Public Safety & Homeland Security

“This week I took three more votes to end the partial government shutdown,” said Congressman Courtney. “We’ve voted in the House nine times to get the government re-opened immediately, and yet the Senate have not acted once to end the shutdown. There’s no excuse for the Senate to use procedural maneuvers to avoid their responsibility to restore critical public services for the nation, including the men and women of the Coast Guard who protect our national security, overseas and at home.”

“We need to recognize that there is nothing normal about American’s gun violence crisis,” said Courtney. “When it comes to global statistics, no other developed country even comes close to equaling the United States in terms of raw gun deaths and shooting rampages – the U.S. stands alone."

Courtney and Congressman Glenn “GT” Thompson (R-PA-5) introduced the Fire Police Fairness Act, bipartisan legislation that would extend public safety officer death benefits to fire police. Fire police officers provide unique and varying emergency response services in several states, including Connecticut and Pennsylvania. Because there is no uniform national designation for fire police, many of these public servants face additional hurdles in accessing benefits that other public safety officers receive.

“This grant funding is great news for the New London Fire Department,” said Courtney. “Not only does the New London Fire Department oversee one of the most densely populated municipalities in eastern Connecticut, it also supports the operations of departments in other local communities across our region through mutual-aid. They are also responsible for protecting a large stock of older homes and buildings that necessitate a larger and better-equipped force than departments serving other communities. I commend Mayor Michael Passero and Fire Chief Henry Kydd, Jr. for working closely with my office during the grant application process. Their support was critical in helping to secure this award.”

“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.”

“We are alarmed by recent media reports that your Department chose to deny visas to six Afghan girls traveling to the United States for FIRST Global, an international robotics challenge to be held in Washington,” wrote the members. “Barring these hardworking, creative young women from a competition premised on global connection and innovation runs counter to the State Department’s mission of fostering security and stability through peace. The work of diplomacy is not limited to embassies and consulates; the United States engages with individuals abroad precisely because these individual relationships are the key to stability and development. Indeed, as the world’s leader of scientific innovation and research, inviting the world’s best and brightest to support our research efforts enhances our ability to expand knowledge in all fields, whether robotics or medicine, art or engineering, mathematics or history. In particular, supporting women’s education initiatives has been a vital component of our diplomacy and has been proven to enhance stability and speed development more than almost any policy focus."

“These critical federal dollars will help update, improve, and protect housing for Connecticut families, children, and seniors—making countless homes more modern, safe, and healthy places to live and grow. From repairs and renovations to detecting lead hazards, the grants announced today will make a longstanding, positive impact in neighborhoods from Bridgeport to Brooklyn. We applaud HUD for their continued investment in our communities and will continue to fight to protect and preserve this funding from any ruthless cuts for years to come,” said the delegation.