WASHINGTON – U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) today applauded the announcement that Envigo – a breeding facility in Cumberland, Va. that engaged in egregious animal welfare violations – has plead guilty to felony violations of the Animal Welfare Act and Clean Water Act. This victory was made possible by Sens. Warner and Kaine, who began shedding light on this issue in 2022 and demanding federal action.

“Today’s settlement represents an enormous victory for animal welfare, as the perpetrators of horrific abuse against innocent dogs will pay a historic settlement for their negligence. After our advocacy for these animals, we’ve been deeply heartened to hear stories of their adoption into loving, safe homes, and this settlement takes another step critical towards justice. We’re glad to see Envigo held accountable for its crimes, and we’ll keep pushing to root out animal abuse across Virginia.”

In March of 2022, Sens. Warner and Kaine expressed horror and demanded immediate and aggressive action by the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) following more than 70 animal welfare violations at the Envigo breeding and research facility in Cumberland. After these calls for action, the federal government stepped in, seizing 446 beagles in acute distress and eventually helping facilitate the surrender of nearly 4,000 dogs to the Humane Society of the Unites States (HSUS), which worked to place these dogs into homes.

Following this action, Envigo today pled guilty and agreed to pay $22 million in fines and $13.5 million to upgrade their facilities and support animal welfare and environmental projects. The settlement represents the largest-ever fine in an animal welfare case ever pursued by the Department of Justice. Envigo’s parent company, Inotiv, will face additional animal care standards and be assigned a compliance monitor.

Sen. Warner, a dog owner, has been an advocate for dogs in Virginia and throughout the country, earning a 100% on the Humane Society of the United States’ Humane Scorecard for 2021. In March, Sen. Warner secured the passage of new language requiring the Department of State to report on the status of dogs in the Explosive Detection Canine Program (EDCP). This program came under scrutiny in 2019 after an Inspector General (IG) report found that the Department failed to conduct proper follow-up after sending highly-trained dogs to foreign partner nations, resulting in the death of at least ten dogs from largely preventable illnesses.

Sens. Warner and Kaine—who have received perfect scores on the Humane Society of the United States’ Humane Scorecard in previous years—have been consistent cosponsors of the Puppy Protection Act, which would amend the Animal Welfare Act to include additional care and safety standards for dog breeders like Envigo. Under the bill, breeders would be required to house dogs in appropriately sized enclosures with solid ground and keep them on a regular diet and exercise routine. As Governor of Virginia, Kaine signed a law that imposed stricter legal penalties for dogfighting offenses.

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WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-VA), Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and co-chair of the Senate Cybersecurity Caucus, wrote to the U.S. Copyright Office in support of expanding the existing good-faith research exemption within the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

Every three years, the DMCA goes through a rulemaking process to authorize exemptions that allow individuals and researchers to circumvent technical protection measures on copyrighted material without risking liability. This year, Artificial Intelligence (AI) researchers have petitioned for a new exemption relating to “Security Research Pertaining to Generative AI Bias.” Sen. Warner, who has led the charge in the Senate to explore the capabilities of AI technology while simultaneously advocating for reasonable guardrails around its usage, argues that expanding the current good-faith research exemption to cover research that falls outside of traditional security concerns, such as bias and other harmful outputs, is the best way to ensure safe and equitable AI while enabling its continued innovation, public trust, and adoption.

Sen. Warner wrote, “Due to the difficulty in understanding the full range of behaviors in AI systems - particularly as models are introduced in contexts that diverge from their intended use - the scope of good-faith research has expanded to the identification of safety flaws caused by misaligned AI systems, as well as research into how AI systems can reflect and reproduce socially and economically harmful biases…it is crucial that we allow researchers to test systems in ways that demonstrate how malfunctions, misuse, and misoperation may lead to an increased risk of physical or psychological harm.”

He continued, “At the same time, as the Department of Justice letter emphasized, a hallmark of the research exemption has been the good faith of security researchers. In the absence of regulation, many AI firms have voluntarily adopted measures to address abuse, security, and deception risks posed by their products. Given the growing use of generative AI systems for fraud, non-consensual intimate image generation, and other harmful and deceptive activity, measures such as watermarks and content credentials represent especially important consumer protection safeguards. While independent research can meaningfully improve the robustness of these kinds of authenticity and provenance measures, it is vital that the Copyright Office ensure that expansion of the exemption does not immunize research that intends to undermine these vital measures; absent very clear indicia of good faith, efforts that undermine provenance technology should not be entitled to the expanded exemption.”

This is the latest step in Sen. Warner’s efforts to reign in big tech and better understand the impacts of rapidly expanding usage of AI. Earlier this month, he introduced the Secure Artificial Intelligence Act of 2024, legislation to improve the tracking and processing of security and safety incidents and risks associated with Artificial Intelligence (AI).

