Press Releases

“While the national margin between milk prices and feed costs continues to shrink, dairy farmers in Connecticut—where energy and feed costs are typically greater—have been struggling with tight margins for the past year,” Courtney said. “The latest announcement on MPP payouts will certainly aid a number of struggling farms in Connecticut, but I am hopeful that this is only the first of several steps the USDA will take to turn the dairy industry around in the U.S.”

“I was elected to Congress in 2006 and have served as a member of the Education and Workforce Committee for eight years,” wrote Courtney. “One of the primary reasons I asked for that assignment was to address the widespread frustration across Connecticut’s Second District with over-prescriptive, unworkable rules generated by the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB)."

“I have witnessed firsthand the struggle that dairy farmers around the country face with decreasing milk prices,” said Representative Courtney. “As milk prices have steadily declined over the last half century, Connecticut has seen its dairy industry shrink from over 800 farms to about 150 today. Reopening or starting a new dairy farm is a herculean task, which is why when one closes, more often than not, no farm will replace it. The American dairy industry is an integral part of our agriculture economy and as we face yet another milk crisis, it is more important than ever for the Department of Agriculture to lend a hand to our dairy farmers before it’s too late.”

“This development will resolve once and for all the home port for the U.S. Coast Guard Band while allowing it to move forward with its goal of increasing the band’s national visibility to better promote the Coast Guard’s service to our country,” said Courtney. “This announcement is also good news for band members and their families who are longtime residents of southeastern Connecticut and would have been faced with the difficult choice of uprooting or retiring from the Coast Guard altogether. I want to thank Admiral Zukunft and his staff for their thoughtful deliberations, and for regularly making themselves available throughout this process. I was able to meet personally with the Admiral on several occasions to discuss why I believe it is so important for the band to remain here in eastern Connecticut near the Coast Guard Academy. I am very pleased that the band will continue to call our region home for generations to come.”

“As representatives from the region, we understand firsthand the importance of preserving and protecting the environment in and around the Sound for future generations to enjoy,” wrote the members. “The environmental soundness of Long Island Sound dredging is a clear focus of the ELDS. The proposed rule is consistent with the federally-approved Coastal Zone Management Plans for New York, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. Furthermore, it should be noted that without access to the ELDS, it is expected that transporting dredged materials to other sites, like the Rhode Island Disposal Site, will increase carbon emissions from ships and risk of dredged material spills as transport distance is extended. Our states have been responsibly dredging using open-water placement for 35 years and we believe that swift adoption of the ELDS, along with an increased effort to find sustainable on-land solutions for suitable dredged materials, will provide the Long Island Sound region with a balanced approach for future waterway maintenance projects."

"“The Connecticut delegation did just send a letter to Director Saldaña about the fact that this is something she does not need Congress to act on – and frankly the fact that anybody who manages an agency or a department wasn’t aware of that kind of caseload disparity just screams out dysfunction when you look at those numbers,” said Courtney. “Frankly, I will just tell both of you that the testimony that you delivered here today, in the wake of the I.G.’s report, in my district where we saw the horrific consequences of a system that clearly didn’t do its job – it’s almost offensive to listen to it because it’s so divorced from the reality of what the IG found, and those consequences are being felt by this family to this day."

"I appreciate the work the Navy is doing to harness the capacity in the submarine industrial base to build additional attacks submarines. Thanks to the in-depth look that the Navy has taken at the industrial base as it prepares to meet the challenge of building attack submarines in addition to the new Ohio Replacement Submarine, we know that there is capacity to add a second submarine in 2021. The addition of this boat alone reduces the attack submarine shortfall by nearly 30 percent, as measured against current requirements. Our subcommittee made clear its firm support of this plan in our mark of the 2017 defense authorization, and we are eager to see this plan put into action."

“With the cost of a college education skyrocketing, Americans across the country are demanding action to lower the crushing costs of higher education and relieve the burden of student debt,” said the members. “The challenges faced by our constituents are staggering – student loans account for $1.3 trillion in consumer debt, the highest amount of consumer debt outside of a mortgage, and the average student borrower carries nearly $30,000 in education debt. This is not just a drag on students, graduates, and their families; it’s a drag on our entire economy. When a potential borrower is burdened by student debt, it makes it that much more difficult to buy a home, start a family, or change a career.