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Courtney To Host Second District Town Hall Meeting
Congressman Joe Courtney will host a Second Congressional District town hall meeting in Deep River on August 15, 2017. The meeting will take place at Valley Regional High School starting at 6pm. -
Navy Build Up Needs Comprehensive Approach
Increased operations, lengthened deployments, strained readiness, and rapid developments around the globe point to the need for a larger fleet. Read Joe's op-ed in USNI News here. -
Tolland mom working with Courtney to help opioid addicts
Jennifer Kelly has a powerful story to tell about the dangers of the growing opioid epidemic. She recently traveled to Washington to tell her family’s story and to plead for emergency action to address rising drug abuse nationwide. -
Building the Next Generation of Submarines Right Here in Southeastern Connecticut
News that Electric Boat has been selected by the Navy as the prime contractor for the Ohio-class replacement program is not only great news for our region, but for the entire state. -
Correcting a National Disgrace by Standing Up for 'Blue Water' Navy Veterans
Congressman Courtney joined veterans and colleagues in front of the U.S. Capitol building to show support for the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act. He has requested that the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs take action on the legislation to provide Navy sailors with care for ‘Agent Orange’ exposure. -
Protecting Connecticut’s Traditional Maple Syrup Industry
Congressman Courtney is pushing the FDA to take action against products that are misbranded as containing maple sugar in order to protect consumers and farmers in Connecticut.
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Last February, President Donald Trump convened a group of manufacturing CEOs at the White House to discuss his administration’s idea of growing American jobs by imposing a border adjusted tax (BAT). As reported the next day, the BAT received lukewarm support at best, and unexpectedly, the CEOs instead pivoted the meeting toward the critical need to close the so-called skills gap preventing companies from filling high quality jobs with highly trained workers. Indeed, the next day, a national newspaper’s headline read: “Factory CEOs to Trump, ‘Jobs Exist, Skills Don’t.’” Fast forward to the present: The BAT was declared dead by congressional leadership at the end of July, but the most recent report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that 6.2 million job openings exist across the country, one of the highest levels on record.
Issues:
“Despite President Trump’s insistence that he is taking action against the rising tide of opioid addiction, all of his activates thus far have shown exactly the opposite - that he is not doing enough,” said Courtney. “Last week, his own commission recommended he declare the growing prescription opioid and heroin epidemic a national emergency. Yesterday, he declined to take any new actions or allocate any new funding. The national death toll is growing by the day and President Trump essentially told the commission to take a walk. I have spent a great deal of time meeting with families and first responders over the last two-years to learn more about this crisis and the message from them could not be clearer. They need new resources and more funding to fight back and save lives – it is that simple. There is not enough money either for law enforcement activities or for treatment beds. We need to end the stigma against drug addiction and start treating this epidemic like the public health emergency it is.”
“The VA’s decision to continue to deny care and benefits to blue water Vietnam veterans is unacceptable and I am glad that Secretary Shulkin indicated that they may be taking action to correct this,” wrote Courtney. “Like many veterans in my district who regularly share their concerns about this issue with me, I am deeply disappointed in the VA’s continued refusal to cover blue water veterans who served on ships offshore during the Vietnam War. That’s why I continue to push for action to right this wrong for our Navy veterans suffering to this day from exposure to this toxic chemical.”
Issues: