Concern from a Taxpaying Citizen
Dear friend,
I’m deeply concerned by the Senate passage of the Republican-backed budget bill. Let me be clear: I voted no because the bill is horrible for Virginians and our economy.
This megabill slashes Medicaid, nutrition assistance, and other critical programs that Americans rely on in order to pay for massive tax breaks to the very rich. If the House passes this bill, at least 323,000 Virginians will lose their health insurance, at least 204,000 Virginians—including children—will lose nutrition assistance, energy costs will rise, and 20,000 jobs in Virginia will be jeopardized. And for what? To pay for enormous tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy.
Virginians deserve better than that.
That’s why I filed several amendments to try and improve the bill—focused on priorities like protecting health care access, safeguarding rural hospitals, protecting Americans from hunger, shielding veterans from mass layoffs, and many other important issues. Unfortunately, my colleagues across the aisle blocked them all.
Over the last several months, I’ve heard from many Virginians who have taken the time to share their concerns about this bill by calling my office or writing to me through my website. Your insights have been invaluable, and please know that I’m committed to doing everything I can to ensure all Virginians have the support they need in the wake of this disastrous legislation.
I look forward to keeping in touch and hearing about the issues that matter most to you. If you or a loved one needs help with a federal agency, please reach out to a member of my staff here. If you’d like to receive updates on my work in the U.S. Senate, sign up here to receive my newsletters and follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Bluesky.
Sincerely,
Visit my website: kaine.senate.gov
Dear friend,
I’m sure you’ve heard a lot recently about the tax bill going through Congress. Unfortunately, if passed as is, the bill would be devastating for Virginia and our economy. Hundreds of thousands will lose their health care, children will go hungry, energy costs will rise, and taxes on the lowest earners will go up. Across the Commonwealth, everyday Virginians will suffer—all to give massive tax breaks to billionaires.
Here are a few examples of what’s wrong with this bill:
- Instead of focusing on giving tax breaks to middle-class Americans, this bill would provide massive, disproportionate tax breaks to billionaires at the expense of everyone else. The lowest earners—those making less than $15,000 a year—would face a 53.3 percent tax hike. Meanwhile, the top 0.1% would get a six-figure tax cut. The bottom 10 percent of Americans would see household resources reduced by 4 percent, while the top 10 percent would see resources increase by 2 percent.
- Massive tax breaks to the ultra-wealthy would add $3.8 trillion to the national deficit, meaning working Americans would foot the bill to line the pockets of billionaires.
- The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) would lose more than 20 percent of its funding—resulting in at least 204,000 Virginians, including children, losing full or partial food assistance benefits.
- More than 262,000 Virginians would lose health insurance coverage due to cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act.
- The repeal of key Inflation Reduction Act provisions jeopardizes over 20,000 new Virginia jobs from clean energy investments and risks raising energy costs for Virginians. If left intact, the average Virginian household could save between $520 and $1,190 in energy cost savings per year through tax cuts for home and appliance upgrades under the Inflation Reduction Act.
- Americans would lose access to Direct File—a pilot program created by the Inflation Reduction Act that allows Americans to file their federal taxes for free without making extra payments to tax preparation services.
- Our communities would be less safe because this bill weakens gun safety measures on gun silencers, which make it harder for law enforcement to locate and respond to active shooters.
- Pell Grants, which help students from middle- and low-income families attend college, would be reduced or eliminated for about two-thirds of current recipients, including over 99,500 Virginians.
It’s simple: this bill is a bad deal. We must fight this.
Some of my colleagues across the aisle have already voiced their concerns because they’re hearing from their own constituents about how badly this will hurt them. I will continue to push each of my colleagues to join me in opposing this bill, and when the time comes, I will introduce amendments to mitigate the harmful impacts this bill would have for Virginians and Americans across the country.
I promise to continue fighting this bill in every way I can. If you have questions about this tax bill, please reach out to a member of my staff here. If you’d like to receive updates on my work in the U.S. Senate, sign up here to receive my newsletters and follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Bluesky.
Sincerely,
Visit my website: kaine.senate.gov
Dear friend,
One of the best parts of my job is getting to travel across the Commonwealth to spend time with Virginians. This past week, I met with folks to discuss important issues, including the economy, workforce development, health care, Social Security, education, and transportation.
