Alexandria, Va. (August 5, 2021) — Today, the National Home Infusion Association (NHIA) applauded the introduction of bipartisan legislation in the U.S. Senate that will ensure Medicare patients maintain access to home infusion therapies that require the use of an infusion pump. The Preserving Patient Access to Home Infusion Act — introduced by Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) and Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) — would ensure patients with serious viral and fungal infections, heart failure, immune diseases, cancer, and other conditions can receive the intravenous (IV) medications they need while at home.

“Medicare’s home infusion therapy benefit provides increased access to care for patients with immune diseases, cancer, serious infections, heart failure and other conditions that might otherwise force them to receive their care in a more expensive and less convenient hospital or nursing home setting,” said Sen. Warner. “This legislation will ensure that patients in need of home infusion therapy can get the care they need in a more affordable and commonsense way.”

“Americans deserve the flexibility needed to seek medical treatment from the comfort of their own home,” said Sen. Scott. “As we progress through the pandemic, high-risk patients who are more susceptible to contracting the coronavirus and other diseases should not be limited to hospital visits that could further risk their health. With the introduction of this bill, millions of Americans will be one step closer to having peace of mind as they seek life-saving treatment in their own homes.”

Home infusion pharmacies have been safely and effectively providing a wide range of IV medications to patients in their homes for over 40 years. This proven model of care is overwhelmingly preferred by patients while also being cost-effective compared to other sites of care. Research shows that up to 95% of patientswho are dependent on IV medications prefer to be treated at home, and nearly 98% of patients recently indicated they are highly satisfied with their home infusion services.

LEGISLATIVE BACKGROUND

Congress included provisions in the 21st Century Cures Act and the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 to create a professional services benefit for Medicare Part B home infusion drugs. The intent in establishing this benefit was to maintain patient access to home infusion by covering professional services including assessments, education on administration and access device care, monitoring and remote monitoring, coordination with the patient, caregivers and other health care providers, and nursing visits.

Despite Congress’ intent — as detailed in multiple letters to the agency — the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) improperly implemented the benefit by requiring a nurse to be physically present in the patient’s home in order for providers to be reimbursed. As a practical matter, the current home infusion therapy benefit only acknowledges face-to-face visits from a nurse and fails to account for the extensive clinical and administrative services that are provided remotely by home infusion clinicians. As a result, provider participation in Medicare’s home infusion benefit has dropped sharply and beneficiaries have experienced reduced access to home infusion over the last several years.

The Preserving Patient Access to Home Infusion Act provides technical clarifications that will remove the physical presence requirement, ensuring payment regardless of whether a health care professional is present in the patient’s home. The legislation also acknowledges the full scope of professional services provided in home infusion — including essential pharmacist services — into the reimbursement structure.

“Home-based health care services stand out as high-value resources that can improve patient quality of life and add capacity to the health care system while keeping vulnerable patients away from the threat of infectious disease,” said NHIA President & CEO Connie Sullivan, BSPharm. “Passage of the Preserving Patient Access to Home Infusion Act is critical to ensuring the Medicare program maintains access to home infusion, allowing beneficiaries to safely receive treatment in the setting they overwhelmingly prefer: their homes.”

Preliminary analysis of the legislation from The Moran Company suggests that the measure will create savings for patients and taxpayers by moving care into more cost-effective home settings. “Our model estimates on balance that the legislation would produce more savings than costs—with an estimated savings over 10 years of $93 million,” the report concludes.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine sent a letter to Senate Leadership urging them to provide critical relief to restaurants, bars, and other small businesses in the food and beverage industries severely impacted by the pandemic. In their letter, the Senators point to the Restaurant Revitalization Fund (RRF), established by the American Rescue Plan, and the help it provided to tens of thousands of establishments across the nation before funding ran out. The Senators call on Senate Leadership to bring up legislation that provides the RRF with additional funding to meet the outstanding demand for the program. In July, the Small Business Administration announced the RRF program received over 278,000 eligible applications requesting over $72 billion in funds – exceeding the $28.6 billion included in the American Rescue Plan.

