Press Releases
Whitehouse, Blumenthal, Hirono, Leahy, Feinstein, Schatz, Booker Introduce Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, & Transparency Act
Washington, DC - Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Brian Schatz (D-HI), and Cory Booker (D-NJ) have introduced a new version of the Twenty-First Century Courts Act to promote accountability and increase transparency in the federal courts. The Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency Act was marked up in the House Judiciary Committee last night, teeing it up for a vote in the full House in the… Continue Reading
05.11.22
Whitehouse Votes to Codify Roe, Slams Republican Obstruction following Supreme Court Attack on Women’s Constitutional Rights
Washington, DC - Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) released the following statement on today's vote on the Women's Health Protection Act-legislation to codify the protections of Roe v. Wade into law and uphold a woman's constitutional right to abortion. The bill did not achieve the 60 votes necessary to advance in the Senate due to Republican obstruction. "Today, I cast my vote to protect access to abortion nationwide, and to stand up to a Supreme Court intent on tearing down a constitutional … Continue Reading
05.10.22
Whitehouse & Eshoo Introduce Bill to Stop Excessively Loud Commercials on TV and Streaming Services
Washington, DC - Today, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Congresswoman Anna G. Eshoo (D-CA) introduced the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Modernization Act, bicameral legislation that would update the CALM Act, a law enacted in 2010 to limit the loudness of TV ads. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) is an original cosponsor of the legislation in the Senate and Congressman Jerry McNerney (D-CA) is an original cosponsor of the legislation in the House. The CALM Modernizatio… Continue Reading
05.10.22
Whitehouse Secures $500K to Improve Care for Sexual Assault Victims at Day One
Providence, RI - U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse today announced that he has secured $500,000 in federal funding to allow the nonprofit Day One to upgrade its facility and information technology infrastructure with the goal of improving trauma-informed advocacy and clinical treatment services for victims of sexual assault, abuse, and exploitation. Located in Providence, Day One provides treatment, intervention, education, advocacy, and prevention services to Rhode Islanders of all ages. "The st… Continue Reading
05.06.22
Reed & Whitehouse Deliver $5M Federal Grant to Help Advance Proposed Warwick City Hall Plaza
WARWICK, RI - In an effort to assist the City of Warwick's economic development priorities, U.S. Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse secured $5 million in federal funding to help Warwick advance plans to create a pedestrian plaza, community gathering and event space that can improve quality of life attributes for the community and promote healthy, active lifestyles. The Senators, who included an earmark for the project in the Fiscal Year 2022 Consolidated Appropriations Act, say the feder… Continue Reading
05.06.22
Whitehouse and Murkowski Direct China Package Conferees to Support Fisheries, Invest in Blue Economy
Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), co-chairs of the bipartisan Senate Oceans Caucus, released the following statements after their legislation, the Bolstering Long-Term Understanding and Exploration of the Great Lakes, Oceans, Bays, and Estuaries Act, or the BLUE GLOBE Act, advanced one step closer to becoming law. This week the Senate passed by voice vote Senators Whitehouse and Murkowski's motion to instruct conferees on H.R. 4521, the United … Continue Reading
05.06.22
Whitehouse Releases Previously Undisclosed Correspondence with SCOTUS, Lower Courts on Poor Ethics and Transparency Standards in the Federal Judiciary
Washington, DC - During a Senate Judiciary Courts Subcommittee hearing on transparency and accountability in the federal courts, Subcommittee Chairman Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) entered portions of his extensive correspondence with the Supreme Court, the Administrative Conference of the Courts, and other judiciary officers into the official subcommittee record. The correspondence reveals new details about the lack of ethics and transparency rules for Supreme Court Justices and lower court judges… Continue Reading
05.05.22
ICYMI: Whitehouse Chairs Tax Subcommittee Hearing on the Political Activities of Tax-Exempt Entities
Washington, DC - On Wednesday, Chairman Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) led a Senate Finance Subcommittee on Taxation & IRS Oversight hearing entitled, "Laws and Enforcement Governing the Political Activities of Tax-Exempt Entities." The hearing examined the ways in which special interests exploit weak and outdated IRS regulations to funnel massive amounts of unaccountable dark money into our elections through 501(c)(4) organizations. So-called "social welfare" groups are exempt from taxation und… Continue Reading
05.04.22
ICYMI: Whitehouse Leads Senate Judiciary Courts Subcommittee Hearing on Judicial Ethics, Transparency & Accountability
Washington, DC - On Tuesday, Chairman Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) led the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action, and Federal Rights in a hearing entitled, "An Ethical Judiciary: Transparency and Accountability for 21st Century Courts." The hearing explored the lack of transparency and accountability in the federal judiciary and potential legislative solutions - including a strong code of ethics for the U.S. Supreme Court, strengthened recusal standards for judge… Continue Reading
05.02.22
Whitehouse Statement on Reported Decision Overturning Roe v. Wade
Washington, DC - Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Courts Subcommittee, released the following statement on reports of a draft Supreme Court majority ruling that would overturn Roe v. Wade and strike down a woman's constitutional right to abortion: "If the majority Republican justices stay the course, this decision will go down as one of the most supremely political acts in Supreme Court history. Roe v. Wade has stood firm in the law for decades, guaranteeing w… Continue Reading
04.28.22
