Warner, Kaine on approval of resolution to keep government funded through December

U.S. Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) released the following joint statement after the Senate approved a stopgap funding bill to keep the government running through Dec. 11, sending it to the president’s desk for signature.

Since the Affordable Care Act (ACA, or “ObamaCare”) was enacted in 2010, more than 20 million Americans have health coverage now than did before. But for how long? From the time he took office, Donald Trump has worked to dismantle the ACA — through statue, Executive Order and by nominating a Supreme Court Justice who is likely vote against the ACA when it’s challenged before the Court in November.

Loophole closed

Medical images and sensitive personal data belonging to to U.S. service members are no longer easily accessible online, according to officials who sought to determine how it was available in the first place.

Finding the loophole

According to Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., and co-chair of the Senate Cybersecurity Caucus, the internet service provider that carried the images no longer appears to be operating. Warner said Friday that researchers working on the issue could no longer access the information.

“Sensitive medical records belonging to men and women in our armed forces are no longer an open target on the internet.”

– Senator Mark Warner

“It’s certainly a relief to know that sensitive medical records belonging to men and women in our armed forces are no longer an open target on the internet,” Warner said in a statement provided to Military Times.

The data was not owned by the Pentagon

Until late last week, personally identifiable medical imagery from three Army health facilities — Fort Belvoir Community Hospital in Virginia, Ireland Army Health Clinic, Fort Knox, Kentucky, and Womack Army Medical Center at Fort Bragg, North Carolina — could be found online by anyone with the know-how to snoop and a special viewer to see the images.

I attended the State of the Union on Tuesday as Sen. Mark Warner’s invited guest. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience and I am grateful for the opportunity. I never expected to be in a room with the most powerful people in our government; however, it also helped me realize we need more regular people like me in those rooms.

Listening to President Donald Trump speak, I was disappointed and angry. President Trump’s vision for health care in America doesn’t include people like me. I would not be here today if it wasn’t for the Affordable Care Act.

In 2008, I collapsed on the job working at the Newport News shipyard. I lost my health insurance and started drowning in medical debt. For my heart attack they billed me $26,000. Congestive heart failure, $27,000. Prostate cancer surgery, $71,000. Radiation treatment, $51,000. I couldn’t pay those bills. For 10 years, I struggled to get appointments with specialists, follow up on emergency room visits, and fill prescriptions. My health declined. I couldn’t work, lost my housing, and I was unable to be as active in my community as I wanted to be.

Last year, Medicaid expansion changed my life. Medicaid expansion made it possible for me to access preventative care and regular doctor visits. I am healthier and able to give back to my community. And I’m not the only one: Medicaid expansion provides health care coverage to almost 400,000 people in Virginia.

WASHINGTON (CBS19 NEWS) — Several members of the U.S. Senate, including Mark Warner, want the U.S. Department of Education to expand a planned analysis of federal K-12 education spending.

According to a release, the senators want the analysis to include dual and concurrent enrollment programs and early college high schools.

In a letter, the senators urge the department to look at utilization, outcomes and best practices of college in high school programs that get funding from the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which was reauthorized in 2015 by the Every Study Succeeds Act.

“As strong supporters of college in high school programs such as dual enrollment, concurrent enrollment and early college high school programs, we write to urge the U.S. Department of Education to examine how school districts are using federal funding opportunities created by the Every Student Succeeds Act to support increasing student access to high-quality programs that promote academic success,” wrote the senators in their letter. “ESSA recognizes the important roles that these college in high school programs can play in preparing students, particularly those from low-income and underrepresented backgrounds, for success in college and career. Through these programs, high school students gain exposure to the academic challenges of college, earning transcripts, transferable college credit often at reduced or no tuition cost.”

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump was acquitted Wednesday in the final day of his weeks-long impeachment trial, despite the votes from the two Virginia Senators who voted to remove him from office.

Senator Mark Warner and Senator Tim Kaine, both Democrats, voted that he was guilty of the abuse of power and obstruction of Congress charges that he was impeached on in December.

WASHINGTON, DC (WDBJ7) – U.S. Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) has announced he will join Senator Tim Kaine Wednesday to vote in favor of the two articles of impeachment against President Trump.

In a speech on the floor of the U.S. Senate, Sen. Warner said, “The allegations against the President are grave. The House managers presented a compelling case based on the testimony of more than a dozen witnesses—Trump political appointees and career public servants who had the courage to speak truth to power. Their testimony, and the House managers’ case, present a clear fact pattern that even many of my Republican colleagues acknowledge is true. This evidence reflects a corrupt scheme to solicit foreign interference in support of the President’s re-election.”

Warner continued, “I will vote to convict the President because I swore an oath to do impartial justice and the evidence proves the charges against him are true. There must be consequences for abusing the power of the Presidency to solicit foreign interference in our election. If the Senate fails to hold him accountable we will be setting a dangerous precedent. We will be giving the green light to foreign adversaries and future presidents that this is okay. I will vote to convict the President because it is the Senate’s constitutional responsibility to uphold this bedrock American principle: that no one is above the law, not even the President, and especially not the President.”

U.S. Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia said Tuesday he worries that social media buzz following delays in reporting the results of Monday’s Iowa caucuses could be signs of foreign interference.

Donald Trump ran for president telling a story of business prowess—the author of “The Art of the Deal” would come to Washington and solve the problems the politicians couldn’t. Two years later, the longest government shutdown on record is revealing gaping cracks in his facade.

Like the president, I’ve spend more time in business than in politics.

The right to vote is a precious thing. More than simply permission to cast your ballot, it’s the right to make your voice heard and decide the direction of our country. To deny that right to someone is to silence their voice and deny their dignity as a person and as an American.

This shared conviction has motivated thousands of brave Americans throughout our history to risk and even sacrifice their lives in the struggle for voting rights and African-American suffrage. In places like Selma and Danville, they set an example for us to follow today — to fight back, against both historic injustices and new obstacles to the right to vote.

The truth is the right to vote still faces far too many threats here at home. We’re reminded of it when our fellow Americans are turned away at the polls because of discriminatory voter ID laws. It hit home when our own state’s racially gerrymandered House of Delegates map was struck down earlier this year, like so many others around the country.