Sen. Tim Kaine, CW President Colin Campbell Address Veterans Day Crowd

U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) joined Colonial Williamsburg President Colin Campbell and scores of veterans in Colonial Williamsburg on Monday for a ceremony commemorating service members.

Kaine and Campbell both addressed a large crowd behind the courthouse in Market Square, with their remarks bookended by performances from the Colonial Williamsburg Fifes and Drums. Kaine, who was the first person to be sworn in as Virginia’s governor in Williamsburg since Thomas Jefferson, talked about Virginia’s prominent role in America’s military history.

“The map of our military history is a map of Virginia,” Kaine said, alluding to battles from the Revolutionary War up to the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon.

He had the crowd raise their hands if they were service members, Department of Defense contractors, members of a military reserve corps or family members of those in uniform. By the time each group had been called, many of the hands in the crowd were in the air. Kaine, who has a son in the U.S. Marine Corps, wished that branch of the military a happy birthday.

Campbell praised the veterans in the crowd, thanking them for the “willingness of citizens to put themselves in harm’s way for the cause of the nation and the spirit it represents.”

Before their remarks, local veterans groups marched with the Colonial Williamsburg Fifes and Drums down Duke of Gloucester Street until they arrived at the courthouse. Kaine and Campbell spoke on a stage in a large grassy area roped off from everyone besides veterans, who stood there as onlookers listened to the speeches and clapped for them.

Gen. George Washington, played by a Colonial Williamsburg interpreter, delivered a few remarks after Kaine, praising America’s army of citizen soldiers, which has “never been made of mercenaries or hirelings.”

Kaine, who serves on the U.S. Senate’s Armed Services Committee, announced the Servicemember Education Reform and Vocational Enhancement Act of 2013 on Friday. That bill is meant to improve the quality of education service members and veterans receive in a bid to ensure higher quality jobs for them following their time in the military. It requires institutions that accept education benefits from the Veterans Administration and Department of Defense to offer academic or career counseling to students who have served.

Those institutions would be required to meet minimum standards to ensure a quality education for service members. Those institutions would also be required to disclose information including graduation rates, program costs and withdrawal policies while providing access to counseling.

In an interview with WYDaily following his remarks, Kaine said he is particularly interested in tackling unemployment among veterans.

“This is taking the educational benefits veterans receive either though the DoD or VA and making sure the benefits really help them get the kind of validated degree or credential that will help them get a job,” Kaine said.

To accomplish this goal, the legislation would try to prevent benefits from being used in programs that do not generate meaningful credentials.

“There are some operators that are frankly not that high quality, so we want to make sure we apply the appropriate standards to programs that are using veterans benefits so that it really means something,” he said.

Furthermore, the legislation would allow benefits to be used at places other than community colleges and universities, such as for career and technical programs.

“What about Newport News shipbuilding apprentice program?” Kaine said. “If it’s not a traditional community college or college, it still might be a really great job training program.”

Kaine plans to introduce the bill in the U.S. Senate this week. He said the bill has attracted co-sponsors from across the aisle.

“This is not the kind of initiative where just one party supports it,” he said. “We find huge bipartisan support for it.”

The Serve Act is not Kaine’s first foray into legislation aimed at improving the lives of veterans and service members. He introduced the Troop Talent Act of 2013 in April. That bill, which is currently in committee, is meant to more closely align specialty skills acquired in the military with civilian credentials or licenses required for employment after the military.

When asked about last week’s election, he said it was a ratification of the “let’s work together” route as opposed to the “ideological” route.

“Virginians, Democrat, Republican, independent, after Election Day they want to pick people who know how to work together to make good things happen, and I think that was probably the message the electorate was sending,” Kaine said.

Kaine has been in office for nearly a year. His road to the Senate began in 1994 when he ran for the Richmond City Council. After serving as a councilman and mayor, he was elected lieutenant governor in 2001 under Gov. Mark Warner, who is now his partner in the Senate. In 2005, Kaine was elected governor of Virginia. Like Governor-elect Terry McAuliffe, Kaine served as the Chairman of the Democratic National Committee until 2011.

“You gotta have patience,” he said of working in the U.S. Senate. “I really am enjoying my job. I’m blessed to have good committees and a great staff.”

In addition to Armed Services, Kaine is also a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the Senate Budget Committee.

“What we most need in Washington is people who want to build bridges, not burn them,” Kaine said. “It’s the relationship building and the working together where Washington is weak. The dysfunctions in Washington, some of them are ideological but more of them are the willingness to work together. We just have to have more people in office all the time who really make the commitment to do that.”

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