Press Releases

WASHINGTON, D.C. – During a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing with international non-governmental organizations today, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine called on the United States to provide additional civilian protection to help stem the European refugee crisis and reiterated his support for a humanitarian safe zone in northern Syria. “My first visit to Turkey was at a time when there was about 750,000 Syrian refugees in Turkey in the summer of 2013 and now it’s two million. Ot...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON – Today U.S. Sens. Mark Warner (D-VA), Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Joe Manchin (D-WV) proposed sweeping reforms to the federal program that provides benefits to coal miners suffering from black lung disease.  Federal law requires that coal companies compensate miners with disabilities who contract black lung, which is caused by inhaling coal dust over an extended period of time, but coal companies routinely deploy an array of unfair tactics to avoid paying miners the benefits they...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine announced that the Department of Justice has awarded the James City County Police Department in Williamsburg, Virginia $450,000 through a grant to support programs that help prevent sexual assault and domestic violence. “One in three homicide victims in Virginia is the victim of domestic or family violence,” said Warner. “These funds will support victims in Williamsburg and James City County area and provid...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) and U.S. Reps. Bobby Scott (D-VA-3), Gerry Connolly (D-VA-11), and Don Beyer (D-VA-8) wrote to the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), urging support for a one-year reauthorization of the Federal Perkins Loan Program. Without Congressional action, the program will lose its authorization on September 30, 2015, leaving Virginia college students in the lurch...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON – Today U.S. Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) responded to the news that the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has approved a Corrective Action Plan for improving safety on the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) rail and bus systems. This announcement follows the June release of an FTA safety review that identified 54 specific overall safety violations across the WMATA system, and gave WMATA 90 days to develop a plan to address each of those fin...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Tim Kaine released the following statement on Pope Francis’ address to a joint meeting of Congress earlier today: “The Pope used the stories of four great Americans to say, ‘you are a great nation and you’ve had great leaders.’ Abraham Lincoln, Dr. Martin Luther King, Dorothy Day and Thomas Merton – this is who we are as a people. And in a world that still has huge needs, we have a unique role to do something about it. &ld...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, co-chair of the Senate Career and Technical Education (CTE) Caucus, joined U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin to introduce the Career & Technical Education (CTE) Opportunity Act to expand eligibility for federal student loans to short-term CTE programs which do not meet the current program length requirements under Title IV of the Higher Education Act. This legislation will enable students and workers to participate in training programs that might hav...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Tim Kaine released the following statement today after voting against a 20-week federal abortion ban: “The Republicans attempted to use the forthcoming Papal visit to force a vote on a 20-week federal abortion ban that has already been struck down by numerous federal courts as unconstitutional. Because it violates the 14th Amendment and 40 years of Supreme Court precedent, I voted against it. Nothing in my Catholic faith suggests that I should support ...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) announced today that the U.S. Department of Justice has awarded nearly $500,000 in federal grants to five Virginia localities to purchase law enforcement body cameras.  The grants, which require a local funding match and development of a comprehensive implementation and training program, were awarded to police agencies in the following Virginia communities: Newport News Sheriff's Office –  $209,944 City of Lynchbur...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine announced that Virginia will receive $875,000 in U.S. Department of Justice Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) grants to fund law enforcement jobs and expand community policing and crime prevention initiatives. The City of Bristol will be awarded $375,000 to fund three officers and the Harrisonburg Police Department will be awarded $500,000 to fund four officers. “We’re very pleased that Bristol and Harr...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, along with U.S. Representatives Bobby Scott, Randy Forbes, Rob Wittman, Gerry Connolly, Robert Hurt, Dave Brat, and Don Beyer released the following statement on the release of a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report that makes clear Fort Pickett, Virginia is the best location for a Foreign Affairs Security Training Center (FASTC). “After years of study, the Department of State and the General Services Administration ...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) joined U.S. Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Mark Kirk (R-IL) along with 33 of their Senate colleagues, more than 100 first responders and survivors of the attacks on September 11th, and former Daily Show host Jon Stewart in pushing Congress to pass a full and permanent extension of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act. This bipartisan bill would extend the World Trade Center (WTC) Health Program, which provides me...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine co-sponsored bipartisan legislation to ensure thousands of Navy veterans from the Vietnam War, known as "Blue Water" veterans for their service in waters off the coast,  who were exposed to the powerful toxin Agent Orange will be eligible to receive disability and health care benefits they have earned for diseases linked to Agent Orange exposure. The Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act would clarify existing law so tha...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), David Vitter (R-LA) and Tim Kaine (D-VA) today introduced bipartisan legislation that would authorize creation of a new program to support capacity building to address the critical need for trained workers in the maritime and energy industries. The Maritime and Energy Workforce Technical Training Enhancement Act would establish centers of excellence programs in maritime and energy workforce technical training in addition to awarding co...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Tim Kaine released the following statement on the first day of Hispanic Heritage Month: “The Latino community’s contributions to our country date back 450 years to the founding of the oldest continuously-occupied European settlement at St. Augustine. Over that period of time, Latino Americans have become an integral part of our nation’s fabric. This year’s Hispanic Heritage Month comes at an exciting time, as the United States receive...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON – Today U.S. Sens. Mark Warner (D-VA), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Tim Kaine (D-VA) and U.S. Rep. Rob Wittman (R-VA) urged President Obama to protect Virginia and Maryland’s seafood industry by strengthening efforts to prevent seafood fraud. The fraudulent labeling of Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean blue crab meat has a detrimental impact on an industry that plays an important role in the Virginia and Maryland economies, generating nearly $30 million annually in ex-vessel r...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Tim Kaine released the following statement after the Obama Administration announced that the U.S. Department of Education will begin using prior-prior year data for the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) in the next academic year. President Obama formally unveiled the changes at a town hall event with high school students in Iowa today: “Ensuring college is affordable and increasing the amount of information is imperative to educating our...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine released the following statement in commemoration of the 14th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001: "Fourteen years after the events of September 11, 2001, we honor the memory of the thousands who lost their lives that day and the sacrifice of those who have served in the wars that followed. Though over a decade has passed since the tragic attacks in Virginia, New York and Pennsylvania, we cannot forget the survivo...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations & Armed Services Committees and co-author of the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act, released the following statement on today’s cloture vote on a resolution of disapproval of the Iran nuclear deal. While procedural in nature, a vote against cloture in this case is a vote for the Iran deal as a result of Republican obstruction on an up or down vote: “As a strong supporter of the nuclear agree...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In remarks on the Senate floor today, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations & Armed Services Committees and co-author of the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act, reiterated his support for the Iran nuclear deal while pushing back on Republican claims that the standard 60 vote threshold is unnecessary on a resolution of disapproval against the deal. He also addressed critical comments from Vice President Cheney about the deal in a speech at th...Continue Reading