Clock is Ticking

Happy Friday from the Warner press office! As summer fades to fall, the only thing not cooling off is Sen. Warner’s fiery fight to get things done for Virginians. This week, he kept up the pressure on AI regulation, introduced a sweeping new health care bill, and led the fight to protect Americans against tick-borne diseases.

Let’s get into it:

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WE NEED TO ACT ON AI

If you’ve been keeping up with the AI industry, it feels like every day there’s a concerning new revelation about the accelerating pace of development. From the Hugging Face incident to reports of concerning AI failures in military operations… it’s abundantly clear that we need to act promptly to ensure that there isn’t a catastrophic attack on our banks, public infrastructure, internet, or otherwise.

Sen. Warner has been in this fight for a long time, and has spent years introducing legislation to prepare for this moment. In past weeks, we’ve told you about his comprehensive plan to prepare for a range of risks, and his efforts to ensure that we have the data needed to understand AI’s impact on employment.

This week, he redoubled that fight by introducing a piece of legislation to get ahead of some of the most urgent risks and ensure that AI is developed more responsibly.

The Artificial Intelligence Risk Management and Security Act of 2026 would establish a permanent Artificial Intelligence Safety Board – composed of government agencies and independent technical experts – to evaluate AI risks and establish safety standards. Developers of frontier AI models would be required to provide the Board access to their models before public release… and require a range of other safety and transparency measures so there are real standards in place… not just a “we trust you” model.

You can read more about all of its provisions here.

After introduction, Sen. Warner said,

“The companies building the most powerful AI systems in the world are sounding the alarm: the step-change increase in AI models’ capacity for cyber-offense, combined with clear failures to securely host and deploy these capabilities, could pose serious risks to our national security, our critical infrastructure, and the systems Americans rely on every day. I remain enormously optimistic about the potential of AI, but optimism cannot be an excuse for inaction, nor can we normalize these kinds of concerning incidents. If a model is capable of finding and exploiting vulnerabilities in a bank, a water system, or our electric grid, we ought to know that before it is released to the public – not after something goes catastrophically wrong. This legislation establishes basic, enforceable rules of the road to make sure the most powerful models are tested, secured, and responsibly deployed.”

Sen. Warner isn’t backing down on his fight for this legislation – so yesterday, he took to the Senate floor to fight for its immediate passage.

You can watch his floor speech here:

Rest assured, this is going to continue to be one of Sen. Warner’s top priorities in the coming weeks. Stay tuned for more updates as he continues this fight.

UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE

Ever since Republicans rammed through their unpopular Medicaid-slashing tax law, our health care system has been struggling to keep up. To make matters worse, more provisions of this devastating law are set to go into effect after the midterms, unleashing hell on rural hospitals and Americans struggling to afford their insurance alike. And to make matters even worse? The Trump administration also let ACA premium tax credits expire, shuttering a crucial lifeline that helped millions afford care.

But let’s be frank – the problems were brewing before any of these blows. For the last several decades, our health care system has been plagued by rising prices, and while the Affordable Care Act made massive improvements for millions of Americans, it’s clear that more needs to be done for the millions that are still falling through the cracks.

That’s why Sen. Warner has been advocating for universal health care – because it’s time for us to stop fighting about who gets coverage and time to start getting some basic care for everyone and devoting ourselves entirely to lowering costs.

Much like AI, Sen. Warner isn’t interested in just pontificating – he’s actually laying out legislative plans to get us closer to these urgent ideals.

This week, he introduced his Health CARE Act, a sweeping piece of legislation that would help get us closer to universal health care coverage in America.

His bill would:

• Reverse harmful health care provisions in H.R. 1.

• Make permanent enhanced ACA premium tax credits.

• Implement a low-cost public health insurance option.

• Expand the Medicare drug price negotiation program.

• Extend Medicare-negotiated drug prices, out-of-pocket limits for prescription drugs, inflation rebates, and $35 copay cap and no deductible on insulin to ACA and employer markets.

• Ensure health insurance companies and pharmacy benefit managers do not put profit over patients by reforming the use of step therapy and prior authorization, banning PBM spread pricing in Medicaid, allowing Medicare Advantage enrollees to switch plans mid-year if their provider leaves their network, and requiring all retail, mail-order, and specialty pharmacies to respond to surveys that collect drug acquisition costs.

• Improve Medicaid by reinstating the higher federal match when a state newly expands Medicaid and applying it retroactively to states that expanded late.

• Improve Medicare by including hearing aid coverage.

