation.
The bill would authorize a 3.9-percent pay increase for military personnel to take affect Jan. 1. President Bush proposed a 3.4-percent increase.
The bill also would authorize $2.1 billion to build Virginia Class submarines and $1.3 billion toward the construction of two submarines per year in 2011 -- $79 million more than Bush requested.
“I am very pleased that the committee unanimously voted to report out a bill that provides our troops and their families with the support that they deserve, both here at home and abroad,” Warner said in a statement.
The bill and defense spending bill still need approval from the full Senate and House before heading to the president’s desk.
FORBES CANCER
Rep. Randy Forbes, R-Va., became the seventh member of the Virginia congressional delegation to cosponsor a bill that would require health insurance plans to cover hospital stays for mastectomies and other breast cancer treatments.
“Doctors and patients should be making health care decisions based around the individual needs of the patient, not bureaucratic regulations,” Forbes said in announcing his sponsorship of the Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act.
The bill would also require plans to cover the cost of a second medical opinion.
Despite having support from a majority of the members of the House, the bill has sat in a House health committee since last May. Of the Virginia delegation, Democratic Reps. Rick Boucher, James Moran and Robert Scott, and Republican Reps. Virgil Goode, Rob Wittman and Frank Wolf have already co-sponsored the bill.
OLYMPICS
At a rally calling the 2008 Beijing Games the “Olympics of Oppression,” Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., and human rights organizations condemned China’s record of abuse Thursday, just after the Olympic torch arrived in China.
“Human rights conditions are worse today in China than they were ten years ago,” said Wolf, demanding Western outcry against China for the communist nation’s tacit support of genocide in Darfur, restrictions on free speech and religion, and failure to aid North Korean refugees.
“Where is the world on this?” asked Wolf, co-chair of the Congressional China Caucus. “Where is the Bush administration? Where is the government?”
Advocacy groups presented a congressional letter calling on Chinese President Hu Jintao to protect North Korean refugees, rather than forcing them to return to North Korea where they can face torture or execution for their opposition to dictator Kim Jong Il.
Other groups rallying against the genocide in Darfur called on world leaders to boycott the Olympic opening ceremonies until United Nations peacekeeping forces are effectively protecting Sudanese civilians.
TOBACCO SMUGGLING
Rep. Robert Scott, D-Va., chaired a House hearing Thursday on illegal interstate cigarette trafficking that he said amounts to a $1 billion tax loss every year.
As chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security, Scott brought together witnesses including tobacco wholesalers, anti-smoking advocates and law enforcement officials to discuss ways to crack down on illegal tobacco sales.
“Smuggling and tax evasion are prohibited under state law, but many states fail to enforce their own laws,” Scott said. “There are allegations that wholesalers and manufacturers either facilitate or are complicit in smuggling operations.”
The black market sales, in which smugglers buy tobacco products in one state and then sell them at a discount in a state with a higher tax rate, are already a misdemeanor punishable by up to five years in prison. Scott’s subcommittee is considering a bill to turn the crime into a felony and make it illegal to send tobacco through the U.S. Postal Service.
AIRPORT CHANGES
As the Senate debated changes to air travel last week, Webb, D-Va., called on his colleagues to avoid adding new flights into Reagan National Airport.
Part of a Federal Aviation Administration bill under consideration would add 20 new flights to the Arlington, Va., airport.
“Congress added 24 new slots in 2000 and another 22 slots in 2003,” Webb said on the Senate floor. “If we continue to allow more flights this year, how many more are we going to have to continue to allow the next time this bill is up?”
He said the continued crowding of planes at Reagan National could “further harm” Virginia airports, leave more people stranded longer on airport runways, and “break the promises” made to maintain certain levels of aircraft traffic and noise at communities surrounding airports.
MISSION NOT ACCOMPLISHED
Webb marked Thursday’s five-year anniversary of President Bush’s speech under a “Mission Accomplished” banner, saying the United States has “been hurt by the invasion and occupation of Iraq.”
Citing more violence in Iraq and Afghanistan and a quintupling of world oil prices since the war began, Webb, a former Navy secretary, called on the Bush administration to work openly with Congress in establishing any new executive agreements with the country.
Webb also used the occasion to talk up his GI bill, which now faces competition from a bill being pushed by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. Graham’s bill aims to boost military retention efforts, in part by letting service members transfer their educational benefits to their spouses.
“That bill,” Webb said, “is a bill that I think the generals and the admirals like. Our bill, is the bill that the veterans, the corporals and the sergeants will like.”
Webb’s bill would increase the GI educational benefits to cover the full cost of in-state tuition at a public university.
--Neil Simon
Republican Sen. John Warner and Democratic Sen. Jim Webb hailed committee passage of a $612.5 billion defense bill Thursday that would give service men and women a pay hike higher than the increase proposed by President Bush.
