First elected in 2001 to the United States House of Representatives, Randy’s real world experiences have set him apart as a leader committed to serving the people of the Fourth Congressional District. Growing up in Chesapeake, Virginia, Randy was the second child in a working class family. His father was a service member, his mother a homemaker. As a senior at Great Bridge High School, Randy’s principal, Harry Blevins, first encouraged the lifelong Virginian to pursue a career public service that would one day lead him to service in the US Congress.
In the midst of partisan bickering in Washington, Randy has remained true to his hometown values and served as an effective representative for the people of the Fourth Congressional District. As Ranking Member of the House Armed Services Readiness Subcommittee, one of Randy’s priorities is securing and defending the United States and ensuring our military readiness. Randy’s work on the most recent BRAC process helped to keep Ft. Lee and the Defense Supply Center, Richmond open. The area is expected see over 11,000 new jobs as a result of this BRAC growth. In his role as Ranking Member, Randy has insisted that the U.S. loan funds to Iraq to be repaid by the Iraqis, rather than giving away reconstructions funds. Randy supports our nation’s veterans and believes we should honor our promises to those who have served our nation.
Randy has rejected the Washington mentality of political rhetoric with no action, and has instead focused on solutions-based leadership to tackle some of our nation’s biggest issues like energy and gas prices, the economy, health care, tax reform, and immigration.
To address energy issues, Randy introduced a New Manhattan Project to tackle energy dependence and rising gas prices by calling on the U.S. to reach 50% energy independence in 10 years and 100% energy independence in 20 years. Randy supports increasing our oil supply through drilling off-shore and in ANWR, and through increasing refinery capacity. In addition, he supports energy conservation and has supported increasing CAFÉ standards to make our cars more energy-efficient.
Randy believes in a patient-centered health care system. He advocates the use of association health plans to allow small businesses to band together to make health insurance more affordable for their employees. He is working on legislation that would allow families to create savings accounts for long-term care so families can better care for their aging loved ones at home or at care centers of their choice, and has worked to protect senior citizens and the chronically ill by introducing legislation that would give citizens the right to reinstate terminated health insurance coverage. Randy supports funding disease research, and has introduced legislation that would prioritize non-embryonic stem-cell research for diseases such as Alzheimer’s, diabetes, cancer, and Parkinson’s.
To encourage economic growth, Randy has first called on Congress to get its spending under control. He has supported the creation of a commission to reform wasteful, fraudulent, and duplicative government spending. Randy has sought long-term economic solutions by rejecting quick-fix economic solutions such as the “economic stimulus”, which increased the deficit by $146 billion. In addition, Randy has worked to decrease taxes and regulations on small businesses, secure funding to build roads and bridges across the Fourth District, and invest in alternative transportation. He has helped developing industries like modeling and simulation, and communities that are preparing for growth as a result of BRAC. Randy has worked to protect the American worker by calling for illegal immigration reform and stricter border security. Randy believes citizenship in this country is a privilege, not a right, and has worked for policies that place barriers on illegal immigrants using tax-payer funded programs.
Randy has always been a champion for our farmers and has worked to ensure a safe and stable food supply at home. He continues to fight to keep our communities safe by keeping gangs of our streets, child predators out of chat rooms and social networks, and identity thieves out of our garbage cans and computers. Randy understands the importance college education to our future generations, our communities, and our overall global competitiveness, and has supported making college more affordable for students, increasing access to student loans, and improving science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education. In addition, Randy has worked to keep our communities a beautiful place to live by supporting environmental restoration efforts for the Chesapeake Bay, Dismal Swamp Canal, and other important natural resources and wildlife habitats.
In addition to his position on the Readiness Subcommittee, Randy is founder and Chairman of the Congressional Prayer Caucus, the Congressional China Caucus, the Modeling and Simulation Caucus, and is co-chairman of the Navy-Marine Corps Caucus. Through his work on the Prayer Caucus, Randy introduced bipartisan legislation to honor America’s religious heritage and to ensure the values and culture of America are protected and sustained.
Randy came to Congress with a history marked by the values of hard work that his father taught him. He worked his way through Randolph-Macon College through a series of jobs, graduating in 1974 as valedictorian. He then pursued his law degree from the University of Virginia. After graduating from law school, he began his career in the private practice oflaw helping small and medium-sized businesses. In 1989, Randy was elected to the Virginia General Assembly where he quickly established himself as a conservative leader, becoming the Floor Leader in the House of Delegates from 1994-1997. In 1997, Randy was elected to the Virginia State Senate, and just a year later, he became the Floor Leader of the Senate.
Randy lives in Chesapeake, Virginia with his wife Shirley. He and Shirley have been married since 1978 and have four children: Neil, Jamie, Jordan, and Justin. They attend Great Bridge Baptist church, where Randy has taught Sunday school for over 20 years.
