Faced with profound Navy budget cuts this spring that could wallop Hampton Roads' economy, Virginia's senators and the region's three congressmen said this week they don't consider the reductions inevitable - as has been suggested by some lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
Sen. Warner has invited Sara Jane Arnett of Newport News, an Army spouse whose husband is deployed to Afghanistan, to be his special guest at the Presidential Inauguration in Washington. D.C. on Monday, Jan. 21, 2012. Arnett plans to attend the ceremony with her five-year-old son.
The Senate today unanimously approved a resolution offered by Senators Jim Webb (D-VA) and Mark R. Warner (D-VA) commemorating the deactivation of U.S.S. Enterprise after 51 years of service and honoring the more than 100,000 current and former sailors and Marines who served aboard the aircraft carrier.
“Developing our offshore energy resources will help create domestic manufacturing jobs and strengthen Virginia’s economy. It also advances efforts to better harness renewable energy sources while reducing U.S. reliance on imported oil. I have been an advocate for an ‘all-of-the-above’ approach for some time now, and I think there’s a lot of potential in developing our offshore energy opportunities off the Virginia coast.”
Senator Warner called into Norfolk's FM99 this morning to talk fiscal cliff negotiations. As Rumble in the Morning's Rick Rumble put it, "this is not a bit. It is the real Senator Mark Warner on Rumble in the Morning."
Senator Warner called into three morning radio shows in Virginia today to discuss the looming fiscal cliff. He spoke with John Fredericks, whose morning show is broadcast in Norfolk, Richmond and Northern Virginia, and he also dialed-in to WRVA in Richmond and Washington’s WTOP Radio.
Senator Warner “Skyped” into Williamsburg today as a keynote speaker for the Virginia Chamber of Commerce’s Economic Summit, and spoke about his efforts in Congress to find bipartisan consensus on a rational and responsible plan to avoid the fiscal cliff.
Senator Warner talked to WAVY Norfolk’s Art Kohn yesterday afternoon about finding a bipartisan solution to upcoming automatic spending cuts.“[These] would be the worst kind of cuts: unplanned, across the board,” Senator Warner said.
There’s a big downside if we fail – and a tremendous upside if we succeed.” That’s how Senator Warner summed up the current situation in Washington as Congress and the White House discuss ways to avoid the looming fiscal cliff – the combination of defense spending cuts and the expiration of tax cuts set to occur simultaneously at the beginning of the new year.
Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta says the Hampton Roads region is a great example of the committed community partnerships that keep the American military the strongest in the world. The Pentagon chief traveled to Norfolk at Senator Warner’s request on Friday to speak to members of the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce.