The Center for the Study of the Presidency & Congress has awarded Senator Warner and his Republican colleague, Bob Corker of Tennessee, with its prestigious Publius Award for their bipartisan leadership in Congress.  In 2010, Senators Warner and Corker worked closely together on Dodd/Frank Wall Street reform legislation. Today, they’re working in a bipartisan way to address deficits and debt issues.

Publius was the collective pen name of the three authors of the Federalist Papers (Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison), and previous winners include President Gerald R. Ford, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and U.S. Senator John Warner of Virginia.

“We honor Mark Warner for his tireless service and leadership as a business owner, Governor, and now U.S. Senator from the Commonwealth of Virginia,” reads the Center’s award statement.  “His work across the aisle… is a model worthy of praise by all who study and seek to emulate the work of our country’s founders.”

“[Senator] Warner has immersed himself in many of the pressing issues being debated in the Senate, including co-founding the ‘Gang of Six’ which sought to provide a bipartisan solution to the debt ceiling crisis, financial regulation, the Small Business Jobs Act, government reform, and most recently negotiations relating to the ‘fiscal cliff’… He has advocated and worked proactively to build strong coalitions and encouraged grassroots efforts to bring pressure on Washington to act.” 

In a tribute video, former Virginia GOP Senator John Warner described Mark Warner and Bob Corker as standouts in the current Congress “because for both, their compass is their conscience.  Their objective is always what’s in the best interest of our nation and their respective states,” Senator Warner said. “… In my judgment , their integrity and honesty will never be wasted.” 

“Mark is very skilled – he’s kind of what I would call a deal-making personality,” noted fellow Virginia Senator Tim Kaine. “It’s kind of like, I want to do something and you want to do something, can we figure out a way to do it together?”