Press Releases
WASHINGTON – U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) applaud the congressional passage of legislation to fund our country’s defense, security, health, education, transportation, and housing programs. This package supports a number of Warner and Kaine priorities, including affordable housing, safer airways, improved infrastructure, medical research, servicemember pay, and shipbuilding. These five bipartisan bills fund Defense; Financial Services and General Government; Labor, Health and Human Services (HHS), Education, and related agencies; National Security, Department of State, and related programs; and Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and related agencies for Fiscal Year 2026.
“I’m proud to provide over $93 million to 78 critical community projects across Virginia that support affordable housing, expanded health care access, transportation safety and modernization, and job entry and development programs,” said Sen. Warner. “This bill is far from perfect, but we were able to make headway on important national priorities including supporting Ukraine, lowering health care and prescription drug costs, boosting medical research, and funding public housing.”
“I’m glad that we passed legislation to fund important priorities like pay for military servicemembers, and reauthorize my bipartisan legislation—named in honor of Charlottesville native and physician Dr. Lorna Breen—to support the mental health of the health care workforce,” said Sen. Kaine. “I’m also thrilled that it includes over $93 million in federal funding that Senator Warner and I secured to expand access to health care, make critical infrastructure improvements, and more. I look forward to getting on the road to celebrate these investments in our communities.”
As part of the Fiscal Year 2026 appropriations process, members of Congress are able to work with the communities they represent to request funding for local community projects, otherwise known as congressionally directed spending, in a manner that promotes transparency and accountability. This process allows Congress to dedicate federal funding for specific projects in Virginia. This package contains $93.267 million for 78 specific projects in Virginia.
Through strong advocacy, the senators secured funding in the relevant spending bills for the following Virginia projects:
- For projects in Central Virginia, click here.
- For projects in Hampton Roads and the Eastern Shore, click here.
- For projects in Northern Virginia, click here.
- For projects in the Shenandoah Valley and the Highlands, click here.
- For projects in Southwest Virginia and Southside, click here.
- For statewide projects, click here.
This funding is in addition to the $112.14 million in federal funding that Sens. Warner and Kaine previously secured for projects in Central Virginia, Hampton Roads and the Eastern Shore, Northern Virginia, Shenandoah Valley and the Highlands, Southwest Virginia and Southside, and across Virginia as part of other government funding legislation.
In addition to community-specific projects, this legislation includes funding for the following Warner and Kaine priorities:
Supporting public housing: Provides $48.4 billion to the Office of Public and Indian Housing, including $38.4 billion for tenant based rental assistance; $8.3 billion for the Public Housing Fund; $206.4 million to help families get good paying jobs; and $1.4 billion to support housing in Tribal and Native Hawaiian communities.
Supporting community investment, affordable housing, and homelessness prevention: Provides $13.3 billion for the Office of Community Planning and Development, including $3.3 billion for the Community Development Block program to give Virginia cities and counties reliable funding for housing repairs, neighborhood revitalization, and community development; $4.4 billion for Homeless Assistance Grants to expand permanent supportive housing, rapid rehousing, and prevention efforts; $1.25 billion for the HOME Investment Partnerships program to help states and cities build and preserve affordable housing; $65 million for the Self-Help and Assisted-Homeownership Opportunity program to help low-income families build or buy their first home; and $30 million for the SUPPORT for Patients and Community Recovery Housing Program to fund housing for people recovering from substance use disorders.
Improving access to housing: Provides $19.9 billion to the Office of Housing, including $18.5 billion to keep rents affordable in privately owned apartment buildings for low-income tenants; $1 billion for Housing for the Elderly; and $287 million for Housing for Persons with Disabilities.
Improving air safety: Provides $22.2 billion to the Federal Aviation Administration, including funds to support the addition of new air traffic controllers and the prioritization of modernizing outdated systems in the National Airspace. Also provides $2 million for an independent study on the airspace in the National Capital Region and the coordination between the FAA and Department of Defense in response to the tragic Flight 5342 accident in January 2025.