“We write to you regarding the Restaurant Revitalization Fund (RRF), which was established by the American Rescue Plan to provide critical relief to restaurants, bars, and other small businesses in the food and beverage services sector. In light of the extraordinary demand for the program, we urge you to replenish the Fund to meet the current need among eligible applicants,” wrote the Senators.

“We urge you to bring up legislation that provides the RRF with additional funding to meet the outstanding demand for the program. Virginia’s restaurants play a major role in the Commonwealth’s economy, employing over 300,000 people prior to the pandemic. Ensuring that restaurants and similar small businesses in Virginia and across the country have the resources they need to stay solvent will facilitate a speedy economic recovery,” concluded the Senators.

Senators Kaine and Warner were both co-sponsors of the bipartisan Real Economic Support That Acknowledges Unique Restaurant Assistance Needed to Survive (RESTAURANTS) Act of 2020, legislation that led to the creation of the RRF but would have included $120 billion in funding to help independent restaurants deal with the long-term structural challenges facing the industry because of COVID-19.

A copy of the letter text can be found here and below:

Dear Majority Leader Schumer and Minority Leader McConnell:

We write to you regarding the Restaurant Revitalization Fund (RRF), which was established by the American Rescue Plan to provide critical relief to restaurants, bars, and other small businesses in the food and beverage services sector. In light of the extraordinary demand for the program, we urge you to replenish the Fund to meet the current need among eligible applicants.

The food and beverage industries have been among the hardest-hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, with restaurant and food service sales down $280 billion from expected levels and restaurant jobs down 1.7 million from pre-pandemic levels. Even as restrictions are being lifted and the economy slowly rebounds, restaurants are only just beginning to recover from the devastating economic impact of the pandemic. In Virginia and across the country, restaurants continue to experience decreased sales, crippling staffing shortages, and significant debt burdens. Hundreds of Virginia restaurant owners have told us that they may have to close their doors permanently if they do not receive additional federal relief.

The $28.6 billion RRF has already started working to keep tens of thousands of these establishments across the nation open. However, demand has far outstripped the available funding. On July 2, 2021, Small Business Administration (SBA) Administrator Isabel Guzman announced the closure of the RRF program. SBA reported that they had received more than 278,000 eligible applications requesting a total of $72.2 billion in funding. As of June 30, 2021, approximately 101,000 of those applications had been approved.

We urge you to bring up legislation that provides the RRF with additional funding to meet the outstanding demand for the program. Virginia’s restaurants play a major role in the Commonwealth’s economy, employing over 300,000 people prior to the pandemic. Ensuring that restaurants and similar small businesses in Virginia and across the country have the resources they need to stay solvent will facilitate a speedy economic recovery. 

Thank you in advance for your attention to this urgent matter.

Sincerely,

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WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine announced $4,123,765 in federal funding from the U.S. Department of Education for five of the Commonwealth’s higher education institutions to help them prepare and respond to COVID-19.  The grants can be used in various ways, including resuming operations, supporting students, reducing disease transmission, and developing more agile instructional delivery models for students who can’t attend in-person class. 

“We are pleased to see these federal dollars from the American Rescue Plan go toward helping the Commonwealth’s higher education institutions recover from the effects of the past year,” said the Senators. “We will continue working to ensure Virginia institutions have the resources they need to continue serving their students.” 

This funding was awarded through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, which Senators Warner and Kaine voted to pass in March. The legislation included significant funding to help Virginia’s colleges and universities respond to COVID-19.

A breakdown of the funding is below:

• Norfolk State University in Norfolk will receive $1,952,775
• Ferrum College in Ferrum will receive $390,542
• Institute for Psychological Sciences (Divine Mercy University) in Sterling will receive $180,966
• Rappahannock Community College will receive $1,536,345
• Appalachian School of Law in Grundy will receive $63,137

As a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, Kaine has been a strong advocate for students amid the pandemic. Last year, Kaine introduced the Coronavirus Relief Flexibility for Students and Institutions Act to fix several implementation issues with the higher education emergency relief fund in the CARES Act by providing institutions of higher education and students with the increased flexibility Congress intended.  

