WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-VA) and nine of his Senate colleagues introduced the Small Business RELIEF Act, legislation to exempt small businesses from global baseline and reciprocal tariffs and to provide refunds to the small businesses that were forced to pay them.

On August 29, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled that President Donald Trump’s so-called “Liberation Day” tariffs were illegal, setting the stage for small businesses to receive relief from those tariffs. The Supreme Court this week agreed to consider whether these tariffs are legal and will hear the case in November. However, the tariffs will remain in place until the Supreme Court makes a decision.

“Trump’s tariffs have hit small businesses particularly hard as they struggle to absorb the increased costs,” said Sen. Warner. “The Small Business RELIEF Act will help make sure that Trump’s reckless taxes don’t cripple small businesses in Virginia and across the country.”

In addition to Sen. Warner, this legislation was introduced by U.S. Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Edward J. Markey (D-MA), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), and Martin Heinrich (D-NM).

Text of this legislation is available here.

"Small businesses were the ones hit hardest by the Trump-era tariffs — paying higher prices on everything from raw materials to the tools they need to keep their doors open,” said Richard Trent, Executive Director of Main Street Alliance. “If the Supreme Court overturns these tariffs, the fair thing to do is refund small business owners for the extra costs they were forced to pay. They shouldn’t be punished for decisions made in Washington that drove up their costs and squeezed their margins. Refunding small businesses would put money back into local economies, help create jobs, and level the playing field after years of unfair trade policy."

“Small businesses make up more than 99 percent of all U.S. companies, employ nearly half of the private-sector workforce, and contribute more than 40 percent of GDP,” said Todd McCracken, President & CEO of the National Small Business Association (NSBA). “Yet, unlike their larger counterparts, they often lack the financial cushion and in-house resources to absorb sudden policy shifts. Imposing emergency tariffs without exemptions for small companies threatens their survival, undermines local economies, and weakens supply chains upon which countless communities are built. By exempting small firms from these duties and providing timely refunds, the Small Business RELIEF Act acknowledges both their unique vulnerability and their vital role in driving economic growth.

“Tariffs are placing unprecedented pressure on American small businesses, and we’re encouraged to see leadership and legislation that would provide much-needed relief from these burdensome policies,” said Shaundell Newsome, Co-chair of Small Business for America’s Future and Founder of Sumnu Marketing in Las Vegas, Nevada. “We’ve heard countless stories from entrepreneurs across the country whose operating costs have abruptly increased due to tariffs and their erratic implementation, a major blow to businesses operating with tight margins and little wiggle room for error. These businesses are already making devastating choices: cutting jobs, canceling expansion plans, and struggling to keep their doors open. The retroactive relief included in the Small Business RELIEF Act could be the lifeline many small importers desperately need to recover from months of unexpected costs. Main Street is bearing the brunt of policies that failed to consider the real-world consequences for small businesses. Without action, we’ll continue to see economic consequences that devastate not just individual businesses but entire communities.”

"Widespread tariffs imposed on most imported goods have caused significant pain for small businesses, as evidenced by Small Business Majority's most recent polling that found 60% are experiencing higher operating costs due to tariffs,” said Alexis D’Amato, Director of Government Affairs at Small Business Majority. “This is no surprise given that 26% of businesses surveyed said they import goods directly, while nearly half said they buy from American suppliers that import from other countries. Cost increases have led small businesses to take a range of drastic actions that include raising prices and pausing expansion plans. The best way to bring small businesses immediate relief is to refund import duties that they have already paid and exempt them from tariffs going forward."

“WIPP strongly supports Senator Markey’s Small Business RELIEF Act, which would exempt small businesses from tariffs,” said Angela Dingle, President and CEO of Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP). “Small firms, including women-owned firms, are facing rising costs and supply-chain disruptions that threaten their survival. More often than not, small businesses lack the resources to absorb the cost of tariffs, and have no choice but to raise prices and risk losing business. Small businesses can pivot and adapt, but they rely on certainty when it comes to their bottom line, and Senator Markey’s bill would help provide that certainty."

“CAMEO applauds Senator Markey’s Small Business RELIEF Act, which would provide relief for microbusinesses and self-employed entrepreneurs from economically damaging tariffs,” said Carolina Martinez, CEO of CAMEO Network. “In California alone, microbusinesses (those with five or fewer employees) account for 85% of all firms and generate nearly 25% of all jobs, yet they’re deriving the smallest margins and greatest vulnerability from rising costs. Tariffs are hurting them the most, and are a direct hit to their ability to survive, grow, and serve their communities. This act would provide essential relief that keeps innovation alive and Main Street thriving.”

