Warner & Kaine Issue Statements After Trump Administration Heeds Demands to Release Funding for Boys and Girls Clubs
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, both D-VA, issued the following statements after the Trump Administration heeded their demands that release funding it was illegally withholding for 21st Century Community Learning Centers, including over $23 million for centers throughout Virginia, such as Boys and Girls clubs:
“It’s about time that the Trump administration finally agreed to release federal funding for these vital community learning centers in Virginia and across the country,” said Warner. “Sadly, the truth of the matter is that these funds should never have been stalled. Holding back these investments put unnecessary strain on schools and families, jeopardizing critical support for children in need. Virginia’s kids deserve better.”
“I had the chance to meet with the Boys & Girls Clubs of America and Southwest Virginia earlier this month to hear from them directly about how devastating the Trump Administration’s illegal withholding of critical funding would be for their ability to provide crucial educational programs for kids throughout Virginia,” said Kaine. “I informed my Senate colleagues of these disastrous cuts at a HELP committee hearing on Tuesday and urged Republican leaders to press the Trump Administration to reverse its devastating action. While I am glad to see the Trump Administration complied with our demands to release this funding, it never should have been withheld in the first place. It’s past time for the Administration to release the remaining $85 million it is still actively withholding from Virginia schools.”
Warner and Kaine have repeatedly battled the Trump Administration over its illegal withholding of already-appropriated federal funding. On July 3, 2025, the senators issued a statement demanding that the Administration promptly release $108 million in funding for Virginia K-12 education—including money for teacher training, after-school programs, and mental health resources—that had already been duly appropriated by Congress. In the following weeks, Kaine met with local officials, parents, and leadership of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Southwest Virginia in Vinton, Virginia; and with officials of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America in Washington, D.C. In April 2025, Warner and Kaine joined 40 of their congressional colleagues in excoriating the Trump Administration over its illegal funding freeze to Head Start programs on which thousands of families and children in Virginia rely.
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