Warner Weekly Wrap-up: Keeping up the fight for military families

Here’s your Warner Weekly Wrap-up:

MILITARY HOUSING

Over the recess, Sen. Warner traveled to Fort Lee to hear from military families facing mold and other dangerous conditions in on-base housing. This was a follow-up to his visit in April of last year. In the time since then, Sen. Warner introduced and passed legislation, the Ensuring Safe Housing for our Military Act, which creates new accountability measures for military families. That legislation was signed into law in December as part of a larger defense authorization package that also creates the first-ever Tenants Bill of Rights for military families.

During his visit, Sen. Warner visited the home of a military family who had dealt with black mold and struggled to get the private housing corporation that owns the home to address the issue. He then held a roundtable with military families, where soldiers and spouses recounted horrifying conditions that had resulted in significant health issues for their families. He also met with the base’s commanding general and representatives from Hunt Military Communities, the private housing contractor that owns many of the homes at Fort Lee.

Following the meeting, Sen. Warner had strong words for the private housing company officials. As reported in the Fort Lee Traveler, he warned the company:

“It’s an embarrassment that we’re in this situation. … I was hoping to hear that in the last year or even the last few months it was getting better. … I’m going to be back, and if these same families are here three months from now with the same complaints, watch out.”

On Wednesday, military leadership rolled out the Tenants Bill of Rights, a critical aspect of the legislation. However, a date for full implementation of all components of Sen. Warner’s legislation is still to be determined.

Here’s what Sen. Warner told the Virginian Pilot about the progress, and the three outstanding provisions – withholding of rent, dispute resolution, and maintenance records – for which DoD still has no timeline:

“[These outstanding provisions] are essential tools that will increase accountability for these private corporations, mitigate the extreme power imbalance between the companies and service members, and provide needed information so that families (and the service branches) can make more informed decisions. We expect the administration to stick to the deadlines in the bill, and to provide Congress with target dates for implementation, not vague commitments.”

Sen. Warner is going to keep up the pressure until all of the accountability measures Congress passed have been implemented, and families know that they can feel safe in their on-base housing.

CORONAVIRUS

Sen. Warner released a video update this week updating his constituents on the efforts his office is taking to respond to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

Specifically, Sen. Warner expressed concern with the Trump Administration’s response to the outbreak and stressed the need for a more aggressive response in order to effectively combat the coronavirus. He also encouraged Virginians to heed instructions from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and directed Virginians to the CDC website for the most up-to-date information.

In January, Sens. Warner and Kaine called on the Trump Administration to provide updates to Congress on the Administration’s response to the outbreak of coronavirus and information on the steps being taken to keep families safe. In their letter to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Senators also requested that the Department provide information regarding the severity of the disease, the country’s capacity to diagnose cases, the steps being taken to prepare U.S. health care workers, the screening systems in place at U.S. airports, the status of a novel coronavirus vaccine, and more.

Despite repeated calls by the Trump Administration for cuts to public health programs, the December budget deal backed by Sens. Warner and Kaine increased funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and its Infectious Disease Rapid Response Reserve Fund, which provides the agency with an immediate source of funding to prevent, prepare for, or respond to an infectious disease emergency either at home or abroad.

TALKING TRANSIT

Though it’s often referred to as “the Banking Committee,” the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, on which Sen. Warner sits, has a wide jurisdiction that includes public transportation systems like the National Capitol Region’s WMATA metro system. This week, the committee held an eagerly anticipated hearing on surface transportation, where he raised Virginia priorities.

In his remarks, Sen. Warner pressed for his legislation, the Metro Safety, Accountability, and Investment Act, which would renew the federal funding commitment to Metro, provide critical safety reforms, and strengthen oversight of WMATA for an additional ten years, at an annual level of $150 million, matched by funding from Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia. The bill also includes an additional $50 million per year in federal funds that are tied to safety, oversight, and governance improvements and requires WMATA to enact certain reforms in order to receive the extra $50 million.

He said, in part:

“The federal government literally runs on Metro. Close to 40 percent of Metro’s riders during rush hour are federal employees and that is critically important to the functioning of our government. WMATA also serves a critically important role in terms of the continuation of government in the event of a disaster. If we ever have to deal with an evacuation similar to what we dealt with post-9/11, the burden falls on Metro.”

Sen. Warner also questioned the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Vice President for Transportation and Infrastructure, who expressed support for additional federal funding for I-81.

Sen. Warner has been vocal about I-81’s crucial role in commerce along the East Coast, and has long pushed for federal dollars to tackle necessary repairs along the highway, which runs from Tennessee, along the entirety of Virginia’s western border, and north to New York. More than one-third of all trucks that drive through Virginia and approximately half of the Commonwealth’s value of goods are transported along I-81. In the last decade, I-81 has experienced significant traffic growth, with travel expected to continue increasing along the interstate. Increased I-81 traffic causes severe travel delays and puts travelers at risk, including the drivers involved in the more than 2,000 crashes that happen annually along the route. Last year, in letters to the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW) and the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), Sen. Warner requested additional funding for vital improvements to Interstate 81 in order to enhance safety and reduce traffic congestion.

