Press Releases

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine applauded the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) announcement of the first ten drugs covered under Medicare Part D that will be eligible for the drug price negotiation program. The Inflation Reduction Act, which the senators helped pass last year, allows CMS to negotiate lower prescription drug prices for the first time in history. Private insurers regularly negotiate with drug companies for the cost of prescript...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine applauded $3,586,000 in federal funding for the Wise County Public Service Authority to improve the county’s water system. Currently, Wise County’s water system is unable to provide the minimum working water pressure of 20 PSI under Virginia state code. Wise County has a serious need for upgrades to its water system, and this funding will help upgrade the county’s water infrastructure to ensure the system is up to code. The fun...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine announced $1,398,428 in federal funding for the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services to expand access to mental health care in Virginia. The funding was awarded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) Community Mental Health Services Block Grant program. This program allocates funding to states to provide comprehensi...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine announced $1,000,000 in federal funding from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) for the A.L. Philpott Manufacturing Extension Program (MEP), also known as GENEDGE Alliance, in Martinsville. This funding will help GENEDGE support small and medium-sized medical device manufacturers across Virginia in their efforts to strengthen medical supply chain resiliency and improve produc...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Marco Rubio (R-FL), Chair and Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, released the following statement after the Central American Parliament (PARLACEN) approved a proposal to expel Taiwan’s parliament and admit China’s rubber-stamp parliament as a permanent observer of the organization. PARLACEN has six member countries (Guatemala, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama, and Nicaragua)...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senators Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) announced $25,000,000 in federal funding from the Department of Agriculture awarded to Scott County Telephone Cooperative to deploy broadband and expand access to high-speed internet in Southwest Virginia. Tomorrow, Sen. Warner will join Rural Utility Services Administrator Andrew Berke, members of the LENOWISCO Planning District Commission, and community leaders in Big Stone Gap, VA to celebrate this funding and to...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine and Congressman Don Beyer (D-VA-08) released the following statement after the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) designated the death of D.C. police officer and Northern Virginia resident Jeffrey Smith as a line of duty death. Officer Smith died by suicide after defending the Capitol on January 6, 2021. The lawmakers have been pushing for this designation and helped pass bipartisan legislation to honor the public service of police offi...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senators Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) issued the following statement on the Biden administration’s decision to extend and redesignate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Sudan through April 19, 2025:  “Amid terrible violence and a tragic humanitarian crisis in Sudan, we’re pleased to see the administration act on our call for additional protections for Sudanese people already living in the United States. The decision to extend and redesignate TPS will ...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (D-VA) announced the inclusion of key Virginia priorities in the Senate’s Fiscal Year 2024 draft funding bills. All 12 bills were passed out of the Senate Appropriations Committee on a bipartisan basis. “We are proud to announce that the Senate’s draft government spending legislation for Fiscal Year 2024 includes critical funding that will keep the government open, back record investments in infrastructure and U.S. competitiven...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congresswoman Jennifer McClellan (VA-04) and Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) led a bipartisan, bicameral group of lawmakers to submit an amicus brief to the Supreme Court in support of U.S. Army veteran and FBI Special Agent James Rudisill.  Rudisill, a resident of Richmond and a decorated Army veteran from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, is challenging the Department of Veterans Affairs’s denial of his Post-9/11 GI Bill education benefits. On Monday, June 26, 2023, the Supr...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine celebrated the one year anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act becoming law. Last August, the senators voted to pass the Inflation Reduction Act, legislation to lower health care and prescription drug costs, bring down energy bills, and tackle climate change—all while lowering the deficit. “From capping the cost of insulin to $35 per month for seniors on Medicare to helping more families make energy effici...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) announced $25,144,014 in federal funding for Virginia Beach to protect critical infrastructure from the impacts of consistent flooding and rising sea levels. The project will fund several upgrades – including stormwater pump stations – to support coastal resilience across the city and along Shore Drive. “Rising sea levels threaten lives and livelihoods, and also risk the continued strength of...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Bob Casey (D-PA), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), and Mark Warner (D-A) joined U.S. Representatives Rob Wittman (R-VA-1), John Sarbanes (D-MD-3), Bobby Scott (D-VA-3) and Abigail Spanberger (D-VA-7), Co-Chairs of the House Chesapeake Bay Task Force, to introduce a legislative package aimed at tackling the largest source of pollution to the Chesapeake Bay and its watershed. The Chesapeake Bay Conservation Acceleration Act (S. 27...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Tim Kaine joined Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Congresswoman Cori Bush (D-MO) in introducing the ERA Now resolution, a joint resolution that would direct the Archivist of the United States to affirm the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)—which would prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex—as the 28th Amendment of the United States Constitution. In 2020, Virginia became the 38th and final state needed to fulfill the ratification requirement....Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Tim Kaine led his colleagues, including Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Tina Smith (D-MN), and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), in urging the Federal Housing and Finance Agency (FHFA) to extend source of income (SOI) protections at multifamily properties with mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In many states, landlords can deny housing to individuals based on source of income, and many Americ...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C.—This week, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, along with Senators Tina Smith (D-MN) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and U.S. Representatives Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR) and Sara Jacobs (D-CA), led a bicameral group of colleagues—including U.S. Senator Mark R. Warner and Representatives Jennifer McClellan and Jennifer Wexton (all D-VA)—in calling on President Joe Biden to support needed funding to prevent a na...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, who serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), applauded the Senate’s passage of the Fiscal Year 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). As a member of SASC, Kaine worked to write this legislation. The legislation includes various provisions secured and supported by Kaine to benefit Virginia’s servicemembers and defense community, such as reforms to improve access to mental health care and support Virgini...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Last night, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, spoke on the Senate floor in objection to U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville’s (R-AL) reckless blockade of military promotions in protest of a Pentagon policy that grants health leave and travel reimbursement for military personnel who cannot obtain reproductive health care in the state where they are stationed. Kaine’s remarks were part of a series of speeches from Kaine and his ...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine led the introduction of the Shenandoah Mountain Act, legislation to establish a 92,562-acre Shenandoah Mountain National Scenic Area (SMNSA) in Rockingham, Augusta, and Highland counties. He was joined in introducing the legislation by Senator Mark R. Warner. National Scenic Areas are established by Congress to protect the scenic, historic, recreational and natural resources in specific areas, while allowing compatible uses su...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine joined Senator Chris VanHollen and Congressman John Sarbanes (both D-MD) in introducing bipartisan, bicameral legislation to create a unified Chesapeake National Recreation Area (CNRA). The bill proposes to unite a series of voluntarily contributed park areas and iconic Bay properties under the operation of the National Park Service (NPS) in order to provide more federal resources for environmental conservation, cele...Continue Reading