Warner Weekly Wrap-up: Four Million Cases

July 24, 2020July 27, 2020 HRM Staff COVID-19, Reverend Al Sharpton, Senator Mark Warner

Happy Friday from the Warner press office. This week, our country reached a disturbing new milestone in the fight against COVID-19 – four million U.S. cases of the virus, far more than any other nation. Despite the growing toll of the virus and the resulting economic fallout that has led millions of Americans to file for unemployment since the start of the pandemic, this week saw continued infighting between the White House and Senate Republicans on what their offer would be on a recovery package – wasting time even as 30 million Americans surviving on unemployment expect to see their enhanced unemployment benefits run out next week.

Sen. Warner has been calling on Senate Republicans to take up the House-passed relief bill, the HEROES Act, for more than two months.

Anyways, here’s your Warner Weekly Wrap-up:

OUR NATION’S DEFENSE

This week, the Senate concluded debate on the annual defense bill, known as the NDAA. The final bill passed the Senate by an overwhelming 84-14 vote. The bill includes several key priorities for the Commonwealth, including a 3 percent pay raise for servicemembers, $240 million in military construction projects in Virginia, advance procurement for a second Virginia-class submarine, and critical health benefits for Vietnam veterans suffering from diseases associated with exposure to Agent Orange.

It also contains several provisions authored by Sen. Warner, including:

An amendment to hold the service branches and private housing contractors accountable for the safety of on-base housing for military families;
An amendment to mandate reporting on whether servicemembers have faced “racist, anti-Semitic, or supremacist activity” while on duty, in the wake of nationwide protests on racial injustice and reports of growing white nationalist extremism;
An amendment to compete with China and bolster America’s 5G capabilities, based on Sen. Warner’s Open-RAN legislation, the Utilizing Strategic Allied (USA) Telecommunications Act;
An amendment to secure our supply chain and bring semiconductor manufacturing back to American soil, based on Sen. Warner’s bipartisan legislation, the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) for America Act.

The NDAA also included the Intelligence Authorization Act (IAA). As Vice Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sen. Warner was able to include key provisions in that bill modernizing the security clearance process, as well as several other important reforms that will help our intelligence professionals and contractors who work in Virginia.

Though the NDAA passed with veto-proof majorities in both the House and Senate, the President has repeatedly threatened to veto this essential legislation reauthorizing the Department of Defense and the armed forces over a bipartisan provision that allows for the renaming of military installations named after Confederate generals. (Virginia is home to three such installations – Fort Lee, Fort Pickett, and Fort Hill.)

HELPING THE COMMUNITIES HARDEST HIT

This week, Sen. Warner unveiled major legislation to help the communities that have been some of the hardest hit by economic fallout from the pandemic. Sen. Warner was joined by Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) to introduce the Jobs and Neighborhood Investment Act, legislation to make a new, $17.9 billion investment in low-income and minority communities through community development financial institutions (CDFIs) and Minority Depository Institutions (MDIs).

Sen. Warner joined Rev. Al Sharpton to talk about his bill to invest in low-income and minority communities.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, 41 percent of Black-owned businesses, 32 percent of Latino-owned businesses & 36 percent of immigrant-owned businesses have permanently shuttered. One part of the challenge is that many minority-owned small businesses are sole proprietorships and don’t necessarily have longstanding relationships with big banks – which meant that they’ve had trouble accessing PPP loans, and don’t necessarily have other sources of credit that they can draw down on to weather this storm and stay in business.

The Jobs and Neighborhood Investment Act will do something about that making a major, $17.9 billion investment in community- and minority-operated banking institutions. In addition to helping small Black-, Latino- and immigrant-owned businesses survive this crisis, it would also mark a long-term shift in the resources available to minority entrepreneurs and communities, which have historically been overlooked by the Federal Reserve and subjected to discrimination by traditional banking institutions.

The bill has been endorsed by the Black Economic Alliance, the NAACP, the National Urban League, the Center for Responsible Lending, and many more civil rights and advocacy organizations. Sen. Warner is seeking to include the legislation in the upcoming COVID-19 relief package that Congress is expected to consider over the next few weeks.

