Politics & Government

U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy Makes a Quick Visit to Darien

U.S. Sen Chris Murphy visited the Sugar Bowl in Darien and talked about immigration, the health care law and other topics for about half an hour Wednesday morning in a quickly arranged visit to town.

Murphy a Democrat, said he's hopeful an immigration bill will come up for a vote in both the Senate and House of Representatives.

He spoke with U.S. Rep. Jim Himes recently, he said, and Himes "was more optimistic this morning (...) about the House taking it up."

The senator said he'd worried about "government overreach" with the recent revelations about national security related monitoring of emails, telephone and other records.

Murphy said one of his "pet issues" is the cost of higher education.

"I am sick to death about the high cost of a college education today," he said. Finding innovative ways of providing education, including online education, he said.

The new health care law will have "some dislocation" and "There will be some bumps along the road," Murphy said, but he's hopeful the disruptions will be overcome.

The recent automatic cuts in federal spending have been painful this year, but next year, if they again go into effect, they'll be excruciating, Murphy said.

He said he recently visited the Head Start officials in Greenwich and was told they expect to be able to raise funds to make up for lost money this year, but they won't be able to do the same with larger cuts next year.

"I spent the first six months of this year working on essentially one issue," Murphy said, "and that is our country's gun laws." Stricter gun control legislation failed to pass so far, he said, but he said he is trying to get a vote on it later this year.


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