A copy of the letter is available here and below: 

Dear Ms. Perlmutter,

I write today in response to the petition submitted to your office that proposes a new exemption for “Security Research Pertaining to Generative AI Bias” as part of the Copyright Office’s ninth triennial rulemaking proceeding under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). I understand a number of stakeholders have submitted public comments to weigh in on this petition, including a letter from the Department of Justice. Ultimately, I urge the Copyright Office to consider expanding the existing good-faith security research exemption to cover both security and safety flaws or vulnerabilities, where safety includes bias and other harmful outputs.

As the leader of bipartisan legislation to improve the security of AI systems and the Co-Chair of the Senate Cybersecurity Caucus, I recognize the importance of independent security research. The existing DMCA exemption for good-faith security researchers plays a critical role in empowering a robust security research ecosystem that identifies vulnerabilities and risks to systems around the world, facilitating their remediation, and preventing future exploitation by threat actors that could lead to incidents. We must continue to promote this important work and understand that, although AI is software at its core, the non-deterministic nature of AI systems means that security vulnerabilities are no longer the only type of flaw that can be introduced and enable misuse. As the AI Risk Management Framework, developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), emphasizes, AI risks differ from traditional software risks in key ways - including increased opacity and barriers to reproducibility, complex and non-deterministic system dependencies, more nascent testing and evaluation frameworks and controls, and a “higher degree of difficulty in predicting failure modes” for so-called “emergent properties” of AI systems.

Due to the difficulty in understanding the full range of behaviors in AI systems - particularly as models are introduced in contexts that diverge from their intended use - the scope of good-faith research has expanded to the identification of safety flaws caused by misaligned AI systems, as well as research into how AI systems can reflect and reproduce socially and economically harmful biases. This research into bias and other harmful outputs is essential to ensuring public safety and equity while enabling continued innovation, public trust, and adoption of AI. Therefore, it is crucial that we allow researchers to test systems in ways that demonstrate how malfunctions, misuse, and misoperation may lead to an increased risk of physical or psychological harm.

At the same time, as the Department of Justice letter emphasized, a hallmark of the research exemption has been the good faith of security researchers. In the absence of regulation, many AI firms have voluntarily adopted measures to address abuse, security, and deception risks posed by their products. Given the growing use of generative AI systems for fraud, non-consensual intimate image generation, and other harmful and deceptive activity, measures such as watermarks and content credentials represent especially important consumer protection safeguards. While independent research can meaningfully improve the robustness of these kinds of authenticity and provenance measures, it is vital that the Copyright Office ensure that expansion of the exemption does not immunize research that intends to undermine these vital measures; absent very clear indicia of good faith, efforts that undermine provenance technology should not be entitled to the expanded exemption.

The existing exemption has been an important contributor to the multistakeholder effort to improve information security by enabling the “good-faith testing, investigation, and/or correction of a security flaw or vulnerability” in computer programs.  As you review the public comments on this new petition, I urge you to consider expanding the good-faith security research definition to include both security and safety flaws or vulnerabilities, where safety includes bias and other harmful outputs. In considering this expansion, I urge the Copyright Office to continue to bind the exemption to research that is conducted in a safe environment, primarily to enhance the security or safety of computer programs, without facilitating copyright infringement.  Further, I encourage careful consideration of the exemption’s application to any research on technical measures that protect the authenticity or provenance of content from generative AI models.

              Sincerely,

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WASHINGTON — U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine, a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, (both D-VA) today applauded the Senate’s passage of the Dr. Emmanuel Bilirakis and Honorable Jennifer Wexton National Plan to End Parkinson’s Act, legislation they cosponsored, which will direct the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to set up a National Parkinson’s Project, under which HHS would create and update a national plan to address Parkinson’s and related conditions, provide an estimate of research needs, and establish an advisory council that would report to Congress. The legislation now heads to President Biden for his signature.

In April 2023, Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D-VA-10) shared her diagnosis of Parkinson's disease, and in September of last year, her diagnosis was upgraded to progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), a rare and incurable brain disorder that rapidly deteriorates mobility and speech.

“Our friend Jennifer Wexton has been a model of grace and perseverance in the face of a difficult diagnosis,” said the senators. “This legislation bearing her name will help all those who are suffering with Parkinson’s and related conditions, and we are proud to see it head to the president’s desk for signature.”

The National Parkinson’s Project is modeled after the National Alzheimer’s Project which, as co-chair of the Congressional Task Force on Alzheimer’s Disease, Sen. Warner led efforts to introduce and pass. Sen. Kaine’s bipartisan Building Our Largest Dementia (BOLD) Infrastructure for Alzheimer’s Reauthorization Act, legislation to reauthorize funding for public health initiatives across the country to combat Alzheimer’s disease and preserve brain health, passed out of the Senate HELP Committee this week. 

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WASHINGTON – The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence passed the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025 (IAA) today by a unanimous 17-0 vote. The bill authorizes funding, provides legal authorities, and enhances congressional oversight for the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC).