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WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-VA) took to the Senate floor today to highlight how communities throughout Virginia stand to benefit from the bipartisan infrastructure legislation that will soon face a vote on the Senate floor. The legislation – authored and negotiated by Sen. Warner and nine other senators from both sides of the aisle – will make once-in-a-generation investments in infrastructure that will be felt throughout Virginia.

For the Hampton Roads region, Sen. Warner highlighted: “Hampton Roads, Southeast Virginia, and the Peninsula [are] most at risk from sea level rise and questions about resiliency. More than any other region in the whole country, with the exception of New Orleans. In Hampton roads, local leaders, our Navy, nonprofits, and businesses have all come together and said, ‘We need to make sure that we grapple with sea level rise.’ It is ranked by most in those communities as the number one issue. Well, if we pass this legislation, $47 billion will go into sea level rise prevention and resiliency. That will mean a whole host of projects in Norfolk, in Portsmouth, in Virginia Beach, in Chesapeake will be finally addressed. We've got to make sure that Hampton Roads is not subject to this kind of devastating effect of sea level rise.”

Sen. Warner also detailed how the funding could help expand rail into South Hampton Roads, upgrade the Port of Virginia, and repair roads and bridges, and finish the I-64 widening project.  

For the Richmond area, Sen. Warner highlighted: “Richmond has got one of the most aggressive bus transit systems – not only in Virginia but in the whole country. We have made huge investments, close to $40 billion in transit in this legislation, and some of the Richmond bus transit needs will be addressed. We also know in the Richmond area, and across the Commonwealth, we have a lot of airports. One of the things we need to continue to do is invest in our airports. Richmond International Airport is always in need of additional expansion. $25 billion to improve our airports across the country – the Richmond airport, the Norfolk airport, the Newport News airport, obviously, the Roanoke airport and others, Dulles, National, will be improved as well as the host of smaller regional airports across the Commonwealth if we make this investment.”

For Northern Virginia, Sen. Warner highlighted: “I’m very proud, that in working with Tim Kaine and the senators from Maryland, we made sure this legislation included a full eight-year reauthorization of our Metro system. We made sure that we’re making record investments in transit so that we can get Metro back up operating again on a full schedule and we can make the needed safety improvements that have been plaguing Metro for a number of years. We also know that we’ve got to continue to build out additional Metro stations in Northern Virginia. The one at Potomac Yards will be extraordinarily important to the innovation center and Amazon’s second headquarters.

“We've got to make sure as well because Metro is moving to zero-emission buses. That's good news for our climate and for our community. The question is where are those zero-emission buses going to be built? This legislation as well makes record investment in electric and other low-carbon and no-carbon buses so they can be built here, not in China.” 

Sen. Warner also detailed how the funding could help advance the Longbridge project, make dramatic improvements to the VRE, and reduce traffic on Route 1. 

For Roanoke, the Valley, and Southside Virginia, Sen. Warner highlighted: “For years, we have been talking about the danger on I-81. Literally, there have been prayer groups formed to pray for people who would travel on I-81 because there is so much truck traffic there that it has frankly impeded the safety of the traveling public. We have been talking about making improvements and expansions to I-81 capacity for 20 years. We have been talking about ‘how do we get the trucks off of I-81? How do we bring more rail down to Southwest and Southside?’ Well, if we pass this legislation, we will see those I-81 corridor improvements that we have all been waiting for. We will see rail not only go to Lynchburg and Roanoke but extend on down to Blacksburg and Christiansburg and hopefully all the way down to Bristol. This is terribly important to make sure that those communities have a multimodal form of transportation opportunities. Making sure we get those trucks off of I-81 – something we have been talking about for a long time. We increase the rail capacity, both freight and passenger, we'll be able to do that.  

“We also know in Southside and Southwest post-COVID, that high-speed internet connectivity is not a nice-to-have, but an absolute necessity. A top priority of mine as somebody who spent more years in the telecommunications industry than I have in politics, is to make sure that we make those connections. This historic legislation will invest $65 billion for broadband. That investment, building on governor Northam's $700 million investment from Virginia’s American Rescue Plan funds, will make sure that every household across the Commonwealth has access to high-speed internet connectivity, not five years from now or ten years from now, but in the next couple of years.”

