Press Releases

Reed, Whitehouse & Magaziner Announce $500,000 to Support Revitalization of Blighted Colonial Knife Factory into Budding What Cheer Flower Farm

New federal brownfields funding will help What Cheer Flower Farm turn former factory site into colorful, sustainable flower farm

PROVIDENCE, RI - What Cheer Flower Farm in Olneyville has $500,000 more reasons to cheer as it continues to remediate and redevelop a 2.7 acre site in Providence that used to be home to the Colonial Knife factory, but has sat vacant for years. Today, U.S. Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse and Congressman Seth Magaziner announced a $500,000 Brownfields Cleanup Grant to help What Cheer Flower Farm with the revitalization efforts to cleanup the formerly vacant site and turn it from an eye … Continue Reading

Reed & Whitehouse Help Land Another $9M for Rhode Island T. F. Green International Airport

New federal funds will help upgrade key taxiway & conduct an environmental assessment of proposed south cargo project

U.S. Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse today announced that the Rhode Island Airport Corporation (RIAC) has been awarded over $9 million in federal funding for operational upgrades and planning at Rhode Island's T.F. Green International Airport. These two federal U.S. Department of Transportation grants, totaling $9,015,250, will be administered through the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA's) Airport Improvement Program (AIP). This federal funding will be used for: Realignment of… Continue Reading

Reed, Whitehouse, Colleagues Reintroduce Affordability is Access Act

Legislation would protect women’s access to affordable over-the-counter birth control

As extremist Republican state legislatures and right-wing, GOP-appointed judges and justices step up their assault on a woman's right to reproductive freedom, U.S. Senators Jack Reed (D-RI) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) joined with Senators Patty Murray (D-WA), Mazie Hirono (D-HI) and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) and 23 of their Senate colleagues to reintroduce the Affordability is Access Act. The bicameral legislation would ensure that women in Rhode Island and across the nation have affordab… Continue Reading

In the News

‘The Scheme’: a senator’s plan to highlight rightwing influence on the supreme court

Sheldon Whitehouse spent nine years rousing the Senate to act on climate change. Now he’s set his sights on the changes at the supreme court

The US Senate is not a crowded, rambunctious place like Britain's House of Commons or other more lively legislative bodies around the world. Members are accustomed to speaking among row after row of empty desks, unheckled by absent colleagues. This has not deterred Senator Sheldon Whitehouse from stepping into the arena to champion urgent causes. For almost nine years the Democrat took to the Senate floor every week the chamber was in session to demand that attention be paid to the climate cris… Continue Reading

This senator thought he had given his 279th and final speech on climate change. He was wrong.

With climate action stalled, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse is reviving his "Time to Wake Up" speeches.

A little over a year ago, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat from Rhode Island, stood on the Senate floor looking exuberant. To his right was his trademark green sign - a picture of the Earth and "TIME TO WAKE UP" in large capital letters. The senator, a longtime climate activist, was celebrating what he thought would be a milestone: his 279th and final speech urging the country to take action on global warming. President Joe Biden, who had campaigned aggressively on the subject of climate c… Continue Reading

This member of Congress wants everyone to know about the 'dark money scheme' that's 'captured' the Supreme Court

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse is fighting to end the "dark money" that he says is plaguing the Supreme Court. The Rhode Island Democrat is referring to private groups using anonymous donations to advance their interests at the highest court.

For the ninth time this year, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse gave a speech this week blasting right-wing anonymous donors whom he believes have "captured" the Supreme Court and "built" its current 6-3 conservative majority. "Our Supreme Court is awash in dark money influence," the Rhode Island Democrat said on the Senate floor on Tuesday. "The American people may not be able to see all of the rot, but they can see enough to know that something is rotten over there across First Street at that court." … Continue Reading

Speeches

Time to Wake Up 288: Republicans’ Oily Wish List

Madam President, I am back now for the 288th time with my trusty, battered ''Time to Wake Up'' poster to call attention to the climate crisis. Over the 10-plus years that I have been doing these speeches, I have shown how climate change affects our ecosystems, industries, economy, public health, kids, workers, our elderly. I have even conducted a science experiment right here on the Senate floor, to the dismay of the Senate staff. One near constant in these speeches has been the oily, often co… Continue Reading

The Scheme 21: “As Friends Do”

Mr. President, I am here for now the 21st in my series of speeches about the scheme to capture and control our Supreme Court, a scheme to which rightwing special interests have devoted hundreds of millions of dark money dollars. The ingredients in this noxious cocktail are creepy rightwing billionaires, phony front groups, amenable justices, large sums of money, and secrecy. This month, we have gotten a whole new look at how these ingredients mix. According to extraordinary reporting by ProPubl… Continue Reading

Time to Wake Up 287: Climate in the Budget Committee

Mr. President, here I am again with my trusty, battered chart by my side, this time here to talk about the looming costs and economic risks of climate upheaval. Almost exactly 5 years ago, I sent around a binder about this thick to all of my Senate colleagues in which I compiled some of the most compelling warnings about the looming climate economic crisis. I have just recently updated it and shared it with all of the Budget Committee members. It is now more like this thick, as the warnings jus… Continue Reading

Op-Eds

Strong Implementation of Bipartisan Law Key to Cleaning Up U.S. Financial System

A little sunlight truly is the best disinfectant. There may be nowhere that statement is more true than in the realm of illicit finance. By the Treasury Department's estimate, dirty money flowing through the American economy is equivalent to 2 percent of our GDP each year. Whether it takes the form of Russian oligarchs hiding sanctioned assets in American real estate, or international drug cartels stashing the proceeds of their crimes in Delaware trusts, the dirty money is dangerous to our saf… Continue Reading

The U.S. Chamber still blocks climate progress

Much has changed in Congress over the past decade - but the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is still the number one political obstruction in the path of climate progress. There's now fresh evidence that the Chamber's actions reflect a persistent pattern of opposing good climate policies, and that the most powerful trade association in the country is actively working against the interests of many of the companies it's supposed to represent. Last month, the independent research think tank InfluenceMap p… Continue Reading

Republican efforts to limit ESG investing are anti-capitalist

There is a cohort of elected officials in the United States presently engaged in an anti-capitalist crusade against free-market principles. No, they are not socialists. They are congressional Republicans, and they are attempting to prevent financial institutions from allocating capital in accordance with investor preferences and risk management principles. This attempted crackdown is purely ideological in nature - it is an exercise in political pressure to force a gross government overreach into… Continue Reading