Press Releases

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine announced $1,599,645 in federal funding through the Augustus F. Hawkins Center of Excellence program to address teacher shortages by supporting Virginia Commonwealth University’s (VCU) RTR teacher residency program. The funding will be used to recruit and support more teacher candidates from diverse backgrounds and provide them with the skills they need to teach in high-need schools. It will provide training and dev...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine joined Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and 13 of their Senate colleagues in urging the Biden Administration to help streamline health insurance enrollment for low-income families. In their letter to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary (HHS) Xavier Becerra and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, the senators urged the Administration to support state-level “Easy Enrollm...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Tim Kaine cosponsored bipartisan legislation to combat the country’s fentanyl crisis by more effectively penalizing those who traffic fentanyl into the United States. The FEND Off Fentanyl Act, led by Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Tim Scott (R-SC), would strengthen current laws and direct the Treasury Department to target, sanction, and block the financial assets of transnational criminal organizations and others that launder money to facilitate op...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine announced $22,780,000 in Fiscal Year 2023 funding to reclaim abandoned mine lands (AML) in Virginia. The funding will clean up pollution caused by past coal mining and help create good-paying jobs. It was made possible by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which the senators voted to pass in 2021. This is the second allotment of funding awarded to Virginia from the infrastructure law. “The Bipartisan Infrastructure ...Continue Reading

Click here to WATCH Kaine’s floor speech on the bill WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine released the following statement ahead of the Senate’s vote to avert a debt default: “I agree that we must take steps to improve the permitting process for all energy projects. But I am deeply troubled by the unprecedented provision to cherry-pick one project and exempt it from the normal judicial and administrative review process that every other energy project has to go...Continue Reading

Click here to WATCH Kaine discuss the amendment WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine introduced an amendment to strip language from the Fiscal Responsibility Act that would greenlight the controversial Mountain Valley Pipeline in Virginia, bypassing the normal judicial and administrative review process every other energy project has to go through: “I support improving the permitting process for all energy projects. But Congress putting its thumb on the scale so that one s...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Tim Kaine (D-VA), members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, led the introduction today of a Senate resolution calling on the president “to support the creation of an international special tribunal to prosecute Russia’s unlawful aggression against Ukraine.” The resolution outlines a sampling of the unprovoked and deliberate actions taken by Russia against civilians in Ukraine. The resolution places the blame f...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine sent a letter to the United States Postal Service (USPS) to raise an array of frustrating experiences Virginians have faced with their mail delivery service and to press for answers regarding why these persistent issues are occurring and how the USPS will fix them. “In the Town of Chilhowie, Virginia, my casework team began receiving complaints from customers about utility bills sent out November 30, 2022 with December 15 due dates tha...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Joni Ernst (R-IA)—members of the Senate Armed Services Committee—wrote an op-ed in CNN.com to push for their Disrupt Fentanyl Trafficking Act of 2023, bipartisan legislation that would help address the fentanyl crisis by directing more federal attention to counter fentanyl trafficking. The bill would declare fentanyl trafficking a national security threat and direct the Pentagon to work with other federal agencies and Mexica...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) joined colleagues in introducing legislation to guarantee paid sick leave to American workers. The Healthy Families Act of 2023 would allow workers to earn up to seven paid days of sick leave to use when they are ill, need to access preventive care, provide care for a sick family member, or attend school meetings related to a child’s health condition or disability. Today, the U.S. does not provide paid time off for short-term illnesses...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Tim Kaine—who serves on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee—joined Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ) and U.S. Representatives Jesús "Chuy" García (D-IL-04) and Jahana Hayes (D-CT-05) in introducing the Diversifying by Investing in Educators and Students to Improve Outcomes For Youth (DIVERSIFY) Act, which would strengthen the Teacher Education Assistance for College and High Education (TEACH) grant program, helping...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Tim Kaine—Chair of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Seapower, which oversees the Marine Corps—joined Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) and a bipartisan, bicameral group of colleagues in urging Senate Appropriations Committee leadership to continue to invest in the U.S. Marine Corps Force Design initiatives, which is the branch’s restructuring plan to modernize and prepare its forces to counter growing threats from China’s military. ...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C.—U.S. Senators Jon Tester (D-MT), Roger Marshall (R-KS), and Tim Kaine (D-VA) today introduced their bipartisan Delinking Revenue from Unfair Gouging (DRUG) Act to lower drug costs and prevent massive Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) from price gouging consumers. The Senators’ bill would prohibit PBMs from making more money on high-cost drugs than they do from lower-cost drugs to even the playing field for patients. “When Montanans are having to decide between buying a bag of gro...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Chris Murphy (D-CT), Todd Young (R-IN), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Tim Kaine (D-VA) on Tuesday released a new report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) which found the use of non-compete agreements (NCAs) is widespread throughout the U.S. labor market and serves to protect the stated interests of businesses while restricting job mobility, lowering wages for workers, and discouraging innovation. In 2019...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senators Joni Ernst (R-IA) and Tim Kaine (D-VA), members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, are leading a bipartisan effort directing increased federal attention to fentanyl trafficking by utilizing the tools of the Department of Defense (DoD) and involving Mexico as an active partner to combat this crisis and disrupt Mexican cartel activity. Representatives Stephanie Bice (R-OK) and Salud Carbajal (D-CA) are leading this effort in the House of Representatives. Fent...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, during Brain Cancer Awareness Month, U.S. Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA), Jerry Moran (R-KS), and Mark R. Warner (D-VA) introduced the Gabriella Miller Kids First Research Act 2.0. This legislation would provide a new source of funding for the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Gabriella Miller Kids First Pediatric Research Program (Kids First)—which Kaine helped create—by redirecting penalties collected from pharmaceutical, cosmetic, supplement, a...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) announced $6,710,000 in federal funding for three Virginia airports. The funding was awarded through the Department of Transportation Federal Aviation Administration’s Fiscal Year 2023 (FY23) Airport Improvement Program (AIP).   “Virginia’s airports serve thousands of flyers every day, and we are thrilled to deliver funding that will make travel through Virginia safer, more convenient, a...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Tim Kaine and Roger Marshall, M.D. (R-KS), members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, introduced the bipartisan Help Ensure Lower Patient (HELP) Copays Act, legislation that would protect patients from harmful insurance and Pharmacy Benefit Manager (PBM) practices that raise out-of-pocket drug costs for patients. “Thousands of patients depend on copay assistance programs to afford the lifesaving medications they need,” said Kai...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, joined Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) and other colleagues in reintroducing the Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act, historic legislation to address America’s maternal health crisis and save moms’ lives. The Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act includes the Maternal Vaccinations Act, legislation led by Kaine to increase maternal vaccination rates for common illnes...Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, joined Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) in reintroducing the Access to Contraception for Servicemembers and Dependents Act, bipartisan legislation to ensure military families receive the quality reproductive health care they deserve. The legislation would ensure servicemembers and their families who receive health care through TRICARE have access to contraception approved by the Food and Drug Administr...Continue Reading