News

Today, Congressman Gerry Connolly, Chairman of the Government Operations subcommittee, released the following statement in advance of today’s House Oversight hearing “Reaching Hard-to-Count Communities in the 2020 Census:” Thank you, Chairwoman Maloney, for calling this important hearing. Census Day is less than three months away, and I am concerned that the Census Bureau is not prepared to conduct a complete and accurate count of our nation’s population, particularly among hard-to-count communi... Read more

Today, Congressman Gerry Connolly, Chairman of the House Green Dogs, released the following statement on the Trump Administration’s proposal to weaken the National Environmental Policy Act. “The Trump Administration’s decision to roll back the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review process is yet another cynical attack on environmental safeguards. As the climate crisis grows more dire, we should be elevating climate science in our consideration of infrastructure plans and empowering the... Read more

Today, Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-VA) joined Reps. Tony Cárdenas (D-CA), J. Luis Correa (D-CA), Veronica Escobar (D-TX), and more than 50 House Members in calling on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) to open an investigation into recent reports that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials are issuing fake court notices and barring refugees from entering the United States after being granted asylum. In a letter to the DHS OIG, the congressio... Read more

Today, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform advanced two pieces of legislation authored by Congressman Gerry Connolly, Chairman of the Government Operations Subcommittee. H.R. 3941, the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) Authorization Act, would codify the existing FedRAMP Program at the General Services Administration (GSA). “FedRAMP was established in 2011 to provide a standardized government-wide approach to security assessment, authorization, and continuous mo... Read more

Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-VA) delivered the following remarks on the House floor today in support of articles impeachment against President Donald J. Trump: "Each of us took an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. Not to the President. Not to our political party. Today, history will judge. Did we abide that oath? To extort a foreign country to investigate your political opponent is an unconstitutional abuse of power. To solicit foreign interference in an American... Read more

Greg Iacurci More than 2 million Americans could soon have access to mandatory paid parental leave. Senior congressional members have reached a bipartisan deal that would provide federal workers with 12 weeks of guaranteed paid time off for parents following the birth, adoption or fostering of a child. The proposed policy, which would apply to the 2.1 million civilian workers employed by the federal government, is part of a broader $738 billion legislative package on defense spending for the go... Read more

Today, Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-VA) joined Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA), and Congresswoman Marcia Fudge (D-OH) and more than 100 House Democrats in introducing the Protect SNAP Act, legislation to prevent the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) from implementing stricter work requirements under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The bill follows USDA’s final rule restricting hundreds of thousands of Americans’ acce... Read more

Today, the House of Representatives adopted the conference report for the FY20 National Defense Authorization Act, which included amendments offered by Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-VA) regarding the proposed elimination of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the government-wide backlog of security clearance adjudications, and the loopholes that still allow servicemembers who have been convicted in domestic violence cases to purchase firearms. The report also included a provision, backed b... Read more

Kristi King Virginia does not require drivers to upgrade to a REAL ID-compliant license, but hundreds of thousands of contractors serving defense and intelligence agencies will need one, so state officials strongly encourage it. Leading by example, U.S. Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., applied for his REAL ID-compliant license in Dumfries, Virginia, on Monday. “I waited in line like everybody else, but I wanted to do it publicly to bring attention to why I need to do it and you need to do it,” Conno... Read more

Today, Congressman Steny H. Hoyer (MD-05), House Oversight and Reform Subcommittee on Government Operations Chairman Gerald E. Connolly (VA-11), and Representatives Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC-AL), John Sarbanes (MD-03), Don Beyer (VA-08), Anthony Brown (MD-04), Jamie Raskin (MD-08), David Trone (MD-06), and Jennifer Wexton (VA-10) sent a letter to the Chairs of the Armed Services Committees, who are leading the conference committee working to reconcile the House- and Senate-passed versions of the... Read more