BERLIN - During his annual Walk Across Connecticut, U.S. Senator Chris Murphy visited the Berlin Senior Center to discuss the weekend's attacks in Israel by Hamas and other concerns from town residents, including gun control, education, housing and immigration.

Murphy, a member of the Foreign Relations committee who chairs the oversight committee for the Middle East, said there are no active threats to the homeland related to the events in the Middle East. However, he pledged to support Israel.

"We've seen a massive rise in threats against Jewish communities. Anti Semitism is on the rise. Unfortunately, there are some unhinged people out there who are going to see what is happening in the Middle East and perhaps contemplate or plan attacks on Jewish communities here in the states," Murphy said. "So, I have been busy working to help my colleagues develop an emergency funding package to make sure Israel has everything it needs to defend itself."

The nation is engaged diplomatically with countries in the region to try to resolve the hostage crisis and make sure the conflict doesn’t spread, Murphy said. In addition, he is working on securing emergency funding to protect religious institutions in the United States.

"While this walk always reminds me that my first obligation is to take care of people in the United States, we also are the only superpower capable of stepping up and helping a country in need like Israel is today, so I continue to be engaged in

that work. It’s a priority for me," Murphy said.

Following the removal of Kevin McCarthy as House speaker, Murphy said the United States needs to resolve the conflict in the House of Representatives to send aid to Israel and Ukraine and avoid a government shutdown.

Non-defense discretionary spending by the federal government has remained mostly the same over time. However, defense spending and social insurance spending are rising rapidly, according to Murphy.

Murphy called for a limit of how much money people can make in the healthcare system for profit.

"Every other country caps prices. Every other country caps profits. The United States doesn’t," he said.

Last year, the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act went into law and made five changes to gun laws. In the first six months of 2023, there has been a 10% decline in murder rates in the 90 most populous cities, according to Murphy.

"A big part of it is that we are now going after gun traffickers, we are doing more background checks, we are being much more careful about selling guns to minors in this country and we put billions of dollars out on the street for mental health and anti-violence initiatives," he said.

Murphy said in Connecticut, there is too much spending for emergency services but not enough spending for anti-violence initiatives. In addition, there should be more spending for access to early childhood education because the most important age for brain development is before kindergarten.

Connecticut is a more expensive state to live in because of the higher quality of life, making the issue of student debt more important, according to Murphy.

"The cost of higher education in this country is out of control," he said. "It does not actually match the value that you get."

Murphy said the nation needs a higher education reform, where there will be more career training programs and the option to collapse a four-year program into two or three years.

Connecticut is the tightest housing and rental market in the country, and not enough housing is being built, according to Murphy. He said the nation should put money into tax credit programs and help developers build affordable housing.

Murphy pledged the Senate will continue working toward bipartisan agreements.

Murphy also called the conflict at the southern border "unsustainable" as people are coming from South America as well as other countries such as India and Haiti. As a result, he called for more increased border guards, detention capability and asylum system reform.

Further, Murphy said the system is backlogged and many people entering the United States are claiming political asylum, but are entering for economic reasons.

"We’ve got to find a way to process those claims much faster at the border before people come into the country," he said.

Murphy said he is working on negotiating an asylum reform proposal to speed up the process so fewer people are let into the country while their claims are still being processed.