WASHINGTON – U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner (D-VA) and Mike Rounds (R-SD) today introduced the Keeping Deposits Local Act, bipartisan legislation to modernize outdated rules on reciprocal deposits. Reciprocal deposits allow community banks to offer customers full FDIC insurance while keeping those dollars working in local communities. This legislation updates current statutory thresholds to make it easier for community and regional banks to receive non-brokered treatment for reciprocal deposits. Majority Whip Rep Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) and Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio) lead the companion legislation in the House.

“This bipartisan bill helps ensure community and regional banks can keep more capital working in their local economies,” said Sen. Warner. “By replacing the current one-size-fits-all cap with a tiered system, this legislation gives local banks the flexibility they need to better serve their customers and keep money close to home.”

“Reciprocal deposits provide a stable and low-cost source of funds for lending and investment in South Dakota communities,” said Sen. Rounds. “In fact, more than a third of banks headquartered in South Dakota utilize reciprocal deposits. They are relationship-based, core deposits that help our community banks retain local customers. By tailoring the rules, this legislation removes the outdated cap on reciprocal deposits for community banks. That flexibility will help South Dakota banks keep deposits local and strengthens the resilience of our financial system – a lesson reinforced by the bank failures in 2023.”

Under the bill, reciprocal deposits would be eligible for non-brokered status based on the following thresholds:

• 50% of a bank’s first $1 billion of liabilities
• 40% of a bank’s liabilities above $1 billion but not above $10 billion
• 30% of a bank’s liabilities above $10 billion but not above $250 billion
• 20% of a bank’s liabilities above $250 billion but not above $1 trillion
• 2% of a bank’s liabilities above $1 trillion

The bill would also stipulate that CAMELS 3-rated banks are eligible for full use of non-brokered treatment for reciprocal deposits as long as they are well-capitalized.

This legislation is supported by the National Bankers Association (NBA), the Community Development Bankers Association (CDBA) and the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA).

Read the full text of the bill here.

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Committee Democrats to Crapo: “We have a responsibility to ensure SSA protects Americans’ data and provides quality customer service to the over 72 million Americans who rely on these benefits.”

Text of the Letter (PDF)

WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-VA) joined Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Finance Committee Democrats in calling for an immediate hearing to investigate the customer service issues at the Social Security Administration (SSA) – including exposing millions of Americans’ personal information that could have resulted in the largest data breach in modern history.

“As one of the nation’s most popular and effective programs, Social Security provides a foundation of income on which workers can build for their retirement, as well as valuable insurance protection against unexpected hardship. Failing to investigate SSA and hold Commissioner Bisignano accountable for keeping his promise to protect America’s data and improve SSA is an abdication of our oversight responsibility and a disservice to our constituents who sent us to Congress to protect this bedrock program,” the senators wrote to Senate Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo (R-ID).  

In March, the senators demanded a committee hearing in light of reports that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) had unfettered access to sensitive information, slashed its workforce, among other drastic changes that impede Americans’ ability to access their hard earned benefits. Since Social Security Administration Commissioner Frank Bisignano took office, the senators have raised the alarm as the agency has made the following changes:

1. Giving DOGE the greenlight to transfer Americans’ Social Security information into an unsecure cloud server that could be compromised anytime by foreign agents or hackers. According to a SSA whistleblower, the agency repeatedly ignored or even violated federal privacy laws at the whims of pleasing DOGE.
2. Weaponizing SSA data to serve Donald Trump’s dangerous political agenda, including falsely declaring more than 6,3000 immigrants as dead to make them self deport. The agency has unconstitutionally manipulated and undermined its data to attack a small population’s earned Social Security benefits.
3. Injecting chaos into SSA phone systems by slashing its workforce and diverting 2,000 field office staff from their responsibility of answering calls to provide quality customer service. Many applicants are already waiting over a month just to get an appointment in their local field office, and now they have to wait even longer for their benefit claims to be processed.
4. Misleading the American people on SSA’s performance to falsely promote Trump and Bisignano’s narrative that customer service has never been better. SSA is cherry-picking misleading performance metrics every month to prop up the Trump administration’s dangerous agenda.

The text of the letter can be found here.

