WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr (R-NC) and Vice Chairman Mark Warner (D-VA) released the following statements on the Senate’s passage of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2020, which included the Damon Paul Nelson and Matthew Young Pollard Intelligence Authorization Act (IAA) for Fiscal Years 2018, 2019, and 2020:

“I am thrilled to know that the Senate Intelligence Committee’s bipartisan authorization act passed today through the Senate as part of our nation’s defense authorization bill,” said Vice Chairman Warner. “The bipartisan authorization bill ensures that the women and men of our intelligence agencies have the resources they need to do their jobs. I am particularly proud of a provision within the bill that will help recruit and retain top talent within the Intelligence Community by providing 12 weeks of paid parental leave to personnel, including adoptive and foster parents. I am also pleased that it includes a number of other provisions aimed at deterring foreign influence in our elections, tackling the technological threats from China as the U.S. and other nations move to 5G communications, revamping our outdated security clearance process, and enabling the IC to exchange talent with the private sector.”

“Today’s passage of the Intelligence Authorization Act (IAA) marks a significant investment in the men and women of our Intelligence Community and the work they do to keep our nation safe,” said Chairman Burr. “The IAA was approved unanimously by the Senate Intelligence Committee last month, and I am glad to see it included in this year’s bipartisan defense bill. This legislation is critical for advancing the IC’s mission of deterring foreign adversaries, strengthening our election security, protecting our technology supply chains, and building a capable workforce. It strikes the right balance between giving our intelligence agencies the resources they need to operate effectively, while keeping them accountable to American taxpayers. I look forward to the IAA’s passage in the House.”

Background:

The IAA for Fiscal Years 2018-2020 authorizes funding and enables comprehensive, Congressional oversight for the U.S. Intelligence Community. This legislation is named for two dedicated staff members on the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, Damon Nelson and Matt Pollard, who passed away last year.

Specifically, the bill improves the Intelligence Community’s ability to defend the United States by:

• Deterring aggression from Russia and other foreign actors by increasing the United States’ capability of detecting malign activities, such as active measure campaigns, illicit financial transactions, and other intelligence activities.
• Securing our elections from foreign meddling by requiring strategic assessments of Russian cyber threats and influence campaigns, and facilitating increased information sharing between local, state, and federal government officials.
• Enhancing the security clearance process by requiring a plan to reduce the backlog, increase efficiencies, create an interagency information sharing program for positions of trust, and ensure compliance with uniform clearance eligibility procedures within the federal government.
• Protecting the U.S. Government technology supply chain by creating a task force within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and improving the procurement process to defend against intrusion and sabotage.
• Bolstering the recruitment and retention of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) professionals by enhancing career path flexibility and benefits for cybersecurity experts working within the Intelligence Community.
• Improving the Intelligence Community Inspector General’s oversight by establishing an effective appeals panel process and enabling consistency among Intelligence Community agencies’ processes and procedures.
• Advancing the Intelligence Community workforce by requiring 12 weeks of paid parental leave for civilian IC personnel, and by establishing a Public-Private Talent Exchange to foster professional experiences and growth.

The IAA was approved by the Senate Intelligence Committee on a bipartisan and unanimous 15-0 vote on May 14, 2019.

###

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senators Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine announced $844,100 in federal grants and loans for the towns of Quantico, Stanley, Pennington Gap, Marion, Galax, Cape Charles, and Exmore to purchase nine vehicles and equipment through the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Office of Rural Development.

“We’re pleased to support rural communities in Virginia with federal funding to improve safety and boost public facilities,” the Senators said. “This funding will help ensure that these communities can replace outdated equipment and better serve residents.”

The following localities will receive funding as follows:

•The Town of Quantico will receive a grant of $21,600 and a loan of $17,800 to purchase a 2018 Ford F-150 police truck to provide reliable public safety services for the town of Quantico's residents. This new vehicle will replace a 27-year-old high mileage truck.

• The Town of Stanley will receive a grant of $35,700 and loan of $29,300 to purchase two Dodge Durangos to provide public and emergency services in Page County. 

• The Town of Pennington Gap will receive a grant of $50,000 and loan of $269,000 to purchase a new, properly equipped pumper truck. The truck is a 2019 crew cab pumper with a 1,250-gallon-per-minute pump and a 1,000-gallon tank and will replace a 1987 pumper. The new truck will be able to transport up to five people instead of only two, as allowed in the old truck.

