WASHINGTON–Rep. Rosa DeLauro has snagged one of the most coveted committee assignments for the coming Congress. But it couldn’t have come at a worse time. She will be the top Democrat on the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees labor, health, education, and myriad other federal programs. The panel is charged with divvying up billions of […]

WASHINGTON–When it comes to political targets, the Independent Payment Advisory Board has a lot to offer. Sure, it might sound like a benign, obscure federal panel, a backwater of health care reform that almost no one has heard of. But it’s bureaucratic. It’s unelected. And it has a lot of power-or it will, anyway, when […]

WASHINGTON-Sen. Joseph Lieberman held a news conference Wednesday with the country’s most powerful Republican, House Speaker John Boehner, on the politically divisive issue of school vouchers. At the end of the event, as the two men walked off the stage together, a reporter shouted out one last question: “Is this a 2012 presidential ticket?” Lieberman […]

WASHINGTON–For Connecticut lawmakers, President Obama’s State of the Union speech was a political mixer both in style and in substance. Rep. Chris Murphy made a new Republican friend. Sen. Richard Blumenthal exchanged tidbits about the commute to Washington with one of his new Senate colleagues from New England. And Rep. Joseph Courtney exchanged jokes, gossip, […]

WASHINGTON–The public’s top worry is the economy, as registered in recent opinion polls and at the ballot box last fall. But divisive social issues have taken center stage in Washington in recent weeks. House Republicans are gearing up for a pitched battle over expanded abortion restrictions. Congressional Democrats are pushing for new gun control measures. […]

Rep. Jim Himes, D-4th District, said he still doesn’t have a “date” for tonight’s State of the Union Address. Bucking tradition when the two parties divide into warring camps divided by the center aisle, this year lawmakers are pairing off with bipartisan buddies. Newly-elected Sen. Richard Blumenthal, for example, snagged another freshman and former state attorney […]

Sen. Joseph Lieberman’s first D.C. news conference of the 112th Congress will be a bipartisan affair with House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. The topic? School vouchers. President Barack Obama plans to make education reform a central plank in his State of the Union speech tonight, so the two lawmakers will be trying to seize that […]

Robin Chesmer will be Rep. Joe Courtney’s guest at the president’s State of the Union speech tonight. But the dairy farmer, who owns Graywall Farms in Lebanon with his son Lincoln, said he got so “wound up” about his trip to Washington that he barely had time to think about what he’d like to hear […]

A top Connecticut businesswoman—Norwalk’s Ursula Burns—will be among those sitting with First Lady Michelle Obama at the President’s State of the Union address Tuesday night. Burns, who has served as the Xerox Corporation’s chief executive officer since 2009 and was appointed vice chair of the President’s Export Council last year, is one of 22 guests […]

House Democrats spent last week defending their signature domestic policy initiative-the health care reform law. But that will not be a hot topic at the Democrats’ “issues retreat,” held this weekend in Maryland, even as the new Republican majority continues an offensive against the measure. Rep. John Larson, Connecticut’s 1st District congressman and the House […]

WASHINGTON–Mark Bernacki doesn’t hate everything in the health care reform law. But as House Republicans turn their sights to unraveling it piece by piece, he has one suggestion about where to start. “The thing that’s going to kill us is the 1099 requirement,” said Bernacki, who owns a Sir Speedy printing franchise in New Britain. […]

When Rep. Chris Murphy said he would start raising money for his just-announced Senate campaign “immediately,” he wasn’t kidding. Murphy has a fundraiser scheduled for this Wednesday, just six days after he launched his campaign to succeed Sen. Joseph Lieberman, who said this week he would retire in 2012. Murphy’s event is an early morning […]

In the wake of Wednesday’s vote for full repeal of the health reform law, House Republicans are now moving forward on multiple tracks to undo key provisions. GOP leaders have charged four committee chairmen with holding hearings on the law and drafting alternative bills to address key health care issues, such as expanding access to […]

Connecticut politics has put Washington’s spin machine into overdrive. First, the National Republican Congressional Committee blasted out a news release this morning, handicapping the GOP’s chances of picking up the 5th District congressional seat now that Rep. Chris Murphy has decided to run for Senate. “Connecticut’s Fifth District was already one of more than a […]

WASHINGTON–In the coming weeks, Rep. Joe Courtney will be beefing up on commodity price issues, while Rep. Chris Murphy will start cramming on American foreign policy. That’s because those two members of Connecticut’s congressional delegation are slated for new committee assignments for the 112th Congress. The implications are significant for their districts and the state, not […]