FIGHTING FOR VA SEAFOOD INDUSTRY

Sen. Warner is going to bat for the small businesses that make up Virginia’s seafood industry. This week, he joined six of his Senate colleagues in calling on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to release the additional H-2B visas needed to support local seafood businesses in Virginia and states like Alaska, Maryland, and North Carolina. The letter, also signed by Sen. Kaine, urges the DHS to quickly authorize additional visas for temporary non-agricultural workers so that seafood industries around the country can hire seasonal workers and continue operation.

Sen. Warner has long advocated for Virginia’s seafood processing industry – a community largely made up of rural, family-owned operations. In January, he traveled to the Northern Neck to meet with Seafood industry leaders to hear firsthand about the issues with the H-2B program.

Earlier this month, in a bipartisan call, he pressed DHS Secretary Wolf to release the additional Congressionally-authorized H-2B visas, to publicly announce this intent, and to do so as quickly as possible. Additionally, in January, he joined a bipartisan, bicameral letter calling on the Administration to increase the statutory cap of H-2B visas for FY20. He also recently met with DOL Secretary Eugene Scalia to discuss the impact of the H-2B program on Virginia and urge the Secretary to work alongside DHS to release the additional visas in a timely fashion. Sen. Warner has previously introduced bipartisan legislation to strengthen the H-2B visa program and has requested an audit to determine the number of unused visas that could be made available to eligible petitioners.

A study has found the commercial seafood industry in Virginia generates $407.9 million in economic output, which includes all economic activity from harvesters to restaurants. Of that $407.9 million, 62 percent comes from seafood processing/wholesaling firms – the primary companies that rely on the H-2B worker program. Additionally, according to the Virginia Marine Resources Commission, in 2017, Virginia oysters alone had a dockside value of more than $48.9 million dollars, followed by Quahog Clams with more than $47.6 million and Blue Crabs with more than $38 million in dockside value.

GRAB BAG

• ICYMI: The lead editorial in the Virginian-Pilot and Daily Press on Monday called on the Department of Justice to follow the law and implement the Ashanti Alert Act, which Sen. Warner led through the Senate. The program, named for a young Hampton Roads woman who was kidnapped and murdered, would create a nationwide alert system for missing adults.

• JUSTICE FOR BIJAN: Citing a lack of responsiveness from the Department of Interior (DOI) in the case of Bijan Ghaisar, who was shot and killed by Park Police in 2017, Sen. Warner voted against a top DOI nominee and announced that he may place a hold on further DOI nominations until he receives adequate cooperation from the department.

• MINERS: A group of Southwest Virginians with the United Mineworkers of America presented Sen. Warner with an award in the shape of a lump of coal this week, recognizing his efforts to pass the Bipartisan American Miners Act, which saved the pensions and healthcare benefits for thousands of retired miners and their families in Southwest Virginia.

• INDIA: Following President Trump’s state visit to India, Sen. Warner and Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), co-chairs of the Senate India Caucus, released a joint statement on the President’s visit and the ongoing New Delhi riots.

• VULNERABLE: Sen. Warner, the co-chair of the Senate Cybersecurity Caucus, sent a letter to the Department of Defense highlighting the importance of vulnerability reporting programs like the one that recently exposed a major cyber vulnerability on DoD servers.

• RESTORING MILITARY FUNDING: This week, Sen. Warner introduced legislation to reverse and restore the Trump Administration’s recent short-sighted transfer of $3.8 billion from Pentagon priorities to build part of President Trump’s border wall.

• DODONA MANOR: Sens. Warner and Kaine, as well as Rep. Jennifer Wexton, applauded the National Park Service’s announcement that it will conduct a reconnaissance survey to evaluate the suitability of designating the George C. Marshall House in Leesburg, known as Dodona Manor, as an “affiliated area” under NPS, which would help protect the property.

• HONORING A LEGEND: The United States Senate unanimously passed a resolution sponsored by Sen. Warner and Sens. Tim Kaine (D-VA) along with U.S. Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) to honor Katherine Coleman Goble Johnson, a NASA pioneer who passed away Monday at the age of 101.

• PROTECTING DOD EMPLOYEES: Sen. Warner and Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) sent a letter to President Donald Trump urging him to reverse his decision that would negatively impact the collective bargaining rights of Department of Defense (DOD) employees.

• GRANTS:
o Sens. Warner and Kaine announced more than $320,000 in federal funding for national service projects.
o Sens. Warner and Kaine announced more than $1.8 million to support public housing residents.

WEEK AHEAD

The Senate is expected to consider a series of nominations next week. On Tuesday, Sen. Warner will hold a roundtable with Asian-American Community Leaders. On Thursday, he’ll participate in a Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee hearing on foreign threats facing public transit systems