Warner Weekly Wrap-up: Slow news week

Last week, with the Senate in recess, Sen. Warner traveled around the Commonwealth on a road trip that took him through Southside, Central Virginia and the New River Valley. This week, the Congress returned to an action-packed week, while the President traveled overseas for his second meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.

All that and more in your Warner Weekly Wrap-up:

ROAD TRIP

Sen. Warner hit the road last week, traveling to Blacksburg for a meeting with developers and community leaders from Southwest Virginia towns, focused on efforts to revitalize the downtown areas in towns like Wytheville, Marion, and Pulaski, among others. In Salem, he held a roundtable on the issue of food deserts (areas without access to healthy food options) at the headquarters of Feeding America Southwest Virginia.

From Salem, Sen. Warner headed to Martinsville, stopping at the Booker T. Washington National Monument in Hardy, VA. There he toured the monument, which has over $1.3 million in deferred maintenance, and highlighted his bipartisan Restore Our Parks Act, which would invest in needed repairs at national park properties like the Booker T. Washington Monument. In Martinsville, he received an update from local leaders about the Commonwealth Crossing Business Center, a manufacturing business park that Sen. Warner has aided by cutting through federal red tape to get the project off the ground.

From Martinsville, Sen. Warner headed to Danville where he went for a walk through the River District led by current and former Danville mayors, before hosting a lunch with local young professionals.

Next, Sen. Warner headed to Lynchburg, where he toured the newly renovated Academy Center of the Arts and then visited nuclear power equipment manufacturer Framatome to hold a town hall with employees.

After a breakfast with Lynchburg Area business leaders, Sen. Warner hit the road, visiting the new offices of the Monacan Indian Nation on the way to Charlottesville. This was Sen. Warner’s first visit with Monacan leadership since the Senate passed Warner-Kaine-sponsored legislation granting the Monacan and five other Virginia tribes federal recognition, ending a centuries-long struggle for recognition.

Sen. Warner concluded his trip in Charlottesville, holding a town hall with employees of the University of Virginia Health System before meeting with African-American community leaders at a roundtable convened by Charlottesville City Councilor Wes Bellamy at a local barbershop.

SLOW NEWS WEEK

Returning to Capitol Hill, all eyes this week were on the President’s former personal lawyer and “fixer” Michael Cohen. After cutting a plea deal for lying to Congress, among other charges, Cohen testified before a closed session of the Senate Intelligence Committee, where Sen. Warner is Vice Chairman. Sen. Warner emerged from the all-day hearing to tell reporters only that he had heard nothing from Cohen that changed his opinion about the great significance of the committee’s investigation into Russian election interference. That somewhat cryptic take made a bit more sense the next day when the American people heard from Cohen in a…spirited open hearing of the House Oversight Committee.

Among other accusations, according to Cohen:

• The President’s Attorneys edited and approved Cohen’s false testimony before the Senate and House intelligence committees
• Then-candidate Trump was involved in attempts by Trump associate Roger Stone to communicate with Wikileaks, a hostile foreign intelligence service, regarding the hacking and release of Clinton campaign emails Donald Jr. told his father about plans to meet with Russians offering dirt on Hillary Clinton in advance of the June 9, 2016 meeting in Trump Tower
• The Trump Organization engaged in schemes to defraud taxpayers and financial institutions
• The President personally signed checks reimbursing Cohen for a fraudulently-obtained loan that was used to pay off Trump mistress and adult film star Stephanie Clifford, a.k.a Stormy Daniels

Following those bombshell claims from Michael Cohen, the Senate Intelligence Committee plans to continue its investigation and will seek to determine fi there are additional witnesses and documents to corroborate some of Cohen’s most significant allegations against the President.

At the same time, President returned from the Hanoi summit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un empty-handed, but not before he managed to yet again side with a murderous despot, this time about responsibility for the brutal murder of UVA student Otto Warmbier.

