Yesterday Senator Warner grabbed a handful of letters and emails from constituents, deciding to call some of those Virginians personally to listen to their concerns and express that he shared their frustration with Congress, but would continue to work to replace these broad cuts with a smarter bipartisan proposal.

Most folks know Doug Puffenbarger as a school bus driver, cattle farmer, and maple syrup producer in the Blue Grass Valley. Some friends also know he’s a great photographer, but now, folks across Virginia will know that, too. Recently, Sen. Mark Warner launched a contest to choose a cover photo of Virginia for his Facebook page, a social networking site.

Senator Warner has launched a contest to pick a cover photo of Virginia for his Facebook page by asking for submissions from his more than 16,500 followers. Facebook, the popular social media tool, will be transitioning all pages to their new Timeline format on Friday, March 30. As part of the new format, all pages must include a large “cover photo.”

The Virginia Inland Port in Front Royal sits near the intersection of Interstates 66 and 81 in the northern Shenandoah Valley, and it helps link truck traffic from the U.S. midwest with rail links to the Port of Hampton Roads at the coast. The VIP is a smart infrastructure investment that operates 24/7 and now supports more than 7,000 jobs in Virginia.

After an innovation roundtable at Charlottesville’s Mikro Systems, Senator Warner traveled to Waynesboro to get a look at the largest thermal solar panel installation project in Virginia at the local YMCA. A thunderstorm arrived just as we did, so Senator Warner wasn’t able to climb onto the roof to see the progress of this installation project.

Sen. Mark Warner stopped by the Waynesboro Family YMCA on Friday afternoon, helping tout the facility's recent commitment to thermal solar energy. "I want to commend everyone who's been involved in this project," said Warner, himself a former YMCA board member for 20 years.

In his State of the Union Address, President Obama called on Congress to pass an agenda that helps start-ups and small businesses succeed. We have already introduced a plan that shares his goals. It's called the Startup Act. Research conducted by the Kauffman Foundation and others has consistently shown that companies less than five years old accounted for nearly all net job creation in our economy over the past three decades.

Backlogs and delays continue to plague the federal government's pension system. Retirees wait an average of five months to receive their first full pension check -- but delays of a year or more are common. The Office of Personnel Management says it has plan to hire more people to process a backlog of 64,000 paper records, but it could take 18 months or more to solve the problem.