{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.warner.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ID=1450BBF7-3387-4DBB-A69F-A2D92D0FE38D", "Warner & Kaine Successfully Secure Over $200 Million for Virginia in Newly Released FY 2023 Budget Bills", "2022-12-21", "2022", "2022-12", "Democrat", "Senate", "VA", "Mark R. Warner", "W000805", "www.warner.senate.gov", "warner", "https://www.warner.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2013 Today, U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine announced that they successfully secured over $200 million in federal funding for Virginia in the newly released text of the government funding bills for Fiscal Year 2023. The bills are expected to be passed by the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives and then signed by President Joe Biden.\n\n\u201cThis bill funds critical national priorities, including health care, education, scientific research and veterans services. It builds on the important progress Congress has made this year to lower costs, fight gun violence, and create good-paying jobs here in the U.S.,\u201d said Sen. Warner. \u201cI\u2019m especially proud that we secured $200 million in funding for key projects all over Virginia.\u201d\n\n\u201cOur annual budget has always been an opportunity to secure resources for Virginia priorities, and the budget text released yesterday shows that we are on track to do the same again this year,\u201d said Sen. Kaine. \u201cThis budget will raise pay for servicemembers, support pediatric disease research, expand internet access, and help our communities stay healthier and safer from gun violence. It will also bring over $200 million back home to Virginia to support essential local projects for everything from improving our water treatment facilities and roads to putting public transportation and substance abuse treatment within reach for more Virginians. The time is now to get this bill across the finish line and signed into law.\u201d\n\nAs part of last year\u2019s budget process, the Senate restarted a process that allows members of Congress to work with the communities they represent to request funding for local community projects, otherwise known as earmarks, in a manner that promotes transparency and accountability. This process allows Congress to dedicate federal funding for specific projects.\n\nThrough strong advocacy, the senators secured funding in the budget bills for the following projects in Virginia:\n\nFor projects in Northern Virginia, click here.\n\nFor projects in Central Virginia, click here.\n\nFor projects in Southwest Virginia and Southside, click here.\n\nFor projects in the Shenandoah Valley, click here.\n\nFor projects in Hampton Roads, here.\n\nFor projects that impact communities in multiple regions across the Commonwealth,? here.\n\nIn addition, the budget bills include funding for the following Warner and Kaine priorities:\n\nInvesting in Kids: Provides $8 billion for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), which provides financial assistance to help low-income families access child care. This is $1.85 billion more than Fiscal Year 2022, representing a 30 percent increase in funding for the program. The bill also includes $11.996 billion, $960 million more than Fiscal Year 2022, for Head Start, the national school readiness program. Last year, Virginia received more than $120 million through the CCDBG program, and Virginia\u2019s Head Start programs served 15,000 vulnerable children and their families. Increasing funding for the CCDBG program is a core tenant of Sen. Kaine\u2019s child care and early childhood education proposal to expand the supply of quality child care facilities, increase child care and Head Start teacher wages, and lower child care costs for families across the country.\n\nAddressing Americans\u2019 Mental Health Needs: Expands the number of mental health care options available for seniors by ensuring seniors can access marriage and family therapists and licensed professional counselors under Medicare for the first time. This expansion is based on a bill Sen. Kaine cosponsored, theMental Health Access Improvement Act. The budget also includes Sen. Kaine\u2019s bipartisan Investing in Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Act, legislation to support children\u2019s access to mental health care by providing grants to human service agencies or non-profits to develop, maintain, or enhance early intervention mental health programs for children from 0 to 12 years of age.\n\nIncreasing Access to Affordable Housing: Includes $1.5 billion for the HOME Investment Partnerships Program, which will lead to the construction of 10,000 housing units nationally; $3.3 billion for the Community Development Block Grant program, which cities and counties can use to build affordable housing or for economic and community development projects that benefit low- and moderate-income housing; funding for 11,700 new housing choice vouchers; and dedicated funding to address homelessness, housing for the disabled, and housing for older Americans, among other investments. The budget also establishes a new $85 million competitive grant fund for localities looking to increase housing construction.