Supporting regional airports: Provides $514 million for the Essential Air Service program, which provides critical support for passenger service for Shenandoah Valley Regional Airport.
Improving roads and highways: Provides $64.3 billion to the Federal Highway Administration, including $350 million for bridge repair and $200 million for the Tribal Transportation program.
Improving rail travel: Provides $2.9 billion for the Federal Railroad Administration, including $137 million for Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Improvements grants; $1.6 billion for Amtrak’s National Network grants for State-Supported routes and Long-Distance routes; and $850 million for Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor.
Boosting capital transit: Provides $16.5 billion to the Federal Transit Administration, including $1.7 billion for the Capital Investment Grants program.
Supporting medical research: Provides $48.7 billion for biomedical research, including $3.9 billion for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia research as well as a $10 million increase for diabetes research.
Investing in child care and early learning: Provides $8.8 billion for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), an $85 million increase, which will help families in Virginia and across the country find and afford child care. Also provides $12.36 billion for Head Start, an $85 million increase, which will support Head Start teachers and staff throughout the country. Sen. Kaine has championed efforts in Congress to increase funding for the CCDBG program.
Boosting education: Provides $70.9 billion for the Department of Education, including $18.4 billion for Title I schools and $15.19 billion for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Both received a $20 million increase.
Improving social security: Provides $15 billion for the Social Security Administration’s administrative expenses, a $554 million increase from the prior year. The legislation includes instructions for SSA to utilize the funding to take steps to avoid field office closures, reduced office hours, and delays for appointments at field offices.
Increasing servicemember pay: Provides a 3.8% across-the-board pay raise for servicemembers. Also funds a 1% pay raise for civilians.
Supporting defense communities: Provides $70 million for Impact Aid programs, which provide federal assistance to local school districts that face financial disadvantages due to federal land ownership or high enrollment of federally connected children. Also provides $30 million for the Defense Community Infrastructure Program, which addresses deficiencies in community infrastructure that can or does support a military installation’s readiness and lethality.
Supporting environmental mitigation: Provides $159 million above the President’s request for PFAS cleanup, which removes “forever chemicals” from water and soil. Also provides $20 million above the President’s request for the Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration program, which preserves military missions by supporting cost-sharing to avoid land use conflicts near military installations, address environmental restrictions that limit military activities, and increase military installation resilience.
Supporting international partnerships: Provides $400 million to support Ukraine; reaffirms Congress’s support for NATO; provides $1 billion for the Taiwan Security Cooperation Initiative; makes available $3.3 billion to support the United Nations and other international organizations, rejecting the President’s request to eliminate support; includes $343 million to support regional partners in countering ISIS; and provides $1.1 billion for drug interdiction and counter-drug activities.
Providing humanitarian and global health assistance: Provides $9.4 billion for global health programs to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, and polio; $5.5 billion for humanitarian assistance to meet most urgent needs around the globe; and $15 million for rigorous impact evaluations to ensure humanitarian programs are efficient and delivering results for vulnerable communities.
Supporting shipbuilding: Provides $27.15 billion to support shipbuilding, including a $5.9 billion increase for Columbia- and Virginia-class submarine programs; $1.676 billion for the completion of last year’s shipbuilding programs; and an additional $1.75 billion for DDG-51 destroyers advance procurement and industrial base support.
Boosting military capacity: Provides $2.947 billion in additional munitions and industrial capacity across the military services, including $500 million to develop and procure additional solid rocket motors.
Expanding telehealth: Extends Medicare telehealth flexibilities for two years; requires HHS to issue guidance with best practices on providing telehealth services accessibly; continues for four years virtual access to the Medicare Diabetes Prevention Program; allows cardiopulmonary rehabilitation services to be provided by telehealth in Medicare in 2026 and 2027; and directs HHS to help health care providers learn how to screen for medication-induced movement disorders over telehealth.
