Van Hollen

Montgomery County Rep. Chris Van Hollen is the latest Democrat from Maryland to land a speaking role in Charlotte next week, Democratic National Convention organizers announced Friday. The addition of Van Hollen's name to the lineup is not a surprise. As the ranking Democrat on the House Budget Committee, he is well suited to counter Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan, the chairman of that committee. In fact, Van Hollen has been doing so for weeks, including during a trip to the Republican convention in Tampa this past week.

What a joke your editorial regarding pending federal budget cuts is ("The GOP sequester," Feb. 22). Do you not research information anymore, or do you just call up some liberal Democrats for advice? Maybe you're just blind and believe anything that comes out of a Democrat's mouth? The fact is, Reps. Steny Hoyer, Chris Van Hollen and Nancy Pelosi supported the Budget Control Act, or sequester, when it was proposed. Rep. Van Hollen was on the super-committee at the time. Had he compromised, we would not now be at the final days before this hits.

I read with some amusement your article about Rep. Chris Van Hollen's participation in the Obama re-election campaign ("Van Hollen gains unexpected role in the Obama campaign," Aug. 26). While Mr. Van Hollen spends his time traveling around the nation making speeches, I have been quietly meeting and talking with voters around the new 8th Congressional District, which now includes most of Carroll and Frederick counties in addition to parts of Montgomery County. Your article presents it as a remarkable achievement that Mr. Van Hollen has "breakfasted with small business owners in Westminster" and "shaken hands at the Montgomery County Agricultural Fair.

Christopher Van Hollen Sr., a retired Foreign Service officer and ambassador to Sri Lanka, died of Alzheimer's disease complications Jan. 30 at the Washington Home and Hospice. The former Baltimore resident was 90. Born in Baltimore and raised in Cedarcroft, he was the grandson of George Henry Van Hollen, a seafood packer and owner of the Atlantic Packing Co. The family also developed the Cedarcroft section of North Baltimore and lent its name to Hollen Road. His father, Donald Van Hollen, was a Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. employee who later worked at the family's seafood business.

I was disturbed by a recent letter to the editor questioning Rep. Chris Van Hollen's support for Israel ("Van Hollen is not a true friend to Israel," Nov. 28). I am a Jewish constituent of the congressman who has followed his career for many years. Mr. Van Hollen's diligence and support of causes close to my heart, including promoting the important U.S. strategic military alliance with Israel, has convinced me that he is indeed a friend of Israel. During the recent election campaign, I was present at a number of events at which Mr. Van Hollen's opponents mischaracterized him as an enemy of Israel.

Rep. Chris Van Hollen called a federal court ruling allowing tax-exempt groups to conceal the identies of their donors “a blow against transparency in the funding of political campaigns.” The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on Tuesday reversed a lower court ruling that directed such groups, which are spending millions of dollars on campaign advertising this election season, to name their donors. “The Court of Appeals' decision today will keep the American people, for the time being, in the dark about who is attempting to influence their vote with secret money,” Van Hollen said in a statement.

WASHINGTON -- Maryland Rep. Chris Van Hollen, locked out of pursuing a higher leadership role in this Congress, formally requested another term as the top-ranking Democrat on the House Budget Committee in a letter to his colleagues Tuesday. Van Hollen, among his party's top spokesmen on fiscal issues, had been discussed as a possible candidate for a more formal leadership role. But that talk ended when longtime ally and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi decided to remain in the party's No. 1 spot.

I find Rep. Chris Van Hollen's comments very ironic about Rep. John Boehner wanting to delay on the fiscal cliff until he is re-elected Speaker of the House ("Conservatives battle Obama," Dec. 13). Isn't this the same Rep. Van Hollen, the super-committee member, who had an opportunity to craft a deal more than one year ago? What did he do during negotiations? How was he compromising in the process last year? I think he didn't. Asking a Maryland Democrat to compromise is unheard of, after all. Can he give insight as to what would be a fair and equitable solution?

Maryland Democratic Rep. Chris Van Hollen will join with gun control campaigners and religious leaders in a rally against gun violence on the National Mall Saturday. The advocates plan to march in silence at 11 a.m. from the Capitol to the Washington Monument where Van Hollen and others will speak. "I have long been a supporter of common sense measures to prevent gun violence," Van Hollen said in a statement. "Banning assault-style weapons, restricting high-capacity magazines, and implementing a system for universal background checks are just a few of the ways we can help make our communities safer.