For Southwest Virginia, Sen. Warner highlighted: “Across Southwest Virginia, and for that matter, across all of Virginia, we still have families in far Southwest that don't have access to clean drinking water on a regular basis, that still have to sometimes haul their water in the back of a pickup truck up to some cistern; they don't have access to clean drinking water in 2021. Well, $55 billion will go to water projects in this legislation, and whether they be accessed through clean drinking water on a regular basis, or whether it be taking out the lead pipes that haunt too many of our urban communities, or the storm and sewer systems that are frankly, in some cases, 60, 70, 80 years old and simply wearing out, we can make that investment as well.

“Now, there are a series of other areas in this legislation that are equally important, but at the end of the day, I can't think of a bill that I have worked on that will have more direct effect on the lives of every Virginian over the next five years – in terms of how you get to work, how you get to school, how you manage to take the kids out on the weekends, how our commerce moves, how we get our water, how we get our internet – than this record-setting $550 billion bipartisan investment in infrastructure.”

Concluded Sen. Warner, “We have talked about this for 30 years. We are literally days away from this passing the United States Senate. We've got to finish the job and get it done.”

The floor speech in its entirety is available here.

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WASHINGTON – U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner (D-VA) and Cory Booker (D-NJ) reintroduced legislation to help lower the costs of needed medical care and prescription drugs for children. The Fair Drug Prices for Kids Act would give states the ability to purchase prescription drugs at the lowest price possible, reducing the cost of prescription drugs for children who receive coverage through the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and generating immediate savings for states and the federal government.

“It’s an absolute tragedy that in one of the richest nations in the world, families still face a steep price tag for their child’s lifesaving prescription drug,” said Sen. Warner. “This commonsense bill would cut through bureaucratic red tape and give states the ability to secure the best possible price – something that is currently forbidden under current law.” 

“Skyrocketing health care costs – including prescription drug costs – have left many families unable to afford critical life-saving medication for their children,” said Sen. Booker. “Our bill will make important changes to the CHIP program, lowering drug prices for over 4 million children and helping states save money. Health care is a fundamental right and this legislation is critical to ensuring that more of our nation’s children have access to quality, affordable care.” 

The Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) provides low-cost health coverage to low-income children who would otherwise be uninsured. Currently, states can either have a standalone CHIP that is separate from Medicaid, or they can expand Medicaid eligibility to achieve the same goal of providing health insurance to low-income children. States can also have a combination program. 

However, states that have a standalone CHIP are not allowed to participate in the Medicaid Drug Rebate program (MDRP), which allows state Medicaid programs to purchase products from drug manufacturers at “Medicaid best price” – the lowest price offered to any other commercial payer. This means that these states are forced to pay higher prices for the same prescription drugs, which can result in higher costs for families and reduced access to medicines and other forms of needed care. In the most recent report released by the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission, there are more than 4 million children nationally enrolled in a separate CHIP program.

The Fair Drug Prices for Kids Act would give states the option of purchasing prescription drugs for their standalone CHIP through the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program. This would generate immediate savings for individual CHIP programs and the federal government, opening the door for states to use those excess dollars to ensure even more families and children have access to essential medical care and prescription drugs.

The Fair Drug Prices for Kids Act is endorsed by numerous organizations, including the Little Lobbyists, Patients for Affordable Drugs Now, First Focus Campaign for Children and the Children’s Hospital Association. In addition, the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute’s Center for Children and Families included this cost-savings concept in their January 2019 report, “How to Strengthen the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program to Address Rising Medicaid Prescription Drug Costs.”

“We are grateful to Senators Warner and Booker for reintroducing the Fair Drug Prices for Kids Act, which will extend Medicaid’s best price provisions so all CHIP programs get the medication patients need at the lowest possible price,” said Sarah Kaminer Bourland, Legislative Director at Patients For Affordable Drugs Now. “States and families across the country need relief from the burden of high drug prices and this legislation is an important step towards providing that relief to many of those who need it most.”

“We are pleased to support the Fair Drug Prices for Kids Act. We thank Senators Warner and Booker for this bill that will help lower costs for stand-alone CHIP programs and allow states to cover more kids,” said Bruce Lesley, President, First Focus Campaign for Children

A copy of the bill text can be found here. A copy of the one-page summary can be found here.