• The Town of Marion will receive a grant of $50,000 and loan of $180,000 to purchase a properly equipped 4x4 Type 1 ambulance. The current ambulances are 10 to 21 years old. The town has been affected by the opioid crisis in Southwest Virginia, which has increased the number of ambulance calls for the Emergency Services Department. The present ambulance fleet is not sufficient to provide adequate coverage and services for the town and surrounding areas.

• The City of Galax will receive a grant of $25,000 and loan of $23,700 to purchase two police vehicles. The police vehicles are used 24 hours a day/7 days a week by three rotating shifts. They accumulate high mileage quickly, averaging 40,000 miles a year. Some of the older, high-mileage vehicles need to be replaced because they are no longer considered safe and reliable.

• The Town of Cape Charles will receive a grant of $11,000 and loan of $23,000 to purchase a police vehicle. Each of the town of Cape Charles' six police officers has a vehicle. The town has a six-year rotation policy, where they take the oldest vehicle or the one with the most mechanical problems out of service for the safety of their officers and town residents.

• The Town of Exmore will receive a grant of $50,000 and loan of $58,000 to purchase a six-wheel sanitation vehicle to serve the town of Exmore's residents and businesses. The town has two trucks for trash pickup. One of those vehicles was retired due to its age and poor condition, leaving one high-mileage 10-year-old truck to service the entire town.

USDA’s Community Facilities Program provides funding to develop essential community facilities in rural areas. An essential community facility is defined as a facility that provides an essential service to the local community in a primarily rural area, and does not include private, commercial or business undertakings.

###

WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner (D-VA) and Josh Hawley (R-MO) will introduce the Designing Accounting Safeguards to Help Broaden Oversight And Regulations on Data (DASHBOARD) Act, bipartisan legislation that will require data harvesting companies such as social media platforms to tell consumers and financial regulators exactly what data they are collecting from consumers, and how it is being leveraged by the platform for profit.

“For years, social media companies have told consumers that their products are free to the user. But that’s not true – you are paying with your data instead of your wallet,” said Sen. Warner. “But the overall lack of transparency and disclosure in this market have made it impossible for users to know what they’re giving up, who else their data is being shared with, or what it’s worth to the platform. Our bipartisan bill will allow consumers to understand the true value of the data they are providing to the platforms, which will encourage competition and allow antitrust enforcers to identify potentially anticompetitive practices.”

“When a big tech company says its product is free, consumers are the ones being sold. These 'free' products track everything we do so tech companies can sell our information to the highest bidder and use it to target us with creepy ads,” said Sen. Hawley. “Even worse, tech companies do their best to hide how much consumer data is worth and to whom it is sold. This bipartisan legislation gives consumers control of their data and will show them how much these 'free' services actually cost.”

As user data increasingly represents one of the most valuable, albeit intangible, assets held by technology firms, shining light on how this data is collected, retained, monetized, and protected, is critical. The DASHBOARD Act will:

• Require commercial data operators (defined as services with over 100 million monthly active users) to disclose types of data collected as well as regularly provide their users with an assessment of the value of that data.

• Require commercial data operators to file an annual report on the aggregate value of user data they’ve collected, as well as contracts with third parties involving data collection.

• Require commercial data operators to allow users to delete all, or individual fields, of data collected – and disclose to users all the ways in which their data is being used. including any uses not directly related to the online service for which the data was originally collected.

• Empower the SEC to develop methodologies for calculating data value, while encouraging the agency to facilitate flexibility to enable businesses to adopt methodologies that reflect the different uses, sectors, and business models.

The DASHBOARD Act is the second tech-focused bill Hawley and Warner have partnered on. The first was Hawley’s Do Not Track Act, which would be modeled after the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) “Do Not Call” list and allow users to opt out of non-essential data collection.

A section-by-section summary of the bill is available here. Bill text is available here.

###

WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-VA), a member of the Senate Committee on the Budget and a leading Democratic voice when it comes to matters of debt and deficit reduction, on Friday urged the Trump Administration to back off a proposal that would change how the government calculates the federal poverty line and result in cuts to safety-net programs like Head Start, Medicaid, food stamps, and more.

