Earlier this year the House of Representatives approved legislation to overhaul Washington’s regulatory process. The ALERT Act (H.R. 1759) requires federal agencies to provide detailed information about the cost and impact a proposed regulation would have on American taxpayers and businesses– before the new regulation goes into effect. The bill was designed to increase federal accountability and minimize the risk that new regulations potentially pose to our entrepreneurs and small businesses’ ability to create, compete, and succeed. The ALERT A...
When I first came to Washington, I kept finding myself getting turned around while driving my car through the unfamiliar city. There are a lot of one-way roads, street names that change based on quadrants, and the city is laid out in a spoke-and-wheel system, rather than a typical grid system. The roundabouts and diagonal streets were a far cry from the rural roads I grew up on in Hampton Roads. I remember a friend once telling me a story about getting lost in Washington, DC. His trick was to look for the Washington Monument. The marble obelisk...
Washington, D.C. – Congressman J. Randy Forbes was selected by the Chaplain Alliance For Religious Liberty as the 2016 recipient of the Chaplain Alliance Torchbearer Award. Forbes received this award in recognition of his bold leadership in defending the religious freedom of all military personnel through his work as Chairman of the House Armed Services Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee and Founder and Co-Chairman of the Congressional Prayer Caucus. “We are delighted to present our Torchbearer Award to Representative Forbes for his f...
Washington, D.C. – Congressman J. Randy Forbes (VA-04), Chairman of the House Armed Services Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee and Co-Chairman of the Congressional China Caucus, issued the following statement following the ruling of the UNCLOS Arbitral Tribunal in favor of the Philippines in its maritime disputes with China in the South China Sea: “Today is China’s moment to show, once and for all, the reality of its claim to be a ‘responsible stakeholder’ in the international community. Failure to fully respect the ruling of the arb...
Washington, D.C. –Congressman J. Randy Forbes (VA-04), Chairman of the House Armed Services Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee, issued the following statement upon release of the overdue 30 Year Shipbuilding Plan: “This long-overdue plan is intended to provide Congress and the public with a sense of the Navy's likely future trajectory.I am concerned that despite Congress' clear intent to bend the curve lines and grow the fleet, this document still shows attack submarine production returning to a single boat in 2021, a shortfall in sma...
What Americans Can Learn from the Preamble By Congressman Randy Forbes June 13, 2016 The Preamble of the Constitution of the United States is a succinct introduction that establishes our framers’ goals for our government. The Preamble was actually written after our Founders had nearly finalized the text of the Constitution. In many ways, it served as a capstone – a finishing and protecting element. Although it doesn’t grant powers like the rest of the document does, it is nevertheless potent in its declaration of what the Constitution in its en...
At a recent joint hearing between the Armed Services Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee, chaired by Congressman Forbes, and the Readiness Subcommittee, chaired by Congressman Wittman, Navy sailors testified about the challenges that commanders of Navy ships and aircraft face equipping, resourcing, and training our fleet. Over the past eight years, the United States military has faced a series of significant cuts, resulting in less training, aging equipment, and fewer resources. In the Navy, an average deployment has gone up from 5.5 mo...
The last 8 years under this Administration have shown that bowing down to bullies or simply ignoring them does not make them go away. Our men and women in uniform are willing to stand up to those who threaten the United States, and they deserve the resources required to come home safely. I recently joined The American Spectator to discuss the challenges facing our Navy under this Administration – take a look here or below. Rep. Randy Forbes speaks out on Farci Island incident and other threats to our diminishing seapower The American Spectator ...
Wallops Island is already home to innovative work in the commercial space industry as well as important NASA and U.S. military missions. I’m delighted the Navy is considering basing the MQ-4C Triton unmanned maritime patrol aircraft at Wallops -- an ideal location to permanently station this important asset. In case you missed it, I recently led 18 Representatives and Senators from both parties in sending a letter to the Secretary of the Navy and the Chief of Naval Operations urging the use of Wallops Island, Virginia as the permanent East Coas...
Why Hampton Roads Matters to National Security: A Primer By Congressman Randy Forbes June 10, 2016 82,000. That’s the number of military personnel – from all military services – who call the Hampton Roads region home. This comprises one of the highest concentrations in the entire country, with another 43,600 civilian employees of the Department of Defense and thousands more civilians performing more than $8 billion in DoD contracts. These are impressive numbers, and I believe they demonstrate an important truth: not only does Hampton Roads need...
