Press Releases

One of the primary focuses of our subcommittee has been ensuring that the Navy and Marine Corps are properly sized and equipped to meet their critical and growing requirements around the globe. I am most proud that we have worked year after year to reverse a steady decline in the fleet and in shipbuilding rates. In the last eight years, we helped to double the number of ships under contract compared to the prior eight years – arresting a steady decline the fleet and putting us on a path to grow our Navy. I think it speaks volumes to the work that we do here that the 2017 defense funding bill we will vote on today adopts many of the changes this panel first proposed last year.

“For hundreds of thousands of families this coverage gap is a quiet crisis that threatens access to critical nursing home care or in the alternative shifts thousands-of-dollars in costs to elderly patients,” said Courtney. “This commonsense change will ensure that seniors no longer face thousands of dollars in bills for skilled care because of this arbitrary federal policy. It is very simple: three days in the hospital is three days in the hospital. Anyone who meets that threshold should receive the same benefit from Medicare. Congress should act immediately to restore Medicare’s long history of covering nursing home care for patients after a three-day hospital stay.”

“Seven years ago, in March of 2010, the Affordable Care Act was signed into law after a two-year process of hundreds of committee meetings, exhaustive markups which I personally participated in, floor debate that went on for days, and back and forth between the House and Senate,” said Courtney during his floor speech. “The fact that this measure is going forward in committee tomorrow morning, with less than 24 hours for the American people to have even a glimpse of what is being proposed, and without an any analysis or a budgets score is just an abuse of the legislative and democratic process. We have seen an outpouring of Americans over the last two months at town hall meetings - I have had four of them - telling heartfelt stories about how the ACA helped them. Yes, we can improve the law and there are many ideas we can work together on and that is what we should be focused on – not butchering the law which this proposal seeks to do."

“Making deep cuts to the Coast Guard, FEMA, and TSA in the name of a new national security initiative is totally out of touch with the work that the Department of Homeland Security performs,” said Courtney. “The budget shared by OMB, which explicitly targets the Coast Guard, TSA and FEMA, will weaken security and undermine all of the progress that was made over the last 4-years to recapitalize Coast Guard cutters, rescue boats, and icebreakers. I will join my colleagues from both sides of the aisle on the Coast Guard caucus to stop this destructive plan from ever being implemented.”

“Our moderate allies from Muslim-majority nations have repeatedly warned President Trump that these rash orders damage our standing to lead the anti-ISIS collation and other counter-terrorism activities around the globe,” said Courtney. “Whatever advantage the Trump administration thinks they have gained with tweaking the prior order is not going to change the backlash we will inevitably experience overseas.”

“It’s very encouraging to see how many people were willing to turnout on a Saturday in Willimantic and across the country to show their support for preserving the Affordable Care Act – it demonstrates just how important this law has become,” said Courtney. “Sometimes people forget that many of the protections they now take for granted, like allowing young people to stay on their parent's plans until age 26, ban against lifetime limits on coverage, protections for those with pre-existing conditions, and a prohibition against charging women more for coverage only exist because of the Affordable Care Act."

“America needs a new generation of farmers, now more than ever,” said Courtney. “The number of new farmers entering the field of agriculture has dropped by 20 percent, while the average farmer age has now risen above 58-years-old. The skyrocketing cost of higher education and the growing burden of student loan debt are presenting major obstacles for young farmers. The burden of student loan debt can thwart their ability to purchase the farming operations they need to get started or drive them away from a career in agriculture altogether. This legislation would assist new farmers during the costly, initial phases of opening a farming business, and allow them a fighting chance to build a life on the farm for themselves and their families.”