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WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) released the following statement after the Augusta Medical Group announced the closure of three practice locations—Weyers Cave Urgent Care, Buena Vista Primary Care, and Churchville Primary Care—in response to Republicans’ law that made major cuts to Medicaid:

“We appreciate Augusta Health’s courage and transparency in being clear about the cause of these closures: reckless cuts forced through by our Republican colleagues. We warned that their partisan tax bill would lead to shuttered clinics, lost jobs, and reduced access to critical health care services, especially in rural communities. Sadly, this is exactly what we are now seeing – and no amount of massive tax breaks to the ultra-wealthy can justify the damage to Virginia families.”

Warner and Kaine strongly opposed the Republican law that made major cuts to health care, food assistance, and other programs that Virginians rely on in order to slash taxes for the wealthiest Americans. More than 15 million people currently covered under Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act will lose their health insurance, and many rural hospitals will lose federal funding, putting them at risk of closure.

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BROADCAST-QUALITY VIDEO  IS AVAILABLE HERE

WASHINGTON – At a hearing of the Senate Finance Committee, U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-VA) pressed Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on his failure to acknowledge basic facts about the COVID-19 pandemic and raised urgent concerns about the future of community health centers and rural hospitals following the massive Medicaid cuts in President Trump’s Big Ugly Bill.

Warner expressed disbelief that Kennedy, after eight months in office, could not answer how many Americans died from COVID or whether vaccines saved lives.

“Mr. Chairman, the Secretary of Health and Human Services doesn’t know how many Americans died from COVID. He doesn’t know if the vaccine helped prevent any deaths. And you are sitting as Secretary of Health and Human Services? How can you be that ignorant?” Warner said.

Warner pressed Kennedy to support solutions to improve rural health care, including his legislation to raise the Medicare area wage index to better reimburse rural hospitals, and a bill with Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) to require safeguards before hospitals can eliminate obstetric services. Kennedy ultimately pledged to work with Warner on both proposals.

“Americans want to get healthier, but they also don’t want their basic health care removed,” Warner concluded, inviting Kennedy to join him at a Virginia community health center to hear directly from patients and providers.

A transcript of their exchange follows.

WARNER: Mr. Secretary, I agree with a lot of my colleagues' statements. I actually had hoped, even though I didn't support you – I thought taking on chronic illnesses was going to be important.

I've got two kids, as we discussed when you met, that have chronic illnesses. I'm not sure that the focus on red dye and seed oils are going to fully solve that problem.

KENNEDY: Of course they won't.

WARNER: I would say this: that seems where your emphasis is.

I want to go back to just, again, some basic facts. Do you accept the fact that a million Americans died from COVID?

KENNEDY: I don't know how many died.

WARNER: You're the Secretary of Health and Human Services. You don't have any idea how many Americans died from COVID?

KENNEDY: I don't think anybody knows that because the… there was so much data chaos coming out of the CDC and there were so many –

WARNER: You don't know the answer of how many Americans died from COVID?

This is the Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Do you think the vaccine did anything to prevent additional deaths?

KENNEDY: Again, I would like to see the data and talk about the data. I’m not fully –

WARNER: You've had this job for eight months and you don't know the data about whether the vaccine saved lives?

KENNEDY: And that's the problem is that they didn't have the data. The data by the Biden administration is absolutely dismal. It was chaos.

WARNER: Who is politicizing? You're saying the Biden administration politicized all the data? Go back to what Senator Cantwell just said, go to the Trump Surgeon General –

KENNEDY: They fired Dr. Grubb, they fired all the people who questioned the orthodoxy. They fired Dr. Gruber, Dr. Krause.

WARNER: Mr. Chairman, the Secretary of Health and Human Services doesn't know how many Americans died from COVID. He doesn't know if the vaccine helped prevent any deaths.

And you are sitting as Secretary of Health and Human Services? How can you be that ignorant?

Like, you know, I remember when we went to the hearing with you, I asked you about community health centers. You didn't know what role they play.

I've been visiting community health –  I'm glad you've got to one, I think in April.

I tell you what. What I hear from community health centers, they are terrified, with all due respect to my good friend the chairman, of the Big Awful Bill, because they are going to lose health care across the board. They already live in food deserts. They can't get to a nutritionist because Medicaid doesn't do enough reimbursement.

If you're going to want Americans to get healthier, shouldn't they have access to nutritionists? Should they have access to good science about healthy food?

KENNEDY: Absolutely.

WARNER: Well, then how is that going to happen with the Medicaid cuts that are taking place?

