Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Congressmen Gerry Connolly and Jim Moran recently introduced legislation that would study the extension of Metrorail into Centreville, Woodbridge and the Richmond Highway corridor.
Pipe dream or forward-thinking? Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-11th district) and Rep. Jim Moran (D-8th district) have introduced a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives that would authorize studying Metrorail's possible expansion into Centreville and other areas of Northern Virginia. The Northern Virginia Metrorail Extension Act (H.R. 907), which is now before the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, specifically cites the idea of extending the Orange line into Centreville. It also proposes studying the possibility of extending the yellow line along the Route One corridor and the blue line along the I-95 corridor to Woodbridge. “Residents in Prince William and western Fairfax County already experience some of the longest …
Thursday, February 7, 2013
Connolly writes letter to Postmaster General, asking for legal justification; cites study that says reducing mail volume will lead to revenue loss of $5.2 billion in first year.
Stopping the mail on Saturdays? Not so fast, say two members of the Northern Virginia congressional delegation. Northern Virginia's U.S. Rep. James P. Moran (D-8th) and U.S. Rep Gerald Connolly (D-11th) expressed concern Wednesday afternoon about the U.S. Postal Service's announcement that it plans to suspend delivery of first-class mail service on Saturdays beginning in August. The USPS released a fact sheet Wednesday. “I have great concerns about eliminating Saturday mail delivery," Moran wrote in an email to Patch. "The Postal Service is grappling with major forces outside of its control: an economy increasingly relying on email and the Internet for communication, and a Congress that refuses to address the redundant pension pre-funding …
Monday, February 4, 2013
The congressman wants to know what's on your mind. Register to participate.
Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-11th) may call you Tuesday to hear what is on your mind as part of his 17th telephone town hall. If the phone rings at 8 p.m., stay on the line to talk to the congressman. Want to ensure that you get called? Click here to sign up ahead of time. Connolly told constituents in an email that more than 200,000 11th District residents have participated in one of these calls since 2009. He said that residents have told him they like the format since they can participate from home. Those who are unable to pose their question on the call will have the option of leaving a message and receiving a subsequent response, Connolly said.
What will it mean for the local economy?
Sequestration — $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts to defense and civilian programs over the next decade — will likely happen, and it will mean thousands of layoffs, program eliminations and near-certain economic devastation for Northern Virginia, said Virginia Congressmen Jim Moran (D-8th) and Gerry Connolly (D-11th) on Saturday at a town hall meeting in Mount Vernon. "You need to be aware that this is probably going to happen," said Moran, who spoke at an annual meeting conducted by Mount Vernon District Supervisor Gerry Hyland. "It's a democracy and things will ultimately play themselves out, but things are not going well right now (in Congress)." Congress averted the fiscal cliff crisis at the beginning of the year, and …
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Congressman on subcommittee called "the core" of the full committee.
Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-11th) was elected Wednesday to serve as Ranking Member of the House Subcommittee on Government Operations. Connolly will serve as the ranking Democrat on this subcommittee of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform with jurisdiction over the federal government management, information technology, federal economic policy, federal procurement, and many other aspects of federal government operations. The Republican chairman of the subcommittee is Rep. John Mica of Florida. During a meeting of the full Oversight and Government Reform Committee, held Tuesday to announce the committee leadership, Chairman Darrell Issa called the Government Operations Subcommittee “the core of this committee.” “I’m …
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Connolly says he planned to vote while "holding my nose."
The U.S. House of Representatives Tuesday night passed HR 8, the Tax Relief Extension Act, a permanent extension of many Bush-era tax cuts by a vote of 257 to 167. The late-night vote was taken at 10:57 p.m. Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-11th), whose district includes most of Centreville, voted for the measure but did so "holding my nose," he said Tuesday before the vote, in a news release. The legislation keeps the Bush era tax cuts for individuals making less than $400,000 and couples making less that $450,000. It also makes permanent the fixes for the Alternative Minimum Tax and delays government spending cuts for two months. Here's the breakdown of Northern Virginia's votes Tuesday on the so-called "fiscal cliff" legislation, which the…
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
Virginia Democrat says he's "holding his nose," but wants to avoid fiscal cliff, sequestration and extend middle class tax cuts.
Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-11th) said Tuesday while he is "holding his nose," he is urging his colleagues to vote for a fiscal cliff deal the Senate passed in the early hours of the new year. “This is not a perfect package, but it is something that gets us by until we can tackle the larger issues in the next Congress,” Connolly said. “I pray God that the next Congress is more willing to compromise than this one.” It was not certain Tuesday when the House, controlled by Republicans, would take up the fiscal cliff legislation. The Virginia Democrat said the Senate-passed measure provides an opportunity to: “There is a lot of good in this package," Connolly said. "But there is also a lot that is not addressed at all." “We have a debt …
Monday, December 24, 2012
Forty House members sign letter backing proposed program added to any end-of-the-year fiscal cliff deal.
A letter co-written by Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-11th), and signed by 40 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, urges Republican House Speaker John Boehner and Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi to support an immediate $200 million gun buyback program in any end-of-the-year fiscal cliff deal. Connolly, whose district includes the national headquarters for the NRA, and U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch of Florida authored the letter to the House leaders. “Gun buybacks have proven successful in communities across the nation,” Connolly and Deutch said in a “Dear Colleague” to House members. “Adding $200 million to the final compromise on the fiscal cliff could remove as many as one million guns from our streets.” Including the gun buyback program…
Friday, December 7, 2012
Jack Faulconer was a machine gunner under U.S. Army General George S. Patton.
On Nov. 28, 1944, U.S. Army Pvt. John "Jack" Faulconer was charging up a hill in the Saar Valley in Germany. In an instant, the 19-year-old machine gunner was hit in the arm by German machine gun fire. Faulconer was badly injured, and crawled to a German trench, where he hid for hours until the enemy pulled back. His two ammunition carriers were killed. The machine gunner's life would forever be altered by the experience, and, on Friday, he was finally awarded the Bronze Star for Heroism by U.S. Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-11th District). "What an honor to get this. It's very nice," said Faulconer, 88, who was accompanied by his wife, Joyce. The war "was terrible. All those young men in the prime of life losing their lives." Connolly …
Monday, November 5, 2012
The Independent Green candidate for Virginia's 11th congressional District seat talks about why he's running, and how the U.S. government should work.
(Editor's note: One of the greatest powers Americans have is their right to vote. Patch respects that, and wants our readership to be as informed as possible before walking into that voting booth on Tuesday. With that in mind, this is the sixth and final in a series of in-depth interviews with candidates vying for Virginia’s 11th congressional District seat.) Disgust with Congress, ridding America of it's dependence on foreign oil and the importance of third-party candidacies were just a few of the topics discussed recently between Patch and Peter Marchetti, the Independent Green candidate for Virginia's 11th congressional District seat. Marchetti spoke with Patch from the Starbucks coffee shop at the Bradlick Shopping Center in Annandale…
Isis
6:54 am on Monday, April 1, 2013
YES! The Metro should have been out to Gainesville years ago! Get people OFF the roads. more ›