Priorities

LifeNet Town Hall

Aug 17 2015

Senator Warner visited LifeNet Health Services in Virginia Beach on Monday, the world's largest provider of allograft bio-implants and organs for transplantation. At a town hall meeting with LifeNet employees, he took constituent questions on topics ranging from college affordability and transportation to the 2016 presidential race.

When it comes to transportation, he said, we all need to recognize that our current level of investment in infrastructure is not enough to keep up with our global competitors like China, and stressed the need for both parties in Washington to come together on a long-term solution. Congress recently defaulted to another short-term patch -- the latest in a series of more than 30 quick fixes.  

On college affordability, Senator Warner highlighted the bipartisan proposal he has introduced to consolidate, simplify and improve income-based repayment options for federal student loans to make college more affordable. Senator Warner noted that he himself was the first in the family to graduate from college, and that he wouldn’t have been able to get through college and law school without student loans – but he worries that the current generation of college grads are so hobbled with student debt that they are unable to take risks, like he did, to launch a business, or buy their first home.