Press Releases
Whitehouse Maritime Security Amendment On Its Way to Becoming Law in NDAA
Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) today announced that his maritime security proposal has been incorporated as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act making its way through Congress. "Illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing on the high seas is a persistent, elusive threat to marine life and to ocean economies like Rhode Island's," said Whitehouse. "This amendment will help the U.S. get a handle on illicit activities at sea that threaten our national… Continue Reading
07.23.20
Whitehouse Statement on the 1,001 Rhode Islanders Lost to COVID-19
Providence, RI - U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse today issued the following statement as the COVID-19 pandemic reached a grim milestone in Rhode Island: "Today we mourn 1,001 fellow Rhode Islanders lost to COVID-19. Each victim of this pandemic had a story. Each was a part of our community. As we pass this sad milestone, our hearts are with each family grieving a lost loved one." ###… Continue Reading
07.23.20
Whitehouse-Murkowski Bill to Further Understanding of Oceans, Great Lakes, and Coasts Advances Out of Committee
Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), co-chairs of the bipartisan Senate Oceans Caucus, have announced that their legislation to advance data collection and monitoring of the Great Lakes, oceans, bays, estuaries, and coasts was approved by the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee by voice vote yesterday. The Bolstering Long-Term Understanding and Exploration of the Great Lakes, Oceans, Bays, and Estuaries Act, or the BLUE GLOBE A… Continue Reading
07.23.20
Whitehouse & Colleagues Introduce Medical Bankruptcy Bill After Millions Lose Health Insurance During Pandemic
Washington, D.C. - With millions of Americans newly kicked off their health insurance in the middle of a raging pandemic, U.S. Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Dick Durbin (D-IL), and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) today introduced legislation designed to ease the burden on those forced into bankruptcy because of unforeseen medical expenses or public health-related shutdowns. The Medical Bankruptcy Fairness Act of 2020, based on legislation Whitehouse las… Continue Reading
07.22.20
Senators Encourage Supreme Court to Take up Challenge to Super PACs
READ THE FULL AMICUS BRIEF HERE Washington, DC - Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Tom Udall (D-NM), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) filed a friend-of-the-court brief today in support of a petition for Supreme Court review of the major campaign finance case Lieu v. Federal Election Commission (FEC). The senators argue that the Court should take up the challenge to the wrongly decided appeals case SpeechNow.org v. FEC and limit… Continue Reading
07.22.20
Booker, Reed, Whitehouse Demand Answers from Trump Administration on Deployment of Anonymous Federal Agents in U.S. Cities
WASHINGTON, DC - Citing concerns that the Trump Administration is seeking to use unidentified, heavily-armed armed federal personnel to escalate conflict in American cities where elected state and local officials oppose the federal intervention, U.S. Senators Jack Reed (D-RI) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) today joined Cory Booker (D-NJ), and 23 additional Senate colleagues in sending a letter pressing U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr and Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf for answers… Continue Reading
07.22.20
Senators Call on Supreme Court to Take up Challenge to Super PACs
Washington, DC - Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Tom Udall (D-NM), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) filed a friend-of-the-court brief today in support of a petition for Supreme Court review of the major campaign finance case Lieu v. Federal Election Commission (FEC). The senators argue that the Court should take up the challenge to the wrongly decided appeals case SpeechNow.org v. FEC and limit the power of super PACs to corru… Continue Reading
07.22.20
Senators Encourage Supreme Court to Take up Challenge to Super PACs
Washington, DC - Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Tom Udall (D-NM), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) filed a friend-of-the-court brief today in support of a petition for Supreme Court review of the major campaign finance case Lieu v. Federal Election Commission (FEC). The senators argue that the Court should take up the challenge to the wrongly decided appeals case SpeechNow.org v. FEC and limit the power of super PACs to corru… Continue Reading
07.22.20
Whitehouse, Sullivan Testify on Marine Debris Crisis, SOS 2.0 Act
WASHINGTON, D.C.-U.S. Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) testified yesterday before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs (SFOPS) regarding U.S. efforts to combat the global marine debris crisis and the Save Our Seas (SOS) 2.0 Act, legislation introduced by Sullivan, Whitehouse and Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) that passed the Senate in January and is under consideration by the House. Click here to watch Senator Wh… Continue Reading
07.22.20
RI Delegation Announces Distribution of $71.3 Million in CARES Act Funds to Five Local Hospitals
Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse, along with Congressmen Jim Langevin and David Cicilline, today announced that $71.3 million in funding from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act has been distributed to five Rhode Island hospitals to offset the costs of caring for coronavirus patients. The funding was awarded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). "We set this funding aside in the CARES Act to help local hospitals a… Continue Reading
07.20.20
Reed, Whitehouse Press Trump Administration To Reverse Move Undermining COVID-19 Hospital Data Collection
Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senators Jack Reed (D-RI) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) have joined U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) and 43 of their Democratic Senate colleagues in writing to Vice President Mike Pence and Coronavirus Task Force Coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx, urging the Trump Administration to reverse recent changes requiring hospitals to report data to a new system set up by the Department of Health and Human Services instead of the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN), which is run… Continue Reading
07.20.20
Whitehouse Calls for Swift Passage of New COVID-19 Relief Bill to Aid RI
Providence, RI - As the U.S. Senate reconvenes today, U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) is renewing his call for another COVID-19 relief package to meet urgent needs in Rhode Island. Whitehouse's priorities include providing an influx of aid to states and municipalities, emergency education funding, additional support for small businesses, investments to reduce racial inequities, and hazard pay to frontline workers. "Leader McConnell sat on the House relief bill for two months while the v… Continue Reading
07.15.20
Whitehouse Statement on Trump NEPA Rollback
Washington, DC - Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), a senior member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, released the following statement on the Trump Council on Environmental Quality's rule gutting the National Environmental Policy Act. "Score another win for polluters at the hands of their lackey, President Trump. This change means that reviews of big federal projects will ignore massive problems like climate change, even as some of our most important financial institutions … Continue Reading
07.14.20
GAO Finds Changes in Social Cost of Carbon Dramatically Lower Estimates of Climate Costs
READ THE FULL REPORT HERE Washington, DC - President Trump's changes to the federal government's core measure of the costs of climate change, the social cost of carbon, mean "current federal estimates [of climate effects] . . . are about 7 times lower than the prior federal estimates," the Government Accountability Office (GAO) finds in a report released today by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and six Senate colleagues. Despite a recommendation from the National Academies of Science, the Tr… Continue Reading
07.10.20
Whitehouse Celebrates 25 Years of Federal Service by Paula Bradley
Providence, RI - U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse celebrated a quarter century of federal service by his office's Senior Field Representative, Paula Bradley, who turns 85 years old today. Bradley, who served in the same role for Congressman Patrick Kennedy's office prior to joining Whitehouse's staff, helps to guide Rhode Islanders in accessing federal and state programs geared toward seniors. Her work brings her to every corner of the state to meet with Rhode Island seniors and senior center s… Continue Reading
07.08.20
RI Delegation Announces $128K to Expand Telehealth at Thundermist Health Center During Pandemic
Providence, RI - U.S. Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse and Congressmen Jim Langevin and David Cicilline today announced that Thundermist Health Center has been awarded $128,347 from the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) COVID-19 Telehealth Program to establish robust telehealth services during the ongoing pandemic. "Telehealth has become a necessity during this pandemic and we must invest in ensuring this technology is effective and accessible for all who need it. This federal… Continue Reading
07.03.20
Following SDNY Scandal, Whitehouse Calls on Barr to Preserve Documents, Disclose Contact Logs related to Environmental Group Hacking Investigation
Washington, DC - Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) has called on Attorney General Bill Barr to disclose contact logs and preserve communications related to an investigation in the Southern District of New York (SDNY) into a hack-for-hire scheme directed at environmental groups. The investigation, reported on last month, involves phishing emails targeting groups that had been campaigning against oil giant Exxon Mobil. Under Acting U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman's leadership, the SDNY had been pr… Continue Reading
07.02.20
Whitehouse Calls for DOJ Inspector General Investigation of Trump Automaker Antitrust Inquiry
Washington, DC - Today, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) called on the Justice Department Inspector General to investigate the aborted federal antitrust investigation of four automakers' agreement with the state of California over auto fuel emissions standards. Citing last week's hearing in the House Judiciary Committee featuring whistleblower testimony from a former top Antitrust Division official, Whitehouse points to a range of troubling conduct by Attorney General Bill Barr's Justice Depar… Continue Reading
07.02.20
Reed & Whitehouse Cosponsor Bill to Make Juneteenth a Federal Holiday
WASHINGTON, DC - Today, U.S. Senators Jack Reed (D-RI) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) cosponsored the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act. This legislation would designate Juneteenth as a permanent holiday to commemorate the end of slavery in the United States. The bill would also establish a Juneteenth Federal Holiday Commission to encourage ceremonies and activities in celebration of the holiday throughout the nation. Juneteenth commemorates the arrival of the news of emancipation and … Continue Reading
07.02.20
Harvard Journal on Legislation Publishes Whitehouse Article on Dark Money Capture of U.S. Courts
READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE Washington, DC - Today, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) released an article published in the latest edition of the Harvard Journal on Legislation that details corporate interests' capture of our federal judiciary and proposes a range of legislative solutions to counter it. In Dark Money and U.S. Courts: The Problem and Solutions, Whitehouse traces the history of corporations' campaign to wrest control of the courts by funneling anonymous "dark money" through a comp… Continue Reading