• Require hospitals, clinical laboratories, imaging centers, and ambulatory surgical centers make negotiated rates and cash prices public.

• Require health insurance plans in the employer and ACA markets provide detailed information about benefits, explanations of benefits, out-of-pocket costs, and utilization management policies to plan enrollees, and to make certain cost and ownership information public.

After introduction, Sen. Warner said:

“Our current health care system makes it hard and expensive for Virginians and Americans across the country to access the care they rely on. There is still a lot of work to be done to get to universal coverage, but my comprehensive Health CARE Act includes life-saving provisions to meaningfully improve health care and lower costs, including for those on Medicare, Medicaid, and those who get health insurance through their employer right now.”

While Republicans are likely to block just about anything that makes health care easier to afford, Sen. Warner isn’t backing down on this fight. He will keep pressing for incremental – and hopefully one day sweeping – changes to our health care system.

TICK TICK BOOM

If you don’t know anyone with alpha-gal syndrome now, you probably will soon. After a brutal summer, tick-borne diseases are surging across America, with severe impacts in Virginia.

That includes the more well-known Lyme Disease, but we’re also seeing a terrifying uptick (excuse the pun) in alpha-gal syndrome (AGS). This lesser-known sickness, caused by a bite from a lone star tick, incites a potentially life-threatening allergy to a carbohydrate found in mammals, which means those afflicted can’t have beef, pork, venison, gelatin, dairy, and some medications. Imagine a life without ice cream, hamburgers, or bacon… it’s a really disappointing outcome for the thousands of Americans that have contracted AGS.

Sen. Warner is springing into action to address this issue. This week, he unveiled two new pieces of legislation to meet this moment and protect Americans with AGS.

His STOP TICKS Act would help address the root issues here and prevent further spread of disease by reauthorizing and expanding the federal Tick-Borne Disease Working Group (TBDWG) and increasing funding for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) grants that support states and researchers working to combat vector-borne diseases.

And his Alpha-Gal Allergen Inclusion Act would help those already living with AGS by adding alpha-gal to the federal list of major food allergens, requiring clear and specific labeling on all U.S. packaged food products and helping Americans with AGS more easily identify products that could trigger a potentially life-threatening allergic reaction.

After introduction, Sen. Warner said:

“Cases of alpha-gal syndrome are rapidly increasing in Virginia and across the country, and nearly everyone I meet has or knows someone whose life has been affected by this disease. We must do more to understand, prevent, and treat AGS and other tick-borne diseases. I’m proud to introduce these two bills to strengthen our efforts to combat tick-borne diseases by expanding the Tick-Borne Disease Working Group, supporting research through targeted grants, and giving those living with AGS greater support by adding the condition to the major food allergen list.”

It’s a classic Sen. Warner solution – meeting the moment with targeted, actionable legislation. He will keeping working to build support for these bills and secure real relief for Americans afflicted by AGS.

GRAB BAG

TRYING NOT TO BE SALTY: Sens. Warner and Cruz (R-TX) introduced the Telecommunications Cybersecurity and Resilience Act, bipartisan legislation that would create a voluntary framework, developed by experts from government and the private sector, to strengthen telecommunications cybersecurity.

STANDING WITH FEDERAL EMPLOYEES: Sen. Warner asked for unanimous consent to pass his Protect America’s Workforce Act (PAWA), legislation that would repeal two union-busting executive orders and restore collective bargaining rights and workplace protections for federal workers.

CALLING ON CMS: Sens. Warner and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) urged the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to reconsider sweeping proposed changes to remote patient monitoring that could limit access to care for Medicare beneficiaries, particularly those in rural communities and those served by hospitals and small and independent practices, as well as undermine bipartisan efforts to expand technology-enabled health care.

MODERNIZING SCHOOLS: Sens. Warner and Kaine reintroduced the School Infrastructure Modernization Act of 2026,legislation to help modernize aging school buildings in Virginia and across the nation by expanding access to the federal historic rehabilitation tax credit.

ANTI-FREEZE: Sen. Warner urged congressional leaders to reject the Trump administration’s proposed federal employee pay freeze and deliver a meaningful pay increase in 2027.

FIGHTING FOR ANSWERS: Sen. Warner and his colleagues called on Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton to investigate reported failures involving the use of artificial intelligence in U.S. military and intelligence operations and provide relevant Inspectors General unrestricted access to examine the incidents.

THE WEEK AHEAD

Sen. Warner is meeting with constituents across Virginia this weekend. The Senate will be in session next week to vote on key nominations and legislation.

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