Senator Chris Murphy updated Y’s Men on his legislative priorities for each of the three committees on which he is a member—Foreign Relations, Appropriations, and Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.

Speaking about the Iran nuclear negotiations a few hours before President Obama’s afternoon announcement, he said the “news seems to be more pessimistic than optimistic… (I’ll) reserve judgement until I hear the framework.”

He supports the negotiations, calling them “the best option amongst many bad options to try to divorce Iran from its nuclear weapons future.”

Speaking more broadly about foreign relations, he called himself frustrated that “so many members of Congress still view America’s role in the world simply as a military influencer.” Instead, today’s world requires more than just hard power. “We need all sorts of non-kinetic tools to try to counter extremism and try to win friends, (and) build conflict resolution skills that we simply don’t possess today.”

This, he said, requires diplomacy—soft power—a tool that must accompany American military power in order to make this country safer.

To play his part at improving the process, he “doesn’t take a step without a Republican at his side… I’m a pretty progressive Democrat, I don’t hide from that,” yet “John McCain is his closest Republican ally on Foreign Relations Committee.”

Changing focus, Murphy is the first Connecticut senator to serve on the Appropriations Committee in over 30 years. Once appointed, he sought a seat on the Transportation Subcommittee because “upgrading the Northeast Rail Corridor and Route 95 is one of the most important things I can do… It’s not just quality of life, this is our economic lifeline in this state. If we don’t figure out MetroNorth and I95 and do it soon then our entire economy will wither on the vine.”

He made the Walk Bridge in Norwalk his case in point: “It’s a miracle it still opens,” and added that we must reverse past underinvestment in the Northeast Rail Corridor. “It cannot survive without improvements.”

The necessary funds are available, an uncommitted $300 million appropriation and a new Capital Improvements account the Committee recently established.

On the Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee he wants to bring America’s mental and physical health systems together. One example was Adam Lanza—whose mother’s recently razed home was in Murphy’s district—and who slipped through the system unnoticed and untreated.

Speaking more broadly, “I am an optimist about where this country is going.”“The economy is growing and deficits are shrinking.“ Jobs are coming back, deficits are lower than they would have been had the Simpson-Bowles agenda been implemented—down from ten percent of GDP during the recession to under three percent today.

“We will be the world’s largest oil and gas producer within the next decade.”

“Immigration is producing favorable demographics.” The country’s average age is one of the youngest in the world, and is a factor in making us “increasingly globally competitive.”

As he got to his close, Murphy called himself the “luckiest guy in the world to get to live in this country which has so much going for it.”

He closed by challenging the group: We voters “have a responsibility to make me smarter.”