“The Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025 reflects the Senate Intelligence Committee’s bipartisan commitment to ensuring America’s intelligence agencies have the authorities and resources they need to protect against rapidly evolving conflicts and threats,” said Committee Chairman Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-VA). “This year’s bill enhances the IC’s ability to identify and counter emerging technological threats posed by adversarial nations, including foreign adversaries’ efforts to use and dominate areas like artificial intelligence, biotechnologies, and next-generation energy. The IAA also designates foreign ransomware organizations as hostile cyber actors and ensures the IC has the tools it needs to counter economic coercion and illicit technology transfer, in particular by the People’s Republic of China. It also reforms the nation’s security classification system, strengthens the security of our election systems, and furthers the Committee’s efforts to ensure the IC can attract and expeditiously on-board a talented, diverse, and trusted workforce to meet the emerging challenges we face.”

“Our Intelligence Authorization Act represents significant improvements to our national security tools, legal authorities, Intelligence Community workforce, and ensures resources are focused on the most pressing threats, specifically from China, Russia, Iran, and their partners, including Cuba, Venezuela, and North Korea, as well as terrorist organizations,” said Committee Vice Chairman Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL). “Importantly, this bill takes unprecedented steps to address counterintelligence risks to our  National Laboratories by prohibiting visitors from foreign adversary nations thereby protecting America’s research and competitive advantage. I look forward to moving our bipartisan legislation to the full Senate and final enactment.”

Background:

The IAA for Fiscal Year 2025 authorizes funding for the IC and ensures that it has the resources, personnel, and authorities it needs to protect our country and inform decision makers, while ensuring continued robust congressional oversight. The bill’s provisions focus on the following key areas:

• Increases oversight of the national security threats posed by the People’s Republic of China (PRC), including its attempts to evade sanctions and regulations, military capabilities, and investments in, and attempts to dominate, the supply chains of artificial intelligence (AI), next-generation energy technologies, and biotechnology, among others.
• Enhances the IC’s ability to identify and counter threats relating to biotechnologies, including by improving and modernizing the roles, missions, and objectives of the National Counterproliferation and Biosecurity Center and by directing the IC to identify PRC plans, intentions, and timelines relating to illicit uses of biotechnologies.
• Enhances sanctions enforcement against terrorist and ransomware organizations and revokes foreign nationals’ visas if they endorse/espouse terrorist activity.
• Enhances policies relating to AI, including by requiring the President to develop procedures to ensure that Federal agencies better engage the private security on AI system-related threats, as well as establishing an AI Security Center within the National Security Agency to advance AI security research.
• Enhances the IC’s ability to procure, transition, and incorporate emerging technologies, including by creating a fund for acquiring and transitioning such technologies.
• Increases the IC’s focus on the growing threats to the United States by ISIS and affiliated terrorist organizations.
• Promotes reform of the nation’s security classification system, by requiring the President to designate an Executive Agent for Classification and Declassification, improving the system for the classification and declassification of information, and requiring each Federal agency with access to classified information to establish an insider threat program to protect against unauthorized disclosures.
• Prohibits entry into the Department of Energy National Laboratories by foreign nationals from adversary countries who pose counterintelligence risks.
• Builds upon the Committee’s efforts relating to energy security by requiring a strategy to improve information sharing between the IC and the private sector regarding foreign adversary-based threats to U.S. critical minerals and other energy-related projects abroad.
• Requires the IC to conduct an assessment of the likely course of Russia’s brutal war in Ukraine, and the effects of Western support to Ukraine.
• Requires the IC to conduct an assessment of the Israel-Hamas war.
• Improves oversight related to the Western Hemisphere, specifically when it comes to national security implications of visa-free travel by certain foreign nationals.
• Enhances insight into the Venezuela Maduro regime’s relationship with state sponsors of terrorism and foreign terrorist organizations.

• Requires the IC to establish an IC-wide policy authorizing a program for contractor-based sensitive compartmented information facilities, to improve public-private cooperation on technology innovation.

• Requires a Government Accountability Office (GAO) review of the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office regarding unidentified anomalous phenomena reporting and Federal agency coordination.
• Reforms management of controlled access programs to improve Congressional oversight.
• Enhances election security by requiring that voting systems undergo penetration testing for certification processes.
• Maintains strong congressional oversight of and enhances protections for IC whistleblowers.
• Ensures continued support to the victims of anomalous health incidents (AHIs or “Havana Syndrome”) by improving funding flexibility for payments to qualified victims.
• Safeguards important voluntary investments in watermarking and content authenticity by generative AI firms by establishing penalties for services that deliberately facilitate removal of those voluntary protections.

