Press Releases

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) cosponsored a bill to create a privacy bill of rights to protect the personal information of Americans on the internet. The Customer Online Notification for Stopping Edge-provider Network Transgressions (CONSENT) Act, introduced by Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), would require the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to establish privacy protections for customers who use websites and applications like Facebook and Go...Continue Reading

The FY15 National Defense Authorization Act required DoD to collect, report, and assess data regarding military family suicide, yet recent reports failed to include this information  Senators: “We owe it to military families to support them through these challenges and ensure they have access to the care and services they need” WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Patty Murray (D-WA) and Tim Kaine (D-VA) are urging Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to release any data on military d...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, pressed a Trump Administration official on President Trump’s trade war and the concerns he’s heard from Virginia farmers and business owners about the negative effect it is having on their business. In a Committee hearing on tariffs, Kaine, with a bottle Catoctin Creek Whiskey from Purcellville, VA in hand, told the success story of the Loudoun County company’s expansion ...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON –Following recent reports that the Trump administration sought to block or water down a World Health Organization resolution promoting breastfeeding, U.S. Senators Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), and 21 other colleagues, on Thursday sent a letter to U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley seeking more information about the United States’ involvement. The senators expressed their concern over ...Continue Reading

~ Federal funds will go to community programs in Henrico, Hampton Roads, and Roanoke ~  WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) announced that three Virginia organizations will receive $891,303 in federal funds from the U.S. Department of Labor to help homeless veterans re-enter the workforce. The funds – in the form of three competitive Homeless Veterans’ Reintegration Program (HVRP) grants – include $227,263 for Total Action Against ...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine and Congressman Bob Goodlatte announced $750,000 in federal funding to help the Roanoke Regional Airport Commission bring new non-stop service from Roanoke Regional Airport to Dallas/Ft. Worth, Texas, Denver, Colorado, and/or Detroit, Michigan. The Commission can use the funds for a revenue guarantee, a marketing program, and fee waivers. This effort was a community collaboration where the Roanoke Regional Chamber and the Bo...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Tim Kaine released the following statement on President Trump’s nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to serve on the Supreme Court: “A Supreme Court nomination is the most consequential appointment that the Senate ever considers. As I have with nominees in the past, I will carefully review Judge Kavanaugh’s character, legal decisions, and writing to determine whether he should be confirmed to this crucial position. There are critical issues ...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine announced $1,722,571 in federal funding for a Martinsville-based organization that helps create partnerships and support manufacturing across Virginia. This funding will help Virginia GENEDGE support small and mid-sized businesses as they develop new products and customers, expand into global markets, adopt new technology, and support domestic production efforts. “Virginia has had a great track record of ensuring that our...Continue Reading

Today, Chinese tariffs on Virginia goods went into effect. Includes soybeans, beef, cotton, and dairy. WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine released the following statement on President Trump’s trade war, which has resulted in China imposing tariffs today on Virginia goods: “China engages in unfair trade actions that must be addressed, but today, President Trump’s mishandling of the trade situation caused China to officially retaliate agains...Continue Reading

~ National Park Service grants will help protect 229 acres across six Va. battlefields ~  WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) announced more than $2.05 million to preserve six historic battlefields in Virginia. These grants were awarded through the National Park Service’s American Battlefield Protection Program, funded through the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), which is one of more than a dozen programs operated by NPS that provide s...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) announced a $2.5 million dollar loan for Eastern Shore Rural Health System, Inc. to open a new health care facility in Eastville, Virginia offering affordable medical and dental care. The new center will replace the aging Bayview and Franktown Community Health Center with a facility that offers expanded operating hours, more lab services, increased access to dental care, and opportunity to incorporate telemedicine in t...Continue Reading

~ Funding will allow police departments to replace aging vehicles and improve regional infrastructure ~  WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, U.S. Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) applauded the $86,200 in funds awarded to Virginia communities by the United States Department of Agriculture’s Office of Rural Development. The funds will go towards the purchase of police and public works vehicles and equipment for rural communities in the towns of Shenandoah, Louisa, and Clintwood, and in...Continue Reading

~ Funds will be directed towards classroom-based intervention research, used to help promote emotional and behavioral well-being for early elementary school students ~  WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) announced that Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) will receive $823,698 in federal funding to conduct research that aims to promote the emotional and behavioral well-being for early elementary students (children ages six through eight) in the c...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine praised final Senate passage of legislation to rename a U.S. Postal Service office located in Palmyra, Virginia as the U.S. Navy Seaman Dakota Kyle Rigsby Post Office. Seaman Rigsby died on the USS Fitzgerald on June 17, 2017 following a collision with a merchant vessel off the coast of Japan. He was a native of Palmyra. “Seaman Rigsby served his country and his community with honor beginning in high school as a volunt...Continue Reading

~ Bipartisan legislation expands protections, resources for pet owners fleeing domestic abusers ~ WASHINGTON- The U.S. Senate passed bipartisan legislation introduced by Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) to protect victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking and dating violence from emotional and psychological trauma caused by violence against their pets. The Pet and Women Safety (PAWS) Act was included in the 2018 Farm Bill passed by the Senate on a bipartisan 86-11 vote...Continue Reading

~ Includes other Warner-Kaine priorities to increase Chesapeake Bay clean-up funding and protect public lands ~ WASHINGTON – Today, the U.S. Senate passed, on a bipartisan 86-11 vote, legislation that includes Virginia priorities championed by U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA). Specifically, the 2018 Senate Farm Bill includes a Warner-Kaine sponsored measure to legalize industrial hemp production, a crop which is already cultivated for research purposes in ...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Tim Kaine joined 47 colleagues in a letter calling on President Trump to abandon his Administration’s latest effort to undo the Affordable Care Act and threaten health care for people with pre-existing conditions. The letter to President Trump addresses his Administration’s decision to support a lawsuit from 20 states, Texas v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), that would threaten the guarantee of health cov...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) joined Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to introduce a bill to decriminalize marijuana at the federal level, leaving the decision about legalization in states’ hands. Specifically, the Marijuana Freedom and Opportunity Act removes marijuana from the list of scheduled substances under the Controlled Substances Act, effectively decriminalizing it at the federal level. The legislation allows states to continue to decide how they will treat ma...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine released the following statement after Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement from the Supreme Court: “The Republican Senate leadership established a clear precedent when it refused to take up the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Merrick Garland:  Do not fill a Supreme Court vacancy in an election year. It is only fair that this precedent should also be applied to the vacancy created by the retirement of Justice Anthon...Continue Reading

Perkins CTE reauthorization includes major provisions from three of Kaine’s bills to increase access to CTE programs  WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, a member of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee and a co-chair of the Senate Career and Technical Education (CTE) Caucus, praised the HELP Committee’s unanimous passage of a bipartisan update of the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Improvement Act. For years, Kaine has c...Continue Reading