Lowering drug costs by reining in PBM middlemen: Reforms Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) to lower drug costs for Americans and protect access to local pharmacies. Also includes two of Sen. Warner’s bills, the PBM Reporting Transparency Act and the Patients Before Middlemen (PBM) Act.
Protecting rural health labor and delivery services: Includes a provision of Sen. Warner’s Keeping Obstetrics Local Act to require State Medicaid programs to conduct studies on the costs of providing maternity, labor, and delivery services in rural hospitals and hospitals that serve a high proportion of Medicaid beneficiaries, and submit a report detailing the results of this study to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Improving mental health: Includes the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Reauthorization Act, legislation sponsored by Sen. Kaine and cosponsored by Sen. Warner, that reauthorizes programs that support efforts to improve the mental health of health care providers.
Addressing pediatric cancer: Provides $12.6 million to fund childhood cancer research through the Gabriella Miller Kids First Research Act, named after a child from Loudoun County who died from brain cancer in 2013.
Supporting individuals with Long COVID: Provides $10 million to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to continue its work to support multidisciplinary Long COVID clinics to address comprehensive, coordinated, person-centered care for people living with Long COVID.
Modernizing public health infrastructure: Provides $185 million to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to modernize America’s public health data systems.
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* High-quality photographs of Sen. Mark R. Warner are available for download here *
Photos may be used online and in print, and can be attributed to ‘The Office of Sen. Mark R. Warner’
WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner (D-VA) and Jim Justice (D-WV) introduced the Child Care Supply Tax Credit Act, bipartisan legislation to address the nationwide shortage of child care options. Through the creation of a new commonsense tax credit, this legislation would help providers attract and retain qualified staff, thereby tackling one of the key contributors to the child care affordability crisis: the industry’s workforce challenges.
This legislation comes as child care costs continue to surge around the country, often outpacing the rate of overall inflation. In West Virginia, the cost of day care for one toddler and one infant has surpassed $20,000 per year. In Virginia, that cost has surpassed $30,700 per year.
“From health care premiums to groceries to utility bills, life is only getting more and more expensive for American families, and for many, the math simply doesn’t work without affordable child care,” said Sen. Warner. “Child care is the foundation that allows parents to earn a living while providing kids with the head start they deserve. I’m proud to introduce this bipartisan legislation to address the workforce challenges contributing to our nation’s child care crisis."
“Childcare providers simply can’t afford to pay their workers enough without passing those high costs on to parents. Families in West Virginia and across the country are spending thousands of dollars just to secure reliable childcare - it must be addressed. By creating a targeted tax credit tied directly to caregiver wages, we can pay the people who take care of our kids what they deserve while giving our hard-working families some breathing room,” said Sen. Justice.
In the U.S., child care workers earn less than the typical worker despite a high level of responsibility and demanding training requirements. These low wages lead to high turnover and difficulty in recruitment, ultimately resulting in fewer available classroom slots and higher costs for families. The bipartisan Child Care Supply Tax Credit Act creates a new tax credit for eligible child care facilities to help offset the cost of employee wages, incentivizing higher pay for workers who directly care for children, while preventing the benefit from going toward administrative overhead.
Bill text of this legislation is available here. A one-pager is available here.
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* High-quality photographs of Sen. Mark R. Warner are available for download here *
Photos may be used online and in print, and can be attributed to ‘The Office of Sen. Mark R. Warner’
Warner & Kaine Applaud Passage of Bill to Improve Baby Formula Access Among Vulnerable Families
May 20 2022
WASHINGTON — U.S. Senators Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine, a member of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, applauded unanimous Senate passage of the Access to Baby Formula Act, which will help improve access to baby formula for families who participate in the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program. The legislation passed the House of Representatives yesterday and now heads to President Biden’s desk to be signed into law.
“No one should have to worry about where or how they’re going to get formula to feed their child, and we’re glad Congress is taking action to address these shortages,” said the Senators. “This bill is an important step to ensuring our most vulnerable families have access to the formula they need.”