\n\nIncreasing Military Pay and Compensation:?Includes $1.5 billion to fully fund a 4.6 percent pay raise for servicemembers that Sen. Kaine helped authorize as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, which writes the annual National Defense Authorization Act. Also includes $515 million towards military family support programs. Sen. Warner, who pushed for this funding, has long stressed the need for increased support for servicemembers through legislation such as the?Military Hunger Prevention Act?that helps low-income military families put food on the table and through a number of provisions in this year\u2019s defense bill.\n\nMaking Our Communities Safer:?Provides $50 million for Community Violence Prevention grants to support communities in developing comprehensive, evidence-based violence intervention and prevention programs, including efforts to address gang and gun violence through partnerships between community residents, law enforcement, local government agencies, and other community stakeholders. The bill also includes $45 million in funding to a Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program to train police officers in de-escalation, implicit bias, and preventing unlawful force. This funding will also go towards strengthening crisis intervention teams by embedding mental and behavioral health professionals alongside law enforcement officers. Finally, the bill includes $125 million for anti-recidivism programs, helping formally incarcerated individuals re-integrate peacefully into society.\n\nSupporting America\u2019s Veterans: Provides $5 billion to implement theHonoring Our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act, which Sens. Warner and Kaine successfully pushed to pass earlier this year. This legislation expanded health care services and benefits to veterans with conditions related to toxic exposure during their service. The budget also includes $118.7 billion for Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical care and $2.7 billion to support critical services and housing assistance for veterans and their families experiencing housing insecurity.\n\nExpanding High-Speed Internet Access: Includes $364 million for the USDA\u2019s ReConnect Program to expand access to high-speed broadband to remote underserved areas. As governors and senators, Warner and Kaine have long supported expanding broadband access in Virginia. During the pandemic, they secured significant funding for broadband through the?Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. Sens. Warner and Kaine also joined a bipartisan letter to Senate leadership requesting this funding earlier this year. Sen. Warner also personally secured billions of dollars for broadband expansion in both the?American Rescue Plan?and the?Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.\n\nStrengthening the Prescription Drug Pipeline: Includes bipartisan provisions championed by Kaine to strengthen the pipeline and increase transparency for critical medicines, which would lower costs and make it easier for physicians and patients to plan for the future. Sen. Kaine first outlined these steps in two bipartisan bills, the Interchangeable Biologics Clarity Act and the Biologics Market Transparency Act.\n\nBoosting Local Economies:?Includes $200 million for the Appalachian Regional Commission and $20 million\u2014an increase of $15 million compared to last year\u2019s budget\u2014for the Southwest Crescent Regional Commission (SCRC) to support their work to build economic partnerships, create opportunity, and foster economic development. Sens. Kaine and Warner, along with the late Representative A. Donald McEachin, led the push to increase SCRC funding.\n\nRestoring the Chesapeake Bay: Includes $92 million for the Environmental Protection Agency\u2019s Chesapeake Bay Program, which is the leading federal program that coordinates restoration efforts in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.\n\nExpanding Defense Workforce Training: Includes $830.2 million for the Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment (IBAS) Program Office, which funds a range of efforts at the Department of Defense to support the defense industrial base, including a pilot program in Danville which is currently training students in machining, welding, metrology and manufacturing for jobs in shipbuilding.\n\nBoosting Scientific Research and Innovation: Includes $1.8 billion in funding to help implement the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022. Sens. Warner and Kaine led efforts in the Senate to secure funding from the legislation for Virginia, noting in a letter to the Department of Commerce that Virginia has a leading technology workforce and semiconductor manufacturing presence, making the Commonwealth an ideal location for future federal investments in semiconductor research and manufacturing.\n\nMaking Higher Education More Affordable: Provides a $500 boost or 7.2 percent increase to the maximum Pell Grant in the 2023-2024 school year, raising the maximum award to $7,395. This is the largest increase in the maximum Pell grant award since the 2009-10 school year and further builds off the $400 increase provided last year. The omnibus also includes $1 billion, an increase of $137 million or 15 percent, for programs to strengthen Historically Black Colleges and Universities and other Minority Serving Institutions.