After Republicans unexpectedly blocked the PACT Act last week, the Senate passed the veterans’ bill, which now heads to President Joe Biden.
Veterans
Posted inPolitics
CT veterans await benefits as GOP stalls ‘burn pits’ bill in Senate
The veterans’ bill was expected to pass Congress by the end of the week, but the path forward is now uncertain after Republicans blocked it.
Posted inMoney, News, Politics
CT lawmakers help pass massive spending bill
Updated at 12:55 a.m. Friday
WASHINGTON — Connecticut’s entire congressional delegation voted for a massive, $1.3 trillion federal budget bill that will provide the state with millions of additional dollars for education, health care and transportation and boost production in the state’s defense industry.
Posted inPolitics
At White House, Malloy joins Michelle Obama in pitch to Trump
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy made a post-election visit to the White House on Monday for a summit on veterans’ homelessness that ended with a wistful plea by First Lady Michelle Obama for the administration of President-elect Donald J. Trump to continue a successful local, state and federal partnership to address homelessness.
Posted inPolitics
Blumenthal-Carter contest a quiet race in a stormy election year
WASHINGTON — While the odds that Sen. Richard Blumenthal will be re-elected are among the highest in this year’s U.S. Senate races, he’s also under constant fire from a Republican opponent, state Rep. Dan Carter, who has laid siege to the popular Democrat.
Posted inPolitics
Challenger Carter steadily attacks, but Blumenthal remains aloof
WASHINGTON — The campaign tactics of Sen. Richard Blumenthal and his Republican challenger, state Rep. Dan Carter, are as different as they can be in politics. Blumenthal has largely ignored his challenger, while Carter is waging a death-by-a-thousand-cuts campaign, launching a blizzard of attacks.
Posted inNews
New program for CT women vets would be unfunded
The Senate voted unanimously Wednesday for a bill that creates an unfunded program for the 16,545 women living in Connecticut who are veterans of U.S. military service.
Posted inHealth, Politics
CT official: VA’s failure to share data hurts vets at risk of prescription abuse
WASHINGTON — Connecticut veterans are escaping the notice of a state program aimed at combating prescription painkiller abuse, an epidemic among those veterans; and the federal government’s Department of Veterans Affairs is to blame, a state official says.
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
Veterans issues a focus of Connecticut’s hottest congressional races
WASHINGTON – Reps. Elizabeth Esty, D-5th District, and Jim Himes, D-4th District, have made the care of veterans a focus of their reelection campaigns, following a national trend that put the nation’s veterans near the top of the list of political issues this year.
Posted inPolitics
Blumenthal asks VA chief to consider calling in FBI and firing staff
Washington – Sen. Richard Blumenthal on Thursday pressed Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki to call in the FBI to determine whether crimes were committed at his agency, which has been accused of falsifying reports on delays of care that may have caused the deaths of some veterans
Posted inNews
After Iraq: Dee Jordan deeply connected to the veterans she helps
The story of Dee Jordan, a veteran and intake worker at VA Connecticut’s Errera Community Care Center, is The Mirror’s first story this year to address veterans’ issues in Connecticut. Errera, based in West Haven, serves veterans of all wars who struggle with mental illness, substance abuse or homelessness.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Op-ed: Remove restrictions on nursing care services for CT vets
Research shows that APRNs provide high-quality care that produces patient outcomes comparable to those achieved by physicians, often at lower cost and with higher patient satisfaction.