WASHINGTON, June 27 -- The House Ways and Means subcommittee on Health issued the following testimony by Melinda Haschak, licensed practical nurse, in a remote hearing entitled "Examining the COVID-19 Nursing Home Crisis" on June 25: My name is Melinda Haschak. I am a nursing home worker from Stamford, Connecticut. I've worked in the healthcare industry for over 20 years. Most of my career has been in long term care -- I began doing administrative work in the home care industry, then worked as  more

WASHINGTON, June 27 -- Rep. Joe Courtney, D-Connecticut, issued the following news release: Congressman Joe Courtney (CT-02) congratulated American Woolen Company and its founder, Jacob Harrison Long, on the receipt of a new Department of Defense (DOD) contract award to produce polyester and wool blend fabric for U.S. Army dress uniforms as part of the national response to COVID-19. The new DOD contract award is valued at $2 million and uses funds authorized and appropriated under the bipartisa  more

WASHINGTON, June 24 -- Rep. Joe Courtney, D-Connecticut, issued the following remarks: Thank you to all our members joining us in person and remotely as we consider the Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee mark for the Fiscal Year 2021 National Defense Authorization Act. Before we begin our work, I wanted to start by thanking our members and staff for their tremendous help with getting this mark together under unexpected circumstances. Even in the midst of a pandemic, the work went on a  more

NORWICH, Connecticut, June 23 -- Rep. Joe Courtney, D-Connecticut, issued the following news release: Congressman Joe Courtney (CT-02), Chairman of the House Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee, issued the following the statement on the Navy's award of the contracting options for the first two Columbia-class submarines in history to General Dynamics Electric Boat. "Today's announcement means 'Game on' for this exciting and transformational project that will shape our region's economy f  more

WASHINGTON, June 27 -- Rep. Joe Courtney, D-Connecticut, issued the following news release on June 26: Congressman Joe Courtney (CT-02), a senior member of the House Education and Labor Committee, voted to override President Trump's veto of H.J. Res. 76, a bipartisan resolution that passed the House and Senate and would prevent U.S. Department of Education (ED) Secretary Betsy DeVos from implementing her 2019 rewrite of the Borrower Defense rule. Today's vote failed to reach the two-thirds thre  more

WASHINGTON, June 25 -- Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro, D-Connecticut, issued the following news release: Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (CT-03), Chair of the House Appropriations Committee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, announced Katelynn Thorpe will serve as her Communications Director. Katelynn Thorpe most recently served as Communications Director for Congresswoman Nita Lowey (NY-17), Chair of the House Appropriations Committee. A graduate from the University of California Berkeley, s  more

WASHINGTON, June 26 -- Rep. John B. Larson, D-Connecticut, issued the following news release: Rep. John B. Larson (CT-01) voted for the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. Larson is a cosponsor of the legislation. "The video of George Floyd's murder in broad daylight depicting his last moments of life as he pleaded that he couldn't breathe sickened and angered me. For too long, systemic racism has led to injustice and even death for Black Americans. As we grieve we know we must act, because  more

WASHINGTON, June 26 -- Rep. John B. Larson, D-Connecticut, issued the following news release: Last week, the Social Security Advisory Board (SSAB) released an insightful report, detailing the impact of Social Security field offices on its beneficiaries and other stakeholders. To follow up on these efforts, Congresswoman Gwen Moore, Chairman John Larson, and Congressman Brian Higgins sent a letter to the Social Security Administration (SSA) Commissioner, Andrew Saul, asking for a response to the  more

WASHINGTON, June 26 -- Rep. John B. Larson, D-Connecticut, issued the following news release: House Ways and Means Social Security Subcommittee Chairman John B. Larson (D-CT) and Worker and Family Support Subcommittee Chairman Danny K. Davis (D-IL) sent a letter to Social Security Administration (SSA) Commissioner Andrew Saul, urging SSA to work with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) to advise the agency on the long-term health effects of COVID-19, the effect  more

WASHINGTON, June 23 -- Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro, D-Connecticut, issued the following news release: Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), a Senior Chief Deputy Whip and Chair of the Energy and Commerce Consumer Protection and Commerce Subcommittee, Congressman Lloyd Doggett (D-TX), Chairman of the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee; Congressman Francis Rooney (R-FL); Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), Chair of the House Appropriations Labor-HHS Subcommittee; and Congressman Peter DeFazio (D-OR)  more

WASHINGTON, June 23 -- Sen. Christopher Murphy, D-Connecticut, issued the following news release on June 22: U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a member of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction, on Monday applauded the U.S. Navy's announcement of a contract option of $9.47 billion for the first two Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines to be built at General Dynamic Electric Boat in Groton. "The Navy's announcement today is good news for Connecticut and   more

WASHINGTON, June 26 -- Sen. Christopher Murphy, D-Connecticut, issued the following statement after the White House and Republican attorneys general filed their legal briefs asking the Supreme Court to overturn the entire Affordable Care Act in the California vs. Texas lawsuit: In 2018, 18 Republican state attorneys general, led by Texas, sued the federal government arguing that the ACA is unconstitutional. The Trump administration took the unprecedented step to side with the plaintiffs in this  more

WASHINGTON, June 26 -- Sen. Christopher Murphy, D-Connecticut, issued the following joint op-ed, published in the ESPN.com: U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Draymond Green, a 3x NBA Champion and power forward for the Golden State Warriors as well as a former National Player of the Year at Michigan State University, on Thursday authored an op-ed in ESPN calling on the NCAA to reform its practices and places the issue of athlete safety and compensation in the current context of the protest  more