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WASHINGTON — Senators Mark Warner (D-Virginia) and Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) introduced the American Telecommunications Security Act to prohibit federal funding from the American Rescue Plan Act from being used to purchase Chinese telecommunications equipment, including from Huawei and ZTE. 

Text of the bill may be found here.

“With states across the country mapping out their plans for quality and affordable high-speed internet as a result of historic funding from the American Rescue Plan, we’ve got to make sure no community is sacrificing network security,” said Warner. “That’s why I’m joining Sen. Cotton on a bipartisan bill to ensure states do not purchase equipment or services from companies that pose national security risks – such as Huawei and ZTE.” 

"American tax dollars should not be sent to Chinese spy companies like Huawei that undermine our national security. The U.S government must take strong action to cut the Chinese Communist Party out of our networks. Americans deserve both reliable and secure telecommunications technologies," said Cotton.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine released the following statement applauding the Senate vote to advance the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework, the largest investment in America’s infrastructure needs in generations:

“The success of our recovery and long-term economic stability will depend on our ability to invest in our nation’s infrastructure needs and put Americans back to work in good-paying jobs,” said the Senators. “This Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework makes strategic investments in our nation’s crumbling infrastructure, which will spur economic growth, create in-demand jobs, and ensure the United States continues to lead the world in innovation. As our country continues to recover from the widespread job losses we’ve seen over the past year, we will continue working in Congress to provide Virginians with the resources they need to build back better for generations to come.” 

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework is a comprehensive infrastructure package that delivers wins to communities across the Commonwealth and the nation to maintain our roads, bridges, rail systems, and other critical infrastructure needs, including:

• A historic investment in broadband infrastructure to ensure every American has access to reliable high-speed internet;
• $17 billion in port infrastructure and $25 billion in airports;
• The largest federal investment in public transit ever;
• The largest federal investment in passenger rail since the creation of Amtrak;
• The single largest dedicated bridge investment since the construction of the interstate highway system;
• The largest investment in clean drinking water and waste water infrastructure in American history to deliver clean water to millions of families; and
• The largest investment in clean energy transmission and EV infrastructure in history; electrifying thousands of school and transit buses across the country; and creating a new Grid Development Authority to build a clean, 21st century electric grid and help tackle the climate crisis.

WASHINGTON – The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence passed the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022 (IAA) today on a bipartisan 16-0 vote. The bill authorizes funding, provides legal authorities, and enhances congressional oversight for the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC).

“The Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022 authorizes the funding for America’s intelligence agencies, and ensures they have the resources, personnel and authorities they need to keep our country safe, while operating under vigorous supervision and oversight,”said Committee Chairman Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-VA). “The funding and authorities provided in this bill will increase the Intelligence Community’s ability to detect and counter cyber threats, ransomware attacks, and other emerging threats, including those from near-peer adversaries such as China and Russia. This IAA will also reinforce oversight of the IC by strengthening protections for whistleblowers, reforming the security clearance process, and mandating a robust response to reported cases of ‘Havana Syndrome.’”

“Today the Senate Intelligence Committee voted to report legislation that rightly increases Intelligence Community resourcing focused on the threat posed by the People’s Republic of China and the Chinese Communist Party,” said Vice Chairman Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL). “The bill also reaffirms the Committee’s critical role in overseeing of the Intelligence Community through provisions that protect Americans’ First Amendment rights, ensure expenditures are made judiciously, and hold the intelligence agencies accountable for their activities.  In addition, the bill prioritizes the Committee’s ongoing oversight of China’s malign influence operations, unidentified aerial phenomena, and importantly, the safety of the men and women of the Intelligence Community, by expressly addressing the likely directed energy attacks that have inflicted brain injuries and the associated symptomology known as the ‘Havana Syndrome,’ as well as other physical harms, on American personnel around the world.” 

