Chris Murphy: “I came here with some degree of trepidation, because coming from the Connecticut State legislature, a place in which…”

“I came here with some degree of trepidation, because coming from the Connecticut State legislature, a place in which partisanship has its day, but certainly is not the rule, the reputation of this place, at least under the last 12 years of Republican rule, struck fear into the hearts of a lot of new Members, because we came from experiences, at least those of us who came from experiences in the State legislature, where the rule was that we reached out and worked across the aisle. The reason that in Connecticut the State legislature enjoys a level of support and approval that the United States Congress has not traditionally had is in part because on the most important stuff, in Connecticut we found a way to do that. I was the chair of the Public Health Committee for several years in the Connecticut legislature and we passed the Nation's first stem cell investment law. We did it with a Republican Governor.”