KENNEDY: There are no cuts to Medicaid.

WARNER: Sir, that is an absurd –  there is not a single –  to my Republican colleagues, there's not a single study that does not – and I can tell you, I was in Franklin, Virginia a couple of days ago. The rural hospital is going to close. The hospital system was so afraid they wouldn't even let me have the meeting there, but that rural hospital is going to close.

And they are looking for where those folks are going to go. I mean, you're supposed to be doing health care policy, not being the doctor in residence for all of America. I hope – I can only say, I'm still going to trust my doctor rather than your health advice. And, obviously, Tom Cotton's going to –  who knows who he's going to trust?

But let me – let me go back to policy for a couple – so maybe we can lower the temperature a little bit. I had a bipartisan bill that would be a systemic fix, not a vote-buying mechanism, when Medicaid's getting cut, than what was put in on the rural hospitals. One of the things we could do, Mr. Secretary, is make sure that the folks who work in rural hospitals get an 80 percent reimbursement of what folks get in more urban centers. Would you support that legislation?

KENNEDY: The – are you talking about the area wage index?

WARNER: I'm talking about the area wage index and moving that up to 80 percent so there is, actually, the ability to get rural providers...

KENNEDY: Yeah. President Trump supports that, and we support that.

WARNER: Do you support – do you support – good. So you will work with us to get that passed?

KENNEDY: Yes, Senator. I – I (inaudible)...

WARNER: That will increase costs for both Medicaid and Medicare. So you are committed to that? I appreciate that.

What about, Senator Wyden and I have got a bill – because across America...

KENNEDY: What about what?

WARNER: ... hospitals are shutting down on their ob/gyn services. Try to have a baby – I don't know about all of my other friends' states, but in Southside Virginia, you can't find a hospital. Will you work with us to make sure that before ob/gyn services are taken out of a rural hospital, there has to be a process and procedure?

KENNEDY: I'm happy to work with you on that, Senator, meet with you and – and see if we can work with you on it. I don't know exactly what the issue is.

WARNER: Well, hold it, again. A secretary of health and human services who has said he doesn't know how many people died from COVID, doesn't know if the vaccine saved lives, doesn't understand the issue of ob/gyn...

KENNEDY: I – I didn't know if it saved a mil – (inaudible) if it saved a million lives.

WARNER: Ob/gyn doctors are fleeing rural America because they can't afford it. And with the cuts that are coming up, it's going to be exponentially worse. I would invite you, sir, to come with me to a community health center in Virginia and hear what is on people's minds.

They want to get healthier? Absolutely. Count me in. But they also don't want their basic healthcare removed.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

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FRANKLIN, Va. – In case you missed it, U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-VA) and Virginia House of Delegates Speaker Don Scott on Tuesday traveled to Franklin’s Hayden Village Center to sit down with Franklin community members and leaders who rely on Southampton Medical Center – one of the six rural hospitals in Virginia and more than 300 rural hospitals across the nation that are now at disproportionate risk of closure, conversion, or dramatic service reductions following passage of the “Big Beautiful” Republican budget law.

Key Quotes from Sen. Warner: View Clip HERE

• “I’ve been governor and senator for a long time. I think this may be the worst piece of legislation I’ve ever seen in my life, and that’s saying something.”

• “At the end of the day, this bill was about providing a giant tax cut disproportionately for the most successful Americans. And I’m all for success. I’m a businessman. I’m a capitalist. But the cost of paying for that extraordinary tax cut, we are taking in many ways the heart out of health care for Americans who are the most vulnerable.”

• “This was not a bipartisan bill. This was one team driving through a piece of legislation that will have huge, huge ramifications. The Big Ugly Bill will cut a trillion dollars out of Medicaid.” 

• “300,000 Virginians will lose their health insurance. Those people are not going to disappear. They’re going to simply show up at the emergency room. And if the hospital closes here, they’re going to have to spend a lot of time checking the traffic to see how to get to Portsmouth or Petersburg to get basic access to health care.” 

• “The mayor was talking a little bit about some of the challenges Franklin’s got now. If we’re going to recruit additional businesses here, keep our businesses that we’ve got, we’ve got to have local health care. That is the starting point.”

Key Quotes from Speaker Don Scott: View Clip HERE

• “Take the politics out of it and just deal with the math. You can’t deliver the same amount of services for substantially less resources. It’s impossible. This is math. You can’t argue with math. You can argue with a whole lot of stuff, but math is math. You can’t do the same thing that you used to do for one more dollar when you only have a dime.” 