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WASHINGTON –Today, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Mark Warner (D-VA), U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), and Sens. James Lankford (R-OK) and Mark Kelly (D-AZ) introduced the Enabling New Agile Buying-power and Leveraging Enhancements in Intelligence Community (ENABLE IC) Acquisitions Act, which would enable the IC to streamline acquisition processes and give priority to small business concerns and nontraditional defense contractors: 

“Our adversaries are rapidly advancing their technological capabilities, and so must we,” said Sen. Warner. “This legislation helps ensure that the Intelligence Community has the support, funding, and flexibility it needs to acquire and integrate the most cutting-edge emerging technologies to protect our national security.”

“There are important advancements in intelligence products being made in the private sector, but our intelligence agencies must fight bureaucratic delays throughout the acquisition process,” said Sen. Cornyn. “This legislation would give our Intelligence Community the flexibility it needs to speed up the acquisition of cutting-edge technologies and leverage American innovation across the country to get the most capable tools into the hands of our intelligence collectors and analysts.”

 “Our Intelligence Community works hard every day to protect our nation without any recognition or glory, but they are also fighting our own government with the amount of time it takes to process newer technology,” said Sen. Lankford. “The bad actors and foreign adversaries who are coming after us every day are not going to wait around while our Intelligence Community waits on bureaucratic delays. Our nation must have the ability to stop whatever new technology is being used against us without unnecessary delays.”

“Ensuring our Intelligence Community can get timely access to state-of-the-art products and tools will strengthen our national security and help us maintain an edge over adversaries,” said Sen. Kelly. “By cutting unnecessary red tape, our bill provides new acquisition options, further drives national security innovation, and ensures the U.S. is always one step ahead.”

Background:

In light of global threats to national security, acquisition leaders in the Intelligence Community must be able to explore the use of private capital partnerships to secure technological advantages for the intelligence community through the identification, development, and transfer of promising technologies to full-scale programs capable of meeting IC requirements.

This legislation would create a fund to assist in transitioning useful IC products from the research and development phase to the contracting and production phase, with priority given to small business concerns and nontraditional defense contractors. It would also enable the IC to use streamlined acquisition processes and enhances existing authorities to facilitate exchanges between the private sector and the IC.

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WASHINGTON – With under six months until the U.S. general election, Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark R. Warner (D-VA) today pushed tech companies to follow up on commitments made at the Munich Security Conference and take concrete measures to combat malicious misuses of generative artificial intelligence (AI) that could impact elections. In February, a group of AI companies signed the Tech Accord to Combat Deceptive Use of AI in 2024 Elections, a high-level roadmap for a variety of new initiatives, investments, and interventions that could improve the information ecosystem surrounding this year’s elections. Following that initial agreement, Sen. Warner is pushing for specific answers about the actions that companies are taking to make good on the Tech Accord. 

“Against the backdrop of worldwide proliferation of malign influence activity globally – with an ever-growing range of malign actors embracing social media and wider digital communications technologies to undermine trust in public institutions, markets, democratic systems, and the free press –  generative AI (and related media-manipulation) tools can impact the volume, velocity, and believability of deceptive election,” Sen. Warner wrote.

This year, elections are taking place in over 40 countries representing over 4 billion people, while AI companies are simultaneously releasing a range of powerful and untested new tools that have the potential to rapidly spread believable misinformation, as well as abuse by a range of bad actors. While the Tech Accord represented a positive, public-facing first step to recognize and address this novel challenge, Sen. Warner is pushing for effective, durable protections to ensure that malign actors can’t use AI to craft misinformation campaigns and to prevent its dissemination on social media platforms. To that end, he posed a series of questions to get specific information on the actions that companies are taking to prevent the creation and rapid spread of AI-enabled disinformation and election deception.

“While high-level, the commitments your company announced in conjunction with the Tech Accord offer a clear roadmap for a variety of new initiatives, investments, and interventions that can materially enhance the information ecosystem surrounding this year’s election contests. To that end, I am interested in learning more about the specific measures your company is taking to implement the Tech Accord. While the public pledge demonstrated your company’s willingness to constructively engage on this front, ultimately the impact of the Tech Accord will be measured in the efficacy – and durability – of the initiatives and protection measures you adopt,” Sen. Warner continued.

The letter concludes by pointing out that several of the proposed measures to combat malicious misuse in elections would also help address adjacent misuses of AI technology, including the creation of non-consensual intimate imagery, child sexual abuse material, and online bullying and harassment campaigns. Sen. Warner has been consistently calling attention to and pushing for action from AI companies on these and other potential misuses. On Wednesday, Sen. Warner will host a public Intelligence Committee hearing where leaders from the FBI, CISA, and the ODNI will provide updates on threats to the 2024 election.

Sen. Warner sent letters to every signatory of the Tech Accord: Adobe, Amazon, Anthropic, Arm, Eleven Labs, Gen, GitHub, Google, IBM, Inflection, Intuit, LG, LinkedIn, McAfee, Microsoft, Meta, NetApp, Nota, Open AI, Snap, Stability AI, TikTok, Trend, True Media, Truepic, and X.

