WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Legislative Branch Subcommittee, on Monday applauded the U.S. Senate passage of the Legislative Branch Appropriations bill for Fiscal Year 2019. The legislation includes important provisions, including increased funding for U.S. Capitol Police and the non-partisan Government Accountability Office, which saves taxpayers $128 for every dollar spent due to increased efficiencies. The bill also includes a $5 million fund for Senates office to provide paid internship opportunities. 

Last week, Murphy joined the subcommittee’s chairman, U.S. Senator Steve Daines (R-Mont.), in speaking on the U.S. Senate floor about the Legislative Branch Appropriations bill. Murphy said, “It has been a real pleasure and honor to work with Senator Daines on this bill, which we bring to the floor in a bipartisan manner. … I think this is a good bill, one we can all support.”

Discussing the new dedicated fund to allow for Senators to begin paying interns, Murphy stated, “Each of us have our own unique journey as to how we get here to be a U.S. Senator. Mine started as a Senate intern. I was an intern for my Senator, Chris Dodd, but there's no way that I could have taken advantage of that opportunity had my family not had the resources to be able to send me down to Washington for a summer. … And the fact of the matter is that experience is foreclosed to far too many American children because many Senate offices, not all, but many Senate offices do not pay their interns. This would at least give the option for Senate offices to do so.”

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