WASHINGTON, June 25 -- Sen. Christopher Murphy, D-Connecticut, issued the following joint op-ed with Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-New Hampshire, published on the website The 74 about the importance of including funding for schools in the next COVID-19 relief package, including an $11 billion in state grants dedicated to support students who experience disabilities: The senators, who both serve on the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, discussed the immense challenges for teachers and st  more

WASHINGTON, June 25 -- Sen. Christopher Murphy, D-Connecticut, issued the following news release on June 24: U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) along with Yale University Professor of Public Health (Health Policy), Management and Economics Dr. Howard Forman; Tucson ER Physician Dr. Larry DeLuca; former senior HHS official and Protect Our Care Chair Leslie Dach; and Protect Our Care's Coronavirus War Room held a press call on Tuesday to highlight the consequences of Trump's failure to ramp up t  more

WASHINGTON, June 26 -- Sen. Christopher Murphy, D-Connecticut, issued the following news release: Ahead of the five-year anniversary of the funeral service for the victims of the mass shooting at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, U.S. Senators Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Edward J. Markey (D-Mass,), and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) introduced legislation with 20 of their Senate colleagues to close a current loophole that allows gun sales to proceed if a b  more

WASHINGTON, June 24 -- Sen. Christopher Murphy, D-Connecticut, issued the following news release: U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) on Tuesday questioned health officials at a U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee hearing titled: COVID-19: Lessons Learned to Prepare for the Next Pandemic. At the hearing, Murphy pressed former CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding, and Michigan's Chief Medical Executive Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, on the Trump administration's response to the  more

NORTH KINGSTOWN, Rhode Island, June 23 -- Sen. Jack Reed, D-Rhode Island, issued the following news release: U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) cheered the U.S. Navy's decision to add an additional $869,043,785 order for submarine work that will take place in Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Virginia. The U.S. Navy has reached an agreement with General Dynamics Corp., the parent company of Electric Boat, on an $869 million contract modification allowing for continued work on advance construction of C  more

WASHINGTON, June 26 -- Sen. Christopher Murphy, D-Connecticut, issued the following news release: U.S. Senators Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) co-sponsored standalone legislation introduced by U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) requiring the Pentagon to remove all names, symbols, displays, monuments, and paraphernalia that honor or commemorate the Confederate States of America and anyone who voluntarily served it from all military bases and other assets of the Depa  more

WASHINGTON, June 23 -- Sen. Christopher Murphy, D-Connecticut, issued the following news release on June 22: Following yesterday's historic Supreme Court ruling rejecting President Donald Trump's repeal of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) joined U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and 41 of his Senate Democratic colleagues in a letter to President Trump urging him to finally end his cruel  more

WASHINGTON, June 23 -- Sen. Christopher Murphy, D-Connecticut, issued the following news release on June 22: Following last week's historic Supreme Court ruling rejecting President Donald Trump's repeal of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and the entire Senate Democratic Caucus joined a letter led by Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) calling on   more

HARTFORD, Connecticut, June 27 -- Sen. Christopher Murphy, D-Connecticut, issued the following news release: U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and U.S. Representatives John Larson (CT-1), Rosa DeLauro (CT-3) and Jahana Hayes (CT-5) announced $13,485,100 in federal funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to Head Start programs in the Greater Hartford and New Britain area. "This federal funding will help grow Head Start early education progr  more

HARTFORD, Connecticut, June 27 -- Rep. Jahana Hayes, D-Connecticut, issued the following news release: U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and U.S. Representatives John Larson (CT-1), Rosa DeLauro (CT-3) and Jahana Hayes (CT-5) announced $13,485,100 in federal funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to Head Start programs in the Greater Hartford and New Britain area. "This federal funding will help grow Head Start early education programs, h  more

HARTFORD, Connecticut, June 27 -- Rep. John B. Larson, D-Connecticut, issued the following news release: U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and U.S. Representatives John Larson (CT-1), Rosa DeLauro (CT-3) and Jahana Hayes (CT-5) announced $13,485,100 in federal funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to Head Start programs in the Greater Hartford and New Britain area. "This federal funding will help grow Head Start early education programs,  more

WASHINGTON, June 26 -- Sen. Christopher Murphy, D-Connecticut, issued the following news release on June 25: U.S. Senators Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) yesterday introduced the State Emergency Restaurant and Vendor Enhancement (SERVE) and COVID-19 Anti-Hunger Restaurant Relief for You (CARRY) Act, which would provide additional opportunities to help low-income and unemployed Americans access food during the coronavirus pandemic by establishing the SERVE program, the CARRY pr  more

WASHINGTON, June 24 -- Sen. Christopher Murphy, D-Connecticut, issued the following news release: U.S. Senators Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), and Martha McSally (R-Ariz.) urged Senate appropriators to include at least an additional $25 million for the Department of Justice to hire additional National Instant Criminal Background Checks (NICS) staff. In a letter to U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Age  more

WASHINGTON, June 26 -- Sen. Christopher Murphy, D-Connecticut, issued the following news release: U.S. Senators Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) along with U.S. Representative Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) and a number of House members introduced the Rebuilding Main Street Act, legislation to help small businesses, nonprofits, and workers weather the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and support safe reopening. The legislation exp  more