Both Virginians are members of the Senate Armed Services Committee that unanimously passed the legislation.
The bill would authorize a 3.9-percent pay increase for military personnel to take affect Jan. 1. President Bush proposed a 3.4-percent increase.
The bill also would authorize $2.1 billion to build Virginia Class submarines and $1.3 billion toward the construction of two submarines per year in 2011 -- $79 million more than Bush requested.
“I am very pleased that the committee unanimously voted to report out a bill that provides our troops and their families with the support that they deserve, both here at home and abroad,” Warner said in a statement.
The bill and defense spending bill still need approval from the full Senate and House before heading to the president’s desk.
FORBES CANCER
Rep. Randy Forbes, R-Va., became the seventh member of the Virginia congressional delegation to cosponsor a bill that would require health insurance plans to cover hospital stays for mastectomies and other breast cancer treatments.
“Doctors and patients should be making health care decisions based around the individual needs of the patient, not bureaucratic regulations,” Forbes said in announcing his sponsorship of the Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act.
The bill would also require plans to cover the cost of a second medical opinion.
Despite having support from a majority of the members of the House, the bill has sat in a House health committee since last May. Of the Virginia delegation, Democratic Reps. Rick Boucher, James Moran and Robert Scott, and Republican Reps. Virgil Goode, Rob Wittman and Frank Wolf have already co-sponsored the bill.
OLYMPICS
At a rally calling the 2008 Beijing Games the “Olympics of Oppression,” Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., and human rights organizations condemned China’s record of abuse Thursday, just after the Olympic torch arrived in China.
“Human rights conditions are worse today in China than they were ten years ago,” said Wolf, demanding Western outcry against China for the communist nation’s tacit support of genocide in Darfur, restrictions on free speech and religion, and failure to aid North Korean refugees.
“Where is the world on this?” asked Wolf, co-chair of the Congressional China Caucus. “Where is the Bush administration? Where is the government?”
Advocacy groups presented a congressional letter calling on Chinese President Hu Jintao to protect North Korean refugees, rather than forcing them to return to North Korea where they can face torture or execution for their opposition to dictator Kim Jong Il.
Other groups rallying against the genocide in Darfur called on world leaders to boycott the Olympic opening ceremonies until United Nations peacekeeping forces are effectively protecting Sudanese civilians.
TOBACCO SMUGGLING
Rep. Robert Scott, D-Va., chaired a House hearing Thursday on illegal interstate cigarette trafficking that he said amounts to a $1 billion tax loss every year.
As chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security, Scott brought together witnesses including tobacco wholesalers, anti-smoking advocates and law enforcement officials to discuss ways to crack down on illegal tobacco sales.
“Smuggling and tax evasion are prohibited under state law, but many states fail to enforce their own laws,” Scott said. “There are allegations that wholesalers and manufacturers either facilitate or are complicit in smuggling operations.”
The black market sales, in which smugglers buy tobacco products in one state and then sell them at a discount in a state with a higher tax rate, are already a misdemeanor punishable by up to five years in prison. Scott’s subcommittee is considering a bill to turn the crime into a felony and make it illegal to send tobacco through the U.S. Postal Service.
AIRPORT CHANGES
As the Senate debated changes to air travel last week, Webb, D-Va., called on his colleagues to avoid adding new flights into Reagan National Airport.
Part of a Federal Aviation Administration bill under consideration would add 20 new flights to the Arlington, Va., airport.
“Congress added 24 new slots in 2000 and another 22 slots in 2003,” Webb said on the Senate floor. “If we continue to allow more flights this year, how many more are we going to have to continue to allow the next time this bill is up?”
He said the continued crowding of planes at Reagan National could “further harm” Virginia airports, leave more people stranded longer on airport runways, and “break the promises” made to maintain certain levels of aircraft traffic and noise at communities surrounding airports.
MISSION NOT ACCOMPLISHED
Webb marked Thursday’s five-year anniversary of President Bush’s speech under a “Mission Accomplished” banner, saying the United States has “been hurt by the invasion and occupation of Iraq.”
Citing more violence in Iraq and Afghanistan and a quintupling of world oil prices since the war began, Webb, a former Navy secretary, called on the Bush administration to work openly with Congress in establishing any new executive agreements with the country.
Webb also used the occasion to talk up his GI bill, which now faces competition from a bill being pushed by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. Graham’s bill aims to boost military retention efforts, in part by letting service members transfer their educational benefits to their spouses.
“That bill,” Webb said, “is a bill that I think the generals and the admirals like. Our bill, is the bill that the veterans, the corporals and the sergeants will like.”
Webb’s bill would increase the GI educational benefits to cover the full cost of in-state tuition at a public university.
--Neil Simon