Whitehouse Welcomes Biden Plan to Seize Oligarch Assets to Supply Aid to Ukraine, Pledges to Lead Congressional Efforts to Pass Necessary Authority
Washington, DC - Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) hailed President Biden's proposal released today to boost the federal government's authority to hold Vladimir Putin, the Russian government, and Russian oligarchs accountable for the unprovoked war against Ukraine, which includes as a central component Whitehouse's proposal to seize oligarch assets and use the proceeds of their sale for aid to Ukraine. Whitehouse introduced his bipartisan Asset Seizure for Ukraine Reconstruction Act in March wi… Continue Reading
04.27.22
Reed & Whitehouse Applaud President’s Nomination of Lara Montecalvo to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
PROVIDENCE, RI - U.S. Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse today applauded President Biden for nominating Lara E. Montecalvo, who currently leads the office of the Rhode Island Public Defender, to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. The announcement comes after Senator Reed and Senator Whitehouse undertook an open and in-depth selection process that included extensive interviews and careful deliberation before they jointly made their recommendations to the President. … Continue Reading
04.27.22
Whitehouse & Cornyn Introduce Bipartisan Bill to Help Local Communities Fight Drug Overdoses
Washington, DC - Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Chairman of the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control, and Senator John Cornyn (R-TX), a Caucus member, introduced today the Overdose Review Team Act to help local communities save lives by improving their response to the overdose epidemic. The legislation would create a grant program at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to support local governments in establishing panels of health officials, social service organizati… Continue Reading
04.22.22
Drug Caucus Chairman Whitehouse Applauds Comprehensive National Drug Control Strategy
Washington, DC - Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Chairman of the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control, issued the following statement on the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy's (ONDCP) inaugural National Drug Control Strategy. "Illicit drugs cause immeasurable pain and loss in our communities. As the Chairman of the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control, I've pressed for an updated federal plan to tackle them. I've been clear that the plan must include… Continue Reading
04.21.22
Senate Drug Caucus Chairs Call on International Panel to Push for Scheduling of Dangerous Methamphetamine Precursor Chemical
Washington, DC - Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Chairman and Co-Chairman of the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control, in a letter yesterday urged the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) to recommend the scheduling of methylamine-a precursor to methamphetamine. On the INCB's recommendation, the most recent session of the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) voted unanimously to control three fentanyl precursor chemicals, but did not… Continue Reading
04.20.22
Whitehouse Secures $450K to Connect Electronic Health Records and Improve Patient Care in RI
Providence, RI - U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse today announced that he has secured $450,000 to help the Rhode Island Quality Institute launch a new program aimed at improving patient care by expanding the availability of data from electronic health records in more health care settings. The Congressionally Directed Spending request was included in the omnibus bill that President Biden signed into law last month. "Everyone wins when electronic health records are easily accessible to different p… Continue Reading
04.20.22
Whitehouse, Markey Push NIH on Slow Pace of Research into Long COVID
Washington, DC - Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Edward J. Markey (D-MA) are pressing the National Institutes of Health (NIH) about the slow pace of research into "Post-Acute Sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection" or "long COVID." In a letter, the senators asked the NIH about the status of research into the long-term health effects of COVID-19, as requested by Congress over two years ago. "Given that COVID-19 is a novel virus, research on long COVID is still in its infancy. There are currentl… Continue Reading
04.15.22
Reed & Whitehouse Statement on Biden Appointing Eric Scherer as Head of the Farm Service Agency in RI
Washington, DC - U.S. Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse today issued the following statement after the Biden Administration announced the appointment of Eric Scherer as Farm Service Agency (FSA) State Executive Director for Rhode Island: "We commend President Biden for tapping Eric Scherer for this key post, which is critical to assisting local farmers, administering agricultural loan programs, and connecting Rhode Island's growers and producers with federal resources. Eric brings a wea… Continue Reading
04.08.22
Whitehouse, Grassley, Durbin, Cornyn Pass Key Reforms to Help American Businesses & Families Weather Financial Hardship
Washington, DC - Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Dick Durbin (D-IL), and John Cornyn (R-TX) cheered passage of their new bipartisan legislation to help small businesses and individuals stay afloat during bankruptcy. The bill passed unanimously in the Senate last evening. "The pandemic and supply chain disruptions have left lots of Americans and small businesses in financial trouble. This legislation extends our improvements to the bankruptcy process for small business… Continue Reading
04.08.22
Whitehouse, Reed, Warren, Sanders, Merkley Introduce Bill to Shield Americans from Sky-High Credit Card Rates
Washington, DC - U.S. Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Jack Reed (D-RI), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) have introduced legislation to protect Americans from sky-high interest rates for credit cards and other consumer loans. The Empowering States' Rights to Protect Consumers Act would restore states' ability to limit consumer loan interest rates for their residents and help address the over $850 billion that Americans hold in credit card debt. "Rhode … Continue Reading
