President-elect Donald Trump has tapped Seema Verma, a health care consultant, to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. That’s the part of the Department of Health and Human Services that oversees Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program and has a budget of just under a trillion dollars in 2016.
Trump pick to run Medicare, Medicaid has red-state policy chops
Posted inHealth, Politics
House approves mental health and addiction bill championed by Murphy, Courtney
WASHINGTON — Connecticut’s Democratic lawmakers split with Rep. Rosa DeLauro and other progressives in their party Wednesday over a bill that included Sen. Chris Murphy’s mental health bill and authorized the spending of $1 billion on the treatment and prevention of opioid addiction.
Posted inPolitics
Lembo challenges charitable deductions for anti-LGBT group
Comptroller Kevin P. Lembo is questioning whether Connecticut state employees should be able to continue directing charitable payroll deductions to the American Family Association of Tupelo, Miss., a Christian charity that the Southern Poverty Law Center monitors as an anti-LGBT “extremist group.”
Posted inEducation, Health, Money, Politics, Transportation
Walker: ‘Devastating’ cuts cannot solve CT’s budget woes
As analysts outlined a grim picture Wednesday that could include further cuts to state social services and reversing recent enhancements in local aid and transportation, one key lawmaker insisted officials must discuss raising revenue in 2017.
Posted inEducation
Feds: East Hartford schools violated rights of non-English speakers
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights has found that East Hartford’s public schools have been violating the rights of non-Enligsh speaking families “by unlawfully imposing barriers to enrollment and applying additional registration and enrollment criteria to students based on national origin.”
Posted inPolitics
Linda McMahon: ‘Stay tuned’ on Trump job offer
WASHINGTON – The World Wrestling Federation co-founder and two-time Senate candidate said she discussed the Small Business Administration, among other things, with President-elect Donald Trump Wednesday.
Posted inHealth, Politics
CT business community on watch over ACA repeal effort
WASHINGTON — GOP plans to repeal the Affordable Care Act would affect individuals who’ve been purchasing their coverage on state exchanges or through the expansion of Medicaid the most, but some who receive their health care from their employers are also likely to be affected.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Sale of GE campus to Sacred Heart another ‘poke in the eye’
The sale of the 66-acre GE campus to the university could be construed as a final poke in the eye to the Malloy administration. As the former owner, GE paid the town of Fairfield $1.6 million a year on taxes, but because Sacred Heart is an educational institution it will pay no taxes to the town on this property.
Posted inJustice, Politics
High court milestone in Malloy’s next round of nominees
With Justice Peter T. Zarella retiring in December and Justice Dennis G. Eveleigh reaching the mandatory retirement age of 70 next October, the Connecticut Supreme Court soon will be dominated by appointees of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy. After filling no vacancies for more than a year, Malloy is considering nominees for the trial, Appellate and Supreme courts.
Posted inPolitics
Congress reduces numbers of F-35s, Black Hawks
WASHINGTON — Congressional negotiators sharply cut funding for Connecticut-made Sikorsky Black Hawk helicopters and trimmed the number of F-35s the Pentagon would buy next year.
Posted inHealth, Transportation
Malloy praises Trump’s choice for transportation chief
Though Gov. Dannel P. Malloy panned President-elect Trump’s choice of Congressman Tom Price for secretary of health and human services Tuesday, he praised his selection Elaine L. Chao as transportation secretary – an official the Democratic governor is likely to lobby.
Posted inHealth, Politics
CT Democrats blast Trump’s pick of Price to head HHS
WASHINGTON — Connecticut Democrats on Tuesday sharply criticized President-elect Donald Trump’s selection of Rep. Tom Price, the architect of the House GOP’s repeal of the Affordable Care Act, as the next secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.
Posted inEducation
Child care subsidies limited to existing recipients or those on welfare
A program that subsidizes child care so low-income parents can work or teen parents can finish high school will soon stop enrolling new children unless their families are receiving welfare benefits.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Sanctuary cities must be defended
As Americans, we pride ourselves on being a nation of immigrants. It is woven into the fabric of our nation. After all, most Americans are descendants of immigrants themselves and have come to the “land of the free and home of the brave” either by force or by choice. As a citizen of New Haven, one of my greatest sources of pride is knowing that our city is so representative of America’s incredible diversity.
Posted inPolitics
‘Grand Old Party’ outflanked CT Democrats in web campaigning
Joe Crisco’s name was on a campaign billboard in his hometown of Woodbridge. His lawn signs dotted the seven towns in his state Senate district to the west and north of New Haven. His flyers arrived in the mail, same as every other race the Democrat has run since 1992. You just couldn’t find him on your computer or smartphone.