In The News

Senator Tim Kaine Visits Brownsville to Combat Fentanyl Smuggling We begin tonight on the border where former vice-presidential candidate and current U.S. Senator Tim Kaine visited the Rio Grande Valley. The lawmaker toured Brownsville today to observe how border officials are fighting the fentanyl crisis. Samantha Ruiz was at the press conference and brings us the details. Inspecting Anti-Fentanyl Measures Today, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, alongside Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials an...Continue Reading

A 4.5% pay raise for military personnel and a 2% pay raise for Department of Defense civilians is part of the Fiscal Year 2025 National Defense Bill recently endorsed by the Senate Armed Services Committee. The measure now heads to the Senate. The bill also includes a 1% pay raise for junior enlisted service members, according to a release from U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, D-Virginia, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. “From Hampton Roads to Arlington to Radford to Danville, Virginia pl...Continue Reading

NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — Sen. Tim Kaine made two stops in Hampton Roads on Monday afternoon, the first in Norfolk to discuss NATO before heading to Hampton, where he met with VA Medical Center directors. Kaine (D-Va.) met with Vice Admiral Douglas Perry, commander of Joint Force Command (JFC) Norfolk and several military leaders to discuss the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).  “JFC Norfolk is one of three operational NATO commands in the world, and the only operational NATO headquarters i...Continue Reading

Senator Tim Kaine (D-Virginia) is taking a stand against "bump stocks," an attachment that assists semi-automatic weapons fire faster. The Supreme Court overturned a ban on "bump stocks" last week. But on Tuesday, Sen. Kaine cosponsored a bill that will completely prohibit the sale of the devices through the BUMP Act. "I think Donald Trump was a very bad president, but he did some things I approve of," Kaine said. "The Trump administration shared administration that basically said a 'Bump Stock'...Continue Reading

On May 23, U.S. Senators Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA), along with U.S. Representative Bobby Scott, hosted a Commonwealth coffee event in celebration of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Heritage Month.  The event, which was held in Room SDG-11 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building, brought together a diverse group of leaders from across Virginia’s AANHPI communities and provided a unique opportunity for community leaders to get together, share their persp...Continue Reading

U.S. Senators Tim Kaine, D-Va.,  a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and U.S. Mark R. Warner, D-Va., introduced the Response to Conflict in Sudan Act Thursday, legislation to bolster and coordinate the U.S. response to the war in Sudan by codifying the Special Envoy for Sudan position at the U.S. Department of State. Specifically, the bill would elevate the position and require the special envoy to report directly to the Secretary of State; the envoy currently reports to the Assi...Continue Reading

Have you heard the story about the expensive handbag designer, a member of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club, who was his ambassador to South Africa? Although born there, Lana Marks had no previous diplomatic experience. What about Kelly Craft, a Republican donor and Trump’s ambassador to Canada, who reportedly was dubbed an “absent ambassador” because she was so often away from her post? Or the one about the bipartisan political fundraiser and would-be U.S. ambassador to Norway nominated by Pres...Continue Reading

Roughly 1 in 4 Virginia hospitals are critically short-staffed, according to federal data. During last week’s Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing, Sen. Tim Kaine highlighted two health care workforce bills he’s sponsoring. They're intended to ease labor shortages in the sector. The legislation comes at a time when about 1 in 4 Virginia hospitals are in a critical staffing shortage, according to late-April data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. A li...Continue Reading

In Uzbekistan, Dora was a well-respected oncologist with more than 25 years of experience taking care of cancer patients. In the United States, she was told that her medical license would not be accepted, that her English was too poor to work with patients. She was encouraged to get a job in a cafeteria or as a housekeeper. “That was a big humiliation for me because nobody had ever said those bad words to me. After that, I was depressed, I cried a lot,” Dora told The Daily Progress. Dora, who as...Continue Reading

