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Weekly Update: The end of business as usual in Washington

| Posted in Weekly Updates

Yesterday we witnessed one of the most important American political traditions: the orderly, peaceful transfer of power from one presidential administration to another. Millions of Americans, from the National Mall to homes across the country, watched as Donald J. Trump took the oath of office to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." And as only forty-four…

Weekly Update: Let's Get Started

| Posted in Weekly Updates

“I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So…

Wittman Supports Passage of NDAA Conference Report

| Posted in Weekly Updates

WASHINGTON – Representative Rob Wittman (VA-1), Chairman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness, today supported passage of the Conference Report for the Fiscal Year 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). This legislation, the final version of the bill that establishes the funding authorizations and priorities for the nation’s military, passed the House of…

The American Presidency and the Transfer of Power

| Posted in Weekly Updates

In the aftermath of the Revolutionary War and the adoption and ratification of the United States Constitution, there remained a heightened level of anxiety about the kind of power the President might wield. The nation—in its early infancy—needed an executive who was strong enough to protect the national interests, but not so strong that his rule was oppressive to the people (who had just…

Weathering the Storm: How to Prep for Hurricane Matthew

| Posted in Weekly Updates

Hurricane Matthew battered Florida’s East Coast early Friday, and experts maintain that the worst effects are yet to come. It looks like the weather system is tracking away from Virginia’s coast, but it remains to be seen whether the entire storm center will cross over land. According to National Hurricane Center Director Richard Knabb, the storm “is going to get a lot worse before it…

Want to See Education Policy That Works? This is It.

| Posted in Weekly Updates
Tags: Education

A few weeks ago, I met a young woman named Sarah. She was smiling, and it was the smile of a student who just solidified her future, her success. She just completed a career and technical education program in manufacturing technology. She is already far on her way to achieving her dream of becoming a manufacturing engineer, even before receiving her high school diploma. Not all careers…

This Children's Story Can Teach us a LOT About Diplomacy with Iran

| Posted in Weekly Updates

As a boy, I remember hearing a fable about a scorpion and a frog that goes something like this: A scorpion and a frog meet on the bank of a stream and the scorpion asks the frog to carry him across on its back. The frog asks, “How do I know you won’t sting me?” The scorpion says, “Because if I do, I will die too.” The frog is satisfied, and they set out, but in midstream, the…

The Missing Man and the Military Veteran

| Posted in Weekly Updates
Tags: Veterans

What does it mean for a civilization to contend with the true costs of war? Here in the United States, most of us remain significantly untouched by war. Our conflicts are confined to remote places and our battles are fought by other people’s sons and daughters. Most of us are living the same lives we lived before Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria. We go to the same stores, we wear the same…

It Can't Wait Until Tomorrow

| Posted in Weekly Updates

Most of us are familiar with the idiom “never put off until tomorrow what you can do today.” It’s the mantra of the industrious. Want to see progress? Want to find success? Want to reach the next rung on that ladder? Finish the task at hand and move on to the next one. That’s how we get from where we are to where we want to be. Mark Twain had a slightly different play on the phrase.…

It's About Publicity, Plain and Simple

| Posted in Weekly Updates

David Nelson Drew Griffin (CNN) Stephen Hayes (The Weekly Standard) Sen. Ted Kennedy Rep. John Lewis What do an actor, two journalists, and two elected officials all have in common? Well, at one point or another, all of these folks have mistakenly been placed on the federal government’s “no-fly list.” That’s right … they’ve been placed on the list the federal government maintains to keep…