Warner & Kaine Applaud Passage of Five Funding Bills

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senators Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) applaud the congressional passage of legislation to fund our country's defense, security, health, education, transportation, and housing programs. This package supports a number of Warner and Kaine priorities, including affordable housing, safer airways, improved infrastructure, medical research, servicemember pay, and shipbuilding. These five bipartisan bills fund Defense; Financial Services and General Government; Labor, Health and Human Services (HHS), Education, and related agencies; National Security, Department of State, and related programs; and Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and related agencies for Fiscal Year 2026.

"I'm proud to provide over $93 million to 78 critical community projects across Virginia that support affordable housing, expanded health care access, transportation safety and modernization, and job entry and development programs," said Warner. "This bill is far from perfect, but we were able to make headway on important national priorities including supporting Ukraine, lowering health care and prescription drug costs, boosting medical research, and funding public housing."

"I'm glad that we passed legislation to fund important priorities like pay for military servicemembers, and reauthorize my bipartisan legislation-named in honor of Charlottesville native and physician Dr. Lorna Breen-to support the mental health of the health care workforce," said Kaine. "I'm also thrilled that it includes over $93 million in federal funding that Senator Warner and I secured to expand access to health care, make critical infrastructure improvements, and more. I look forward to getting on the road to celebrate these investments in our communities."

As part of the Fiscal Year 2026 appropriations process, members of Congress are able to work with the communities they represent to request funding for local community projects, otherwise known as congressionally directed spending, in a manner that promotes transparency and accountability. This process allows Congress to dedicate federal funding for specific projects in Virginia. This package contains $93.267 million for 78 specific projects in Virginia.

Through strong advocacy, the senators secured funding in the relevant spending bills for the following Virginia projects:

• For projects in Central Virginia, click here.
• For projects in Hampton Roads and the Eastern Shore, click here.
• For projects in Northern Virginia, click here.
• For projects in the Shenandoah Valley and the Highlands, click here.
• For projects in Southwest Virginia and Southside, click here.
• For statewide projects, click here.

This funding is in addition to the $112.14 million in federal funding that Warner and Kaine previously secured for projects in Central Virginia, Hampton Roads and the Eastern Shore, Northern Virginia, Shenandoah Valley and the Highlands, Southwest Virginia and Southside, and across Virginia as part of other government funding legislation.

In addition to community-specific projects, this legislation includes funding for the following Warner and Kaine priorities:

Supporting public housing: Provides $48.4 billion to the Office of Public and Indian Housing, including $38.4 billion for tenant based rental assistance; $8.3 billion for the Public Housing Fund; $206.4 million to help families get good paying jobs; and $1.4 billion to support housing in Tribal and Native Hawaiian communities.

Supporting community investment, affordable housing, and homelessness prevention: Provides $13.3 billion for the Office of Community Planning and Development, including $3.3 billion for the Community Development Block program to give Virginia cities and counties reliable funding for housing repairs, neighborhood revitalization, and community development; $4.4 billion for Homeless Assistance Grants to expand permanent supportive housing, rapid rehousing, and prevention efforts; $1.25 billion for the HOME Investment Partnerships program to help states and cities build and preserve affordable housing; $65 million for the Self-Help and Assisted-Homeownership Opportunity program to help low-income families build or buy their first home; and $30 million for the SUPPORT for Patients and Community Recovery Housing Program to fund housing for people recovering from substance use disorders.

Improving access to housing: Provides $19.9 billion to the Office of Housing, including $18.5 billion to keep rents affordable in privately owned apartment buildings for low-income tenants; $1 billion for Housing for the Elderly; and $287 million for Housing for Persons with Disabilities.

Improving air safety: Provides $22.2 billion to the Federal Aviation Administration, including funds to support the addition of new air traffic controllers and the prioritization of modernizing outdated systems in the National Airspace. Also provides $2 million for an independent study on the airspace in the National Capital Region and the coordination between the FAA and Department of Defense in response to the tragic Flight 5342 accident in January 2025.

Supporting regional airports: Provides $514 million for the Essential Air Service program, which provides critical support for passenger service for Shenandoah Valley Regional Airport.

Improving roads and highways: Provides $64.3 billion to the Federal Highway Administration, including $350 million for bridge repair and $200 million for the Tribal Transportation program.

Improving rail travel: Provides $2.9 billion for the Federal Railroad Administration, including $137 million for Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Improvements grants; $1.6 billion for Amtrak's National Network grants for State-Supported routes and Long-Distance routes; and $850 million for Amtrak's Northeast Corridor.

