Saturday, March 2, 2013
The March 1 deadline for sequestration passed, and another deadline could come and go March 27.
Northern Virginia Congressmen Gerry Connolly (D-11th) called Congress "dysfunctional," as the midnight deadline on sequestration steadily approached. "It's a dysfunctional Congress," agreed Jim Moran (D-8th), who spoke with Patch at a ribbon-cutting Friday in Lorton. "I think it ill-serves the people of the United States today. It's very frustrating, very disappointing. It's an institution that is not serving its functions." Connolly didn't expect a last-minute compromise on $1.2 trillion in debt reduction, and he was right. The U.S. military will be forced to cut $46 billion and domestic defense spending will be cut by $85 billion this year alone, he said. "It is the consequence of a dysfunctional Congress," he said. "It's the …
Monday, December 24, 2012
"The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun," the NRA's Wayne LaPierre said.
In an Friday morning press conference, the Fairfax-based National Rifle Association broke its weeklong silence following the horrific shooting of 26 people at a school in Newtown, Conn., and called for a surge of gun-carrying "good guys" around American schools. NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre called for a new kind of American domestic security revolving around armed civilians, arguing that "the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun." "We care about our president, so we protect him with armed Secret Service agents," LaPierre said. "Members of Congress work in offices surrounded by Capitol Police officers. Yet, when it comes to our most beloved, innocent, and vulnerable members of the American …
Friday, July 13, 2012
Moran, Connolly, Wolf want the FCC to reconsider a regulation concerning backup power that the commission proposed in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
Northern Virginia's three congressmen called on the Federal Communications Commission on Thursday to take action that will prevent future outages to the region's 911 systems. In a letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, U.S. Reps. Jim Moran, Gerry Connolly and Frank Wolf asked that the commission dust off a post-Hurricane Katrina regulation that would have required all telecommunications companies to provide at least eight hours of backup power for all cell phone towers. The regulation was subsequently struck down on a technicality related to how the commission handled public comments, according to a news release. “In the event of an emergency situation, whether it be a natural disaster or man-made threat, the public needs confidence …
Thursday, June 28, 2012
High Court ruled 5-4 today to uphold what some call 'Obamacare.'
Area leaders were quick to react today to the news that the Supreme Court upheld President Barack Obama's health reform law. Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R): "Today's Supreme Court ruling is extremely disappointing for Virginia and for America. The PPACA will create a costly and cumbersome system that will impair our country's ability to recover from these challenging economic times, infringes on our citizen's liberties, will harm small businesses, and will impose dramatic unfunded mandates on Virginia and all states. Simply put, this is a blow to freedom. America needs market-based solutions that give patients more choice, not less." (For the governor's full statement, visit his Web site.) On his Twitter feed, the governor wrote: "Simply …
Sunday, June 3, 2012
State party convention drew more than 2,000 to the city of Fairfax this weekend.
FAIRFAX — Perhaps U.S. Sen. Mark Warner put it best: "In 2008, we changed the guard. In 2012, we need to guard the change." More than 2,000 Democrats from across the commonwealth descended on George Mason University this weekend for the Democratic Party of Virginia's State Convention. The gathering served as part pep rally, part organizational meeting as activists mobilize for November. Party leaders had similar messages, previewing what they will try to hammer home while Virginia is in the national spotlight as a battleground state for the U.S. presidency. That message, they say, is that the right-wing takeover of the Republican Party has made this country, and this state, unrecognizable and infringes on the rights of gays, women and …
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Moran’s business summit gives budding entrepreneurs tools to survive down economy
With larger businesses still trying to rebound from years of a slow economy, Congressman Jim Moran held a small business summit Tuesday in Falls Church to expose entrepreneurs to the global market. Moran said small business owners should expand outside the American economy and into the Asian market. With the U.S. recently signing a trade agreement with South Korea, Moran (D-8th District) said the opportunity to expand into markets overseas is now. "If the federal government cuts back spending, it will affect the small-business owners," Moran said after the summit. "I want them to be able to develop trade ties overseas." Several business support groups including the Virginia Small Development Center Network and the Asian American Chamber of…
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Democrat throws support behind challenger Bruce Shuttleworth.
Franconia Democrat Will Radle has ended his bid for a congressional seat and thrown his support behind former competitor Bruce Shuttleworth. Radle was running in the Democratic primary for the seat currently held by Democrat Rep. Jim Moran in Virginia’s 8th Congressional District. In a telephone interview Wednesday, he said he was putting the needs of the community ahead of his personal ambitions. “I don’t want to divide the opposition to the incumbent,” Radle said. Radle commended Shuttleworth, a Democrat, on his “commitment to service, past and present.” He also said he admired his “approach to listening to people (and) his general interest in helping to create solutions to challenges.” Radle said in an email Wednesday announcing his …
Friday, March 16, 2012
Congressman introduced legislation with Rep. Wolf to alleviate suffering in Sudan.
Congressman Jim Moran, who represents Northern Virginia's 8th District, was arrested Friday morning for crossing a police line along with actor George Clooney and several civil rights leaders at a protest on the steps of the Embassy of Sudan in D.C. "We are not here for any economic or partisan political agenda, but there is a moral imperative involved here," Moran said. "We who benefit every day from being born into lives of prosperity have some obligation to speak out for those who suffer every day for the accident of their birth." The group was taken to the District 2 Police Station and were expected to be released soon. "They probably have pretty good lawyers, so we shouldn't hold them for more than a couple hours," said a D.C. police …
David Salzberg
6:51 am on Sunday, March 3, 2013
The real problem is the gerrymandered congressional districts that are no longer competitive. The districts are drawn in a manner to give one party the edge (53% of Americans voted for a democratic house, but the house remains republican). Worse than that, the gerrymandering results in extremism on both sides. The republicans and democrats have to worry about challenges from the extremes of the … more ›