A copy of every letter is available here and one example is included below:

Earlier this year, I joined to amplify and applaud your company’s commitment to advance election integrity worldwide through the Tech Accord to Combat Deceptive Use of AI in 2024 Elections. As generative artificial intelligence (AI) products proliferate for both commercial and general users, a multi-stakeholder approach is needed to ensure that industry, governments, and civil society adequately anticipate – and counteract – misuse of these products in ways that cause harm to vulnerable communities, public trust, and democratic institutions. The release of a range of powerful new AI tools – many enabled or directly offered by your [company/organization] -- coincides with an unprecedented number of elections worldwide. As memorialized during the Munich Summit, elections have occurred – or will occur – in over 40 countries worldwide, with more than four billion global citizens exercising their franchise. Since the signing of the Tech Accord on February 16^th, the first round of India’s elections have already concluded. European Parliament elections will take place in early June and– as primary contests are already well underway – the U.S. general election will take place on November 5^th. 

While policymakers worldwide have begun the process of developing measures to ensure that generative AI technologies (and related media manipulation tools) serve the public interest, the private sector can – particularly in collaboration with civil society – dramatically shape the usage and wider impact of these technologies through proactive measures. Against the backdrop of worldwide proliferation of malign influence activity globally – with an ever-growing range of malign actors embracing social media and wider digital communications technologies to undermine trust in public institutions, markets, democratic systems, and the free press –  generative AI (and related media-manipulation) tools can impact the volume, velocity, and believability of deceptive election information.

While high-level, the commitments your company announced in conjunction with the Tech Accord offer a clear roadmap for a variety of new initiatives, investments, and interventions that can materially enhance the information ecosystem surrounding this year’s election contests. To that end, I am interested in learning more about the specific measures your company is taking to implement the Tech Accord. While the public pledge demonstrated your company’s willingness to constructively engage on this front, ultimately the impact of the Tech Accord will be measured in the efficacy – and durability – of the initiatives and protection measures you adopt. Indeed, many of these measures will be vital in addressing adjacent misuses of generative AI products, such as the creation of non-consensual intimate imagery, child sexual abuse material, or content generated for online harassment and bullying campaigns. I request that you provide answers to the following questions no later than May 24, 2024.

1. What steps is your company taking to attach content credentials, and other relevant provenance signals, to any media created using your products? To the extent that your product is incorporated in a downstream product offered by a third-party, do license terms or other terms of use stipulate the adoption of such measures? To the extent you distribute content generated by others, does your company attach labels when you assess – based on either internal classifiers or credible third-party reports – to be machine-generated or machine-manipulated?
2. What specific public engagement and education initiatives have you initiated in countries holding elections this year? What has the engagement rate been thus far and what proactive steps are you undertaking to raise user awareness on the availability of new tools hosted by your platform?
3. What specific resources has your company provided for independent media and civil society organizations to assist in their efforts to verify media, generate authenticated media, and educate the public?
4. What has been your company’s engagement with candidates and election officials with respect to anticipating misuse of your products, as well as the effective utilization of content credentialing or other media authentication tools for their public communications? 
5. Has your company worked to develop widely-available detection tools and methods to identify, catalogue, and/or continuously track the distribution of machine-generated or machine-manipulated content?
6. (To the extent your company offers social media or other content distribution platforms) What kinds of internal classifiers and detection measures are you developing to identify machine-generated or machine-manipulated content? To what extent to these measures depend on collaboration or contributions from generative AI vendors?
7. (To the extent your company offers social media or other content distribution platforms) What mechanisms has your platform implemented to enable victims of impersonation campaigns to report content that may violate your Terms of Service? Do you maintain separate reporting tools for public figures?
8. (To the extent your company offers generative AI products) What mechanisms has your platform implemented to enable victims of impersonation campaigns that may have relied on your models to report activity that may violate your Terms of Service? 
9. (To the extent your company offers social media or other content distribution platforms) What is the current status of information sharing between platforms on detecting machine-generated or machine-manipulated content that may be used for malicious ends (such as election disinformation, non-consensual intimate imagery, online harassment, etc.)? Will your company commit to participation in a common database of violative content?

Thank you for your attention to these important matters and I look forward to your response.

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WASHINGTON — Today, U.S. Senators Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine released the following statement regarding the Senate’s ramming through of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Reauthorization Act without a vote on their amendments regarding a dangerous provision that will add five incoming and five outgoing flights at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA):

“The Senate abdicated its responsibility to protect the safety of the 25 million people who fly through DCA every year. Just weeks after two aircraft nearly crashed into one another at DCA, this body refused to take up our commonsense amendment to remove a dangerous provision that would have crammed more flights onto the busiest runway in America. We even offered a compromise: another amendment that would have given the Secretary of Transportation the power to settle this matter after considering the implications more flights would have on delays and passenger safety. But some of our colleagues were too afraid to let the experts make the call. They didn’t want to show the American people that they care more about a few lawmakers’ desire for direct flights than they care about the safety and convenience of the traveling public. That is shameful and an embarrassment.”

