WASHINGTON – Last week, Sen. Warner hit the road, making 14 stops across Southwest and Southside Virginia to highlight a wealth of accomplishments from a session of Congress that he believes “will be looked back upon as one of the most productive years – literally – since the 1960s.”

From Wise to Washington to Wythe, and everywhere in between, Sen. Warner met Virginians, talking to kids about biscuits and civic engagement… to education leaders about access to high-speed internet… and to residents and volunteers about the devastation caused by flooding in Buchanan County. He also toured revitalization efforts in downtown Danville…  sat down with community leaders to discuss manufacturing expansion opportunities in New River Valley… and even exchanged famous recipes with Russell County’s very own Linda Skeens, who won an astounding number of ribbons at the Virginia-Kentucky State Fair earlier this year. Rumor has it that Ms. Skeens has even agreed to include Sen. Warner’s tuna melt recipe in her upcoming cookbook.

Sen. Warner also proudly delivered millions in federal funding for very worthy projects that seek to improve access to rural health and dental care, as well as tackle food insecurity and substance use disorder. He also discussed and answered questions pertaining to some major accomplishments out of Washington, including his landmark infrastructure law, his law to restore American technological leadership and manufacturing of semiconductors, and President Biden’s recent signing of the Inflation Reduction Act, which lowers prescription drug costs, closes tax loopholes for billionaire corporations, and provides financial security for miners by extending the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund excise tax at a higher rate.

Bristol Herald Courier: Senator Warner's visit to Wise County Health Wagon is worth $1.25 million

WISE, Va. – U.S. Sen. Mark Warner looked around the most quiet Wise County Fairgrounds Monday and remembered more hectic times.

Warner, D-Va., returned to the fairgrounds – longtime host site of Remote Area Medical clinics -- to formally present $1.25 million to the Health Wagon for construction of its new dental clinic.

“The reason why this fairgrounds is so special, it was 2002 – the first year I was governor – and I’d heard about what you guys were doing here,” Warner said prior to the check presentation. “I remember dentists from all over the commonwealth, but who was going to show up? It ended up being thousands and thousands of people – not only Southwest Virginia but from Michigan, from Florida – driving for days just to come here and get dental assistance.”

Warner returned many times, brought each of his children to help volunteer and had his Senate staff members come from across the state to volunteer so they better understood the issues.

“The memories I have are of hot days, 60-70 chairs at once where people were being taken care of,” he said. “One of the things that was so typical of Southwest was it was people caring for people. No matter how much crummy stuff was going on in the country or around the world, you could not come to the whole effort and not come away with a belief in the basic goodness of people.”

Similar efforts – on a lesser scale -- are underway at the fairgrounds for much of this week. About 100 military personnel and volunteer dentists and other health care providers are offering free health care, X-rays, dental care and vision screenings. Similar to RAM, the event is the Move Mountains medical mission. Appointments are required, but there is no charge for care.

“What’s happening at the fairgrounds is great. It is not a permanent, long-term solution,” Warner said. “

The $1.25 million in Congressionally designated spending will go toward construction of the Health Wagon’s new dental clinic, now being built in Wise.

[…]

Martinsville Bulletin: Stuart hospital to reopen in 2023; two mobile health units coming to Patrick Co. soon

The Stuart hospital that closed in 2017 has an aggressive timeline of being reopened in 2023 with the help of a bipartisan effort between Virginia officials and a $600,000 check to better the health care available in Patrick County with the addition of two mobile medical units.

Pioneer Community Hospital of Patrick in Stuart closed in 2017 after filing for bankruptcy in 2016 due to financial hardships. A crowd of over 30 people gathered to hear the official announcement of the reopening.

“At this time last year, we were a county that didn’t have a hospital or even one on the horizon and had extremely limited means of providing adequate health care to our citizens, tourists and local businesses,” Patrick County Director of Economic Development Sean Adkins said. “Fast forward to today, and we stand at the site of our future Foresight Hospital of Patrick County opening in 2023.”

