Press Releases

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine cosponsored the Real Economic Support That Acknowledges Unique Restaurant Assistance Needed to Survive (RESTAURANTS) Act of 2020, legislation that would establish a $120 billion revitalization fund to help independent restaurants deal with the long-term structural challenges facing the industry because of COVID-19 and support the reemployment of 11 million workers. “Virginia’s independent restaurants have been e...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, introduced a bill to tackle the lack of representation of rural students, underserved students, and students of color in the physician pipeline. The Expanding Medical Education Act would provide grants through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to colleges and universities to establish or expand allopathic (M.D. granting) or osteopathic (D.O...Continue Reading

Watch the video here. WASHINGTON, D.C.— Today, following President Trump’s threat to delay the election, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing pressed Secretary Pompeo on the issue, asking, "Can a president delay a presidential election?" Pompeo refused to answer and deferred the question to the DOJ, saying: “In the end, the Department of Justice and others will make that legal determination.” Kaine responded saying, "A president canno...Continue Reading

~ Cases have spiked as a result of this Administration’s transfer of detainees from COVID-19 hotspots in Florida and Arizona ~  WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) urged President Trump to work with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to create and deploy teams of epidemiologists to the immigration detention center in Farmville, Va., where nearly every detainee has contracted COVID-19. This disastrous situation comes...Continue Reading

Bill named in honor of Dr. Lorna Breen, who died by suicide while serving on frontlines of pandemic WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA), Todd Young (R-IN), Jack Reed (D-RI), and Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA) introduced the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act, legislation that aims to reduce and prevent suicide, burnout, and mental and behavioral health conditions among health care professionals. Health care professionals have long experienced high levels of...Continue Reading

“Such a project has no relevance whatsoever to the public health and economic recovery assistance Americans so urgently need.” WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen (Both D-Md.) and Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (Both D-Va.) are calling on Senate leadership to reject the Trump adminstration’s attempt to add funding for a downtown headquarters for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) into the latest COVID-19 relief package. The four senators urged t...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON – U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) issued the following statement today in response to the release of the Health, Economic Assistance, Liability Protection and Schools (HEALS) Act – the proposal put forward by the White House and Senate Republican leaders as a starting point for bipartisan, bicameral negotiations on another COVID-19 relief package: “The Democratic House passed the HEROES Act ten weeks ago. Since then, the health and economic crisis...Continue Reading

Bill Would Ensure Public Servants And Frontline Workers, Like Nurses And First Responders, Receive The Student Loan Forgiveness They Have Earned WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) led a group of eighteen senators to call on Senate leadership to include fixes to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program in the next COVID-19 relief package. In a letter, the senators called for the inclusion of components from Sen...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine joined Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden to introduce the Preventing Authoritarian Policing Tactics on America’s Streets Act, which would block the Trump Administration from deploying federal agents as paramilitary forces against Americans. The action comes after a week in which heavily armed federal forces without uniform identification in unmarked vehicles have been grabbing protesters off the street in Portl...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, released the following statement on final Senate passage of the Fiscal Year 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which includes numerous provisions he championed to benefit Virginia’s defense community, shipbuilding industry, and military families. The legislation also includes Kaine’s amendment to prevent the use of military force against American citizens exer...Continue Reading

You can watch video of Kaine’s floor speech here. WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, delivered a floor speech highlighting the importance of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) amendment to initiate a 3 year process to rename DOD facilities currently named after Confederates, including three Virginia military bases: Fort Lee, Fort Pickett, and Fort AP Hill. The amendment was sponsored by Senator Warre...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, introduced the Mothers and Newborns Success Act, legislation to help reduce the egregious racial inequities in maternal and infant mortality. Congresswoman Terri Sewell (AL-07) introduced companion legislation in the House of Representatives today. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the maternal mortality rate for...Continue Reading

 WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine introduced the Virginia Plan to Reduce Gun Violence Act of 2020, a bill to federally enact a series of commonsense gun violence prevention measures adopted by Virginia earlier this year. Included in the bill are measures to remove firearms from those at risk of harming themselves or others, close current background check loopholes, mandate reporting of lost and stolen firearms, prevent children from accessing firearms,...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, DC – Senators James Lankford (R-OK) and Tim Kaine (D-VA) today introduced the Safeguarding Internet Freedom in Hong Kong Act. The legislation pushes back on China’s aggressive actions to undermine Hong Kong’s autonomy and freedom. The bill comes after the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) passed a sweeping security law that threatens the freedoms of the people of Hong Kong, including their access to the internet and ability to share information online. Lankford and Kain...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON – U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) today applauded $3,001,442 in federal funding for public transportation in the City of Winchester. The funding, for Winchester Transit, was authorized by the Federal Transit Authority (FTA) under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act supported by Sens. Warner and Kaine. “We’re pleased to announce these federal dollars will help the Winchester Tr...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON – U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) today announced $1,627,377 in federal funding for public transportation in the City of Radford. The funding was authorized by the Federal Transit Authority (FTA) under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act supported by Sens. Warner and Kaine. “We’re glad to announce that this funding will allow the City of Radford to continue pro...Continue Reading

~ Approximately 80 percent of people detained at the Farmville, Va. detention center have tested positive for COVID-19 ~ WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) raised alarm with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for continuing to transfer individuals in custody between detention facilities, even as approximately 80 percent of the population at the Farmville, Va. detention center tests posi...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) applauded $500,000 in Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) funding to improve the Town of Pulaski’s wastewater treatment facility and support 340 jobs. “We are glad to know that these federal dollars will be put to use in Pulaski to improve wastewater infrastructure and increase capacity as Pulaski continues to grow,” said the Senators. Currently, the Town of Pulaski’s collection...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Chris Coons (D-Del.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), and Ben Cardin (D-Md.), all members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, released the following statement on the recent violence in Ethiopia. “We watch with concern the recent unrest and ethnic violence in Ethiopia following the June 29 murder of Ethiopian singer Hachalu Hundessa, which has led to the death of over 200 people. We are also concerned by the internet shutdown across the ...Continue Reading

Watch his video announcing the contest here. WASHINGTON, D.C. – Over the last two months, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine has highlighted graduating high school seniors across Virginia as part of his “Everybody’s the Graduation Speaker” video contest. Because many in-person graduations were postponed or canceled due to the coronavirus, Kaine encouraged Virginia’s graduating high school seniors to submit a video of an original speech they would have liked to give at graduatio...Continue Reading