Press Releases

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, released the following statement on President Trump’s decision to abandon America’s commitment to the Paris Climate Agreement:   “President Trump’s retreat from the Paris Agreement will turn over America’s international leadership role to China and make it harder to deal with the realities of climate change we already see at home in places like Hampton Ro...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON—Today, U.S. Senators Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine announced that Virginia fire departments will receive $594,707 in federal funding through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)’s Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) program. The AFG program supports local fire departments by providing funds for new equipment and training.   “We are pleased to announce this critical funding to support Virginia’s brave firefighters. We must ensure ...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON – U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) announced today that Virginia Tech, Virginia Western Community College, and Northern Virginia Community College have been awarded $4,999,970 by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to establish stronger networks between these institutions and increase the success of engineering transfer students following the community college-to-bachelor's degree pathway. This competitive grant will support scholarships for low-income stude...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sens. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and Tim Kaine (D-Va.) today introduced a bipartisan Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), al-Qaeda, and the Taliban. Flake serves as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Kaine serves as a member of both the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Senate Armed Services Committee. Nearly sixteen years after Congress passed the 2001 AUMF, the U.S. fight against ...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (HELP) Committee, released a statement on the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) updated cost estimate of the Republican health care plan: “President Trump made three very clear promises that under a Republican bill no one would lose coverage, premiums wouldn’t rise, and Americans with pre-existing conditions wouldn’t lose protections. Today...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, a member of the Senate Budget Committee, released the following statement on President Trump’s FY2018 budget: “The detailed budget released today confirms where President Trump’s priorities lie: he wants to dismantle critical programs that support Virginia’s families, children, seniors, and businesses in exchange for misguided spending and tax cuts that leave working families behind. After promising not to cut Medicaid, Tru...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner and U.S. Representative Bobby Scott will introduce the Building Up Infrastructure and Limiting Disasters through Resilience (BUILD Resilience) Act, a bill to establish a competitive grant program for resilient infrastructure investment. This legislation will bolster the ability of regions like Hampton Roads to implement projects and strategies to reduce regional vulnerability to threats like sea level rise and recurrent floo...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the Thomasina E. Jordan Indian Tribes of Virginia Federal Recognition Act of 2017, a bill reintroduced in March by U.S. Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, cleared its first procedural hurdle with unanimous passage out of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee.  The legislation would grant federal recognition of six Virginia tribes: the Chickahominy, the Eastern Chickahominy, the Upper Mattaponi, the Rappahannock, the Monacan, and the Nansemond. T...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Tim Kaine, a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) and Budget Committees, and Mark R. Warner, a member of the Senate Budget and Finance Committees, will introduce the School Infrastructure Modernization Act to spur public and private investment in renovating active historic school buildings. This legislation amends the federal historic rehabilitation tax credit to apply to school buildings that continue to operate as scho...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), co-chairs of the Senate Career and Technical Education (CTE) Caucus, are leading a group of 32 Senators in a letter urging the Senate Appropriations Committee to support NASA’s Office of Education in the coming fiscal year. President Trump’s budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2018 (FY18) would eliminate NASA’s Office of Education, which works to inspire and educate students across the country ...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Mark Warner (D-VA), and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) applauded passage of a joint resolution to establish the Washington Metrorail Safety Commission. The Commission will be empowered to adopt and enforce tough rules to improve Metro safety. The resolution now heads to the House of Representatives for final passage. “I thank my Senate colleagues for quickly approving this Metro Safety Commission, and I encourage t...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee and co-chair of the Senate Military Families Caucus, and Jon Tester (D-MT), ranking member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, introduced the Protect our Gold Star Families’ Education Act, legislation that would expand the Pell Grant program to include the children and dependents of those killed in actio...Continue Reading

~ Legislation would secure pensions and fulfill promise to retired coal miners ~ WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) introduced the Miners Pension Protection Act, legislation to secure our nation’s retired miners pensions by shoring up the 1974 Pension Plan which is headed for insolvency due to coal company bankruptcies and the 2008 financial crisis. The 1974 Pension Plan was well-managed and funded prior to the 2008 financial crisis, which hit at ...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Tim Kaine released the following statement on President Trump’s decision to fire FBI Director James Comey: “It’s outrageous to see a sitting President fire the FBI director during an active investigation into potential collusion with a foreign government. The decision to fire James Comey shows how frightened the Administration is over the Russia investigation. The White House decision to seek Attorney General Sessions' recommendation also raises ...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today in a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine questioned Commander of the U.S. Cyber Command (CYBERCOM) Admiral Mike Rogers on how a government shutdown would impact CYBERCOM’s mission. Last week, President Trump announced on Twitter that he supports a government shutdown in September, saying the country needs a “good” shutdown in the fall. “There has been some debate in the last couple of days about whether there is s...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Yesterday, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, along with 12 Democratic Senators, demanded that the Trump Administration stop playing politics with the U.S. health care system, which is causing uncertainty in the marketplace and having a harmful impact on Virginians. In a letter to Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), Tom Price, and the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Mick Mulvaney, the Senators requested that the Administration commit to making vital...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON – U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) joined 46 other Senate Democrats in introducing the Save Women’s Preventive Care Act, new legislation to protect coverage for preventive health care services, like breast cancer screenings, birth control, and domestic violence screenings. Today, 55 million women nationwide have access to birth control, screening and counseling for domestic violence, breast cancer screening, and other essential health care without any ou...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, introduced a resolution Thursday with fellow committee members, stating that the United States should continue to exercise global leadership to address climate change and should not retreat from the Paris Climate Agreement. “The world needs America’s leadership to combat the dangers posed by climate change,” said Kaine. “Virginians are already dealing with rising sea levels, inc...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, a member of the Health, Labor, Education, and Pensions Committee, released the following statement on the U.S. House of Representatives passing TrumpCare: “President Trump promised the American public that no one would lose coverage under his health bill, those with pre-existing conditions would be protected, and no one would be worse off. Today the House rushed the TrumpCare bill through without waiting to hear how many millions of p...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Mark Warner and  Tim Kaine released the following statement today on the uncertainty the Trump Administration has caused in the health care system, resulting in today’s announcement that Aetna will leave the Virginia marketplace in 2018: “As a result of the consistently mixed messages and increasing uncertainty on health care from the Trump Administration, some insurers will raise premiums and scale back their health insurance offerings in ...Continue Reading