U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy may have bought time with an apology to a bipartisan Virginia congressional delegation that is irate over delays in mail deliveries — including essential medications — to people in the Richmond area. But U.S. Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, both Virginia Democrats, and Rep. Rob Wittman, R-1st, and Rep. Jennifer McClellan, D-4th, say they will not relax scrutiny of the Postal Service and its regional mail distribution center in Richmond. “He owned up to respon...Continue Reading

Virginia’s U.S. Senators have introduced a bill in Congress they say could reduce gun violence in America. Included in their proposal is a provision commonly known as “Lucia’s Law.” In 2021, 13-year-old Lucia Bremer died in her mother’s arms after being shot nine times in Henrico County. Her killer was a fellow teenager with documented mental health problems, who used a loaded handgun he found in his home. ‘We had that tragedy in Central Virginia where a caregiver frankly should have been aware ...Continue Reading

U.S. Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, both Virginia Democrats, joined lawmakers from the House and Senate to urge the Office of Personnel Management to require all health insurance carriers in the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program to cover in-vitro fertilization treatments and medications. If the agency were to take up the request, this would affect federal employees, many of whom live in Northern Virginia. In noting the treatment’s popularity for families struggling with fertility issues...Continue Reading

U.S. Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine have introduced the “Virginia Plan to Reduce Gun Violence Act” to enact a series of gun violence prevention measures federally. The bill includes a provision to mandate reporting of lost and stolen guns, prevent children from accessing guns, and implement a one-handgun-a-month policy Warner and Kaine introduced this effort on April 16. This day marks 17 years since a gunman opened fire at two locations at Virginia Tech killing 32 people and leaving 17 othe...Continue Reading

U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine has asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Google and Meta regarding the continued presence of a video depicting the murders of two Roanoke journalists. In August 2015, Alison Parker and Adam Ward with Roanoke’s WDBJ news channel were shot and killed by a former colleague during a live broadcast. A third person, Vicki Gardner, was seriously wounded during the attack, which the gunman recorded on video. Videos of the Moneta shooting incident remain on Google and Met...Continue Reading

The U.S. Department of Justice has released a new rule that aims to close a specific loophole regarding the sale of firearms. On Thursday, Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner applauded the new gun show loophole rule, which is based on the Safer Communities Act. The loophole concerns the sale of firearms online and at gun shows by private sellers without background checks. “When we passed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, we secured long overdue, broadly popular provisions to keep guns out ...Continue Reading

Sen. Tim Kaine was in Charlottesville Monday morning to visit Piedmont Virginia Community College’s adult education center, where the Virginia Democrat said he wanted to learn how he could fine-tune legislation he’s proposed for years that would expand access to federal grants to those seeking high-quality, short-term job training programs. The students and faculty at PVCC’s Thomas Jefferson Adult Career Education facility are among those who stand to benefit from Kaine’s Jumpstart Our Businesse...Continue Reading

Virginia U.S. Senator Tim Kaine recently helped secure federal funding for three Harrisonburg projects in the Senate’s $1.3 trillion spending bill. WHSV spoke with Sen. Kaine about the funding for the projects and the needs they’ll help address. “A million dollars for the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Child Daycare Center. We’re just hearing reports all over the Commonwealth about the need for more affordable, high-quality childcare. It’s good for kids, good for parents, and good for the providers,” s...Continue Reading

A pair of senators introduced a bill Wednesday that would require the State Department to track xylazine in its annual report. Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Tim Kaine (D-Va.) introduced the legislation, which would require the State Department to include data on xylazine, nicknamed “tranq,” in its annual International Narcotics Control Strategy (INCSR) Report. The report is meant to record efforts on countering the international drug trade; it already includes data on fentanyl, cocaine and heroin...Continue Reading

On Wednesday, Senators Tim Kaine (D-Virginia) and Laphonza Butler (D-California) introduced the Opening Doors for Youth Act of 2024 to help at-risk youth find summer or year-long jobs that can set them up for success in future careers. The legislation would provide federal funding to local communities to create strategic partnerships with businesses to create job opportunities and provide career training, mentoring, financial literacy planning, and other skills and services to young people who a...Continue Reading