Updated, 1:15 p.m. Washington – Connecticut officials are bracing for new Indian recognition rules that could upend the state’s gaming agreement with the Mashantucket Pequot and the Mohegan, takes swaths of land out of the state tax base and likely result in new casinos.
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
Obama’s labor secretary brings minimum wage campaign to CT
U.S. Labor Secretary Thomas Perez Monday brought the Obama administration’s campaign for a $10.10 minimum wage to Connecticut, where the congressional delegation and governor already are among the president’s strongest supporters on the issue.
With no congressional votes to win, a visit to highlight President Obama’s push for a higher minimum wage likely had multiple goals, including giving a measure of early re-election support to Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, who was seated next to Perez at a White House dinner for governors Sunday night.
Posted inPolitics
CT lawmakers use PACs to help other Dems
Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy don’t have to run for re-election this year, but they are still in the thick of the 2014 Senate political campaigns.
Posted inPolitics
Despite reforms, CT lawmakers, staff, take free trips
WASHINGTON — – Scandals that involved pricey outings to Scotland and elsewhere, paid for by notorious lobbyist Jack Abramoff, prodded Congress to implement tough new travel regulations — yet congressional travel is again on the uptick, and members of the Connecticut delegation have not been immune to offers of free trips.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Malloy considers blocking federal food stamp cuts
WASHINGTON – Gov. Dannel Malloy is looking at a way to block cutbacks in the food stamp programs for as many as 68,000 Connecticut families next year, a result of changes to the program in a farm bill President Obama signed into law last week.
Posted inNews
CT defense industry wins big in U.S. budget bill
Washington – The massive omnibus spending bill creates winners and losers – and at first blush it seems that Connecticut is chiefly in the winner’s column.
Posted inEnergy & Environment
Murphy is in new Senate climate group
Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy is among a group of Democratic senators unveiling a climate change task force on Tuesday. Its goal, he said, is to combat what he called “Republican intransigence” on issues related to climate change.
Posted inPolitics
Connecticut’s eye on Washington
In the past month, our Washington writer Ana Radelat has written a series of stories that looks at how Connecticut interacts with Capitol Hill. These are stories that readers could find nowhere else but in the Mirror. And they were stories that mattered – to our pocketbooks and, I’d like to believe, to our sense of who are as Connecticut residents and citizens.
Posted inPolitics
Connecticut delegation misses few votes
Washington — Woody Allen famously said, “Showing up is half the battle,” and it seems that many lawmakers, including those representing Connecticut, have taken that advice to heart.
Posted inPolitics
Votes of CT senators rarely deviate from party position
Washington — During Congress’ debate on the farm bill last summer, Orange, Conn.-based Pez and other Connecticut candymakers looked for an opportunity to overhaul the federal sugar program so prices for the sweetener would fall. They lobbied for weeks on Capitol Hill for an amendment to the farm bill that would reform the Department of Agriculture sugar program, which props up U.S. sugar prices.
Posted inPolitics
Blumenthal, Murphy vote for budget deal
Washington — Connecticut Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy, both Democrats, were among the majority in the Senate to approve a budget deal Wednesday that avoids another government shutdown and rolls back across-the-board spending cuts known as the sequester.
Posted inHealth
High court affirms most of Affordable Care Act in 5-4 ruling
The Supreme Court upheld the linchpin of President Obama’s health care reform this morning, ruling 5-4 that Congress can use its taxing power effectively to compel all Americans to buy health coverage by 2014.