WASHINGTON — Connecticut’s senators blasted the GOP plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, but will sit on the sidelines as their divided Republican colleagues try to hash out final details of a “discussion draft” released Thursday. The bill would continue some Obamacare subsidies to help people buy insurance, but could eventually force Connecticut to cut Medicaid coverage for many.
Planned Parenthood
Posted inHealth, Politics
Senate considers stripping states like CT of abortion coverage option
WASHINGTON — As Senate Republicans meet behind closed doors this week to craft their bill to replace the Affordable Care Act, one of the most contentious issues is how it will affect the abortion coverage millions of American women now have as part of their health insurance policies. The American Health Insurance Act approved by the House severely restricts this coverage.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Federal budget deal boosts defense projects, other programs in CT
WASHINGTON — Connecticut’s defense industry is a big winner in a new budget deal that will keep the federal government running through September. It allows the Pentagon to increase the number of F-35 fighters and nearly double the number of Sikorsky Black Hawks it purchases this year. The bipartisan bill also funds a number of domestic programs important to the state, including the National Coast Guard Museum.
Posted inEducation, Health, Money, Politics
Congress faces choice of budget deal or federal shutdown
WASHINGTON — When Congress returns from its two-week recess next week it will have just days to approve a bill that would fund the federal budget and prevent a government shutdown that would affect a broad swath of Connecticut residents – from Head Start students to workers in the state’s defense industry.
Posted inHealth, Politics
Defunding Planned Parenthood? Not so easy
WASHINGTON — Cutting off funding for Planned Parenthood is a priority for many congressional Republicans, but that effort is likely to stumble because other GOP lawmakers are hesitant to take aim at health clinics that are popular with their constituents. Nevertheless, the GOP is moving forward on a promise it has made to defund Planned Parenthood.
Posted inHealth
CT would protect Planned Parenthood Medicaid funds under Malloy proposal
As Republicans in Congress seek to cut off federal funds to Planned Parenthood, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has proposed legislation that would allow the state to make up any federal Medicaid dollars the clinics would lose.
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 inPolitics
Working Families, charter schools targeted Democrat primaries
The Working Families Party was the biggest outside spender on Democratic legislative primaries Tuesday, committing $70,000 for field staff in three winning races, while two charter-school groups provided late support to help Rep. Charlie Stallworth of Bridgeport defeat a prominent opponent of charters, Maria H. Pereira.
Posted inPolitics
Rare bipartisan votes advance education, transportation bills
With the unanimous support of the Connecticut delegation, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a landmark education bill, and both houses of Congress approved a five-year transportation bill that will send billions of dollars to the state.
Posted inHealth, Politics
Congressional scrutiny of fetal tissue research threatens work at UConn, Yale
WASHINGTON – Justin Cotney uses embryonic tissue for his research as the University of Connecticut health center into why some children develop cleft palate. But the use of fetal tissue from abortions is now coming under attack by conservative Republicans who have been thwarted in their attempt to defund Planned Parenthood.
Posted inMoney, Politics
CT defense industry big loser in federal budget stalemate
WASHINGTON – With only days to act remaining, Congress is once again on the brink of a fiscal crisis that will have a special impact on Connecticut’s $13 billion defense industry.
Posted inPolitics
Feds tell states to stop processing food stamp benefits
WASHINGTON – The state’s 423,000 food stamp recipients could soon be early victims of Washington’s budget crisis. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has instructed the Connecticut Department of Social Services and similar agencies in all of the states to not dispense any October benefits to food stamp recipients “until further notice.” Some $60 million in food aid could hang in the balance, one Connecticut official said.
Posted inPolitics
Connecticut’s Washington Week
In the news: The Iran nuclear pact survives; GE lobbies for the Export-Import Bank; the number in Connecticut without health insurance drops; the delegation opposes defunding Planned Parenthood; and the UConn women’s basketball team shows up at the White House — again.
Posted inNews
Senate Democrats block Planned Parenthood defunding bill
WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats on Monday blocked a Republican effort to strip federal funding from Planned Parenthood following the release of undercover videos that have raised questions about the organization’s harvesting of fetal tissue for research laboratories.
Posted inNews
Senate vote to be first round in drive to defund Planned Parenthood
WASHINGTON — Connecticut’s Democratic senators may help fend off an attempt in the Senate to defund Planned Parenthood on Monday, but that’s not the end of a GOP campaign that could include the threat of a government shutdown.