Last month, the Trump Administration signaled it was considering changing the inflation rate used to calculate the federal poverty line, which is used to determine eligibility for a wide array of health and nutrition programs, including Medicaid, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and the National School Lunch Program. In a “solicitation of comments,” the Office of Management and Budget contemplates shifting from the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), to the chained Consumer Price Index (CPI) or the Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index (PCEPI), to calculate inflation and cost-of-living adjustments –  a switch that will, over time, shrink the number of Americans eligible for these congressionally-mandated programs.

“OMB’s notice came as a surprise to many given evidence that the current inflation index may not do enough to account for the expenses that dominate lower-income households’ spending or accurately reflect changes in the costs of meeting basic needs,” wrote Sen. Warner in a letter to OMB’s chief statistician. “That official estimates of minimum living costs regularly exceed the poverty line by a significant margin only casts more doubt on the prudence and rationale of OMB’s notice.”

Sen. Warner cautioned that using chained CPI to calculate the official poverty measure would force the most vulnerable families to exclusively shoulder the financial burden of any savings that may be realized.

“Prior efforts to seriously address the deficit—including the bipartisan Senate Gang of Six, of which I was a member—recommended using chained CPI when indexing various federal benefit programs. However, it did so only as part of a comprehensive deficit reduction plan that included additional tax revenue, provided important benefit improvements for programs that serve our most vulnerable, like Supplemental Security Income (SSI), and included measures to mitigate the impact on beneficiaries of means-tested programs,” concluded Sen. Warner. “This is the opposite of the OMB proposal, which would put the burden of deficit reduction on large numbers of low-income people who would lose eligibility for, or receive less help from, life-saving programs—and comes on the heels of the $1.65 trillion in decreased revenues implemented by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. Accordingly, I strongly urge you to abandon consideration of this or any substantially similar proposal.”

The full text of the letter is available here and below.

Dr. Nancy Potok, Chief Statistician

Office of Management and Budget

725 17th Street NW

Washington, DC 20006

Dear Dr. Potok:

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) notice regarding differences among various consumer price indexes and their influence on the estimation of the official poverty measure.

As you know, the OMB notice contemplates lowering the poverty line by applying a smaller cost-of-living adjustment each year, using either the chained Consumer Price Index (CPI) or the Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index (PCEPI) in place of the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U). OMB’s notice came as a surprise to many given evidence that the current inflation index may not do enough to account for the expenses that dominate lower-income households’ spending or accurately reflect changes in the costs of meeting basic needs. That official estimates of minimum living costs regularly exceed the poverty line by a significant margin only casts more doubt on the prudence and rationale of OMB’s notice.

Further, it would be wholly unacceptable to implement such a change without Congress’ approval. Congress has passed many pieces of legislation over the last several decades related to Medicaid, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and the National School Lunch Program under the assumption that the poverty line would continue to be calculated under the current methodology. For example, Congress has based its decisions on Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analyses of how legislation would affect federal costs, the number of people with health insurance coverage, and other outcomes. CBO’s analyses assumed that the current poverty line methodology would remain in place. If the Administration were to move ahead, it would be setting federal program eligibility limits in these programs below the levels that Congress intended to set. 

Moreover, the OMB proposal asks those who can least afford it to exclusively shoulder the financial burden of any savings that may be realized. Prior efforts to seriously address the deficit—including the bipartisan Senate Gang of Six, of which I was a member—recommended using chained CPI when indexing various federal benefit programs. However, it did so only as part of a comprehensive deficit reduction plan that included additional tax revenue, provided important benefit improvements for programs that serve our most vulnerable, like Supplemental Security Income (SSI), and included measures to mitigate the impact on beneficiaries of means-tested programs. This is the opposite of the OMB proposal, which would put the burden of deficit reduction on large numbers of low-income people who would lose eligibility for, or receive less help from, life-saving programs—and comes on the heels of the $1.65 trillion in decreased revenues implemented by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. Accordingly, I strongly urge you to abandon consideration of this or any substantially similar proposal.

Thank you for your willingness to consider my comments. If you would like any additional information, please contact Lauren Marshall on my staff at Lauren_Marshall@warner.senate.gov or (202) 224-2023.

Sincerely,

###

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) along with Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-VA) met in Sen. Kaine’s office in Washington, D.C. with a delegation representing Lee County Hospital. The meeting included representatives from the Lee County Hospital Authority, the Virginia Department of Health, and Ballad Health, who spoke with the members of Congress about next steps in the process of reopening the Lee County Hospital.

