WASHINGTON – President Obama is expected to roll out an ambitious agenda in his State of the Union speech that could increase the distance between the White House and Republicans in Congress. Connecticut’s lawmakers, however, will use the occasion to show support for that agenda – and promote their own.
Chris Murphy
Chris Murphy, Connecticut’s junior U.S. senator, was first elected in 2012. Sen. Murphy has supported stricter gun legislation and affordable health care.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Murphy presses again for gasoline tax hike to shore up highway fund
WASHINGTON – Sen. Chris Murphy, in partnership with Republican Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, has renewed a push for their proposal to raise the gasoline tax to shore up a transportation fund that will soon run out of money, threatening road and bridge projects in Connecticut and elsewhere across the nation.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Senate approves terrorism insurance bill that aids CT insurers, businesses
WASHINGTON – The Senate on Thursday gave final legislative approval to a bill that would help Connecticut’s property and casualty insurers by re-establishing a federal backstop in the event a terrorist attack results in massive claims.
Posted inHealth, Politics
Obamacare mandate hits some CT firms harder than others
WASHINGTON – Connecticut businesses must begin complying with the Affordable Care Act this year, but the new Republican-led Congress is trying to blunt the impact. Most efforts to change the ACA, however, will put Congress at loggerheads with the White House.
Posted inPolitics
Murphy breaks Senate tradition with high-profile stands
WASHINGTON – With his fight for gun control, defense of the Affordable Care Act and clashes with President Obama on foreign policy, Sen. Chris Murphy broke with a Senate tradition that freshmen should be seen and not heard. “I don’t think there’s a waiting period anymore for freshmen,” he said. “My constituents did not elect me to be a shrinking violet.” (This is the seventh and final story in a series about the roles each member of the Connecticut congressional delegation played in the 113th Congress.)
Posted inHealth, Politics
Lawmakers urge feds to buy CT-made flu vaccine
WASHINGTON – Reps. Rosa DeLauro, D-3rd District, and Elizabeth Esty, D-5th District, released a letter Monday that urges the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to consider a local company when the agency awards contracts for next year’s flu shots
Posted inNews
Obama makes travel to Cuba easier for CT academics, others
WASHINGTON – President Obama’s move to ease the longstanding U.S. embargo on Cuba, including travel restrictions to the island, does not mean Connecticut residents can pack their bags for a new travel destination in the Caribbean. But it does make it easier to go for those who want to visit Cuba for an officially sanctioned reason.
Posted inPolitics
Sandy Hook remembered with prayer, politics and litigation
The second anniversary of the Dec. 14, 2012 massacre of 26 women and children at Sandy Hook Elementary School was marked in Connecticut by litigation, prayer and politics.
Posted inPolitics
Blumenthal, Murphy split on budget bill that averts shutdown
Washington – Democratic Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy split over a massive omnibus spending bill the Senate approved late Saturday little more than an hour before the government would have shut down due to a lack of funding. Murphy voted for the$1.1 trillion bill, Blumenthal did not.
Posted inPolitics
Murphy wins seat on Senate Appropriations Committee
WASHINGTON – Sen. Chris Murphy, who is still in his freshman term in the Senate, has been given a seat on the Senate Appropriations Committee in the next Congress, a powerful panel that decides all spending issues and is responsible for the budget that funds all federal departments and programs.
Posted inPolitics
227 CT gun deaths later, Newtown families continue their campaign
WASHINGTON — Some 227 people have died from gun violence in Connecticut since the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre two years ago. On Wednesday, Connecticut lawmakers joined Newtown families and victims of gun violence across the nation in renewing their calls for new federal gun laws.
Posted inEducation, Politics
On anniversary, advocates mark 95 shootings since Newtown
WASHINGTON – Gun-control advocates have marked the two-year anniversary of the massacre of first graders and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School with a report that says there have been 95 school shootings since the Newtown tragedy.
Posted inNews
Once a heated topic for CT delegation, war bill now stalled
WASHINGTON – Debating and deciding what authority President Obama has to conduct a war against and Islamic group known as ISIS was once a hot topic among lawmakers, including those representing Connecticut on Capitol Hill. But post-election, there’s a little sense of urgency, and little pushback on GOP demands that the issue be handled by the next Congress, which will be controlled by Republicans
Posted inPolitics
Connecticut one of few remaining ‘true blue’ states
WASHINGTON – What do Connecticut and Hawaii have in common? They are among a few states that have a totally Democratic congressional delegation and a Democratic governor following the GOP tsunami that washed over the nation on Election Day.
Posted inPolitics
Democratic loss of Senate pushes Blumenthal, Murphy into minority
Washington – Democrats lost control of the Senate Tuesday in a GOP tide that rolled across the nation, plunging Connecticut’s Democratic senators – Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy – into the minority.