[…]

“This is a team effort,” Warner (D-Va.) said. “Patrick County is a special place … Getting these hospitals reopened is an enormous, enormous challenge and what your delegate [Virginia Delegate Wren Williams (R-9th District)] did, the process … was expedited. This would not be happening anywhere near this time without his good work.”

“Over the last 25 years, there have been close to a thousand rural hospitals that have closed across America,” Warner said. “And there have been virtually none that have reopened … There will be federal hurdles that we’ve got to go over … This is a very aggressive timeline … But the idea of getting this hospital reopened by 2023, ambitious, but you’ve got our commitment that we’ll do our part in the federal stage.”

[…]

Coalfield Progress: Senator talks health care, brings funding

WISE — U.S. Sen. Mark Warner and state Sen. Todd Pillion discussed the area’s dental services, insulin prices and black lung benefits Monday when visiting The Health Wagon’s Move Mountains Medical Mission.

Roughly 100 Army, Navy and Air Force medical personnel were on site to render medical service as part of an Innovative Readiness Training program.

Warner thanked the troops for protecting the country, which involves providing medical assistance to those in need, he said.

Health Wagon CEO Teresa Tyson said dental work has seen the highest demand, with more than 1,600 procedures performed since the start of the mission, Aug. 15.

The General Assembly recently improved the reimbursement rates for dentists providing Medicaid services for the first time in 17 years, said Pillion, and this momentum needs to continue.

Warner later presented Health Wagon officials a $1.25 million check to build a new dental office, which is currently under construction. Warner and U.S. Sen Tim Kaine secured the money through Congress' member-directed funding policy.

Warner said insulin prices need to be capped and that if the Democrats win the majority in the November congressional elections, the effort to achieve this will be renewed.

The $35 cap on insulin copays for Medicare beneficiaries should extend to everyone, Warner said.

While mentioning the exponentially increasing rate of black lung in young miners, Warner said the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act establishes black lung benefits on a permanent basis.

The act includes a permanent extension of the Black Lung Excise Tax, which is the only revenue source for the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund.

The News & Press: Putting points on the board, Warner touts string of legislative victories

RICHLANDS, Va. – U.S. Senator Mark Warner (D – Va.) came to Richlands Monday on the heels of a string on legislative victories that has transformed a stalled Democratic agenda to a series of accomplishments the senator could tout to constituents.

[…]

He said the major infrastructure bill has money that should allow 98% of Southwest Virginia homes to have high speed internet at a rate of less than $35 per month by 2024-2025.

Warner said miners and their families now have Black Lung benefits guaranteed thanks to legislation introduced by him and Joe Manchin.

He said the U.S.  is going to do what Canada and other countries do and use the power of negotiation to bring down the cost of medicine.  Warner said the hope is to get the cost of insulin below $35 for senior citizens right away and eventually for everyone.

[…]

Warner spoke with State Senator Travis Hackworth about the need for affordable housing. Hackworth said the area from New River Valley down has a projection of 10,000 new jobs but the biggest drawback is the need for affordable housing.

[…]

He said the people of Ukraine have given him hope and restored his faith that we have the best system of government.

“The people In Ukraine have said we will sacrifice our lives to have the kind of system you have. The right to vote, the right to a free press and the right to disagree with each other,” Warner said.

 

Bristol Herald Courier: Warner aims to bring microchip production back to America

U.S. Sen. Mark Warner made stops in Marion and Wytheville Tuesday on a three-day tour of Southwest and Southside Virginia to talk with community leaders.

Among the topics at the forefront of the conversation were the state of the manufacturing industry, improving Virginia’s infrastructure and Warner’s CHIPS bill.

At both stops Warner touted the recent passing of what he called a “once in a generation infrastructure law.”

“What does that mean for Virginia? It means $8 billion for our road system… it means rail all the way to Christiansburg, and I’m committed as long as I have this job to making sure that rail system goes all the way to Bristol. It means money for all the airports… It means resources for water and sewer.”

The package also includes $65 billion to improve broadband access, an effort Virginia has already begun to tackle.