KEEPING OUR STUDENTS AND TEACHERS SAFE

Also this week, Sen. Warner introduced legislation to prevent the Trump Administration from reducing or redirecting education funding for schools that determine they cannot safely reopen for in-person instruction in the fall. This bill comes as the Trump Administration continues to pressure education leaders to fully reopen schools by threatening to cut education funding.

In unveiling the bill, Sen. Warner made it clear that like all parents, he wants schools to reopen as soon as they can safely do so:

“The decision to reopen schools should be informed by local health figures and determined by community health officials, parents and teachers. Instead of working to support such efforts during this global pandemic, President Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos are blindly pressuring schools all across the country to make decisions that may put students, teachers, and families at risk. This bill makes it clear that the Administration has no legal authority to cut critical education funding during the COVID-19 crisis.”

This week, several of Virginia’s largest K-12 education systems, including Fairfax and Loudoun counties, announced that that they will be returning to all-virtual instruction in the fall.

GRAB BAG

AFTER ALL THIS TIME: Sen. Warner celebrated the House passage of the Great American Outdoors Act, a bill he championed to address the $12 billion maintenance backlog at National Park Service (NPS) sites across the country and permanently fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF). Once signed into law, this bill is expected to create more than 10,000 jobs in Virginia and stimulate local economies that rely on outdoor tourism industry. For more than three years, Sen. Warner has fought to provide relief to national parks in Virginia, where the increasing maintenance backlog currently sits at more than $1.1 billion dollars. The bill was passed by the Senate in June and now heads to the president’s desk.

PATCHING THE HOLES IN OUR SAFETY NET: Sen. Warner introduced bipartisan legislation to establish a $500 million emergency portable benefits fund for states. These federal funds will assist states with setting up a portable benefits program for independent workers. These funds would also pay for a portion of the costs associated with modernizing states’ Unemployment Insurance (UI) technology systems – a move that would facilitate expanded benefits eligibility and support long-term innovation. Sens. Warner and Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) are seeking to include the proposed legislation in the next COVID-19 relief package.

ELECTION SECURITY: Vice Chairman Warner, along with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) issued a joint statement after the Office of Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) released an update on election security and foreign threats one hundred days before the election.

COMMONSENSE REFORM: Sens. Warner and Tim Kaine (D-VA) introduced the Virginia Plan to Reduce Gun Violence Act of 2020, a bill to federally enact a series of commonsense gun violence prevention measures adopted by Virginia earlier this year. Included in the bill are measures to remove firearms from those at risk of harming themselves or others, close current background check loopholes, mandate reporting of lost and stolen firearms, prevent children from accessing firearms, and implement a one-handgun-a-month policy.

FEDERAL FORCES: Sens. Warner and Kaine joined Sens. Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden in introducing the Preventing Authoritarian Policing Tactics on America’s Streets Act, which would block the Trump Administration from deploying federal agents as paramilitary forces against Americans. The action came after a week in which heavily armed federal forces without uniform identification in unmarked vehicles were grabbing protesters off the street in Portland, Oregon.

FEDERAL FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT: The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee approved legislation led by Sens. Warner and Mike Enzi (R-WY) to strengthen federal financial management. The bill would update the Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Act of 1990, which created a new foundation for federal financial management.

SUPPORT FOR SENIORS: Sens. Warner and Tim Scott (R–SC) introduced the Long-Term Care (LTC) Pharmacy Definition Act of 2020. This bipartisan legislation, if passed, will ensure seniors requiring long-term care have access to the medication and treatments they need.

TRANSIT FUNDING: Sens. Warner and Kaine applauded $3,001,442 in federal funding for public transportation in the City of Winchester. The funding, for Winchester Transit, was authorized by the Federal Transit Authority (FTA) under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act supported by Sens. Warner and Kaine.

WEEK AHEAD

On Tuesday and Thursday, Sen. Warner will participate in a pair of Senate Finance Committee hearings on protecting the reliability of the U.S. medical supply chain during the COVID-19 pandemic. On Wednesday, he’ll join a Banking Committee hearing on oversight of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

Sen. Warner also has several Zoom sessions and outreach calls planned with educators, healthcare providers, veterans and military families over the week, to hear how Virginians are coping with COVID-19 and what more Congress needs to do to help. Some of these conversations will be open to the press, so members of the media should keep an eye on their inboxes for details.