\n\nAddressing the Opioid Epidemic: Includes the Non-Opioids Prevent Addiction in the Nation (NOPAIN) Act, legislation Warner and Kaine cosponsored to reduce barriers to non-opioid pain management for those enrolled in Medicare. The budget also includes theMainstreaming Addiction Treatment Act, legislation Sen. Kaine cosponsored to reduce barriers to accessing medication-assisted treatment for individuals living with substance use disorders.\n\nFighting Eating Disorders: The bill includes the Anna Westin Legacy Act, legislation cosponsored by Warner to help those affected by eating disorders through improved health care professional training and clarity of mental health parity.\n\nSupporting the Direct Care and Family Caregiver Workforce: Includes $2 million for a project to identify new strategies to attract and retain a qualified direct care workforce. A similar provision was included in Sen. Kaine\u2019s Supporting Our Direct Care Workforce and Family Caregivers Act, legislation designed to address direct care and family caregiver workforce shortages.\n\nAddressing Americans\u2019 Long COVID Needs:?Includes $10 million for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to provide the research needed to ensure those experiencing Long COVID have access to the patient-centered, coordinated care they need. This effort was first outlined in Sen. Kaine\u2019s?CARE for Long COVID Act.\n\nExtending Telehealth Access: Extends COVID-19-related telehealth flexibilities for two full years, through 2024, drawing on legislation introduced by Warner and cosponsored by Kaine to allow more Americans to utilize telehealth services and expand the types of health care providers eligible to offer telemedicine.\n\nKeeping Kids Healthy: Extends the Children\u2019s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which provides low- and no-cost health coverage for thousands of low-income children in Virginia, for an additional two years.\n\nImproving Cybersecurity in Health Care: Includes several provisions addressing cybersecurity vulnerabilities across the health care sector. Last month, Sen. Warner released a policy options paper outlining current cybersecurity threats facing health care providers and systems and offering a series of policy solutions to improve cybersecurity across the industry, several of which were included in the bill.\n\nSupporting Miners Suffering from Black Lung Disease: Includes $12.19 million for Black Lung Clinics. Warner and Kaine have actively worked to secure benefits for miners and their families suffering from black lung disease. In August, the?Inflation Reduction Act,?supported by both Sens. Warner and Kaine, permanently extended the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund excise tax at a higher rate, providing more certainty for miners, miner retirees, and their families who rely on the fund to access benefits.\n\nImproving Access to Lifesaving Drugs: Includes significant improvements to the Food and Drug Administration\u2019s Accelerated Approval Pathway, an important regulatory mechanism that provides early access to treatments and cures for patients with serious and life-threatening conditions. Sen. Kaine has long advocated for these improvements, which he outlined in his bipartisan Modernizing Accelerated Approvals Act.\n\nFunding for Pediatric Cancer Research:?Provides $12.6 million to fund childhood cancer research through the Gabriella Miller Kids First Research Act\u2014legislation?championed?by Sens. Warner and Kaine and named after a child from Loudoun County who died from a brain tumor in 2013.\n\nSupporting Hospital-Based Nurse Training Programs: Includes a technical correction to protect funding for programs that train nurses and other allied health professionals at hospital-based nursing programs across the country. This provision is based on the Technical Reset to Advance the Instruction of Nurses (TRAIN) Act, legislation Sen. Kaine cosponsored.\n\nAddressing Physician Shortages: Provides for the distribution of 200 additional Medicare-funded graduate medical education (GME) residency positions, with 100 slots specifically dedicated to increasing the number of mental health residencies. Sen. Kaine has long-supported expansion of GME residency positions and is a cosponsor of the Physician Shortage Reduction Act to do so.\n\nSupporting Rural Hospitals: Includes a two-year extension for Medicare payment programs that are vital to rural hospitals: the Medicare Dependent Hospital program and the Low Volume Adjustment Hospital program. Sen. Kaine cosponsored legislation in support of this action, the Rural Hospital Support Act. The budget also includes $5 million to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to establish an Office of Rural Health, a step first outlined in the Rural Health Equity Act, which was led by the late Congressman A. Donald McEachin in the U.S. House of Representatives and cosponsored by Sen. Kaine in the Senate.