I kicked off the week in Danville, where I sat down with Virginia business leaders to discuss the Southside economy and economic development in the region. With these folks and throughout the week, I heard common concerns about the economy, the importance of creating good-paying jobs, and the ways President Trump’s tariffs have created chaos, confusion, and uncertainty. I share these concerns, which is why this week, I plan to force a vote in the Senate to undo those tariffs to protect our economy, provide more certainty for businesses, and prevent price hikes on everyday goods.
In Wytheville, I had an important roundtable discussion with older Americans, health care providers, and advocates on the need to protect Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. President Trump and Republicans have proposed massive cuts to these federal programs and others that Virginians rely on. If successful, Trump and Republicans would cause over 600,000 Virginians to lose their health care. I will always fight to protect these vital services for Virginians and all Americans.
On Wednesday, I started my day in Richlands to meet with participants and partners of the Reengagement Opportunities and Pathways to Employment Success (R.O.P.E.S.) program, which helps individuals in substance use recovery access resources and get jobs. These folks shared their inspiring stories with me and reaffirmed the need to support and expand programs like R.O.P.E.S., and the need to pass my bipartisan PEER Support Act, which would better support mental health and substance use disorder recovery. I was proud to secure $750,000 in federal funding for the Southwest Virginia Workforce Development Board to expand the R.O.P.E.S. program in the Fiscal Year 2023 government funding bill, and I will continue push for greater support for these vital services.
After, I traveled to the Christiansburg Library to hold a conversation with libraries, museums, and cultural centers from around Virginia. These places play such an important role in our communities, such as facilitating educational opportunities and providing broadband access for those in rural areas. But many of these places have recently lost federal grants, and the Trump Administration is gutting the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), which support libraries, museums, and cultural centers around the country, including the National Museum of African American History and Culture. I will continue to fight to protect critical federal programs that Virginians rely on.
On Thursday, I attended the New River Valley Station groundbreaking ceremony in Christiansburg to celebrate the start of construction of the station, which will extend rail service to the New River Valley. I was proud to extend passenger rail service to Lynchburg as Governor, support the expansion of service to Roanoke early in my Senate tenure, and secure federal funds for the platform study that landed on the location for this extension to Christiansburg to make travel more convenient and consistent across Virginia. I’m excited to keep working on this and work to extend service all the way to Bristol!
Then, I traveled to Roanoke to meet with members of the Ukrainian community to hear their stories and reaffirm my commitment to supporting Ukraine and democracy around the world. I told them about my recent trip to Ukraine, Poland, and Germany, where I met with government officials, veterans, non-governmental organizations, and U.S. military personnel. I’m committed to doing everything I can to continue supporting Ukraine as it fights back against Russia’s brutal invasion.
I want to thank everyone who shared their story with me this past week. I’m so grateful for your time and insights. I promise to continue fighting to protect all Virginians.
I look forward to keeping in touch and hearing about the issues that matter most to you. If you or a loved one needs help with a federal agency, please reach out to a member of my staff here. If you’d like to receive updates on my work in the U.S. Senate, sign up here to receive my newsletters and follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Bluesky.
Sincerely,
Visit my website: kaine.senate.gov
April 8, 2025Mrs. Sheryl Jones Brown
6187 Derby Way
Ruther Glen, VA 22546-2753Dear Mrs. Brown:
Thank you for contacting me about Elon Musk. I appreciate hearing from you.
Elon Musk, an unelected billionaire, and the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have spread chaos, confusion, dysfunction, and fear throughout the federal government. In the few months since President Donald Trump was inaugurated and made Musk a top adviser, the administration has fired thousands of people from federal agencies. This has especially impacted veterans, who make up 30 percent of the federal workforce compared to about five percent of the civilian workforce. Air traffic controllers, food safety inspectors, park rangers, people working on disaster recovery in Virginia and elsewhere, Social Security Administration workers, and employees of the Department of Veterans Affairs are either at risk of or have already seen their work grind to a halt and their jobs compromised. In addition, the Trump Administration added to the confusion when they claimed in a February 17, 2025 court filing that Musk is a “special government employee” of the White House with no official role at DOGE, despite all public statements crediting Musk with DOGE’s work.