Warner and Kaine have long warned about the consequences of more flights at DCA. DCA is severely overburdened. The addition of ten flights to and from DCA is an enormous risk to passenger safety and will cause alarming delays. DCA’s main runway is the busiest in the country with nearly 25 million passengers every year, and the provision will increase delays by 725 minutes per day, leading to a total of 12,734 minutes of overall daily delay at the airport, according to FAA data. In April, two aircraft narrowly avoided a crash on the cramped runway.

Last week, Warner and Kaine sent a letter to his Senate colleagues expressing concern over this provision in the FAA reauthorization.

In March, they sent a letter to the Chairs and Ranking Members of the Senate Commerce Committee and the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee opposing any changes to the rules in the FAA reauthorization. They penned an op-ed last June urging their colleagues to oppose changes to the rules. 

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WASHINGTON – This week, U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine, a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, joined U.S. Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Patty Murray (D-WA) to introduce the Access to Birth Control Act, legislation that would guarantee timely access to birth control at pharmacies nationwide. The bill comes two years after it was leaked that the Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization would overturn Roe v. Wade, which opened the floodgates for draconian restrictions on reproductive freedom across America.

“Birth control is an essential part of health care for so many women,” said Sen. Warner. “As the Supreme Court and states across the nation continue to roll back essential protections for reproductive care, I’m proud to be standing up to protect access to contraception. The Access to Birth Control Act will take critical steps forward to make sure that patients can always access contraception without delay, harassment, or intimidation.” 

“Every woman should have the freedom to make her own health care decisions—including those regarding birth control—without delay or interference by the government,” said Sen. Kaine. “With women’s reproductive rights under threat across the country, I will continue to push for legislation like the Access to Birth Control Act and my Reproductive Freedom for All Act to protect access to contraception.”

The Access to Birth Control Act would ensure that patients have access to contraception at the pharmacy without delay and that pharmacies do not operate an environment where patients are intimidated, threatened, or harassed when seeking access to contraception or medication related to contraception. If a pharmacy violates one of these requirements, the bill establishes liability for civil penalties for the pharmacy and a private cause of action for patients to seek relief. 

Warner and Kaine are active supporters of reproductive freedom and access to health care. Following the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization Supreme Court ruling, Kaine introduced the bipartisan Reproductive Freedom for All Act, legislation that would enact the essential holdings of Roe v. Wade to protect abortion rights and contraception access. Last year, Warner and Kaine also introduced the Right to Contraception Act, legislation to enshrine the right to contraception into federal law.    

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WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-VA) joined Sens. Brian Schatz (D-HI), Ted Cruz (R-TX), and a bipartisan group of colleagues in introducing the Kids Off Social Media Act, legislation that would set a minimum age of 13 to use social media platforms and prevent social media companies from feeding algorithmically-targeted content to users under the age of 17. Joining Sens. Warner, Schatz and Cruz in introduction are U.S. Sens. Chris Murphy (D-CT), Katie Britt (R-AL), Peter Welch (D-VT), Ted Budd (R-NC), John Fetterman (D-PA), and Angus King (I-ME).

The Kids Off Social Media Act aims to address concerns regarding the mental health crisis of children and teens in relation to their use of social media. No age demographic is more affected by the ongoing mental health crisis in the United States than kids, especially young girls. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey found that 57 percent of high school girls and 29 percent of high school boys felt persistently sad or hopeless in 2021, with 22 percent of all high school students—and nearly a third of high school girls—reporting they had seriously considered attempting suicide in the preceding year.

Studies have shown a strong relationship between social media use and poor mental health, especially among children. From 2019 to 2021, overall screen use among teens and tweens (ages 8 to 12) increased by 17 percent, with tweens using screens for five hours and 33 minutes per day and teens using screens for eight hours and 39 minutes. Based on the clear and growing evidence, the U.S. Surgeon General issued an advisory last year, calling for new policies to set and enforce age minimums and highlighting the importance of limiting the use of features, like algorithms, that attempt to maximize time, attention, and engagement.

“Parents across the country are struggling to protect their kids from the harmful effects of too much social media, and studies show that today’s unregulated social media landscape has fostered a toxic environment for young people, promoting bullying, eating disorders, and mental health struggles unchecked,” said Sen. Warner. “I’m proud to join this bipartisan effort to enact some common sense guardrails for kids and teens using social media platforms.”

Specifically, the Kids Off Social Media Act would:

• Prohibit children under the age of 13 from creating or maintaining social media accounts, consistent with the current practices of major social media companies;
• Prohibit social media companies from pushing targeted content using algorithms to users under the age of 17;
• Provide the FTC and state attorneys general authority to enforce the provisions of the bill; and
• Follow existing CIPA framework to require schools to block and filter social media on their federally funded networks, which many schools already do.