Oh and by the way, the New York Times reported last night that President Trump personally ordered the granting of a security clearance to his son-in-law Jared Kushner — overruling career security officials and his White House staff, and contradicting previous statements by the President, Ivanka Trump, and Kushner’s attorney that Kushner received no special treatment to secure his clearance.

This week, Sen. Warner introduced legislation that would allow states that expanded Medicaid after 2014 or expand in the years ahead to receive the same full federal matching funds as states that expanded earlier under the terms of the Affordable Care Act. The legislation was also sponsored by Senator Kaine, Sen. Doug Jones of Alabama, as well as six other senators.

The bill introduction comes the same week as the news that more than 233,000 Virginians have signed up for healthcare via Medicaid expansion.

FUTURE OF WORK

This week, Senator Warner reintroduced a package of four bills focused on supporting Americans who can increasingly expect to work in a variety of jobs over a lifetime in the workforce. As a member of the Finance and Banking Committees, Sen. Warner has been a national leader in putting forward sensible, innovative policies to support workers in a changing economy, and signaled today that he will maintain his focus on preparing Americans for the future of work in the 116th Congress.

One recent study found that by the year 2030, up to one-third of American workers will need to retrain or change jobs to keep up with disruptions due to automation and a changing economy. A pair of the bills Sen. Warner introduced today would encourage employers and employees to invest in education and training that will help workers move up the economic ladder despite those economic trends. The Investing in American Workers Act would encourage employers to invest more in quality skills training for their workers by creating a tax credit – similar to the R&D tax credit – that would encourage businesses to spend money training lower- and moderate-income workers. Likewise, the Lifelong Learning and Training Account Act will make lifelong learning more accessible for low- and moderate-income workers by establishing a tax-preferred savings account with a generous government match to help support workers seeking to retrain or upskill over the course of their careers.

As much as a third of the U.S. workforce is currently engaged in temporary, contract or on-demand work, but those who earn all or some of their income as independent contractors, part-time workers, temporary workers or contingent workers find it difficult and expensive to access benefits and protections that are commonly provided to full-time employees, such as paid leave, workers’ compensation, skills training, unemployment insurance, tax withholding and tax-advantaged retirement savings. The bill will support innovation and experimentation with portable benefits models that would allow workers to carry these benefits with them from job to job across a lifetime in the workforce.

The fourth bill would similarly support workers with non-traditional work arrangements by expanding access to mortgages while protecting consumers. The Self-Employed Mortgage Access Act, which will be introduced along with fellow Banking Committee member Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) as well as Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), would help creditworthy borrowers with non-traditional forms of income – including the self-employed and gig workers – by allowing lenders to verify an applicant’s income using additional forms of documentation other than the W-2.

GRAB BAG

D.C. STATEHOOD: After meeting with D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, Sen. Warner announced his support for legislation introduced this week that would make Washington, D.C. the 51st state.

VOTING RIGHTS: Sens. Warner and Kaine sponsored legislation this week that would crack down on voter suppression laws by restoring portions of the Voting Rights Act that were struck down by the Supreme Court in 2013.

HUA-WHAT?: Sens. Warner and Cornyn led a letter urging the Administration to protect our electrical systems and critical infrastructure from potential cyberattacks by banning the use of inverters made by the Chinese-owned company, Huawei.

ABOUT THAT RAISE: Senators from Virginia and Maryland sent a letter to Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Acting Director Russell Vought to request a timeline for the implementation of the 1.9 percent pay increase for federal employees that the Senators worked to pass into law earlier this year.

MILITARY HOUSING: Sens. Warner and Kaine wrote to the Secretaries of the U.S. Navy, Army and Air Force, asking for detailed information regarding the military’s contracts with private companies to provide on-base housing for military families in Virginia, following pervasive allegations of health hazards – including lead poisoning, cockroaches, mice, mold blooms and water leaks.

WEEK AHEAD

The Senate is in session next week and is expected to consider a series of Circuit Court nominees, as well as a nominee for Assistant Secretary of Commerce. On Friday, Sen. Warner will speak at a naturalization ceremony in Alexandria.