Press Releases

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senators Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine and U.S. Representatives Bobby Scott and Elaine Luria applauded the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)’s announcement of $60,000,000 in federal funding through HUD’s Choice Neighborhoods Implementation program to support the revitalization of struggling housing projects in Newport News and Norfolk. These two Virginia cities were among just four localities nationwide chosen to...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) today applauded an announcement by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that the City of Charlottesville and the Town of Pulaski will receive federal assistance to support revitalization strategies that improve quality of life and help develop each community’s local food economy. This assistance comes from Local Foods, Local Places (LFLP) – a federal initiative designed to support communities se...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) joined Senators John Thune (R-SD) and Ed Markey (D-MA) to cosponsor the Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence (TRACED) Act. With the increasing numbers of robocall scams, the TRACED Act gives regulators more time to find scammers, increases civil forfeiture penalties for those who are caught, requires service providers to adopt call authentication and blocking, and brings relevant federal agencies and st...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine joined Senator Tina Smith and others to introduce the Clean Energy Standard of Act of 2019, which would establish a federal Clean Energy Standard (CES), to put our nation on course to achieve net-zero emissions from the electric sector by midcentury to fight climate change. “It’s past time for our country to get serious about addressing the causes of climate change,” said Kaine. "This bill puts us on course for a trans...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, released the following statement on National Teacher Appreciation Day. Kaine discussed his favorite college teacher and the value of public education in a video here. “Good education begins with good teachers who earn competitive pay for the important work they do each day. On National Teacher Appreciation Day, let’s thank our educators ...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Tim Kaine joined Senator Jon Tester to introduce the Rural Educator Support and Training (REST) Act to address teacher workforce shortages in rural communities by providing scholarships, loan forgiveness, and professional development opportunities to educators who commit to work in rural schools. “Rural communities in Virginia and across the country are struggling to find qualified candidates to fill vacant teaching jobs,” said Kaine. “The ...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Tim Kaine (D-VA) today introduced a resolution condemning all forms of antisemitism. The resolution is cosponsored by Sens. Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Todd Young (R-IN), Chris Coons (D-DE), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Catherine Cortez-Masto (D-NV), Tom Cotton (R-AR), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Jim Inhofe (R-OK), John Kennedy (R-LA), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), Mike Braun (R-IN), John Barrasso (R-WY), Mike Crapo (R-ID),...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – With summer vacation season just around the corner, Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) are drawing attention to an unexpected danger to beachgoers: flying beach umbrellas. Essential staples of many family vacations, the popular beach accessories can quickly become hazards when propelled by wind through the air, as has happened on several occasions in recent years, most tragically in 2016, when Lottie Michelle Belk of Chester, Va. was struck in the torso and k...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine joined Senators Ben Cardin (D-MD), Tom Carper (D-DE), Chris Coons (D-DE), and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) to introduce legislation to reauthorize the highly successful Chesapeake Bay Gateways and Watertrails program run by the National Park Service. For more than 20 years, the Chesapeake Bay Gateways and Watertrails Network has expanded public access to the Chesapeake Bay through a state, local, and federal partnership of ...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA), Susan Collins (R-ME), and Angus King (I-ME) introduced the Fair and Equal Housing Act of 2019, a bill that would add gender identity and sexual orientation to the classes protected from discrimination under the Fair Housing Act (FHA) to ensure equal housing opportunities for all Americans. The FHA prohibits housing discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex, familial status, or disability but ...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senators Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine joined Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Bob Casey (D-PA), and Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) to introduce the Revitalizing the Economy of Coal Communities by Leveraging Local Activities and Investing More (RECLAIM) Act of 2019 to provide opportunities for coal reclamation and economic development in communities impacted by the downturn in the coal industry. “As technologies evolve and ou...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON D.C. – U.S. Senators Todd Young (R-IN), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Tim Kaine (D-VA), and Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA) today introduced the Innovation Zone Act (IZ Act), which would reform the under-utilized and inefficient experimental sites initiative within the Higher Education Act. The IZ Act would rename experimental sites as “innovation zones” to better reflect the program’s mission of encouraging higher education ...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Tim Kaine and Sheldon Whitehouse led a letter with 23 colleagues calling on Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos to correct missteps the Department of Education has taken in implementing the Temporary Expanded Public Service Loan Forgiveness (TEPSLF) program. In the letter, the Senators call on DeVos to implement a comprehensive strategy to increase the approval rates for loan relief through the TEPSLF program. “While the Department took some steps...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Tim Kaine released the following statement today on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report: “The Mueller report finds serious misconduct by the President and others that compels the testimony of the Special Counsel to Congress.” ###

WASHINGTON, D.C. - United States Senators Elizabeth Warren and Tim Kaine led 14 of their Senate colleagues in writing to Senate Appropriators to urge them to include language in the Fiscal Year 2020 (FY20) appropriations bill for the U.S. Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education to ensure that the Department of Education is faithfully implementing the Temporary Expanded Public Service Loan Forgiveness (TEPSLF) program.  The senators' letter follows recently-released da...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, a member of the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committees, released the following statement after President Trump vetoed legislation passed by both houses of Congress to end U.S. support for the Saudi-backed war in Yemen: “With this veto, President Trump shows the world he is determined to keep aiding a Saudi-backed war that has killed thousands of civilians and pushed millions more to the brink of starvation. This is part of an...Continue Reading

 WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-DE), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Johnny Isakson (R-GA), Cory Booker (D-NJ), and Chris Murphy (D-CT), members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, released the following statement after Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir was removed from office following months of protests.  “After four months of the biggest political demonstrations in a generation, the Sudanese army removed President Omar al-Bashir from power...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, and Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) sent a letter to the Department of Justice’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR), urging OPR to make public its findings from its investigation into then-U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta’s handling of a criminal investigation into serial sexual abuse by Jeffrey Epstein. Acosta, who is currently serving a...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON D.C. — Today, U.S. Senators Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine announced $43,460,812 in federal funding to support affordable housing development across Virginia. The funding, which will go to 26 municipalities across the Commonwealth, has been awarded through the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Public Housing Capital Fund. “All Virginians deserve access to safe and affordable housing,” the Senators said. &l...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine joined 42 of their Senate Democratic colleagues to introduce the Working Families Tax Relief Act (WFTRA), legislation that is estimated to increase the incomes of over 1 million Virginia families, benefitting almost 2.7 million Virginians. The bill aims to cut taxes for workers and families at a time when wages are stagnant and the cost of childcare has continued to rise by expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) an...Continue Reading