“Folks in Lee County and in rural communities across Virginia deserve to have access to the health care services they need,” said the members of Congress. “Rural hospitals face unique challenges, but in our meeting, the delegation from Lee County laid out a plan for how we can get this done. We are cautiously optimistic that this six-year effort is reaching the finish line and we plan to do everything in our power at the federal level to get the Lee County Hospital reopened next year.”

In 2013, the Lee County hospital – then known as the Lee County Regional Medical Center – closed abruptly, leaving the county without access to a nearby hospital. This closure hurt economic development in the area and affected public safety, as patients were forced to wait longer for medical care, and community sheriffs and fire squads spent valuable time escorting individuals across county and state lines to other hospitals.

In February of 2019, Lee County Hospital Authority chose Ballad Health as a partner and announced its intent to reopen the hospital, which will focus on treating chronic problems as well as providing much-needed emergency medical care and other typical hospital services. It will also provide a line of ancillary services to meet various community needs.

Last July, Sens. Warner and Kaine, along with Rep. Griffith, met with the Lee County Hospital Authority and key stakeholders to facilitate the reopening of the hospital. Additionally, earlier this year, Sens. Warner and Kaine introduced legislation that would benefit hospitals in medically underserved areas like Lee County, where patients are more likely to be uninsured and hospitals have struggled to stay afloat financially. The States Achieve Medicaid Expansion (SAME) Act of 2019 would allow states that expanded Medicaid after 2014 to receive the same level of federal matching funds as states that expanded earlier, and according to the Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association, it would save Virginia’s hospitals an estimated $300 million per year in the first three years of implementation.

###

WASHINGTON — Today, U.S. Senators Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine released the following statement regarding the Trump Administration’s decision to scrap plans to transfer Job Corps Civilian Conservation Centers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to the Department of Labor (DOL) and close nine Job Corps Civilian Conservation Centers – including the Flatwoods Job Corps Civilian Conservation Center in Coeburn, a top performing center: 

“Job training facilities like Flatwoods are critical to prepare Virginians for success in our economy. It’s welcome news that following our bipartisan calls for the Trump Administration to reverse course on their misguided proposal, they listened and will keep the Flatwoods facility open. We are thrilled that Flatwoods will be able to keep expanding economic opportunities in Southwest Virginia.”

Following the initial USDA and DOL announcement that the Flatwoods Job Corps Civilian Conservation Center in Coeburn and eight other Job Corps Civilian Conservation Centers were scheduled to close as part of the program’s transfer from USDA to DOL, Senators Warner and Kaine introduced legislation to prevent the Trump Administration from closing these facilities. The bipartisan Job Corps Protection Act would block the Administration from using federal government funds in 2019 or 2020 to close any Job Corps Civilian Conservation Centers in the United States. The Senators also joined Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-VA) in writing a letter urging DOL and USDA to reconsider the closure of these facilities. Separately, Warner and Kaine joined a bipartisan, bicameral group of 18 Senators and 33 Representatives in pushing USDA and DOL to reverse their decision to end the Civilian Conservation Center program in its current form and shutter nine facilities across the nation.

###

WASHINGTON – Today the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee advanced bipartisan legislation written by U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner (D-VA) and Cory Gardner (R-CO), co-founders of the Senate Cybersecurity Caucus, to improve the cybersecurity of Internet-connected devices. The Internet of Things (IoT) Cybersecurity Improvement Act of 2019 would require that devices purchased by the U.S. government meet certain minimum security requirements. The bill now awaits consideration in the full Senate.

“While I’m excited about their life-changing potential, many IoT devices are being sold without appropriate safeguards and protections in place, with the device market prioritizing convenience and price over security,” said Sen. Warner, a former technology entrepreneur and executive and Vice Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. “Today the Committee took an important step forward to proactively address the risks posed by improperly secured IoT devices, by using the purchasing power of the federal government to establish some minimum security standards for IoT devices.”

“I was pleased to see further action in the Senate on this important bill and I look forward to it being swiftly signed into law. The Internet of Things (IoT) landscape continues to expand, with most experts expecting tens of billions of devices to be operating on our networks within the next several years,” said Sen. Gardner. “As these devices continue to transform our society and add countless new entry points into our networks, we need to make sure they are secure, particularly when they are integrated into the federal government’s networks. Agencies like the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which has a major campus in Boulder, are key players in helping establish guidelines for improved IoT security and our bill builds on those efforts.”