\n\nFighting Global Hunger:? Includes over $2 billion in international food aid and to promote U.S. agricultural exports overseas. This funding is critical to combatting global hunger and malnutrition. This funding follows?Sen. Kaine\u2019s work to highlight and address the threat Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine poses to food security around the world, and?Warner\u2019s support for non-governmental organizations responding to the food crisis. It also includes $154 billion\u2014an increase of $13.4 billion compared to last year\u2019s budget\u2014for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as food stamps. Last year, 756,600 Virginians, or 9 percent of Virginia\u2019s population, relied on food stamps.\n\nFighting Pandemics and Promoting Access to Medical Countermeasures: Includes provisions from Sen. Kaine\u2019s bipartisan bill, the Promoting Access to Critical Countermeasures by Ensuring Specimen Samples (ACCESS) to Diagnostics Act, to support quicker research and development of medical countermeasures to disease outbreaks and pandemics, including diagnostic tests, vaccines, and therapeutics, in response to emerging infectious diseases. The budget also includes $10.56 billion\u2014a $731 million increase compared to last year\u2019s budget\u2014to support global health and vaccination efforts worldwide. This funding is critical to protecting Virginians from the impacts of disease outbreaks around the world.\n\nModernizing America\u2019s Health Data Infrastructure:?Includes $175 million\u2014an increase of $75 million compared to last year\u2019s budget\u2014to modernize the public health data systems that help support healthy communities throughout America and Virginia. Also included are provisions from Sen. Kaine\u2019s?Improving Data Accessibility Through Advancements (DATA) in Public Health Act to increase timely and accurate information sharing between local, state, and federal public health departments to improve preparedness for emerging public health threats and create a grant program to strengthen the quality and completeness of demographic data collection used by public health entities.\n\nStrengthening Transportation and Recreation Infrastructure:?Provides $150 million for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, in addition to $45 million for the Active Transportation Infrastructure Investment Program, which will support multi-purpose trails across Virginia.\n\nSupporting Key Missing Persons Program: Includes $1 million to help with the nationwide implementation of the Ashanti Alert system. In 2018, Sen. Warner secured?unanimous Senate passage?of the Ashanti Alert Act, legislation that created a new federal alert system for missing or endangered adults between the ages of 18-64.?The bill was signed into law on December 31, 2018.\n\nSupporting Economic Growth for Underserved Communities:?Provides $324 million for the U.S. Department of the Treasury Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) Fund, which supports businesses\u2019 economic growth in underserved communities. The successful push by Sens. Warner and Kaine follows Sen. Warner\u2019s efforts to support CDFIs through legislation including the?Jobs and Neighborhood Investment Act?and the creation of the bipartisan?Senate Community Development Finance Caucus.\n\nProtecting Democracy: Includes provisions to ensure that electoral votes tallied by Congress accurately reflect each state\u2019s vote for president and provides specific guidelines for the point at which candidates elected president and vice president can receive the resources provided for their transition into office. Sens. Warner and Kaine have long called for legislation to safeguard future elections, and Sen. Warner was among the bipartisan group of senators who negotiated these proposals.\n\nAssisting Ukraine in the Fight Against Russia\u2019s Illegal Invasion: Provides $44.9 billion in emergency assistance to support the Ukrainian people, to strengthen our NATO allies, and to defend global democracy in response to Russian aggression.\n\nSupporting Our Afghan Allies: Provides funding to help eliminate processing backlogs and expedite adjudications of Afghan Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) cases. Virginia is home to one of the largest Afghan diaspora populations in the United States and led the U.S. in resettling Afghan allies following the U.S. withdrawal.\n\nSupporting Order and Safety at Our Border: Includes funding to support 19,855 Border Patrol agents, 300 more agents compared to last year\u2019s budget, in addition to $800 million to support Customs and Border Patrol\u2019s management of migrant processing facilities. The budget also provides resources for various programs to help improve the conditions that drive migration from Central America, including programs focused on counter-narcotics efforts and economic development. As Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, Kaine has long advocated for efforts to address the root causes of migration.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:41:06Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.warner.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ID=1450BBF7-3387-4DBB-A69F-A2D92D0FE38D"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9598641190677881, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}