Congressman J. Randy Forbes

Randy Forbes represents the diverse and expansive Fourth Congressional District of Virginia.  Since his constituents elected him to Congress in 2001, one of Randy’s key priorities has been to protect and defend our nation. As Chairman of the House Armed Services Readiness Subcommittee, Randy is tasked with ensuring that our men and women in uniform have the equipment, facilities, and training to be the most effective military in the world. Randy’s position allows him to have a key voice in developing the nation’s long-term strategies to meet our future security needs. Since taking over as Chairman, Randy has sought to fulfill the subcommittee’s mission by answering the question ‘are we ready?’ on a range of issues, from assessing our capabilities in the Pacific to improving and modernizing our military’s ageing equipment and infrastructure.

Randy has been a leading voice calling for increased transparency and accountability at the Department of Defense and demanded that the Department comply with legal audit-readiness requirements in order to eliminate wasteful spending.  He has also been an outspoken critic of massive, indiscriminate defense cuts proposed by the Administration and others as a result of budgetary pressures, not strategic needs or national interests.

As a result of his work on behalf of our military, in 2009, Randy became one of only a few individuals to have been honored with the highest civilian award offered by both the United States Army and the United States Navy.

Randy graduated from Great Bridge High School in Chesapeake in 1970. He was valedictorian of his 1974 class at Randolph-Macon College. In 1977, Randy graduated from the University of Virginia School of Law.

Randy attends Great Bridge Baptist Church, where he has taught adult Sunday school for over 20 years. He was born and raised in Chesapeake, Virginia where he still resides with his wife Shirley. He and Shirley have been married since 1978 and have four children: Neil, Jamie, Jordan, and Justin, and one grandchild, Hannah.