Last week, the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Reform advanced companion legislation sponsored by Reps. Robin Kelly (D-IL) and Will Hurd (R-TX).

“This is an essential and bipartisan step toward improving our cybersecurity. We simply cannot allow IoT devices to become a backdoor for hackers and cybercriminals,” said Rep. Kelly. With the House and Senate taking action, Congress is signaling that it’s past time to address the issue of unsecure devices on federal networks.”  

“Every single minute of every single day, hackers are trying to steal Americans’ information. From credit card numbers, to social security numbers, our personal information is targeted by bad actors around the globe. Internet of Things devices will improve and enhance nearly every aspect of our society, economy and everyday lives – and are growing rapidly. We must act now to ensure these devices are built with security in mind, not as an afterthought,” said Rep. Hurd. “I applaud Sens. Warner and Gardner for their hard work on moving this important, bipartisan cybersecurity bill forward in the Senate, and I’ll continue to work with Rep. Kelly and my colleagues in the House to bring this bill to the House floor.”

Specifically, the Internet of Things (IoT) Cybersecurity Improvement Act of 2019 as passed out of Committee today would:

• Require the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to issue recommendations addressing, at a minimum, secure development, identity management, patching, and configuration management for IoT devices.
• Direct the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to issue guidelines for each agency that are consistent with the NIST recommendations, and charge OMB with reviewing these policies at least every five years.
• Require any Internet-connected devices purchased by the federal government to comply with those recommendations.
• Direct NIST to work with cybersecurity researchers, industry experts, and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to publish guidance on coordinated vulnerability disclosure to ensure that vulnerabilities related to agency devices are addressed.
• Require contractors and vendors providing information systems to the U.S. government to adopt coordinated vulnerability disclosure policies, so that if a vulnerability is uncovered, that can be effectively shared with a vendor for remediation.

###

WASHINGTON – Senators Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Mark Warner (D-Va.) today called on federal investigators to improve transparency surrounding their review of the fatal shooting of Bijan Ghaisar by U.S. Park Police in 2017. In letters to the FBI and National Park Service, the senators are requesting an update of the investigation as well as the U.S. Park Police’s policies regarding the use of force.

In the letter to the FBI, the senators expressed frustration that previous inquiries have been ignored. The lack of transparency and cooperation have forced Ghaisar’s family to seek information via Freedom of Information Act requests to obtain basic details about a shooting that occurred 19 months ago.

“The FBI has failed to provide information on this investigation, which has been ongoing since November 2017, to us, our colleagues, or the public.  The FBI’s slow pace and lack of transparency are weakening the trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve,” the senators wrote to the FBI.

Grassley first sought information on the FBI’s investigation in December of 2018. The FBI responded without providing much information in March. Grassley again sought an update in March, but the FBI has failed to respond.

In the letter to the National Park Service, the senators pushed for additional transparency and cooperation to promote and improve the trust and accountability necessary for law enforcement to effectively serve their communities.

“As you know, our communities are safer when law enforcement and the people they protect can trust and hold each other accountable. Officer-involved shootings and the use of excessive force, which have led to criminal investigations and prosecutions, demonstrate that there is still work to do in order to strengthen police-community relations,’ the senators wrote to the National Park Service.

In January 2018, Warner, along with Senator Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Representative Don Beyer (D-Va.), pushed the FBI for an update on the status of the FBI’s investigation into the Ghaisar shooting. That April, the FBI responded that it would not discuss an active investigation. Warner has also pressed the National Park Service regarding the circumstances under which U.S. Park Police officers engaged with Mr. Ghaisar, and has met with leaders from both the National Park Service and the FBI to encourage full transparency regarding this incident.

Grassley and Warner’s letter to the FBI is available HERE. Their letter to the National Park Service is available HERE.

###

WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senators Mark Warner (D-VA) and Rob Portman (R-OH) introduced bipartisan legislation, the Go To High School, Go To College Act, which will make college more affordable for low-income students by letting them earn college credits while still in high school, funded through the Pell Grant program. The legislation will create the College in High School Federal Pell Grant Pilot Program, which will build upon the Department of Education’s Experimental Site for Dual Enrollment. Representatives Marcia Fudge (D-OH) and Elise Stefanik (R-NY) are leading the legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives.