Sen. Warner, a former tech entrepreneur, has been a vocal advocate building a safer online environment, specifically for young people. Last year, he introduced the Kids Online Safety Act, legislation that provides young people and parents with the tools, safeguards, and transparency they need to protect against online harms. He has also introduced several pieces of legislation aimed at holding Big Tech accountable, including the SAFE TECH Act, which would reform Section 230 and allow social media companies to be held accountable for enabling cyber-stalking, online harassment, and discrimination on social media platforms; the Honest Ads Act, which would require online political advertisements to adhere to the same disclaimer requirements as TV, radio, and print ads; and most recently, seeing through the passage of the national security supplemental aid package, which included a requirement that the prominent social media platform TikTok divest from China-owned parent company ByteDance within one year.

“Public Citizen stands in strong support of this legislation intended to protect the nation’s children from the pernicious impacts of social media. Frequent use of social media can harm vulnerable children and teens as their identities and feelings of self-worth are forming. A straightforward ban for younger children and stopping abusive algorithmic engagement with teens just makes sense. We applaud Senator Schatz for his commonsense bill,” said Lisa Gilbert, Executive Vice President of Public Citizen.

“We survey mothers on pressing issues they face and on the federal bills that seek to address them. We do this because mothers’ first-hand experiences and knowledge are critical sources of information in the policy-making process. This bill, newly renamed the ‘Kids Off Social Media Act,’ had more support by mothers -- across the political spectrum -- than any bill we've studied. Mothers are on the frontlines of this issue, and according to our quantitative and qualitative study, they overwhelmingly believe that social media companies' products and practices should be regulated using age limits and guardrails, similar to other harmful substances,” said Jennifer Bransford, Founder of Count on Mothers.

“Our nation is facing a severe crisis in children’s mental health,” said Dr. Regena Spratling, President of the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners. “Every day pediatric nurse practitioners (PNPs) and other advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) focused on children’s health see the serious impact that social media can have on our young people’s well-being. The ‘Kids Off Social Media Act’ will help to provide parents the tools they need to safeguard their children from threats in the digital world.”

“Preparing nurses to help address our country’s growing mental health problems is one of nursing education’s highest priorities,” said Dr. Beverly Malone, President and CEO of the National League for Nursing. “The National League for Nursing is pleased to support the ‘Kids Off Social Media Act’ as an important step to help parents and health care professionals shield our young people from harmful online content that can lead to behavioral health problems.”

“KIDS TOO strongly supports comprehensive legislation that protects kids on social media. Senator Schatz's Kids Off Social Media Act solidifies prohibiting youth under 13 from maintaining or creating social media accounts. This bill gets to the root of the issue by eliminating the chance of young kids being vulnerable to harmful tactics by predators, bullies and drug dealers,” said Tania Haigh, Executive Director of KIDS TOO.

“We’re still learning about the long-term implications that unfettered access to social media has on children and adolescents. Until then, especially considering evidence showing that the way people use social media can impact mental health outcomes, it makes sense to put safeguards in place. As we learn more, we can modify these safeguards as needed. But we need to begin somewhere, and this legislation would provide an opportunity to more clearly understand whether modest safeguards can protect children and adolescents and what responsible measures look like,” said Chuck Ingoglia, President and CEO of the National Council for Mental Wellbeing.

The Kids Off Social Media Act is supported by the American Counseling Association, KidsToo, National Association of Social Workers, National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners, Tyler Clementi Foundation, National Council for Mental Wellbeing, Count on Mothers, Parents Television and Media Council, Parents Who Fight, Public Citizen, National Federation of Families, National Organization for Women, National Association of School Nurses, National League for Nursing, and American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.

Full text of the legislation is available here.

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WASHINGTON— Today, U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) and U.S. Sens. Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen (both D-MD) released the following statement blasting a provision in the negotiated text of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Reauthorization Act, which was released in the middle of the night, that adds five incoming and five outgoing flights to an overburdened Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA), risking passenger safety and causing flight delays:

“We are deeply frustrated that Committee leadership with jurisdiction over the FAA Reauthorization Act—none of whom represent the capital region—have decided to ignore the flashing red warning light of the recent near collision of two aircraft at DCA and jam even more flights onto the busiest runway in America. It should go without saying that the safety of the traveling public should be a higher priority than the convenience of a few lawmakers who want direct flights home from their preferred airport. We will continue to fight against this ridiculous and dangerous provision.”

DCA is operating at near peak capacity, and adding an additional five round trip flights would increase delays by 725 minutes per day, leading to a total of 12,734 minutes of overall daily delay at DCA according to FAA data. In April, two aircrafts narrowly avoided a crash, underscoring the urgent need to reject additional flights at DCA.