[…]

Warner also discussed his bill to increase semiconductor production in the U.S., saying the supply chain issues with the chips are a contributing factor to high inflation, particularly with the price of vehicles.

“We have tens of thousands of cars that American auto companies have made,” Warner said. “They are sitting in lots in Michigan and Ohio and can’t get to market because we don’t make enough semi-conductor chips.”

Thirty to 40 years ago, Warner said, the U.S. made about 40% of all semiconductor chips in the world.

“Now we make 12%,” Warner said.

He said the U.S. doesn’t make the cutting-edge chips used in advanced technology, airplanes or satellites.

“They’re made in China. They’re made in Taiwan. And I can assure you, as the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, it is a national security risk if we don’t bring that semiconductor manufacturing back to this country,” Warner said.

[…]

Richmond Times Dispatch: Chesterfield, Henrico, 2 other Va. localities vie for semiconductor chip sites

Hadis Morkoc, a professor of electrical engineering and physics, led a tour Thursday at VCU’s Virginia Microelectronics Center for a group that included Sen. Mark Warner.

Four local governments — including Chesterfield and Henrico counties — are pitching potential sites for large semiconductor chip factories to take advantage of a new federal law that dangles billions of dollars of incentives to return manufacturing of the critical microelectronic component to the United States.

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., one of the principal authors of the CHIPS + Science Act that President Joe Biden signed into law on Aug. 9, convened a roundtable discussion in Richmond on Thursday to showcase sites that the state is marketing to attract big investments by manufacturers eager to take advantage of $40 billion in new federal subsidies for domestic production of semiconductor chips.

“I think Virginia is going to be very competitive,” Warner said in an interview after the meeting and a tour of the Virginia Microelectronics Center at Virginia Commonwealth University. “But we have to realize that certain states at this point are a bit ahead.”

“We’re going to have to put up incentive packages that are frankly much larger than we have in the past,” he said, citing competition from states such as Ohio, Texas, Arizona and New York.

The 90-minute meeting included big county delegations led by Chesterfield County Administrator Joe Casey and Henrico County Manager John Vithoulkas as well as representatives for other potential semiconductor chip manufacturing sites in Pittsylvania County, outside of Danville, and Chesapeake in southeastern Virginia.

[…]

Virginia Business: Va. officials woo chip manufacturers

U.S. Sen. Mark Warner and state and local economic development officials are vying to attract semiconductor chip manufacturing facilities to four Virginia industrial sites as the commonwealth gears up to fight for a piece of the financial pie from sweeping federal legislation that promises to ramp up chip production in the U.S.

Representatives of Chesterfield, Henrico and Pittsylvania counties and the cities of Chesapeake and Danville joined with Warner, Virginia Economic Development Partnership President and CEO Jason El Koubi and Micron Technology Inc.’s senior vice president and general counsel, Rob Beard, Thursday during a meeting at Virginia Commonwealth University to discuss how to make Virginia more competitive. Officials from VCU and Virginia Tech also attended the meeting, which was closed to the press and public.

The meeting coincided with President Joe Biden issuing an executive order Thursday to kickstart the $280 billion CHIPS and Science Act, calling for swift implementation of a component of the bill that provides $52.7 billion in funding for domestic semiconductor manufacturing and research. Biden’s executive order establishes an interagency steering council to coordinate implementation of that funding, co-chaired by National Economic Director Brian Deese, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and Alondra Nelson, the acting director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy.

[…]

It was initially introduced in 2020 in an earlier form by Warner, Virginia’s Democratic senior senator, and Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn; the act was passed by Congress this summer and Biden signed it into law on Aug. 9.

According to the Semiconductor Industry Association, the U.S.’s share of global semiconductor manufacturing capacity has decreased from 37% in 1990 to 12% today because other nations have been outpacing the U.S. in investing in the industry.

As chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Warner has been outspoken about the need for domestic chip manufacturing. It’s a refrain he returned to Thursday as he toured labs at VCU’s C. Kenneth and Dianne Harris Wright Virginia Microelectronics Center.