Background:

• The IAA for Fiscal Year 2022 ensures that the Intelligence Community can perform its critical mission to protect our country and inform decisionmakers, while under robust Congressional oversight, including in the following key areas:

• Ensuring strong congressional oversight of and protections for IC whistleblowers who come forward to report waste, fraud or abuse, including the ability of whistleblowers to directly contact the congressional intelligence committees, and prohibiting the disclosure of whistleblower identities as a form of reprisal;

• Improving the IC’s response to the anomalous health incidents (AHI), known as “Havana Syndrome,” including by establishing a joint task force to address AHI, establishing a panel to assess the CIA’s response to AHI, requiring reporting on interagency AHI efforts, and providing affected IC employees and family members with access to expert medical advice and health facilities, including Walter Reed Medical Center;

• Increasing investments to address the growing national security threats and challenges posed by the Chinese Communist Party and its related influence operations, including in technology, infrastructure, and digital currencies;

•  Improving the IC’s ability to adopt Artificial Intelligence (AI) and other emerging technologies;

• Continuing the Committee’s commitment to reform and improve the security clearance process, including mandating a performance management framework to assess the adoption and effectiveness of the Executive Branch’s “Trusted Workforce 2.0” initiative; more accurately measuring how long it takes to transfer clearances between Federal agencies so it can be shortened; creating IC-wide policies to share information on cleared contractors to enhance the effectiveness of insider threat programs, and codifying the appeals process to increase its transparency and accountability; 

• Codifying the National Counterintelligence and Security Center’s role and authorities regarding counterintelligence programs;

• Addressing intelligence requirements in key locations worldwide, including in Latin America and Africa to confront foreign adversaries’ efforts to undermine the U.S. abroad;

• Bolstering investments in commercial imagery and analytic services to utilize the increasing capabilities offered in the commercial space sector, including through theestablishment of a GEOINT data innovation fund;

• Strengthening the IC’s ability to conduct financial intelligence; and

•  Supporting the IC’s efforts to assess unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), following up on the work of the UAP Task Force.

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WASHINGTON - Today, U.S. Senators Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) announced a series of federal grants totaling $6,852,407 awarded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for Head Start and Early Head Start programs in Virginia.

“The Head Start and Early Head Start programs ensure schools, organizations, and communities have the resources they need to support young children and their families,” said the Senators. “We’re thrilled to see these federal dollars go toward promoting early childhood development in the Commonwealth and will continue advocating for investments in our nation’s children.” 

The funding will be awarded as follows:                                                                                                                           

• Total Action Against Poverty in the Roanoke Valley will receive $3,060,545
• Stafford County School District in Stafford will receive $2,766,107
• Spotsylvania County School Board in Fredericksburg will receive $1,025,755

Head Start programs promote school readiness for children under 5 years old from low-income families through health, education, family support, and social services. Early Head Start (EHS) programs serve infants and toddlers under the age of 3, and pregnant women.

As Governors and Senators, Warner and Kaine have long advocated for investments in early childhood education. 

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WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Mark Warner (D-Va.) joined Senator Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) and 13 of their colleagues in calling on Senate Leadership to address the needs of Department of Energy (DOE) National Laboratories in ongoing infrastructure efforts. The network of 17 National Laboratories across the United States advance critical missions for the Department and additional investments in restoring and modernizing National Lab infrastructure will support scientific and economic competitiveness while creating thousands of new, good-paying jobs.  

Joining Senator Luján in the letter are Senators Jim Risch (R-Idaho), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Kirsten Gillibrand (NY), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), and Cory Booker (D-N.J).

“As we turn to infrastructure we respectfully request that you include investments in the nation’s scientific infrastructure, including the Department of Energy (DOE) National Laboratories. Funding for maintenance, repairs, and the modernization of National Lab infrastructure will ensure our nation's continued scientific and economic competitiveness; create thousands of high-quality, well-paying construction jobs; and attract the best and brightest scientists to national service.” the Senators wrote. 

“Modern, reliable infrastructure at the National Laboratories is critical to support world-class science that provides a strong foundation for the nation’s economic competitiveness, prosperity, and security,” the Senators continued. “Unfortunately, our National Lab network suffers from a maintenance backlog from decades of underfunding that puts the labs’ successful and efficient execution of this mission at risk.”  

