Press Releases

Bill Would Ensure Public Servants And Frontline Workers, Like Nurses And First Responders, Receive The Student Loan Forgiveness They Have Earned WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) led a group of eighteen senators to call on Senate leadership to include fixes to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program in the next COVID-19 relief package. In a letter, the senators called for the inclusion of components from Sen...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine joined Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden to introduce the Preventing Authoritarian Policing Tactics on America’s Streets Act, which would block the Trump Administration from deploying federal agents as paramilitary forces against Americans. The action comes after a week in which heavily armed federal forces without uniform identification in unmarked vehicles have been grabbing protesters off the street in Portl...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, released the following statement on final Senate passage of the Fiscal Year 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which includes numerous provisions he championed to benefit Virginia’s defense community, shipbuilding industry, and military families. The legislation also includes Kaine’s amendment to prevent the use of military force against American citizens exer...Continue Reading

You can watch video of Kaine’s floor speech here. WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, delivered a floor speech highlighting the importance of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) amendment to initiate a 3 year process to rename DOD facilities currently named after Confederates, including three Virginia military bases: Fort Lee, Fort Pickett, and Fort AP Hill. The amendment was sponsored by Senator Warre...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, introduced the Mothers and Newborns Success Act, legislation to help reduce the egregious racial inequities in maternal and infant mortality. Congresswoman Terri Sewell (AL-07) introduced companion legislation in the House of Representatives today. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the maternal mortality rate for...Continue Reading

 WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine introduced the Virginia Plan to Reduce Gun Violence Act of 2020, a bill to federally enact a series of commonsense gun violence prevention measures adopted by Virginia earlier this year. Included in the bill are measures to remove firearms from those at risk of harming themselves or others, close current background check loopholes, mandate reporting of lost and stolen firearms, prevent children from accessing firearms,...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, DC – Senators James Lankford (R-OK) and Tim Kaine (D-VA) today introduced the Safeguarding Internet Freedom in Hong Kong Act. The legislation pushes back on China’s aggressive actions to undermine Hong Kong’s autonomy and freedom. The bill comes after the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) passed a sweeping security law that threatens the freedoms of the people of Hong Kong, including their access to the internet and ability to share information online. Lankford and Kain...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON – U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) today applauded $3,001,442 in federal funding for public transportation in the City of Winchester. The funding, for Winchester Transit, was authorized by the Federal Transit Authority (FTA) under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act supported by Sens. Warner and Kaine. “We’re pleased to announce these federal dollars will help the Winchester Tr...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON – U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) today announced $1,627,377 in federal funding for public transportation in the City of Radford. The funding was authorized by the Federal Transit Authority (FTA) under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act supported by Sens. Warner and Kaine. “We’re glad to announce that this funding will allow the City of Radford to continue pro...Continue Reading

~ Approximately 80 percent of people detained at the Farmville, Va. detention center have tested positive for COVID-19 ~ WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) raised alarm with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for continuing to transfer individuals in custody between detention facilities, even as approximately 80 percent of the population at the Farmville, Va. detention center tests posi...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) applauded $500,000 in Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) funding to improve the Town of Pulaski’s wastewater treatment facility and support 340 jobs. “We are glad to know that these federal dollars will be put to use in Pulaski to improve wastewater infrastructure and increase capacity as Pulaski continues to grow,” said the Senators. Currently, the Town of Pulaski’s collection...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Chris Coons (D-Del.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), and Ben Cardin (D-Md.), all members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, released the following statement on the recent violence in Ethiopia. “We watch with concern the recent unrest and ethnic violence in Ethiopia following the June 29 murder of Ethiopian singer Hachalu Hundessa, which has led to the death of over 200 people. We are also concerned by the internet shutdown across the ...Continue Reading

Watch his video announcing the contest here. WASHINGTON, D.C. – Over the last two months, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine has highlighted graduating high school seniors across Virginia as part of his “Everybody’s the Graduation Speaker” video contest. Because many in-person graduations were postponed or canceled due to the coronavirus, Kaine encouraged Virginia’s graduating high school seniors to submit a video of an original speech they would have liked to give at graduatio...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) introduced the Protecting Benefits for Retirees Act, legislation that would protect the annual retirement benefits of those set to receive Social Security in a few years. The Social Security Administration uses the Average Wage Index (AWI) in the year the worker turns 60 to adjust past earnings and calculate a worker’s retirement benefits. The AWI is meant to account for wage growth over time; however, d...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine cosponsored an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act of 2021 (NDAA) that would require President Trump to unlock the full authority and power of the Defense Production Act to scale up nationwide production of the testing supplies, personal protective equipment, and medical equipment needed at the local level to address the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. “As coronavirus cases continue to rise t...Continue Reading

~ Introduce resolution slamming effort to invalidate Affordable Care Act, sabotage protections for 3 million Virginians with a preexisting condition ~  WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) joined Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) and 44 Senate colleagues in introducing a resolution officially condemning the Trump Administration’s “reckless” effort to dismantle the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which provides coverage for millions of Ame...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Tim Kaine released the following statement today on the Supreme Court’s decision in June Medical Services LLC v. Russo: “Four years ago, I applauded the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn a thinly veiled attempt to effectively ban abortion in Texas. Today, I applaud the Court for continuing to uphold a woman’s constitutional right to make her own health care choices. Judges must respect precedent regardless of their own personal vie...Continue Reading

~ Letter follows surge of COVID-19 cases at detention center in Farmville, Va. ~ WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) urged U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to stop the transfer of individuals in ICE custody – such as the ones that recently resulted in a spike of more than 50 COVID-19 cases at the ICE detention facility in Farmville, Va.  In a letter to Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf, the Senators u...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Mark Warner, Tim Kaine, Ben Cardin, and Chris Van Hollen released the following statement upon House passage of legislation to make D.C. the 51st state: “Virginia and Maryland’s neighbors in D.C. deserve the representation that states have. Today, the House took a historic vote to pass legislation to make D.C. the 51st state. Leader McConnell should bring this bill up for a vote in the Senate immediately. There is no good reason hundreds ...Continue Reading

More than ten prohibited people a day are sold guns by dealers who do not wait for completed background check WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, ahead of the fifth anniversary of the funeral service for the victims of the mass shooting at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine joined 23 of his Senate colleagues to introduce legislation to close a current loophole that allows gun sales to proceed if a background check is not completed after 72 hours, even if the gun...Continue Reading