Also today, the senators wrote to all 96 of their Senate colleagues urging them to oppose the provision.

“While the bill contains many positive features, the Senate is poised to consider a provision that could impair safety and will significantly increase delay and inconvenience experienced by the nearly 25 million passengers who use Reagan National Airport (DCA) every year,” wrote the senators. “The provision will overburden the already congested main runway at DCA and, as shown by a recent near-collision at the airport, increase the risk of a serious accident there.”

“We understand the desire of senators to shorten their commutes home, but this proposal would benefit few while impacting many, first and foremost in safety but also in delays and in reducing the economic competitiveness of smaller destinations within the perimeter. The senators representing the region and the people who most use this airport stand uniform against a provision negotiated without us that will guarantee more unacceptable delay and compromise passenger safety,” the senators concluded.

The senators have repeatedly opposed changes to the slot and perimeter rules, which govern the number and distance of flights that can safely operate out of DCA. In April, Sens. Warner and Kaine spoke on the Senate floor regarding the near miss at DCA and the need to block additional flights at the airport. In March, they sent a letter to the Chairs and Ranking Members of the Senate Commerce Committee and the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee opposing any changes to the rules in the FAA reauthorization. They penned an op-ed last June urging their colleagues to oppose changes to the rules.

Full text of the letter is available here and below:

Dear Colleagues:

When we return, we will take up the FAA reauthorization bill. It is an important bill necessary to improve air travel. While the bill contains many positive features, the Senate is poised to consider a provision that could impair safety and will significantly increase delay and inconvenience experienced by the nearly 25 million passengers who use Reagan National Airport (DCA) every year. The provision will overburden the already congested main runway at DCA and, as shown by a recent near-collision at the airport, increase the risk of a serious accident there.  

We have made our opposition to this provision known to Committee for a very long time. Our position, that Congress should not jam more flights onto an overburdened runway that is already the busiest in the United States, prevailed in the House. But the Senate Commerce Committee has insisted that 5 slots (a total of 10 flights) be added to the daily schedule. This is directly contrary to the advice from FAA and is opposed by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, established by Congress to operate DCA and Dulles. It was also agreed to with absolutely no consultation with the four Senators representing the two states with airports impacted by this.

DCA is an airport built on a small land footprint that cannot be expanded. There is one primary runway and two shorter runways designed for commuter aircraft. It was intended to be used by approximately 15 million passengers a year. Its current usage is nearly 25 million passengers a year. Because of advances in airline fleet configuration, most planes flying into DCA cannot now use the secondary runways. Nearly 90% of all flights must use the primary runway. This makes the main runway at DCA the busiest in the United States.

The passenger volume at DCA and the overuse of the main runway have made DCA one of the most congested airports in the country as measured by passenger delay. Over 20% of ingoing and outgoing flights experience delay. And the average delay experienced on those flights is already 67 minutes. DCA has functionally equivalent service, in some years more service, than Dulles International Airport even though DCA is 860 acres and Dulles is nearly 12,000 acres. DCA also ranks 3^rd for airborne holds, which is when air traffic control keeps an aircraft looping in a holding pattern while the aircraft waits for an opening to land. In 2022, the airport had the 3^rd worst cancellation rate among the nation’s busiest airports. And these delays not only affect DCA but cause missed connection flights and other inconveniences throughout the system.

The FAA has advised the Senate that any increase in the number of operations at DCA will increase the number and duration of delays. They have assessed that the delay attributable to adding 10 flights will affect 183 flights for a total of 751 minutes (or 12 hours) of additional delay per day. When added to the existing delay, DCA would experience 12,734 minutes of delay per day! The FAA also notes that this figure does not take into account any delay that might result from gate constraints caused by adding flights.

But the delay issue is not as important as passenger safety. On April 18, there was a near miss at DCA as two planes jockeyed for position—one on the primary runway and one on a secondary runway. The planes averted a collision by a mere 300 feet. The audio from the FAA air traffic controllers is chilling—with one heard frantically yelling “Stop! Stop!” The FAA is investigating the incident, but the likelihood of a serious accident is already high at this overburdened airport and adding 10 more flights will only raise the possibility of a tragic outcome. We believe that this near miss is a bright red warning light flashing before Congress.

There are alternatives to Congress jamming in 10 more flights. The Commerce Committee settled the pilot training hours debate by deferring to the Secretary to determine how many virtual training hours are safe. In this case, Commerce, says more slots are safe. The senators representing the region, in consultation with DOT, say they aren’t. Why not let the Secretary make the call?

We understand the desire of senators to shorten their commutes home, but this proposal would benefit few while impacting many, first and foremost in safety but also in delays and in reducing the economic competitiveness of smaller destinations within the perimeter. The senators representing the region and the people who most use this airport stand uniform against a provision negotiated without us that will guarantee more unacceptable delay and compromise passenger safety.

Sincerely,

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