Press Releases

*Spanish Language Translation Below* WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine joined 23 Senators today in sending a letter to Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen and Acting Secretary of State John Sullivan urging them to extend Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Honduran Nationals, which is set to expire on July 5, 2018.   “Ending TPS for Hondurans would force more than 86,031 individuals to go back to a country with severe security challenge...Continue Reading

~ Bipartisan legislation would recognize Department’s focus on increasing economic opportunities in rural communities ~ WASHINGTON — Today, U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner (D-VA), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Joe Manchin (D-WV), and Tim Kaine (D-VA) introduced bipartisan legislation that would rename the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) as the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development. The change would accurately reflect the Department’s increasing focus on ...Continue Reading

Legislation includes key provisions of Kaine bills to combat opioid epidemic WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, applauded Committee passage of legislation he co-sponsored called The Opioid Crisis Response Act of 2018. This bipartisan legislation takes a comprehensive look at how communities across the country are tackling the opioid crisis and includes forty different proposals to increase the wa...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA), Rob Portman (R-OH) and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Co-Chairs of the Senate Career and Technical Education (CTE) Caucus, along with U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), introduced the Creating Quality Technical Educators Act. This legislation will create a teacher residency grant program to help address the CTE teacher shortage in schools. The grant program creates partnerships between elementary, middle or high schools and ...Continue Reading

UVA President Teresa Sullivan and workforce groups praise bill; say improving data is critical to student success WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Tim Kaine has co-sponsored legislation to modernize the data colleges provide students and families to ensure they have clear information about student outcomes before deciding on a college or other higher education institution. The College Transparency Act will increase reporti...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, along with 30 of their male Senate colleagues, today called for the Senate Majority and Minority Leaders to bring to the Senate floor legislation reforming how Congress handles cases of sexual harassment. This letter backs up calls from all of the women Senators of both parties, who sent a letter on March 28 to Senate leadership expressing disappointment that Congress failed to address this urgently needed reform in the March omni...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine sent a letter to Secretary of Defense James Mattis sharing Virginia’s concern over the risks of offshore drilling on military assets in Hampton Roads. In the letter, Warner and Kaine raise concerns about how drilling would affect military activities in Hampton Roads, given the region’s deep national security footprint. They also ask if the Department has conducted a comprehensive study assessing the specific challenges ...Continue Reading

Washington, DC – Today, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), Ranking Member of the House Intelligence Committee, and Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA), a member of the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committees, sent a letter to President Trump requesting he detail the legal basis for the U.S. military strikes on April 13, 2018 against the Syrian regime's chemical weapons facilities.  This letter follows up on their request in 2017 asking the President to detail the legal basis for the strike ...Continue Reading

~ Senators join resolution calling for Scott Pruitt to immediately resign from his post as EPA Administrator ~  WASHINGTON – U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) joined a group of 37 Senators in introducing a resolution calling for the immediate resignation of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt. The resolution comes in response to Pruitt’s repeated ethics violations, misuse of taxpayer dollars, retribution against whistleblowers, and ...Continue Reading

~ NEW TODAY: China has begun taxing Chinese consumers of U.S. goods to discourage imports ~ * See below for a detailed list of soybean producing areas in Virginia * WASHINGTON — Today, U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) expressed increased concern over how President Trump’s trade war would hurt Virginia’s soybean production, which is the Commonwealth’s number one cash crop. China’s Ministry of Commerce has recently announced they will begin pro...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. ­-- U.S. Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA), Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, introduced the Ensuring Access to Quality Recovery Living Act. This bipartisan legislation will give states the resources and guidelines necessary to ensure recovery homes are able to effectively help residents sustain recovery from opi...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and Tim Kaine (D-Va.) today led a bipartisan group of senators in proposing legislation to replace the 2001 and 2002 authorizations for use of military force (AUMFs) with an updated AUMF against al-Qaida, the Taliban, and the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The legislation, cosponsored by Senators Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Todd Young (R-Ind.), and Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), strengthens congressional oversight and tra...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today on Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan on CBS News, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, a member of the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committees, reiterated that President Trump’s actions in Syria are illegal and reckless because he failed to get Congress’s approval or present a broader strategy. Kaine cited the risks of President Trump ignoring the powers set out in the Constitution, asking “What's to stop him from starting a bombing cam...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Today, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations and Armed Services Committees, released the following statement announcing his opposition to Director Mike Pompeo’s nomination for Secretary of State: “I have decided to oppose the nomination of Mike Pompeo as Secretary of State. I honor his public service and voted for him to be CIA Director. But in scrutinizing his nomination to be America’s principal diplomat, I cannot overlook gra...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Today, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations and Armed Services Committees, released the following statement after President Trump launched airstrikes against Syria without seeking approval from Congress: “President Trump’s decision to launch airstrikes against the Syrian government without Congress’s approval is illegal and – absent a broader strategy – it’s reckless. Last week, President Trump was adamant that the U.S. was leaving Syria imminently. T...Continue Reading

~ Senators ask appropriators to fund federal program that helps local law enforcement bolster community policing ~ WASHINGTON — U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) joined a group of Senators in a letter to congressional appropriators requesting a minimum of $225.5 million in federal funding for the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Hiring Program to help local law enforcement bolster community policing efforts. While February’s bipartisan...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, participated in a confirmation hearing for Mike Pompeo, President Trump’s nominee for Secretary of State. Senator Kaine pressed Pompeo on the need for congressional approval for military action in Syria, Pompeo’s strong opposition to the Iran nuclear deal, and Pompeo’s 2014 comments that the United States should consider bombing Iran’s nuclear facilities instead of ...Continue Reading

~ Warn Virginia could lose up to 96,000 jobs if U.S. withdraws from the free trade agreement ~ WASHINGTON — U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) urged the Trump Administration to protect Virginia’s agriculture producers and the national agricultural economy as negotiations over the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) enter a critical stage. Last week, President Trump threatened to stop the free trade agreement as a way to pressure Mexico on border security. &ld...Continue Reading

~ Senators ask appropriators to use full funding to improve and modernize VA facilities ~ WASHINGTON — U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-Va.) joined a group of Senators in a letter to Senate appropriators calling on them to commit to using the full $2 billion that was allocated in last month’s bipartisan budget agreement for its intended purpose of repairing and modernizing Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) infrastructure. While that Cong...Continue Reading

~ More than $300,000 awarded to Norfolk’s Housing Authority ~ WASHINGTON— U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) announced today that the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority will receive $354,192 in federal funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to provide housing assistance for families residing in the Diggs Park Community.  “All families deserve an equal opportunity to find safe and affordable housing,” said the S...Continue Reading