U.S. Sen. Mark Warner held a media availability Thursday afternoon (July 10) to condemn what he called “one of the worst pieces of legislation” he has seen in his career, referring to a recently passed Republican bill that he says will devastate healthcare access and veteran services across Virginia.
The Virginia Democrat told reporters the legislation will strip healthcare coverage from 17 million Americans, including at least 300,000 Virginians, while providing tax cuts for wealthy Americans and adding $3.5 trillion to the national debt.
“At the end of the day, it cut health care and food assistance for literally millions to pay for a tax cut for the wealthiest of Americans,” Warner said during the remote briefing from the Capitol.
The senator warned that rural hospitals across Virginia face potential closure due to dramatic Medicaid cuts included in the bill. He expressed particular concern about Lee County Hospital in far southwest Virginia, which serves residents in Lee and Scott counties.
“We spent years getting that facility reopened, and it’s been successful for the folks in Lee County and even some in adjacent communities like Scott County,” Warner said. “But I just think there’s no way that that hospital, I don’t know how that hospital will stay alive when you have these draconian cuts to Medicaid.”
Warner said the legislation affects two groups of Americans who will lose coverage: 11 to 12 million people through Medicaid cuts, and another 5 to 6 million who purchase insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplace but will lose their subsidies.
“If you add $700, $800, $900 a month increase for your health care, you’re not going to be able to afford it,” he said. “And some of those changes will actually start to take place this year.”
The senator predicted insurance companies will set new rates in September, leading to dramatic cost increases that will surprise consumers in November.
Beyond healthcare, Warner criticized cuts to food assistance programs that will affect hundreds of thousands of Virginians and millions of Americans nationwide.
“Does anybody really think a kid is going to do better in school if they miss out on a school lunch or a school breakfast?” he asked.
The legislation also eliminates incentives for renewable energy sources, including solar and wind power, which Warner called “a packaged up gift to China” that undermines national security interests.
Warner addressed concerns about veteran healthcare, revealing that the Trump administration plans to cut 30,000 Department of Veterans Affairs staff positions, down from an initially proposed 80,000 cuts.
“Veterans should be concerned. One, that they’ve already had to wait too long for care, and that wait is going to get a lot, lot worse,” Warner said.
He pointed to two new VA facilities in Virginia – one in Spotsylvania, near Fredericksburg, and another in Hampton Roads – that are only about 30% staffed, despite having taken years to build.
“Veterans in those communities have waited almost a decade, which took way too long for these facilities to be built. But now, they go to these facilities and they’re going to see office after office or equipment not being used because they can’t get staffed,” Warner said.
The senator also criticized Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for unilaterally pausing military assistance to Ukraine without President Trump’s knowledge.
“Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of Defense, is incompetent and the President should either ask for his resignation or fire him,” Warner said. “The idea that he is arbitrarily deciding to cut off assistance to the Ukrainians and allow Vladimir Putin to basically slaughter Ukrainian civilians to attack their cities.”
Warner expressed concerns about artificial intelligence deepfakes following a State Department warning about someone using AI to impersonate Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
“I’ve been warning about this problem of deepfakes using AI for the last couple of years,” he said. “I think it would be really important for Congress to step up.”
The senator warned that without federal action on AI regulation, states should implement their own guardrails to prevent political manipulation, market manipulation, and the creation of non-consensual images.
Warner also addressed the Trump administration’s attacks on Virginia public universities, including forcing out the University of Virginia President Jim Ryan and potential threats against George Mason University.
“Our universities are well managed in Virginia, run by boards of visitors that are appointed by the governor,” Warner said. “Tim Kaine and I, as former governors, are proud of our universities, and we are going to stand up against this federal meddling.”
Regarding the proposed rescissions package coming to the Senate next week, Warner said it would eliminate all foreign assistance and funding for NPR and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
“If President Trump can arbitrarily say, I’m going to ignore the law and just rescind what I don’t like, there really raises a question of why go through the budget process in the first place if Congress doesn’t have the power of the purse,” he said.
Warner encouraged Virginians to consider these policy impacts when voting for governor and House of Delegates this fall.
“If you like these cuts, you vote for one team. If you don’t like these cuts and you think we are better with more people having health care coverage and more kids going to school, not hungry, then vote for the candidate. In this case, it’s Abigail Spanberger who opposed these cuts,” he said.
The senator concluded by announcing that his longtime press aide, Laura Dacy, is leaving his office to return to the Midwest to be with family.