“We’ve seen over the last 30 years, America dominated this industry to now … we only make about 12%,” Warner said. “And America, on the manufacturing side, we don’t make any of the cutting-edge chips.”

‘In the hunt’

Several sites in Virginia offer the space needed for the potential manufacture of semiconductors, which can require up to 1,000 acres, Warner said. A likely location for a new plant could be found in rural Southern or Southwestern Virginia.

[…]

While there may be shovel-ready sites to lure manufacturers, those locations alone might not be enough.

New York, Texas, Arizona and Ohio have “really raised the bar in going after semiconductors,” Romanello said.

To compete, Virginia needs to offer greater incentives.

“One of the things I think Virginia is going to need to do is both have sites prepared but also be willing to put more resources into these packages if we’re going to be competitive,” Warner said, citing New York’s corporate subsidy of up to $10 billion in tax credits for “green” semiconductor manufacturers over a 20-year period, enacted on Aug. 11, among other states’ incentives.

[…]

Beyond attracting the major chip manufacturers, officials told Virginia Business they’re looking at the entire semiconductor manufacturing ecosystem, which includes the supply chain for components and related materials. And that provides even more opportunities, El Koubi said.

“We are both looking at opportunities for Virginia to attract the semiconductor [fabrication] opportunities themselves for large semiconductor plants, but we’re also looking at ways to cultivate the ecosystem, building on Virginia’s existing strengths in the semiconductor space,” he said.

Those strengths include close to 30 companies in the semiconductor industry — providing production, equipment testing, construction and other services — and an advanced manufacturing and related industries workforce numbering almost 350,000.

Warner wants to see Virginia increase its capacity to manufacture the tools and equipment that go onto the “fab floors.” That’s a niche that has not yet been co-opted by Asian countries that otherwise dominate the semiconductor industry.

[…]

Danville Register & Bee: Swinging through Danville, Warner tours downtown, praises growth

Sen. Mark Warner made a stop in Danville on Wednesday afternoon, where he toured the River District and dropped by a few businesses.

Warner’s visit was part of the Democrat’s three-day swing through Southwest and Southside Virginia, which included a visit to Stuart before he came to Danville and then headed to South Boston.

During a meeting with about 20-25 community leaders after his walk with officials downtown, Warner praised the growth that has taken place in the River District.

He pointed out how empty downtown was several years ago and the resurgence of the River District since then, when “warehouses didn’t have a lot in them.” Now there are numerous locally owned businesses, including restaurants, retailers and other establishments.

“There are great things happening in a lot of communities across Virginia,” Warner told officials in the former Pepsi Building next to the Danville Science Center. “I don’t think there’s anything on a per-capita basis that is close to what you guys are doing here.”

Danville is attracting more people from other areas to come live here, he added.

“Sixty percent of the people coming into the community are not from the community...” Warner said.

He also pointed out Averett and Danville Community College in the city. With a one-bedroom unit renting for $1,100 in the River District and “you’re all full up is really an enormous, enormous accomplishment,” Warner said.

“I want to, you know, give you all the credit,” Warner said. “I hope that the community at large recognizes [that].”

He also referred to the decline of tobacco and textiles in the late 90s and early 2000s, which culminated in the closing of Dan River Inc.

“Very few communities got whacked as hard as Danville did,” Warner said.

City leaders, including the mayor, economic development director and others, led Warner on a tour of downtown on a hot August day. Stops included Ma’s Cakes and Moss Mountain Outfitters on Main Street, The Bee Hotel on South Union Street and Knitting Mills Lofts on Lynn Street.

During the meeting with leaders after the walk downtown, Warner said cooperation between Danville and Pittsylvania County is one factor that has made the community special.

“We’re stronger combined than separated,” he said, adding that it is the model that can enable a lot of other communities around Virginia to perform better.

Warner also touched upon national issues during his meeting with local officials.

Everybody should have access to high-speed, affordable internet, Warner said, challenging local leaders to get training for the region’s workforce to meet that need. About 750,000 broadband installers will be needed across the country, he said.

Danville needs a pop-up training center for that, he said.