“Cost alone shouldn’t deter motivated young people who are willing to work hard and get an early start on their postsecondary education," said Warner. “This legislation will provide an essential resource for low-income students for whom college or a competitive start in the workforce might otherwise seem out of reach.”

“The average cost of college tuition and fees at national universities continues to skyrocket,” Portman said. “For high school students from low-income households, that can make college feel out of reach. Our legislation will let these students get a head start on college, make it more affordable for them and their families, and help them live out their God-given potential.”

“What’s always been important is now imperative: the rising cost of college and our nation’s need for a skilled workforce mandate that all students can engage in early and affordable pathways to high-quality credential and degree programs,” said Joel Vargas, JFF vice president. “JFF applauds the Go to High School, Go to College Act for its innovative approach to expanding equitable access to high-quality dual enrollment programs that have continually proven to enable more low-income students to earn college credit while in high school. We are also pleased that a robust evaluation is included, which will ensure policymakers and practitioners can learn from the program’s results. This effort will expand access to dual enrollment programs, reduce the time and cost of earning a college credential, and improve educational outcomes while strengthening our economies and communities.”

“College in High School programs, such as dual and concurrent enrollment, engage a wide variety of students in an equivalent variety of courses. Dual enrollment programs are not just for the academically élite, although they certainly thrive here, but inclusive of aspiring welders, pilots, carpenters, nurses, engineers, database architects, and entrepreneurs: all students and all courses,” said Amy Williams, Executive Director of the National Alliance of Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships. “Students in these programs find early access to and success in college, helping them advance to college with focus and direction. The data show that students participating in these programs are more likely to go to college, to persist in their studies, and complete a degree or credential in a timely manner. This is a high-value program that benefits educators, students, families, employers, and the American education system as a whole, yet access and affordability are still fundamental barriers to participation. The Go to High School, Go to College Act creates an innovative space to support students early exposure to a successful future through affordable access to postsecondary education and training. NACEP, the nation's leading organization working to advance quality college courses for high school students by supporting programs, practitioners, and policy. We enthusiastically support this legislation as an important step to address higher education access and affordability for all Americans.”

“At KnowledgeWorks, we’ve seen the power of early college firsthand as students who are the first in their family to go to college get a jump start on their dreams with a high school diploma and an associate degree. While a university president, I saw how dual enrollment could reduce the cost of college, reduce the time to a degree and significantly reduce student loan debt. The Go to High School, Go to College Act can provide a multiplying effect to students and their families on the basis of costs and an opportunity for institutions to provide innovative opportunities to accelerate degrees. This bill has the potential to make the opportunity of college real for many more students and the dream of a degree a reality,” said KnowledgeWorks President and CEO, Chuck Ambrose, EdD.

“Students in middle/early college programs are guided through post-secondary degree earning pathways while in high school,” said Dr. Cece Cunningham, Executive Director of the Middle College National Consortium. “Our average student completes over 20 credits prior to high school graduation, and many graduate with an associates degree. The support from the Go to High School Go to College Act is a tremendous opportunity for our first-generation low-income students.”

“Research and experience demonstrate that students who have the opportunity to earn college credits and degrees while still in high school are significantly more likely to enroll in and complete postsecondary education,” said Clara Botstein, Associate Vice President at Bard Early Colleges. “Early college high school is an effective, powerful free college approach, but access is currently far too limited. The Go to High School, Go to College Act will allow many more low-income students to access high-quality early college opportunities, increasing postsecondary completion nationwide.”

“In today’s economy, postsecondary education is not a luxury, it’s a requirement. Too often, however, students’ pathways through college are thwarted by mounting debt. Thus, a significant challenge is how to increase access to college while decreasing student debt? While it doesn’t require a silver bullet, it will take a smart policy. The Go to High School, Go to College Act is exactly that. It offers an opportunity for underserved students to earn college credit while in high school, at no cost to them,” said Deb Delisle, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education. “Given that students with early college experiences are five to seven times more likely to earn a postsecondary credential, the evidence shows that this type of solution works.  There is no question that it must be included in a reauthorization of the Higher Education Act.”

