Press Releases

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) joined a half-dozen of their Senate colleagues to introduce the States Achieve Medicaid Expansion (SAME) Act of 2016. The bill would ensure that states that choose to expand eligibility for Medicaid after 2014 are eligible for the same level of federal matching funds as states that expanded earlier under the terms of the Affordable Care Act. “States across the country have already expanded Medicaid in a way...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) and Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA), Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) released the following statement today regarding the upcoming April 14 deadline to apply for the Department of Transportation FASTLANE grant program: “Congress established the FASTLANE grant program specifically to fund transportation infrastructure projects of great national significance, and the regional delegation worked to...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Tim Kaine hiked to the summit of The Stony Man Trail in Shenandoah National Park (SNP) today to celebrate the National Park Service (NPS) Centennial and to encourage fellow Virginians to “Find Your Park” throughout the year. Kaine started his day at SNP Headquarters near Luray to meet with SNP Superintendent Jim Northup, SNP Deputy Superintendent Jennifer Flynn, park rangers, NPS staff and community leaders. They discussed preservation work and p...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine, along with several of their Senate Democratic colleagues, secured an amendment to the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) reauthorization bill to strengthen U.S. airport security, especially in non-secure “soft” target areas at airports like check-in and baggage claim areas. The amendment was approved by a strong, bipartisan vote of 91-5. The legislation, which comes after the recent wave of terror attacks in Europe, wou...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine are seeking to attach a new proposal to strengthen security at Virginia’s airports – especially in non-secure “soft” target areas like check-in and baggage claim areas – to the upcoming Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Reauthorization bill. The Senate proposal, which comes after the recent wave of terror attacks in Europe, would also update federal security programs to provide active shooter train...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine announced that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will award $7,433,425 in grants to support health care services in Portsmouth, early childhood education in Prince William and Lynchburg and biomedical research at Virginia Commonwealth University. The funding was made available through HHS’s Health Care Cluster Program and Head Start Projects Program. “This federal funding will help close the achievement gap an...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Tim Kaine released the following statement today on the passing of Virginia State Senator John Miller: “John Miller was a longtime friend and a true public servant who dedicated so much of his career to serving Virginians. I extend my deepest sympathies to his wife Sharron and all those in the district that he loved so much.” ###

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, released the following statement on the U.S. Army making a long-term religious accommodation for Captain Simratpal Singh. Captain Singh, a decorated Sikh American Army officer, will be allowed to serve without having to abandon his articles of faith:   “For the past three years, I have pressed the Department of Defense to rescind a policy that effectively deterred practicing Sikhs ...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON – U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) are urging congressional leaders to increase funding to address the maintenance backlog facing the country’s National Parks. “With a nearly $6 billion maintenance backlog attributable to the type of repair, rehabilitation and cyclic maintenance projects that receive funding through the Interior appropriations bill, it is imperative that the noteworthy increases provided last year be sustained or increased,” ...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine joined a bipartisan group of 42 current and former Senators and 164 current and former House members from 38 states as well as the District of Columbia and the Northern Mariana Islands in filing an amicus brief in support of the Obama administration’s historic ‘Clean Power Plan’ (CPP). The CPP will reduce carbon pollution and address climate change, save consumers $155 billion by 2030, create jobs, and prevent 90,000 childhood ast...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, along with Representatives Rob Wittman, Randy Forbes and Morgan Griffith, sent a letter to President Obama supporting Governor Terry McAuliffe’s request that the administration declare a major disaster declaration in response to the severe storm and deadly tornadoes on February 24, 2016. The storms impacted 12 localities in total and had a particularly destructive impact on Sussex, Appomattox and Essex Counties. &ldqu...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine (both D- Va.) are calling on congressional appropriators to fully fund the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) at authorized levels.  The senators pointed to this federal funding as a key way to rebuild Metro operations to be efficient, reliable and safe at all times – particularly in the light of the system’s recent safety challenges that demonstrated how much work still...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senators Mark Warner (D-Va.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) are calling for additional federal resources to investigate and enforce sexual assault laws on college and university campuses. The four Senators joined a bipartisan group of their colleagues to voice support for increased funding for the federal agency responsible for handling thousands of complaints related to campus sexual assault each year. “Campus sexual as...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine have called on Senate appropriators to increase federal funding to address the nation’s prescription drug abuse and heroin epidemic.  As the Senate Appropriations Committee drafts its FY 2017 spending proposals, Warner and Kaine joined 20 Senators from both sides of the aisle to express strong support for effective drug prevention and treatment programs that will save lives, reunite families and strengthen communities.&n...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations and Armed Services Committees, released the following statement today on the terrorist attacks in Brussels, Belgium: “Acts of terror have once again taken the lives of too many innocent people and brought a bustling capital to a halt. My heart goes out to the people of Belgium and I offer my strongest support to the Belgian and international authorities working around the clock to find those responsib...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON – U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) joined the entire Senate Democratic Caucus in urging U.S. Secretary of Labor Tom Perez to audit Compass Group and its subsidiaries across the federal government to ensure that Compass Group is paying its workers the wages they have earned and properly classifying them based on their job duties. Today’s letter to Secretary Perez – signed by Sen. Warner, Sen. Kaine, and all 44 of their colleagues in the Democratic c...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U. S. Senator Tim Kaine joined seventeen colleagues in pushing to boost investment in water infrastructure repairs. In a letter to the Chair and Ranking Member of the Senate Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, the Senators pressed for $70 million in 2016 funding for the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA). With the recent crisis in Flint, Michigan highlighting aging water infrastructure across the country, Kaine and other Senators are seeking...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee passed a bipartisan bill introduced by U.S. Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) to help address the prescription opioid and heroin abuse epidemic in America. The Co-prescribing Saves Lives Act would encourage physicians to co-prescribe the life-saving drug naloxone alongside opioid prescriptions and make naloxone more widely available in federal health settings. The bill can no...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA), Rob Portman (R-OH), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) introduced the CTE Excellence and Equity Act to support re-designing the high school experience by making courses more relevant to students’ future careers. The bill would provide federal funding for partnerships between school districts, employers and institutions of higher education  in Virginia and other states that integrate high-quality career and tec...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Tim Kaine released the following statement today on President Obama’s nomination of Chief Judge Merrick Garland of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court: “Merrick Garland is a well-respected jurist with impeccable qualifications and unrivaled experience. His legacy as an attorney includes overseeing high-profile domestic terrorism cases. He has also garnered enthusiastic support from Democrats a...Continue Reading