Press Releases

~ 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 called for an update to ...Continue Reading

~ Letter follows media investigation of inadequate care in nursing homes overseen by the Dept of Veterans Affairs  ~ WASHINGTON – U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) today pressed the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) on the quality of care at nursing homes that serve Virginia’s veterans, following an investigation by USA Today and the Boston Globe that found that a majority of the VA’s 133 nursing homes – known as community living centers – h...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine announced $2,774,825 in federal funding to support nursing education at George Mason University over the next four years. The funding will be used to recruit, admit, and retain students interested in pursuing nursing careers in Prince William and Fairfax Counties. “We are thrilled to announce funding to support students interested in nursing at George Mason University and help place them at underserved clinics and health car...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine released the following statement on the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision upholding the President’s travel ban: “I’m disappointed that the Supreme Court upheld President Trump’s discriminatory travel ban. President Trump’s intentions with this ban are clear: to stoke fear, perpetuate stereotypes, and make our immigration policy more about politics than national security. Discriminating against individuals base...Continue Reading

~ Local legislators asked Virginia’s congressional delegation to oppose Trump Administration family separation policy  ~  WASHINGTON – U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) today responded to a letter from members of the House of Delegates that asked Virginia’s congressional delegation to oppose the Trump Administration’s policy of separating immigrant families at the U.S.-Mexico border. On June 20, 47 members of the Virginia House of Delegates wro...Continue Reading

~ Package includes measures to help improve veteran care, build regional infrastructure projects, and fund Appalachian Regional Commission ~ WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) applauded Senate passage of bipartisan legislation to fund federal programs and build new military construction and facilities under the Department of Veteran Affairs (V-A), the Department of Energy (DOE), and the Department of Defense (DoD). On a bipartisan 86-5 vote, the S...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA), a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, joined Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) to introduce a bill to improve access to mental health services for students at college campuses across America. The Higher Education Mental Health Commission Act would establish a national commission to study the mental health conditions facing students at colleges and universities across the country. “We need to do mo...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine wrote to the Trump Administration demanding more information after an Associated Press report indicated widespread physical and psychological abuse of immigrant children at the Shenandoah Valley Juvenile Center (SVJC) near Staunton, Virginia. In a letter to Acting Assistant Secretary Steven Wagner for the Administration for Children and Families under the Department of Health and Human Services, Warner and Kaine outline the ...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – This week, U.S. Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), and Maggie Hassan (D-NH) wrote to Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos about the Trump Administration’s failure to provide public servants with the student loan debt relief they have earned. Kaine and Whitehouse successfully secured funding in March to fix a glitch that had left many teachers, military personnel, social workers, and other public servants with student lo...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Tim Kaine released the following statement today: “Yesterday, President Trump signed his Executive Order and said ‘we do want to keep families together,’ but it’s becoming clear he wasn’t talking about the 2,300 children who have already been taken away from their parents by his cruel policy. We're left with more questions than answers: What is the fate of the 2,300 children already separated from their families? How will the Adm...Continue Reading