Warner Weekly Wrap-Up: Corruption Disruptions
Happy Friday from the Warner press office! Do these past 100 days feel like 100 years to anyone else? Sen. Warner summarized the first 100 days of this chaotic administration in a video… and stayed focused all week on putting points on the board for Virginians.
He introduced bipartisan legislation to lower costs for rural Medicare patients, spoke out about some of the administration shake-ups, introduced even more legislation to cut housing costs, and led Senate Democrats to push for answers on some of Elon Musk’s corrupt business maneuvers.
There’s a lot to get through, so let’s get into it.
CORRUPTION IS THE NAME OF THE GAME
With this administration’s constant national security blunders, cruel immigration enforcement strategies, and destruction of the global economy, it’s hard to keep track of every single thing going on… which is maybe why we’re seeing so much blatant corruption in plain sight.
A concerning story broke this week about how Elon Musk is potentially leveraging the administration’s trade war and his close work with the president to get more countries to contract with his companies. There seems to be a disturbing pattern in which Musk allegedly leveraged high-level access to U.S. trade policy to pressure foreign governments – including India, South Africa, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Pakistan, and Lesotho – into granting favorable treatment to his satellite internet provider Starlink in apparent exchange for U.S. policy concessions. These allegations, if true, would constitute a serious violation of federal ethics laws and a profound breach of public trust.
Sen. Warner has been working to draw attention to it all week long by speaking out on social media and in interviews. This morning, he also led several of his Senate colleagues in a letter to President Trump demanding an investigation into this alleged corruption.
“Public servants must serve Americans, not their own bank accounts,” the senators wrote. “These alleged actions are an egregious breach of public trust, degrade our credibility with allies and partners, and potentially violate U.S. laws.”
This of course follows numerous other blatant incidents of corruption. Lest we all forget the day when Donald Trump turned the South Lawn of the White House into a car showroom and advertisement for Elon Musk’s Tesla company… on the very same day that Elon appears to have committed $100 million into groups controlled by Donald Trump’s political team.
No, no, I’m sure that’s a coincidence too.
And the tragedy of the Trump years is that there are almost certainly more deals going on behind the scenes… who knows what other “cost savings” Elon is going to do through DOGE by coercing the federal government into contracting with his companies or bending regulations to help their bottom line.
You can rest assured that Sen. Warner cares deeply about investigating corruption, and he’s going to keep pushing for accountability on behalf of the American people.
HOUSED IT
If you’ve been around here for a little while, you know that there is almost no issue Sen. Warner cares quite as much about as the rising cost of housing. As rents and mortgages rise across the Commonwealth, nearly every family and every community is impacted, so Sen. Warner is pursuing an all-of-the-above solution to build more homes and lower costs for all.
This week, he continued that work by introducing legislation that would help build nearly 1.6 million new affordable homes over the next decade by strengthening the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC). Across the country, LIHTC has built or restored more than 4 million affordable housing units, and it has supported 6.6 million jobs and spurred over $736 billion in wages, making it both a potent tool for building units and investing in our workforce.
More specifically, Sen. Warner’s legislation, the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act would:
Increase the number of credits available to states by 50 percent for the next two years and make the temporary 12.5 percent increase secured in 2018 permanent—which has already helped build more than 59,000 additional affordable housing units nationwide;
Stabilize financing for workforce housing projects built using private activity bonds by decreasing the amount of private activity bonds needed to secure Housing Credit funding. As a result, projects would have to carry less debt, and more projects would be eligible to receive funding; and
Improve the Housing Credit program to better serve veterans, victims of domestic violence, formerly homeless students, Native American communities, and rural Americans.
After introducing the legislation, Sen. Warner said,
“The Low-Income Housing Tax Credit is one of the most successful tools our country has to address the affordable housing crisis our communities are facing. I’m proud to introduce bipartisan legislation to update and modernize this credit in order to build more homes, bring down costs, and tackle the growing demand for housing across the Commonwealth and the country.”
This adds to Sen. Warner’s impressive housing portfolio. So far this year, he has introduced the New Markets Tax Credit Extension Act, the Rural Historic Tax Credit Improvement Act, and the Historic Tax Credit Growth and Opportunity Act… AND HE’S NOT DONE YET!
Watch this space in the coming weeks for even more pieces of important legislation that will help more Virginians lower their housing costs or buy a home for the first time.
21ST CENTURY CARE FOR RURAL COMMUNITIES
While Donald Trump and Elon Musk slash budgets for federal health programs, Sen. Warner continues to try to expand access to health care in the most underserved corners of Virginia.
This week, Sen. Warner introduced a bill to ensure that rural Medicare patients have access to 21st century medical technology – the kind that helps folks in rural communities overcome major barriers to health care like distance or transportation. We’re talking about the kind of devices that can collect important health data (like blood pressure, heart rate, glucose, oxygen, etc.) and transmit it to a doctor, saving patients a trip to a hospital that could be over an hour drive away.
This win-win solution not only makes for healthier Virginians, but it also lowers costs and hospital admissions. Advocating for this legislation, Sen. Warner said:
“Too often, patients are struggling to receive the medical care they need because of how difficult it is to see a doctor in person. Remote monitoring services offer a life-saving solution, expanding care options and allowing individuals to regularly receive the medical consultations they need, all while lowering costs and hospital admissions. I’m proud to introduce the Rural Patient Monitoring Access Act to improve health care services for our seniors.”
With access to health care facing so many barriers in rural Virginia, Sen. Warner knows that this legislation could save lives, allowing patients to monitor major health indicators easily and consistently. This is especially important for rural Medicare patients, who face high rates of chronic conditions like heart failure, hypertension, and diabetes.
Don’t just take Sen. Warner’s word for it – this bipartisan and bicameral legislation has the support of major organizations, including the National Rural Health Association, American Association of Nurse Practitioners, HIMSS, American Telemedicine Association, Alliance for Connected Care, Ascension, LifePoint Health, Marshfield Clinic, SSM Health, the University of Virginia Center for Telehealth, and the Bipartisan Policy Center.
GRAB BAG
SHOW ME THE MONEY: Sen. Warner released a joint statement with Sen. Kaine after President Trump released his Fiscal Year 2026 budget request to Congress.
TOUCH GRASS: Sen. Warner joined with bipartisan colleagues in introducing legislation that would build on his successful Great American Outdoors Act by strengthening and reauthorizing the Legacy Restoration Fund (LRF) and addressing the serious maintenance backlog in national parks and public lands.
IT’S PRETTY REMOTE: Sen. Warner joined with bipartisan colleagues to introduce legislation that would permit the nationwide use of Remote Online Notarizations (RON), enabling notaries and signers to complete the process from different physical locations.
DN-STAY AWAY: Sen. Warner wrote to leadership at the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) expressing the need for the agencies to exercise all available authorities to protect the sensitive genomic information of Americans, including in the bankruptcy proceedings of 23andMe, a personal genomics and biotechnology company that holds the DNA and sensitive information of millions of individuals.
THE WEEK AHEAD
The Senate will be in session next week. Sen. Warner will also appear on CNN’s State of the Union show this Sunday morning in the 9 am hour.
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