The legislation was introduced by Congressman Bobby Scott and Congresswoman Jahana Hayes. Specifically, the Access to Baby Formula Act will:
- Establish waiver authority to address emergencies, disasters, and supply chain disruptions by ensuring states that contract with one formula manufacturer for the WIC program can secure supplies from additional manufacturers;
- Grant the U.S. Department of Agriculture the authority to waive certain requirements that can slow down the process to get formula back on the shelves, without sacrificing safety standards; and
- Facilitate coordination and information-sharing between the Secretary of Agriculture and Secretary of Health and Human Services regarding any supply chain disruption, including supplemental food recalls.
According to USDA, Abbott Nutrition’s formula products serve 89% of WIC families.
Warner and Kaine sent a letter last week calling on infant formula manufacturers to increase production and make every effort possible to get formula on shelves.
Earlier this week, Warner spoke about the importance of addressing this shortage, calling for additional funding to address the issue as well as a thorough examination of the American and worldwide supply chain issues that have contributed to this shortage. Warner also praised Senate passage of the legislation on Twitter and pledged to continue pushing for initiatives that relieve this burden.
Kaine released a video statement after new steps to address the shortages were announced, including an FDA and Abbott agreement to reopen the shuttered plant and the FDA’s move to make it easier to import formula. Kaine called on President Biden to invoke the Defense Production Act (DPA) to help ramp up formula production—a call President Biden heeded shortly after. Kaine also sent a letter to President Biden urging him to appoint a White House coordinator to address current shortages, and implement a national strategy to increase the resiliency of the infant formula supply chain and protect against future contamination and shortages.
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WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-VA) led a group of 12 colleagues in urging the Biden administration to work with states, tribes, and territories to prioritize young people in the foster care system, who have been particularly afflicted by the COVID-19 health and economic crisis. In a letter to the Administration for Children and Families at U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the senators stressed the disparate outcomes faced by young people in foster care in the areas of educational attainment, employment rates, and earnings, and urged the administration to ensure that states take full advantage of existing flexibilities to mitigate these outcomes.
Joining Sen. Warner in the letter to the Associate Commissioner of the Administration for Children and Families were Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR), Bob Casey (D-PA), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Jack Reed (D-RI), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Angus King (I-ME), Cory Booker (D-NJ), and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT).
“As efforts to curtail the pandemic prove successful, it is clear that the long-term impacts of the pandemic will be significant. As you continue to work through year-one priorities, we ask that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ensure that youth currently in and transitioning out of the foster care system receive the support and resources they need to thrive,” wrote the Senators in a letter to HHS Associate Commissioner Aysha Schomburg. “We also ask that you prioritize implementation of the Family First Prevention Services Act of 2018 to ensure that children, youth, and their families can access a range of services to keep them safely together and prevent unnecessary entry into foster care whenever possible. For circumstances when foster care placement is needed, we request that you work with states, tribes, and territories to ensure that children and youth in foster care have high-quality placements and trauma-informed care.”
“The past year has been a difficult time for many. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted and exacerbated the overwhelming obstacles youth in the foster care system face, particularly the challenges associated with transitioning into adulthood after leaving the system,” they continued. “We believe that if changes are made to strengthen support and the resources for foster youth, they will be better able to realize their goals and become active members of our nation’s workforce.”
Throughout the past year, young people in the foster care system have felt the educational and economic toll of the pandemic at much higher rates than their peers. In fact, a University of Pennsylvania study found that foster youth have lost their jobs during COVID-19 at a rate three times that of the general population. The senators also cited the findings of a longitudinal study, which revealed that by age 23 and 24, one-quarter of youth with experience in foster care did not have a high school diploma or a GED. Additionally, although nearly one third had completed at least one year of college, only 6 percent had completed a 2- or 4-year post-secondary degree.
In the letter, the senators requested that the administration take action to mitigate the effects of COVID-19 on foster youth. Specifically, they asked the administration to:
· Allow title IV-B funds to be used to provide internet and other technology to vulnerable foster youth and families in order to ensure that foster youth do not continue to fall behind in meeting their work and study obligations because they do not have necessary technological tools available to them.
