We’re at the beginning—a New Year filled with new opportunities—and I’ve been thinking a lot about my priorities. When I consider the challenges we’re facing at home and abroad, I can see how it might be easy to get bogged down in the details. But I want to rise above that for a moment. If I’ve learned anything from my time as a public servant, it’s that our greatest resource and our best hope for overcoming even the toughest challenges is our people. Our forefathers knew that progress isn’t abo...
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WASHINGTON – Rep. Rob Wittman (VA-1) released the following statement today, after voting in favor of the Restoring Americans’ Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act: “Today, I voted to send a bill to President Obama that would repeal the Affordable Care Act and eliminate federal funding for Planned Parenthood. “One of the most significant challenges we are facing today is making sure that choice-based health care options are available for every American, regardless of age or income, and the Pres...
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WASHINGTON – Congressman Rob Wittman (VA-1) released the following statement in response to President Obama's announcement that he will use executive order to restrict American gun ownership: “President Obama’s actions today represent a long-standing pattern of blatant disregard for the Constitution when it comes to Second Amendment rights. Once again, Democrats are playing politics with fundamental, constitutionally-protected guarantees, just as Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring did last m...
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During 1943, more than 6 million military men and women spent time deployed overseas. The United States was in the midst of its involvement in World War II, and that meant sacrifices had to be made. There were food shortages, and as factories and businesses were transformed for military use, meat, shortening, and butter (among other things) had to be rationed. The world was changing. We were changing. But during the Christmas season, time stood still. That year, Bing Crosby released his version ...
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It’s hard to believe that the year is coming to an end, and in just a few weeks, we’ll be celebrating the start of a new one. We’re right in the middle of resolution season, and I’ve been thinking a lot about mine. Those of us who have broken resolutions before—and with my wife Kathryn’s delicious cooking, I’ve broken a few—know that change is impossible without action. I’ve heard it said that faith plus action equals success. We can’t daydream our way into change. It takes effort. I think it’s ...
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Washington, DC – With the clock ticking on the federal government’s fiscal calendar, Congressman Don Beyer (D-VA) and Congressman Rob Wittman (R-VA) are preparing legislation to protect federal employees from a government shutdown. The Federal Employee Retroactive Pay Fairness Act would guarantee back pay for all furloughed workers in the event of a shutdown. “For the third time this year, Congressional dysfunction threatens the livelihood of federal workers carrying out our country’s vital miss...
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WASHINGTON – Congressman Rob Wittman (VA-01) issued the following statement today after the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the conference report for H.R. 22, the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, by a vote of 359-65: “Whether on the railways or roadways, Virginians spend a substantial amount of time in transit, and they know that mobility is absolutely essential for a higher standard of living and a better quality of life. Today, the House passed the first long-...
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“Are they dead that speak louder than we can speak, and a more universal language? Are they dead that yet act?” Sebastian Junger, a journalist and documentary film-maker who spent a year in Afghanistan embedded with a platoon in the Korengal Valley (once considered the deadliest valley in the country) made an important observation about war. He said that “the core reality of war isn’t that you might get killed out there, it’s that you’re guaranteed to lose your brothers.” That is a reality that ...
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The November terrorist attacks in Paris have led to some critical self-reflection here in the United States. In the aftermath of the slaughter that left at least 130 dead (the body count continues to rise) and some 100s more injured, Americans have linked arm-in-arm with our oldest ally—mourning the dead, pledging increased military support and redoubling our collective resistance to fear as a way of life. But this “act of war,” as French President Francois Hollande called it, has implications b...
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WASHINGTON – Congressman Rob Wittman (R-VA-1) announced today that he is taking a number of legislative and other steps to minimize the threat that terrorist attacks like those in Paris could happen on U.S. soil. In April of this year, Wittman introduced the International Conflicts of Concern Act (H.R. 1929), a bill to protect the United States by establishing a framework to temporarily restrict the travel of U.S. citizens to countries of conflict where they may radicalize and then return home t...
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