• “What the Senator was talking about when he talked about the [enhanced Premium Tax Credit] subsidy, these are people who are working every day. These are people who are working hard, playing by the rules, families with children and they need the subsidy to be able to make up for the difference, that delta that happens between what they can afford and what they need. And that subsidy is paid for by people who have benefited from America in a real way, very wealthy people who have been able to benefit from our system. Why shouldn’t they give a little bit more back? As the Senator said, I’m a capitalist, too. I’m a trial lawyer. I love to get paid, love to make money, don’t get it twisted. But I’m also very grateful to be in a country where we have a system where somebody like me who should never be where I’m supposed to be … Only in America am I even possible. So I’m grateful to pay my fair share back. We have people who are billionaires who don’t want to pay their fair share back.”

Key Quotes from Mona Murphy, lifelong resident of Franklin, Va.: View Clip HERE

• “The potential closure of Franklin’s hospital … would have devastating consequences for our community. The closure of our hospital would leave [families] without accessible health care, forcing them to travel 20 miles to Suffolk, Virginia for medical services. For many, this distance is overwhelming due to financial constraints or lack of transportation options.”

• “Franklin is striving to rebuild itself through educational advancements, attempts at attracting new businesses and encouraging young families to settle here. However, the loss of the hospital would severely hinder these efforts … As someone who works closely with families and children in our schools, I see the dire need for accessible health care in our city every day. Emergencies are unpredictable and the absence of a nearby hospital could have life-threatening consequences for our students and residents. I can’t even imagine a scenario where a child’s life hangs in the balance because we lack immediate access to medical care.”

Event Coverage

• 13NewsNow: Southampton Medical Center at risk of closure after Medicaid cuts hit rural hospitals

• Cville Right Now: Sen. Warner meets with people who receive care at a rural hospital that could face closure

• Virginia Mercury: Federal, state lawmakers call on Va. hospitals to ‘be transparent’ about federal funding changes

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WASHINGTON –  Today, U.S. Senators Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) and U.S. Representative Bobby Scott (D-VA-03) slammed the Trump Administration’s withdrawal of $39,265,000 in federal funding they secured for the Fairwinds Landing maritime operations and logistics facility in Norfolk: 

“The withdrawal of federal funding for the Fairwinds Landing facility is further evidence of this Administration’s across-the-board, reckless approach to governing. If the Administration took the time to learn about the project, it would realize that it is about investing in maritime supply chains and port infrastructure to support not only clean energy but also shipbuilding and ship repair. Stopping this project makes no sense, hurts our economy, and is completely counterproductive to the Administration’s so-called efforts to ‘restore America’s maritime dominance.’ We will be working with our colleagues in Congress, state officials, and partners in the region to urge the Trump Administration to reverse its decision.”

The Fairwinds Landing facility will support offshore wind, shipbuilding and repair, and transportation and logistics. In March, Kaine and Scott toured Fairwinds Landing.

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WASHINGTON – Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Vice Chairman Mark R. Warner (D-VA) released the following statement on the firing of General Jeffrey Kruse as Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA): 

“The firing of yet another senior national security official underscores the Trump administration’s dangerous habit of treating intelligence as a loyalty test rather than a safeguard for our country. General Kruse is a career military officer with decades of distinguished, non-partisan service to our nation, making this ouster all the more troubling.

“It is perhaps unsurprising that General Kruse’s removal as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency comes on the heels of a DIA assessment that directly contradicted the president’s claim to have ‘obliterated’ Iran’s nuclear program. That kind of honest, fact-based analysis is exactly what we should want from our intelligence agencies, regardless of whether it flatters the White House narrative. When expertise is cast aside and intelligence is distorted or silenced, our adversaries gain the upper hand and America is left less safe.”

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WASHINGTON – Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Vice Chairman Mark R. Warner (D-VA) released the following statement after Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard released plans to cut the office’s workforce:

“Twenty years after it was established, there is broad, bipartisan agreement that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence is in need of thoughtful reform. The Intelligence Authorization Act directs Director Gabbard to submit a plan to Congress outlining her proposed changes, and we will carefully review her proposals and conduct rigorous oversight to ensure any reforms strengthen, not weaken, our national security. But given Director Gabbard’s track record of politicizing intelligence – including her decision just yesterday to revoke security clearances from career national security officials – I have no confidence that she is the right person to carry out this weighty responsibility.”