Boosting capital transit: Provides $16.5 billion to the Federal Transit Administration, including $1.7 billion for the Capital Investment Grants program.

Supporting medical research: Provides $48.7 billion for biomedical research, including $3.9 billion for Alzheimer's disease and related dementia research as well as a $10 million increase for diabetes research.

Investing in child care and early learning: Provides $8.8 billion for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), an $85 million increase, which will help families in Virginia and across the country find and afford child care. Also provides $12.36 billion for Head Start, an $85 million increase, which will support Head Start teachers and staff throughout the country. Kaine has championed efforts in Congress to increase funding for the CCDBG program.

Boosting education: Provides $70.9 billion for the Department of Education, including $18.4 billion for Title I schools and $15.19 billion for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Both received a $20 million increase.

Improving social security: Provides $15 billion for the Social Security Administration's administrative expenses, a $554 million increase from the prior year. The legislation includes instructions for SSA to utilize the funding to take steps to avoid field office closures, reduced office hours, and delays for appointments at field offices.

Increasing servicemember pay: Provides a 3.8% across-the-board pay raise for servicemembers. Also funds a 1% pay raise for civilians.

Supporting defense communities: Provides $70 million for Impact Aid programs, which provide federal assistance to local school districts that face financial disadvantages due to federal land ownership or high enrollment of federally connected children. Also provides $30 million for the Defense Community Infrastructure Program, which addresses deficiencies in community infrastructure that can or does support a military installation's readiness and lethality.

Supporting environmental mitigation: Provides $159 million above the President's request for PFAS cleanup, which removes "forever chemicals" from water and soil. Also provides $20 million above the President's request for the Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration program, which preserves military missions by supporting cost-sharing to avoid land use conflicts near military installations, address environmental restrictions that limit military activities, and increase military installation resilience.

Supporting international partnerships: Provides $400 million to support Ukraine; reaffirms Congress's support for NATO; provides $1 billion for the Taiwan Security Cooperation Initiative; makes available $3.3 billion to support the United Nations and other international organizations, rejecting the President's request to eliminate support; includes $343 million to support regional partners in countering ISIS; and provides $1.1 billion for drug interdiction and counter-drug activities.

Providing humanitarian and global health assistance: Provides $9.4 billion for global health programs to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, and polio; $5.5 billion for humanitarian assistance to meet most urgent needs around the globe; and $15 million for rigorous impact evaluations to ensure humanitarian programs are efficient and delivering results for vulnerable communities.

Supporting shipbuilding: Provides $27.15 billion to support shipbuilding, including a $5.9 billion increase for Columbia- and Virginia-class submarine programs; $1.676 billion for the completion of last year's shipbuilding programs; and an additional $1.75 billion for DDG-51 destroyers advance procurement and industrial base support.

Boosting military capacity: Provides $2.947 billion in additional munitions and industrial capacity across the military services, including $500 million to develop and procure additional solid rocket motors.

Expanding telehealth: Extends Medicare telehealth flexibilities for two years; requires HHS to issue guidance with best practices on providing telehealth services accessibly; continues for four years virtual access to the Medicare Diabetes Prevention Program; allows cardiopulmonary rehabilitation services to be provided by telehealth in Medicare in 2026 and 2027; and directs HHS to help health care providers learn how to screen for medication-induced movement disorders over telehealth.

Lowering drug costs by reining in PBM middlemen: Reforms Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) to lower drug costs for Americans and protect access to local pharmacies. Also includes two of Warner's bills, the PBM Reporting Transparency Act and the Patients Before Middlemen (PBM) Act.

Protecting rural health labor and delivery services: Includes a provision Warner's Keeping Obstetrics Local Act to require State Medicaid programs to conduct studies on the costs of providing maternity, labor, and delivery services in rural hospitals and hospitals that serve a high proportion of Medicaid beneficiaries, and submit a report detailing the results of this study to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Improving mental health: Includes the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Reauthorization Act, legislation sponsored by Kaine and cosponsored by Warner, that reauthorizes programs that support efforts to improve the mental health of health care providers.

Addressing pediatric cancer: Provides $12.6 million to fund childhood cancer research through the Gabriella Miller Kids First Research Act, named after a child from Loudoun County who died from brain cancer in 2013.

Supporting individuals with Long COVID: Provides $10 million to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to continue its work to support multidisciplinary Long COVID clinics to address comprehensive, coordinated, person-centered care for people living with Long COVID.

Modernizing public health infrastructure: Provides $185 million to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to modernize America's public health data systems.

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