One of the goals that we are shooting for is to expand VA health care, understanding that the major function of the VA and their highest priority is to take care of those who are service-connected.

I have focused on the electronic records challenges and, in fact, have sponsored the Servicemembers Electronic Health Records Act, along with Senator Nelson to address what I see as the unfortunate and unforgivable lag in the development…

S. XXXX, introduced by Senator Richard Blumenthal (CT), would establish in the Department of Veterans Affairs a national center for the diagnosis, treatment, and research of health conditions of the descendants of veterans exposed to toxic…

This legislation seeks to ensure that it never happens again.

I thank both of my colleagues. I am not sure I can match their eloquence in describing their gifts and their contributions on this issue and so many others, but I hope they and others will join me in meeting with the present Sandy task…

I rise today in recognition of the 1- year anniversary of Superstorm Sandy's landfall in the Northeast and the destruction it brought on a ruinous path through Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Rhode Island. I will be joined today on…

I can scarcely capture in words the awesome, monstrous power of this storm as it hit the Northeast as I traveled there. I was near the coastline of Connecticut, traveling some of the roads in the midst of this storm as it ripped through my…

veterans are offered decisive legal protection against discrimination when seeking employment or housing.

We have made promises and the Nation needs to keep faith with them.

VVA favors the provisions in this act.

So police officers feel these laws may, in effect, represent a threat to them.

Prosecutors, judges, police officers, and ordinary citizens have been left to guess what behavior is legal and what is criminal.

And the normal design life is 30 years.

It was your line that failed, was it not?

There would be sufficient power supply from these other substations to compensate for the alternative neighboring substation if it went offline?

And can you commit, also, that you'll provide the preliminary review? I know we've asked for it.

Your focus on this disruption in and of itself should serve as a wake-up call.

there is an obligation. It certainly is an ethical, in my view, obligation, if not a legal obligation, for Con Ed to make whole, to compensate, to reimburse Metro-North and others who suffered as a result of Con Ed's failure of equipment.

So let me just go back from that global line of questioning to more of the detailed questioning.

I strongly share the view, that our nation needs to make additional investments in infrastructure.

It was your responsibility to maintain and make sure that line served the substation owned by Metro-North.

Enough is enough. The outage due to the electrical problem obviously is a major failure, one for which the cause should be determined and the appropriate people held responsible.

the entire New Haven Line, when it comes to electric power, really is only as strong as its weakest point, because if the weakest point fails, as we saw in Mount Vernon, the entire line is crippled, correct?

I don't think, again, with all due respect, I'm satisfied that Con Ed is doing as much as it should to provide for the monetary compensation to Metro-North or to others who may have been harmed.

I actually have supported the idea of improving our rail system so as to enable an hour trip from New Haven to New York and 45 minutes from Bridgeport to New York.