“I think that’s going to be an opportunity there,” Warner said, adding that Virginia also needs to get a microchip manufacturing site.

[…]

Gazette Virginian: Warner calls Southside ‘the comeback region’ in South Boston stop

U.S. Sen. Mark Warner spoke to a crowd of about 50 local leaders, professionals and residents Wednesday afternoon at the SOVA Innovation Hub in South Boston.

The visit was one stop on the senior senator from Virginia’s multi-community tour of Southside.

Innovation Hub staff treated Warner to a brief tour of the facility, as the crowd waited for the senator’s comments.

“I have known him for 30 years; he’s been a consistent friend of Southern Virginia,” South Boston Mayor Ed Owens said as he introduced the senator. “He’s one of the smartest businessmen I’ve ever met.”

Warner expressed his admiration for Southside leaders and the community at large for their collective accomplishment of economic revitalization.

“There is no part of the state that is more ‘the comeback region’ than Southside Virginia, and that has required grit, determination — lesser communities would have thrown in the towel,” Warner said.

Warner focused on the accomplishments of Congress this year, suggesting that 2022 has been one of the most significant congressional terms since the civil rights era.

“I think this last year in the United States Congress will be looked back upon as one of the most productive years, literally since the 1960s,” he said.

Warner further added that bipartisanship has figured into the equation of the successes he sees in legislative action this year focusing on the infrastructure bill among other efforts.

[…]

Bristol Herald Courier: Biscuit complaints bring Warner to Ridgeview Middle School

CLINTWOOD, Va. - It was complaints about bad biscuits that brought Senator Mark Warner (D-Va.) to Ridgeview Middle School Monday.

Last school year, Ridgeview seventh-grade teachers April Hay and Portia Fletcher noticed their teenage students were not eating breakfast.

“Especially boys, when they are not eating, something is wrong. I started questioning them about why they were not eating and they said, ‘Well, we don’t really like it,’” Hay said. “It was whole wheat instead of the white wheat, and they were just not eating it.”

The director of food services suggested Hay write a letter to the senator about the issue. Hay took the suggestion a step further and worked with Fletcher to turn petitioning the government for better biscuits into a writing assignment.

“We went through the writing process to learn how to write a letter,” Hay said. “We sent those to the senator and I got a call one day from Richmond about it.”

Senator Warner’s office said Warner had seen and read the letters and wanted to help. The first response came last year in the form of breakfast from Hardee’s for the class from Warner. Then representatives from Warner’s office said the senator wanted to come meet the students in person about their project.

“We thought maybe we would get a nice letter or something from the senator,” Hay a teacher for 25 years said. “We never expected this much. This has been the highlight of our careers.”

So on the first day of the school year for Dickenson County, Warner met with the now eighth-grade class to say hello and answer questions, including a query asking if he has any aspirations beyond being a U.S. senator, which would be a run for president. After explaining he felt like he was in a good place to get things done for Virginia as senator, Warner did not reveal any potential presidential run to the auditorium full of eighth graders.

“I’m not sure that is in my future,” Warner said. “I don’t think it probably is in my future.”

Warner also met with area school superintendents and county officials discussing a variety of topics such as broadband access, mental health assistance for students and the issues surrounding teacher shortages.

Warner said he fears the recent controversies surrounding school boards would dissuade citizens from running for office leaving seats vacant in the future.

“I can’t think of a job that’s got less perks or upside and more grief. School board members have always been citizens who care about their community and I just worry that sometimes people’s anger and frustration have gotten so awful at some of these school board meetings around the country that people will just say, ‘I’m done,’ and that would be a huge loss not just to our education system, but to our democracy,” Warner said.

Bristol Virginia Schools Superintendent Dr. Keith Perrigan was one of the local school officials in attendance at the event. He said Warner has always been a big supporter of the public school system.

“Senator Warner, even back when he was governor, has always been a huge supporter of public education,” Perrigan said. “Obviously, at the federal level he doesn’t have the same opportunities that he did when he was governor, but he is always willing to listen and willing try to find a solution.”

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