Full text of the letter is available HERE and below: 

Majority Leader Schumer and Minority Leader McConnell,

We appreciate your efforts to advance our nation’s competitiveness, address pressing infrastructure needs, and jumpstart the economy and put people back to work in the aftermath of the current COVID-19 pandemic. As we turn to infrastructure we respectfully request that you include investments in the nation’s scientific infrastructure, including the Department of Energy (DOE) National Laboratories. Funding for maintenance, repairs, and the modernization of National Lab infrastructure will ensure our nation's continued scientific and economic competitiveness; create thousands of high-quality, well-paying construction jobs; and attract the best and brightest scientists to national service. As part of DOE National Laboratory modernization efforts, we also urge you to fund the construction and upgrades of DOE-approved, shovel-ready world-class scientific, advanced energy, and national security facilities at our National Labs.

The DOE maintains a network of 17 National Laboratories that advance the science, technology, energy, environmental, and national security missions of the Department. Although the labs are managed by the DOE, they help find solutions to a broad set of challenges of national importance, ranging from the use of artificial intelligence to improve health services and outcomes for our nation’s veterans to advancing quantum information science that will lead to next-generation communications networks and computers.

Located at National Laboratories and universities across the country are world-class research facilities, including particle accelerators, experimental reactors, isotope reactor, X-ray synchrotron and free-electron laser light sources, fusion and pulsed power facilities, multi-axis X-ray machines that create 3D images of high density explosions, leadership-class supercomputers, and other high precision instrumentation. Modern infrastructure is also needed to support advanced nuclear demonstration projects; the modernization of the electric grid, including energy storage; and nonproliferation, counter proliferation, and counter terrorism missions.

More than 40,000 researchers from academia, industry, and other federal agencies use these unique, world-leading facilities to support their scientific pursuits. During the COVID-19 crisis, our National Labs have provided their expertise and facilities to help overcome the COVID-19 challenge, including the use of DOE’s supercomputers to search for treatments and vaccine therapies, X-ray light sources to understand the virus and identify potential vulnerabilities, unique characterization methods to develop more effective N95 mask filter media, and advanced manufacturing expertise to address the shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) and ventilators.

Modern, reliable infrastructure at the National Laboratories is critical to support world-class science that provides a strong foundation for the nation’s economic competitiveness, prosperity, and security. General-purpose infrastructure, such as office space, laboratory space, storage space, and utilities, forms the backbone of the National Laboratory enterprise and enables DOE’s mission. Unfortunately, our National Lab network suffers from a maintenance backlog from decades of underfunding that puts the labs’ successful and efficient execution of this mission at risk. The average age of DOE facilities is currently 37 years and the average age of the systems that support these facilities (e.g., water, sewage, electrical, roads) is 40 years. 

Across the DOE National Laboratory complex, there are shovel-ready infrastructure projects – from utility upgrades to new state-of-the-art research facilities – that could be dramatically accelerated through investment aimed at stimulating the economy and restoring critical infrastructure. As an example, utility systems across several laboratories are failing and require frequent, often costly, repairs. Many utilities and support buildings are rated substandard or inadequate. When necessary maintenance on a facility or utility system that is scheduled or should be performed is postponed, it is referred to as deferred maintenance. DOE’s deferred maintenance backlog has continued to grow. A dedicated, focused investment would go a long way toward recapitalizing and modernizing National Lab infrastructure and would immediately support thousands of high-quality, well-paying jobs. Maintaining, repairing, upgrading, and replacing general-purpose infrastructure would foster safe, efficient, reliable, and Environmentally responsible operations; boost morale of the scientific and engineering workforce at the National Laboratories; and demonstrate our nation’s continued commitment to maintaining the world’s best scientific infrastructure. 

Equally important, the U.S. faces increasing competition from our counterparts in Europe and Asia, as they race to build their own state-of-the-art facilities to attract the best minds and lead the world in science and technology. This does not just pose an economic threat to the United States, but also a national security threat. An infrastructure investment would accelerate the construction of world-class facilities and scientific instruments to stay ahead of this competition and make sure the U.S. remains the most secure and most attractive country in the world for scientific discovery and innovation. Thank you for considering these important investments. We look forward to working with you to invest in our nation’s competitiveness and put people back to work by addressing these critical infrastructure needs.

Sincerely,

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