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WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senators Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) highlighted a new report from the Joint Economic Committee warning that the Trump Administration’s sweeping tariff regime—which has included almost 100 different policies since April—has directly harmed the American manufacturing sector and could cost the U.S. more than $490 billion in manufacturing investments by 2029.

“If President Trump were actually focused on lowering costs, he would never have never implemented his idiotic, unpopular sales taxes in the form of tariffs,” said the senators. “This report clearly shows the short and long-term damage Trump’s tariffs will have on American manufacturing businesses and consumers. We’re going to keep doing all that we can to pressure Trump to listen to these critical warning signs, reverse course, and put our economy first.”

The Joint Economic Committee, using both U.S. business investment growth projections and economic analyses of uncertainty for United Kingdom businesses in the years following the U.K. Brexit vote to leave the European Union, found that:

• A prolonged period of economic uncertainty in the U.S.—as the U.K. faced—could result in more than a 13 percent decrease in manufacturing investment per year, totaling more than $490 billion by 2029.
• Since April, when Trump announced his “Liberation Day” tariffs, the U.S. has lost 37,000 manufacturing jobs and hiring in the manufacturing sector has dropped to the lowest level in nearly a decade. After a surge during the previous administration, manufacturing construction spending has been in decline since Trump took office, as businesses refrain from making major investments amidst the economic uncertainty.

• Even if the uncertainty about the U.S. economy were to end tomorrow, the uncertainty that businesses have already experienced because of tariffs will have long term effects on U.S. manufacturing. Committee calculations find that the economic uncertainty experienced in April alone could result in a one percent reduction in manufacturing investment per year, a loss of more than $42 billion by 2029.

Read the full report here.

Warner and Kaine have been leaders in the fight against Trump’s dangerous tariff policies. In July, Kaine, the Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, announced his intent to file legislation to challenge Trump’s tariffs on goods from Brazil. The legislation is privileged, which means the Senate will be forced to vote on the legislation soon. In April, the senators successfully secured Senate passage of a bill to undo Trump’s tariffs on Canadian goods. Kaine has since sent a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson demanding that he schedule a vote in the House of Representatives on his Senate-passed legislation. Kaine also forced a vote on his bipartisan legislation to repeal President Trump’s across-the-board tariffs that the White House announced on April 2.

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WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine, a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, (both D-VA) released the following statement regarding the Trump Administration’s plans to pull federal funding from the Alexandria, Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, and Prince William County Public School Districts:

“The Trump Administration destroyed the federal Department of Education and forced out an exceptional president at the University of Virginia. Now it wants to punish high-performing, award-winning schools districts in Northern Virginia. You can’t have a strong economy without strong schools, so add this to the list of President Trump’s disastrous economic policies, alongside his sweeping tariffs and rolling back of investment incentives that were creating tens of thousands of jobs in Virginia.”

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WASHINGTON – Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Vice Chairman Mark R. Warner (D-VA) released the following statement:

“Today, President Trump will once again sit down with Vladimir Putin. While we should all hope this meeting produces a genuine step toward a just and lasting peace in Ukraine, given his track record of cozying up to the Kremlin, refusing to confront Russian election interference, and even taking Putin’s word over the assessments of our own intelligence agencies, I fear this meeting could once again end with America ceding ground to an autocrat who has spent his career undermining democratic values.

“Ukraine’s sovereignty is not a bargaining chip and the right of a democratic nation to determine its own future is not something to be bartered away in a closed-door meeting. For generations, the United States has carried the global mantle for freedom, self-determination, and rule of law, even when the cost was high and the outcome uncertain. Today, the world will be watching to see whether America will continue to lead with principle or shrink in the face of aggression.

“According to the U.S. intelligence community, Putin’s long-term objectives in Ukraine remain unchanged: the complete military and political capitulation of Ukraine. These objectives include the full withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from the Donbas region and other territories, the removal of the democratically elected Ukrainian government, and the establishment of a pro-Russian regime. These are not peace terms; they are ultimatums that would erase Ukraine’s sovereignty, threaten freedom worldwide, and make Americans less safe.  

“There can be no concessions without full Ukrainian participation, verified Russian withdrawal from occupied territory, and enforceable guarantees for Ukraine’s security. Anything less would be an invitation for further aggression from Moscow and every autocrat watching to see if the United States still has the backbone to defend the principles that have kept Americans safe since the Second World War.”  

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