This effort was kicked off by the reckless and illegal firing of Inspectors General (IGs) across the U.S. government, who are tasked with the crucial job of routing out waste, fraud, and abuse. I am particularly alarmed by the brazenly illegal actions to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and fire their workforces. The foreign assistance provided by USAID is a critical part of our national security strategy and a key tool to keep Americans safe from disease, narcotics, and instability –and provides lifesaving aid and development support globally. Without the U.S. providing these funds, adversaries like China, Russia, and Iran will step in to fill the void.
The CFPB, for its part, protects Americans from predatory lending by conducting independent investigations into financial wrongdoing to hold financial institutions accountable. At a time when American families are struggling with rising prices and misguided cuts to government programs, DOGE’s assault on the CFPB is not only at odds with reducing fraud and abuse, but will make justice harder to come by for consumers who have been wronged by large financial institutions. Furthermore, Musk and DOGE have accessed sensitive data at multiple federal agencies, including personnel files at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), tax returns at the IRS, student loan files at the Department of Education, and payment systems at the Treasury Department – despite likely violating U.S. privacy laws.
None of this has improved efficiency or reduced waste, fraud, and abuse. It is clear that these efforts are instead partly about “traumatizing” federal workers, in the words of OMB Director Russell Vought, and partly about Mr. Musk’s personal business interests. While Musk is dismantling federal institutions, his company, SpaceX, was awarded nearly $40 billion in government contracts for space exploration. Musk believes space travel contracted to his company is essential, but the Department of Education’s efforts to educate the next generation are wasteful government spending. These are deeply misguided and self-serving priorities.
I have been outspoken in denouncing the deferred resignation offer Mr. Musk sent to federal employees: the so-called “Fork in the Road” email. This offer is a sham and one that President Trump will renege on as he has on many promises throughout his career. I am deeply opposed to the Trump Administration’s efforts to intimidate and bully our federal workforce while lining Musk’s pockets with federal funding and denying Americans access to the services and institutions they rely on.
While there is not an overnight magic solution to fix these profound threats to the rule of law, some of the pressure has yielded positive results, and I am relieved that several recent court decisions have pushed back this agenda. But President Trump continues to attack federal workers, and I will not stop fighting to block the Administration’s harmful actions with every legislative tool available. For more information for federal employees, please visit my website at https://www.kaine.senate.gov/federalworkers. On this webpage, you can learn more about what I’m doing to oppose the Trump Administration’s attacks on the federal workforce, and can find resources to support federal employees. This page also has a place where federal employees can share their own stories, including anonymously if you would prefer. For a regularly-updated list of previous and ongoing actions to push back against the Trump agenda, you can visit kaine.senate.gov/download/kaineactions.
I am using every tool available to me to highlight the damage caused the actions of the Trump Administration and Musk – and to slow them down, stop them, or reverse them. I have been out and about across Virginia listening to the people impacted and amplifying their stories. I have used the parliamentary authorities available to me from the Senate minority to force certain pieces of legislation to the forefront on the Senate floor, to make all Senators engage with and answer for the Trump Administration’s bad and unpopular policies.
I am grateful to all federal workers for their service to their country. Please know that I’m doing everything I can to stand up for them just as they are standing up for the American people. Thank you again for contacting me.
Sincerely,
Tim Kaine
To the Recipients listed above,
My name is Sheryl Brown and I live in the 7th District of the State of Virginia. I follow all of you and your active political work and commend your efforts on making this country a place where all Americans can live and get along together. The last year or so and since Donald Trump has been sworn in as our 47th president has me concerned over the state of this government. So far, I have watched the dismantling of agencies and programs to help average citizens, the appointment of some to head up agencies that are questionable at best in being qualified, and a private citizen, Elon Musk obtaining the confidential financial information of many Americans. I am writing to express my disappointment and concern over what this president has been able to do in the 2 1/2 to 3 weeks since he has been in Office.
I encourage you to do what is necessary to stop this attack on the Constitution and the upending of our government. You were voted and sworn in by the people to protect us from anyone foreign or domestic from harming our country. What President Trump is doing is hurtful and needs to stop.
Thank you for taking the time to read my email.
Sincerely,
Sheryl Brown