Maryland's congressional delegation will have unusual influence in helping to resolve big issues left hanging on Capitol Hill, because two of the state's lawmakers were appointed Friday to help sort out differences between House and Senate legislation. Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin and Rep. Chris Van Hollen, both Democrats, were appointed to the conference committee that is charged with finding a compromise on a one-year extension of the payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits, along with a continuation of the current rate that Medicare pays to doctors.

Maryland Democratic Rep. Chris Van Hollen will join with gun control campaigners and religious leaders in a rally against gun violence on the National Mall Saturday. The advocates plan to march in silence at 11 a.m. from the Capitol to the Washington Monument where Van Hollen and others will speak. "I have long been a supporter of common sense measures to prevent gun violence," Van Hollen said in a statement. "Banning assault-style weapons, restricting high-capacity magazines, and implementing a system for universal background checks are just a few of the ways we can help make our communities safer.

I find Rep. Chris Van Hollen's comments very ironic about Rep. John Boehner wanting to delay on the fiscal cliff until he is re-elected Speaker of the House ("Conservatives battle Obama," Dec. 13). Isn't this the same Rep. Van Hollen, the super-committee member, who had an opportunity to craft a deal more than one year ago? What did he do during negotiations? How was he compromising in the process last year? I think he didn't. Asking a Maryland Democrat to compromise is unheard of, after all. Can he give insight as to what would be a fair and equitable solution?

As the fiscal cliff looms, two of Maryland's most influential congressmen have a message for those looking to the federal workforce for more savings: Look somewhere else. "Federal workers have already been asked to sacrifice as part of the budget cuts that have already taken place," Rep. Chris Van Hollen, the top Democrat on the House budget committee, told reporters last week. "Now is the time to ask others to help share responsibility for reducing our deficit. " Van Hollen spoke days after Rep. Steny Hoyer wrote an op-ed urging negotiators: "Don't Throw Feds Over 'Cliff.'" "Over the past two years, federal employees have repeatedly faced threats of a government shutdown that would stop their paychecks with virtually no notice," Hoyer, the No. 2 Democrat in the House, wrote in Federal Times.

As Maryland Rep. Chris Van Hollen Jr. eyes a run for the U.S. Senate in 2014, readers deserve to know the truth about his record on Israel and Iran. Some readers seem to believe that democracy ends on Election Day, and that afterward citizens give up the right to criticize their elected officials. I disagree. As an investigative reporter - and as Congressman Van Hollen's Republican opponent in the last election - I closely examined his record. It is true Mr. Van Hollen was a co-sponsor of legislation to authorize U.S. support for Iron Dome, the missile defense system that helped shield Israeli citizens from terrorist rockets fired from Gaza.

WASHINGTON -- Maryland Rep. Chris Van Hollen, locked out of pursuing a higher leadership role in this Congress, formally requested another term as the top-ranking Democrat on the House Budget Committee in a letter to his colleagues Tuesday. Van Hollen, among his party's top spokesmen on fiscal issues, had been discussed as a possible candidate for a more formal leadership role. But that talk ended when longtime ally and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi decided to remain in the party's No. 1 spot.

Rep. Chris Van Hollen called a federal court ruling allowing tax-exempt groups to conceal the identies of their donors “a blow against transparency in the funding of political campaigns.” The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on Tuesday reversed a lower court ruling that directed such groups, which are spending millions of dollars on campaign advertising this election season, to name their donors. “The Court of Appeals' decision today will keep the American people, for the time being, in the dark about who is attempting to influence their vote with secret money,” Van Hollen said in a statement.

Even as he campaigns for re-election to Congress, Rep. Chris Van Hollen has been tapped by the Obama campaign to help lead the Democratic rebuttal to Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan — a role that is taking him to battleground states around the nation. When Ryan hit the campaign trail last month with presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney, Van Hollen was giving national interviews criticizing the Wisconsin lawmaker's budget proposals. The Montgomery County Democrat has traveled to the swing states of New Hampshire and North Carolina to speak against Ryan's plans to cut taxes, slash spending and overhaul entitlement programs — turning Medicare, for example, into a voucher program.