· Work with states to address the impact of the digital divide on foster youth by considering long-term solutions to technology-access challenges that have been exacerbated during the public health emergency, and working with child welfare agencies on context-specific plans to ensure foster youth have resources necessary to participate in online instruction or work virtually.
· Implement a plan to ensure that agencies proactively reach out to foster youth to inform them about benefits related to stimulus checks, unemployment insurance, and other COVID-19-related assistance.
· Help ensure that foster youth and other at-risk youth are aware of and have the resources to take advantage of the extension of the earned income tax credit (EITC) to working youth under age 26 and work toward making the child tax credit (CTC) as accessible as possible. They asked that the Administration make the EITC and the CTC as accessible as possible by working with youth and their families to ensure they are aware of these opportunities. They also asked that the Administration provide flexibility for caregivers of children in the welfare system to claim a dependent.
· Create and implement a plan to ensure that foster youth have access to and are aware of mental health supports. Given the high rates of trauma experienced by foster youth and the increase in reports of mental illness during the pandemic, the senators asked that the administration work to ensure foster youth are provided the necessary mental health resources to support their resilience during this difficult time.
· Commit to working with Congress and states, tribes, and territories to address inequalities in the child welfare system in the U.S. and outline steps to make child welfare programs more equitable by working ensuring better opportunities for foster youth and combat the racial disparities we have known to persist within the system for too long.
A PDF of the letter is available here. Text is available below.
Associate Commissioner Aysha Schomburg
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
The Administration for Children and Families
Children’s Bureau
330 C Street, SW
Washington, D.C. 20201
Dear Associate Commissioner Aysha Schomburg,
We write today in support of children and youth in the foster care system as they continue to face a number of unique challenges as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. With the steady progress of nationwide vaccine distribution, like many Americans, we feel a sense of reassurance that our nation will soon transition into a more manageable period of the health and economic crises that the nation has endured for over a year now. As efforts to curtail the pandemic prove successful, it is clear that the long-term impacts of the pandemic will be significant. As you continue to work through year-one priorities, we ask that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ensure that youth currently in and transitioning out of the foster care system receive the support and resources they need to thrive. We also ask that you prioritize implementation of the Family First Prevention Services Act of 2018 to ensure that children, youth, and their families can access a range of services to keep them safely together and prevent unnecessary entry into foster care whenever possible. For circumstances when foster care placement is needed, we request that you work with states, tribes, and territories to ensure that children and youth in foster care have high quality placements and trauma-informed care.
It is well-documented that current and former foster youth face disparate outcomes compared to their peers in various areas, including educational attainment and employment rates and earnings.[1] A longitudinal study in Iowa, better known as “The Midwest Evaluation of the Adult Functioning of Former Foster Youth,” found that by age 23 and 24, one-quarter of youth with experience in foster care did not have a high school diploma or a GED, and although nearly one third had completed at least one year of college, only 6% had completed a 2- or 4-year post-secondary degree.[2] Foster youth aging out of the system are also more likely to become homeless and struggle with job insecurity.[3]
The past year has been a difficult time for many. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted and exacerbated the overwhelming obstacles youth in the foster care system face, particularly the challenges associated with transitioning into adulthood after leaving the system.
In fact, former foster youth are some of the most impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.[4] According to a study from the University of Pennsylvania, former foster youth have lost their jobs during the pandemic at a rate three times that of the general population. Additionally, two-thirds of study participants reported that COVID-19 had a major negative impact on their educational progress or attainment.[5] These outcomes can be partially explained by inconsistent access to the internet, with only 5% of rural foster youth and 21% of urban foster youth having consistent access to computers in their homes.[6]
These statistics are heartbreaking and unacceptable. We believe that if changes are made to strengthen support and the resources for foster youth, they will be better able to realize their goals and become active members of our nation’s workforce.
