Chris Murphy

For the United States, it does not get much more important than the United States/Turkey relationship.

If there is not a constitutional change that allows him to stay in power fairly soon, we will be dealing with post-Erdogan Turkey.

If there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that it adjourn under the previous order. There being no objection, the Senate, at 7:22 p.m., adjourned until Thursday, July 25, 2013, at 9:30 a.m…

We will continue to work through amendments to the THUD appropriations bill tomorrow. ____________________

I wanted to talk for just a few minutes about the issue of employee demand.

A lot of workers particularly, I think low-wage workers in companies of any size, have to make decisions between saving for retirement, paying the rent, saving for school.

What do you do with your lump sums? What do you do with your account balances?

Such that the participant could actually see what they are eventually going to get as a means, perhaps, of increasing demand for a contribution.

Thank you very much, Senator Blumenthal. Thank you for being here today.

$14,000 is enough for somebody to live on today?

People don't want to be on these programs, and they want a higher wage, because they see it as a pathway to eventually get to total independence.

I would argue that that's not how people think, that the vast majority of people out there who are on Medicaid, who are on SNAP benefits, who are receiving housing vouchers do not want to be on those programs.

So it just underscores how important the Older Americans Act is, given the retirement savings crisis that we are currently living in today.

You are on the verge of an absolute crisis.

Nearly half of people in their fifties today don't have anything more than $25,000 saved for retirement.

Is measurement of violent crime enough? And if not, what do we look to in between just the mere measurements of dollars and personnel trained?

I am sorry that I missed some of your testimony, but I read most of it.

Mr. Putin is no longer guarantor of the constitution.

The Presidency in Russia, de facto, is the executive branch and is very politicized.

Peaceful protest is an only way for Russia.

The Russians are acutely looking to see which of those we are funding.

We need Russia to be an ally, but it cannot be if the government is constantly continuing this pattern of scaring off or locking up political opponents.

What we are witnessing today in Russia, as President Putin cracks down on political dissent and shutters much of civil society, is not yet 'The Great Purge,' but this hearing will draw light on the dangerous trendlines in Russia that are…

The Russian Government is on weak ground, internationally, in trying to repress support for civil society.

One particularly egregious example of the Russian Government's overreach has been its recent treatment of NGOs.