Press Releases

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, released the following statement on Senate passage of the Fiscal Year 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which contains several provisions he advocated for that will benefit Virginia’s shipbuilding industry and defense community: “From funding the Ford-class carrier and Virginia class submarines, to enhancing credentialing opportunities for servicemembers, to elimina...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. — After hearing from concerned patients, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine joined a bipartisan group of eight senators calling on U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-WA) to review patient perspectives on access to health care and the impact of high out-of-pocket expenses. The Senators emphasized that certain health care trends, such as high out-of-pocket costs, often prevent patients wi...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Tim Kaine, Mazie K. Hirono and Harry Reid joined U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Chief of Staff Juliet Choi, Filipino World War II veterans Rudy Panaglima and Celestino Almeda, and advocates to announce the implementation of a long-awaited program to reunite aging Filipino World War II veterans with their children and families. Under the USCIS Filipino World War II Veterans Parole (FWVP) program, Filipino veterans whose service has ...Continue Reading

Washington – Today the U.S. Senators from Virginia and Maryland, together representing more than 630,000 current and retired federal workers, called on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to allow a confirmation vote on the President’s nominee to head the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), Acting Director Beth F. Cobert. In a letter to Leader McConnell, Sens. Mark R. Warner (D-VA), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Tim Kaine (D-VA) wrote that Cobert’s nominat...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine joined 25 of his Senate colleagues calling for an end to deportation raids targeting families and unaccompanied minors who have fled the rampant violence in Central America’s Northern Triangle. In a letter to President Obama, the Senators also urged the Administration to designate Guatemala and re-designate El Salvador and Honduras for temporary protected status (TPS), allowing individuals from those countries to legally remain in the United...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, released the following statement on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address to a joint meeting of Congress earlier today: “It was an honor to hear Prime Minister Modi’s vision for India before a joint session of Congress in the U.S. Capitol today. With the strategic importance of the U.S.-India relationship growing every year, I’ve been encouraged by increased cooper...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON – Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) joined a group of Senators in urging the U.S. Department of Defense and the State Department to take steps to protect deployed servicemembers, their families, and other Americans abroad from the threat posed by the Zika virus. Zika has been linked to microcephaly and other brain malformations and disorders in babies born to women infected during pregnancy. “The World Health Organization estimates that between three to four m...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Tim Kaine released the following statement on Senate passage of the Toxic Substances Control Act: “Today Congress passed a landmark bipartisan bill to strengthen federal oversight over toxic chemicals. This bill creates new obligations to study chemicals before they are allowed onto the market and makes more information on chemicals available to the public. Most notably, it clears away a bureaucratic obstacle that has prevented regulation of asbestos, ...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, a member of the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committees, introduced two amendments to the Fiscal Year 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) focused on the war against ISIL. The first measure, encourages a revision of the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) passed in the wake of September 11, 2001 by sunsetting the 2001 AUMF two years after the new Administration takes office, and requiring the new Administ...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine announced that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will award $2,764,351 to George Mason University, Virginia Commonwealth University and the Virginia Department of Health for heart-related diseases and diabetes research and nurse training programs. “We applaud HHS  for providing our universities and state officials with the resources to make breakthrough discoveries and bolster training program...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine announced that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has awarded $17,978,616 in federal grant funding for Head Start programs throughout Virginia. “We know early childhood education plays a critical role in our education system,” the Senators said.  “Today’s funding will benefit our communities, our economy and our children’s future.” Both as Governors and Senators, W...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine announced that the U.S. Departments of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and Veterans Affairs (VA) are awarding $736,284 to Virginia housing authorities and local VA Medical Centers (VAMCs) to help homeless veterans find affordable and stable housing.  “We owe our veterans the best-quality care and support in their communities and we are pleased to see governments at all levels working together to address it,...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine and U.S. Representative Robert Hurt announced that the towns of Chatham and Gretna will receive $48,100 in U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) grants and loans for the purchase of police vehicles. The USDA awarded Community Facility Loans and Grants funding to the following towns: Town of Chatham will receive a grant of $15,600 Town of Gretna will receive a loan of $21,200 and a grant of $11,300 In 2015, USDA Rural Devel...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C.  – On National Gun Violence Awareness Day, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine announced his support for two pieces of legislation to address gun violence – one that would lift a de facto twenty-year ban on firearms safety and gun violence prevention research at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and another that would dramatically strengthen background record checks on all private and online firearm sales. “I’m proud to support the CDC Researc...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine joined 27 of their colleagues in sending a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell reiterating their call for action on the Miners’ Protection Act before Congress’ summer recess. Warner and Kaine are original cosponsors of the Miner’s Protection Act and with nearly 10,000 retirees, Virginia has the fifth largest population of coal miner beneficiaries in the nation. “Seventy ...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine announced that the Greensville County Water and Sewer Authority will receive $2.6 million from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) for infrastructure improvements to support development of the Mid-Atlantic Advanced Manufacturing Center in Greensville County. “We are pleased to see the federal government partner with local authorities to provide Virginians with better public...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine and U.S. Representative Morgan Griffith today announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Office of Rural Development has approved a water and waste disposal loan of $1,463,000 and grant of $1,000,000 for the Bland County Service Authority. Warner, Kaine, and Griffith said, “We are pleased by news of this funding, and are proud that local and federal agencies are working together to support Bland County&r...Continue Reading

WASHIGNTON, D.C. – ­U.S. Senator Tim Kaine joined nine of his colleagues on the Senate Armed Services Committee in sending a letter to President Obama regarding U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan. “A timely decision on U.S. force levels is necessary so that our allies and partners can generate forces and make appropriate pledges for the Resolute Support Mission beginning in January 2017,” the bipartisan group of senators wrote. “We urge you to announce any changes to ou...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing today on the links between the dramatic increase in U.S. heroin use and opioid addiction and the rise in poppy cultivation and heroin production in Mexico, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, a member of the committee, discussed the opioid epidemic in Virginia as well as the importance of working with other countries to stem the “black market” availability of heroin. As witnesses pointed out, an addiction that starts with a...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine today introduced an amendment to the Fiscal Year 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would prevent the Department of Defense (DoD) from privatizing commissaries at five major installations until a study, requested in last year’s NDAA, to assess the costs and benefits of privatization is completed and properly taken into consideration by Congress. “It would be imprudent for Congress to authorize this privatizat...Continue Reading