I wanted to let you know about two recent signs of bipartisan progress in the Senate. (There may be hope for Congress yet!)

Last week, the Senate came together to pass bipartisan legislation to repair the mess at the Department of Veterans Affairs. It's absolutely inexcusable that many of our veterans weren't able to get the health care they needed and the benefits they have earned.

I'm proud to say that this legislation, which will now become law, included a proposal I introduced to have the best and brightest from Northern Virginia’s technology industry help the VA fix its broken scheduling system – at no cost to the taxpayers.

We already have a template for this kind of pro-bono, public-private partnership. In 2011, after hearing that the remains of warfighters at Arlington National Cemetery had been misidentified and even misplaced by Army officials, I worked with the Northern Virginia Technology Council, a coalition of some of America's best technology firms, and the Army. We produced a comprehensive blueprint on how to improve the cemetery’s IT and business practices and properly honor fallen members of our Armed Forces.

Additionally, last week I was proud to stand with a bipartisan group of seven of my colleagues to introduce legislation to help combat sexual assault on our college and university campuses. After troubling reports surfaced about sexual violence at college campuses across America, we worked together on the Campus Accountability and Safety Act to help make college safer for young men and women. Our bipartisan proposals strengthen training, reporting and accountability standards to provide more consistency and transparency.

While we still have a lot of work to do on Capitol Hill, I am proud of the work we were able to do on these two pieces of legislation.

I promise that I will continue working for the commonsense, bipartisan solutions that our country needs to move forward.