U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy along with local officials announced the city will get a $2.1 million annual grant from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to build a more cohesive and robust regional program to address the drug overdose crisis in New Haven County. In 2022, 490 New Haven County residents suffered... Read More about Murphy, Blumenthal: City Gets $2.1M CDC Grant To Combat Drug OD Crisis

U.S. Senators Chris Murphy (D-CT) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) have introduced legislation to keep domestic abusers from buying and possessing guns. It’s called the Lori Jackson-Nicolette Elias Domestic Violence Survivor Protection Act, named after two women who were killed by their abusers. Blumenthal said the bill could have protected Lori... Read More about CT senators introduce federal gun legislation to protect domestic violence victims

Legislators and housing advocates convened for the fourth annual Connecticut Affordable Housing Conference on Monday and Tuesday. The conference explores policy solutions at the state and local level. Chelsea Ross is the director of special projects for Partnership for Stronger Communities, the company that organizes the event. She said the... Read More about CT legislators and advocates push for affordable housing support

A few things you can bet on when there’s been a terrible mass shooting in this country. One is that the heartbreaking stories about victims and chilling ones about the craziness of the shooter will not necessarily be followed by a strong bipartisan drive for significantly better gun laws. POP QUIZ After an assault-rifle-brandishing madman killed 18... Read More about Here’s What Doesn’t Happen After a Mass Shooting

Sen. Chris Murphy looks at us and doesn’t like what he sees. We don’t get out enough and it’s no wonder considering the amount of time we spend on our phones. We haven’t gotten back to our pre-pandemic social routines and it shows: While 1 in 2 Americans reported being lonely prior to 2020, Covid turbocharged the problem. The Connecticut Democrat... Read More about ‘I care about it’: Sen. Chris Murphy’s battle against loneliness

Chris Murphy had barely taken his seat at the head of the table when he was hit with a little history. "That's Bobby Kennedy touring the Delta, and later he toured Appalachia," Tim Nolan, a nurse practitioner on the front lines of the opioid epidemic in North Carolina, said as the senator looked down at the photo. Those trips in 1967 and 1968,... Read More about Chris Murphy Wants to Make America a Little Less Lonely

Senate Republicans released a proposal for tougher immigration laws Monday while issuing a warning to President Joe Biden that there will be no further Ukraine aid without stricter rules for being granted asylum in the U.S. The one-page plan — written by GOP Sens. James Lankford of Oklahoma, Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Lindsey Graham of South... Read More about Republicans threaten to reject Ukraine aid unless Democrats agree to tighten U.S. immigration laws

The Supreme Court appears poised to side with the Justice Department in upholding a decades-old federal statute meant to keep firearms out of the hands of alleged domestic abusers. After hearing more than an hour of oral arguments Tuesday, a majority of the Court signaled that the law aligns with firearm restrictions historically imposed on... Read More about The Supreme Court Appears to Have Reached Its Limit on Who Can Be Armed

A bipartisan group of senators is working through the weekend to forge a deal on asylum policy changes designed to reduce migrant crossings along the southern border, hoping to make a rare breakthrough on one of Congress' most intractable issues, three congressional officials told CBS News. Sens. Michael Bennet of Colorado, James Lankford of... Read More about Bipartisan group of senators working through weekend to forge border security deal: "We have to act now"

Top Republican lawmakers brushed aside questions about former President Donald Trump’s alarming vow to purge his political opponents, which he referred to as “vermin” in a Veterans’ Day message over the weekend. “Is that worse than ‘deplorables’? I don’t use that kind of language, but it’s a free country,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told HuffPost... Read More about As Trump Vows Vengeance Against ‘Vermin,’ Republicans Look The Other Way

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said there has been a “loud diversity” of positions about Puerto Rico’s political status among those in Connecticut’s Puerto Rican community. But he believes the island should decide its future and whether it is recognized differently than a U.S. territory. Murphy and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., helped announce... Read More about CT senators back bill on Puerto Rico deciding its political status

Legislators and housing advocates convened for the fourth annual Connecticut Affordable Housing Conference on Monday and Tuesday. The conference explores policy solutions at the state and local level. Chelsea Ross is the director of special projects for Partnership for Stronger Communities, the company that organizes the event. She said the... Read More about CT legislators and advocates push for affordable housing support

U.S. Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, said residents feel the effects of the Israel-Hamas conflict personally for both Palestinians and the Israelis, as advocates across the state held several rallies in response to the war. The U.S. government is staunchly pro-Israel, but Murphy told Connecticut Public’s "All Things... Read More about Murphy cautions Israel to show restraint in Gaza, citing lessons of Afghanistan

Nearly all of Connecticut’s congressional delegation is calling for “humanitarian pauses” in the Middle East as part of the U.S. strategy to ensure the flow of more aid into Gaza as well as the release of hostages captured by Hamas. That support for a temporary halt, which aligns with a growing number of Democrats in Congress and the Biden... Read More about Most CT lawmakers call for ‘humanitarian pauses’ for Gaza aid

The Biden administration pushed Congress Tuesday to approve its $105 billion national security supplemental request that includes support for both Israel and Ukraine as the House of Representatives prepares to consider legislation that would only support Israel.  Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned that separating funding for Ukraine from... Read More about Blinken, Austin urge Congress to pass funding to support both Israel and Ukraine

A few things you can bet on when there’s been a terrible mass shooting in this country. One is that the heartbreaking stories about victims and chilling ones about the craziness of the shooter will not necessarily be followed by a strong bipartisan drive for significantly better gun laws. POP QUIZ After an assault-rifle-brandishing madman killed 18... Read More about Here’s What Doesn’t Happen After a Mass Shooting

New House Speaker Mike Johnson, as one of his first moves, is forcing a showdown over emergency aid to Israel. He's pushing a vote Thursday on a bill that would provide more than $14 billion to the American ally -- but not include $61 billion in aid to Ukraine as President Joe Biden, House and Senate Democrats -- and even many Senate Republicans --... Read More about New speaker's Israel funding showdown with Biden, Democrats -- and Senate Republicans

or those of us who work on US-Middle East policy, especially those with close friends and family in the Middle East, the last three weeks have been especially harrowing. Those of us sitting in Washington cannot know what our Israeli colleagues endured on 7 October, when over 1,400 people were murdered, and in the days since as the details of those... Read More about An Israel-Hamas ceasefire is in everyone’s best interest, humanely and practically

While mired in the thick of a war in Israel, electing a speaker and the possibility of a second government shutdown this fall, Congress is facing a harrowing issue impacting America's youngest: A 69% increase in child labor law violations since 2018. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., is the latest lawmaker looking to update the nation's antiquated child labor... Read More about Child labor violations are up 69%. Here’s what Congress is doing to address it.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) warned of potential harmful consequences to passengers, airline employees and small communities if a proposed merger between JetBlue and Spirit Airlines takes place. “When these mergers happen, it seems to be that the haves — geographically — have more, and the cities that are smaller and needed the presence of these... Read More about Sen. Chris Murphy warns of consequences to possible JetBlue, Spirit merger