In the News
By Mark Miller
May 5, 2022 May
Social Security has never failed to make its benefit payments since the mailing of monthly checks began in 1940, but most Americans these days are worried about the future of the program.
Three House Democrats introduced a bill last week to provide Americans with monthly direct payments through 2022 — or, at least, while prices remain exceptionally high.
Reps. Mike Thompson of California, Lauren Underwood of Illinois, and John Larson of Connecticut unveiled the plan. It would provide $100 monthly checks to individuals and $200 to couples while the national gas price average is $4 a gallon or above. Households would also be able to claim another extra $100 for each dependent they claimed on their tax returns.
The University of Connecticut has been awarded $662,400 in federal funding for research on the state’s crumbling foundations crisis.
The announcement was made Thursday by Democratic U.S. Reps. Joe Courtney (CT-02) and John Larson (CT-01). The money was secured in the House of Representatives’ fiscal year 2021 omnibus spending package, the congressmen’s offices announced.
The funding was awarded by the National Institute of Standards and Technology and comes one year after UConn received $768,000 for similar research.
Connecticut’s congressional and Ukrainian-American community leaders condemned Russia’s wide-ranging attack on Ukraine Thursday and said the U.S. and its European allies will respond with the full force of crippling sanctions.
Russian forces hit cities and military bases as fleeing civilians piled into trains and cars. NATO’s chief said the “brutal act of war” shattered peace on the European continent, as the U.S.-led alliance mobilized more troops to move toward eastern Europe.
With President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better legislation halted in the U.S. Senate, Connecticut Democrats hoped to drum up support Monday by highlighting the bill’s extension of a recently-expired monthly tax credit for families with children.