We greatly appreciate the Biden Administration’s leadership in working with state, tribal and territorial child welfare agencies to slow the spread of the virus and “build back better.” We respectfully ask that you continue to encourage states to take full advantage of existing flexibilities and make additional changes to best support foster youth. Specifically, we request that you:
· Allow title IV-B funds to be used to provide internet and other technology to vulnerable foster youth and families. The virtual working and learning environments we have experienced during the pandemic are likely to last long after the spread of the virus is slowed.[7] Therefore, we must ensure that foster youth do not continue to fall behind in meeting their work and study obligations because they do not have necessary technological tools available to them. We ask that allowable expenses be expanded to include laptop computers, tablets, and internet access for children and families in the child welfare system.
· Work with states to address the impact of the digital divide on foster youth. We were proud to vote in support of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021, which increased support for John H. Chafee Foster Care Programs for Successful Transition to Adulthood, mandated that a state operating a program under Title IV-E cannot require that a child who is in foster care leave solely because of the child’s age until October 1, 2021, and suspended certain training and postsecondary educational requirements that could be barriers to youth accessing Chafee supports during the public health emergency. In addition to working with states, territories, tribes and tribal organizations to ensure this law is implemented effectively, we ask that you consider long-term solutions to technology-access challenges that have been exacerbated during the public health emergency. We ask that you work with child welfare agencies on context-specific plans to ensure foster youth have resources necessary to participate in online instruction or work virtually.
· Implement a plan to ensure that agencies proactively reach out to foster youth to inform them about benefits related to stimulus checks, unemployment insurance, and other COVID-19-related assistance. We ask that you work to ensure foster youth are aware of all resources available to them during this difficult time.
· Help ensure that foster youth and other at-risk youth are aware of and have the resources to take advantage of the extension of the earned income tax credit (EITC) to working youth under age 26 and work toward making the child tax credit (CTC) as accessible as possible. We were pleased to see that the American Rescue Plan included an extension of the EITC to working youth under age 26. We believe this change has significant potential to equip former foster youth to become productive members of the workforce. We ask that the Administration help make foster youth and other vulnerable youth aware of this expansion, as well as help ensure they have the resources to take advantage of this opportunity. In addition, we are proud that the American Rescue Plan temporarily expands the CTC and the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (CDCTC) for 2021. We ask that the Administration make the CTC as accessible as possible by working with families to ensure they know how the monthly payments work and allow non-filers to establish eligibility. We also ask that the Administration provide flexibility for caregivers of children in the welfare system to claim a dependent.
· Create and implement a plan to ensure that foster youth have access to and are aware of mental health supports. Foster youth who have aged out of the system are like other populations experiencing isolation due to the pandemic, but many lack substantive social supports. The COVID-19 pandemic is exacerbating symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other mental illnesses. Given the high rates of trauma experienced by foster youth and the increase in reports of mental illness during the pandemic, we ask that you work to ensure foster youth are provided the necessary mental health resources to support their resilience during this difficult time. The Family First Prevention Services Act of 2018 allows Title IV-E funds to cover evidence-based mental health services and programs for children, youth, and their families. We encourage you to support states, tribes, and territories in development and implementation of robust Title IV-E Prevention Program plans that include a range of mental health services.
· Commit to working with Congress and states, tribes, and territories to address inequalities in the child welfare system in the U.S. and outline steps to make child welfare programs more equitable. Youth of color frequently experience negative outcomes, such as homelessness, unemployment, economic hardship, and involvement with the criminal justice system, at higher rates than their white peers after transitioning out of the foster care system.[8] We ask that the Biden Administration work with youth, parents, kinship caregivers with lived expertise, as well as child welfare agencies and Congress to play a leading role in ensuring better opportunities for foster youth and combat the racial disparities we have known to persist within the system for too long.
Thank you for your diligent, impactful work on behalf of our nation’s foster youth. We appreciate your time and attention to this urgent matter. We are grateful for your partnership as we continue to work on behalf of youth in need.
Sincerely,
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