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.
Richard Blumenthal
Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut’s senior U.S. senator, was first elected in 2011. Sen. Blumenthal has supported stricter gun legislation and support for veterans.
Posted inEnergy & Environment, Money, Politics
Blumenthal, DeLauro try to stop flood insurance increases
Washington – Saying more than 18,000 Connecticut homeowners will be socked with soaring flood insurance premiums, Sen. Richard Blumenthal and Rep. Rosa DeLauro are pressing the House of Representatives to pass a bill that would stop those hikes.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Blumenthal pushes bill to prevent Target-like data breaches
Washington – As executives from Target and Neiman Marcus prepared to tell a Senate panel how hackers stole personal information from millions of their customers, Sen. Richard Blumenthal introduced a new data security bill.
Posted inPolitics
Metro-North, MTA sought delay of federal safety rules
Washington – Crisis-plagued Metro-North and its parent company sought to delay and weaken proposed federal safety measures that could have helped prevent some of the accidents the rail company suffered in the past year. Less than two weeks before a foreman was killed by a train, Metro-North pressed the Federal Railroad Administration to delay a safety rule requiring trains to slow to 25 miles per hour when passing a work site.
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 inPolitics
Blumenthal says Obama’s NSA reforms only first step
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee who has introduced legislation to rein in NSA spying, said President Obama’s announced reforms of the agency are “stronger in principle than prescription.” While he praised the president for moving to address concerns abroad and at home about the NSA’s operations, Blumenthal said he would continue to press for approval of his legislation, saying Congress must “provide precision and details” to the president’s reforms.
Posted inNews
Blumenthal milks Senate support for dairy compromise
During the Senate debate Thursday on a $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill, Sen. Richard Blumenthal used a glass of milk as a prop to try to bring attention to a new compromise that might end a deadlock over the dairy program that has stalled a massive farm bill. Blumenthal, D-Conn., said a deal has been cut to keep the current dairy subsidy program while phasing in a new program that would replace those subsides with an insurance plan.
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
Wash Post says Blumenthal was a ‘hunk’
Washington — Move over Rep. Jim Himes, D-4th District, who has repeatedly been on The Hill’s “most beautiful list.” The new writers of the Washington Post’s Reliable Sources column have discovered a decades-old photo of Sen. Richard Blumenthal that proves he was (and maybe still is?) a hunk.
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’s Metro-North crusade: Proper (& political?)
Washington — Reports of the resignation of Metro -North President Howard Permut may indicate that Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal has drawn blood in his battle against the commuter railway.
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 inPolitics
Blumenthal to co-sponsor Women’s Reproductive Health Act
U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal and five other members of Congress will outline a legislative response Wednesday to state attempts to limit access to abortion services: the “Women’s Reproductive Health Act of 2013.” Their press conference will be streamed live 2:30 p.m. It can be viewed by clicking here.
Posted inPolitics
A month later, Blumenthal offers regrets, not introspection
Richard Blumenthal, with veterans. Maureen Dowd wasted no time before psychoanalyzing Richard Blumenthal in the New York Times, wondering if “residual guilt about avoiding Vietnam” was responsible for misstatements about his military record. The Associated Press talked to a former FBI agent who mused about a need for “an ego boost,” and to a historian […]