NOTE: The Go to High School, Go to College Act will authorize a pilot program for 250 institutions of higher education to allow high school students participating in dual enrollment programs offered by that institution the opportunity to apply for Pell grant funding to earn transferable college credits, including core general education requirements. The proposed College in High School Federal Pell Grant Pilot Program will build upon the Department of Education’s Experimental Site for Dual Enrollment in two important ways:

• Students will have the opportunity to earn up to two semesters worth of college credit before drawing down from their 12 semester Pell Grant limit, ensuring that students participating in dual enrollment programs are not penalized financially.
• The pilot program includes a robust evaluation mechanism, which the current experimental site lacks.

In addition, the pilot program retains and builds upon other student protections and quality assurance mechanisms in the existing experimental site, including ensuring that students have credit transfer options available to them for college credit earned in a dual enrollment program beyond just the issuing institution of higher education.

###

WASHINGTON – U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) released the following statement on the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) proposal to relocate two research agencies, the Economic Research Service (ERS) and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), from Washington, D.C. to Kansas City.

“USDA’s proposed relocation of the Economic Research Service and National Institute of Food and Agriculture will unnecessarily uproot hundreds of dedicated federal employees and could negatively impact the missions of both agencies,” the Senators said. “These agencies play a critical role in setting agricultural, nutritional, and environmental policy in the U.S. Disconnecting them from other vital research agencies in the National Capital Region will undoubtedly disrupt the work they carry out and impact their ability to attract and retain highly-qualified personnel. We have introduced legislation to block this ill-conceived move and will continue to work with our colleagues to keep these agencies in the National Capital Region.”

 In May, Sens. Warner and Kaine, along with other members of Congress representing the National Capital Region, sent a letter to Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue urging him not to relocate ERS and NIFA. The Senators have also introduced legislation barring the research agencies from leaving the National Capital Region. In addition, Sen. Warner has placed a hold on nominee Scott Hutchins for Undersecretary for research, education, and economics at the Department of Agriculture in opposition to the proposed relocation.

###

WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-VA), a former technology entrepreneur and venture capitalist, joined Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) in co-sponsoring the Do Not Track Act, bipartisan legislation to give control over personal data back to users. Similar to the national “Do Not Call” list, the Do Not Track Act gives every person the power to block online companies from collecting any data beyond what is necessary for the companies’ online services.

“Unfortunately, as our technology continues to evolve, so do the avenues for consumer exploitation,” said Sen. Warner. “In the age of the internet, user information is an incredibly valuable asset and Americans deserve to have more control over who can collect it and how they can use it. This legislation will give power back to users and allow them to decide who can and cannot access their private data.”

“Big tech companies collect incredible amounts of deeply personal, private data from people without giving them the option to meaningfully consent. They have gotten incredibly rich by employing creepy surveillance tactics on their users, but too often the extent of this data extraction is only known after a tech company irresponsibly handles the data and leaks it all over the internet. The American people didn't sign up for this, so I'm introducing this legislation to finally give them control over their personal information online,” said Sen. Hawley.

The sheer enormity of data big tech companies extract, and the unscrupulous ways they use that data, is distressing. These companies track user locations and spy on their internet history – even when they are told not to. In March, a senior official at Google admitted, under oath, that Google still tracks a user’s geolocation hundreds of times a day even after that person turns off “location history.” Facebook even collects data on people who don’t have a Facebook account. These companies and others exploit this harvested data to build massive profiles on users and then rake in hundreds of billions of dollars monetizing that data.

For years, industry groups promoted a program called “Do Not Track” to give users control, and the FTC endorsed the program in 2010. However, the program was voluntary, and tech giants that built their businesses around exploiting data refused to voluntarily comply. This bill would give Do Not Track legal force and expand it to cover all internet activity, not just browser-based activity. It would do this by:

• Creating a program similar to the national Do Not Call list that gives every person the power, at a touch of a button, to block online companies from collecting any data beyond what is indispensable to the companies’ online services.
• Prohibiting companies from profiling Americans who activate Do Not Track.
• Banning discrimination against people who activate Do Not Track.
• Banning companies from transferring data to other companies when a user activates Do Not Track unless the first company is an intended intermediary.
• Forcing internet companies to disclose to users their rights under this legislation.
• Imposing strict penalties for violating these provisions.

Under the Do Not Track Act, users would have several options to enroll, including a one-time click in the settings on their browser or downloading a simple app.

###