In The News
Senate Passes Bill to Combat Opioid Crisis, N.H. Senators Say Help Coming For Granite State
The U.S. Senate passed bipartisan legislation last night targeting the misuse of opioids and other addictive drugs. The measure would increase scrutiny of arriving international mail that may include illegal drugs. It would also make it easier for the National Institutes of Health to approve research on finding nonaddictive painkillers. The Food and Drug Administration would be allowed to require drug makers to package smaller quantities of drugs like opioids. And there would also be new feder… Continue Reading
September 14, 2018
Funding bill adds $10M to national study of PFAS
by Jeff McMenemy
PORTSMOUTH -- A key funding bill agreed to by U.S. Senate and House negotiators includes $10 million to pay for the second year of a national health study on the health effects of PFAS exposure, U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen announced Friday. Shaheen established the first-in-the-nation study on PFAS exposure in the fiscal year 2018 National Defense Authorization Act. Friday's news about the negotiated funding bill means she has now secured a total of $20 million for the national health study, which … Continue Reading
September 13, 2018
Hampton Harbor dredging project moves forward
by Max Sullivan
HAMPTON -- Language permitting the emergency dredging of Hampton Harbor was kept in the federal Water Infrastructure Act of 2018 finalized this week, the dredging considered necessary to keep the harbor in use. The House and Senate reached an agreement on the bill Monday, the language for permitting the emergency dredging pushed by U.S. Sens. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., as well as U.S. Rep. Carol Shea-Porter earlier this year. Boat captains have said their ships are getti… Continue Reading
September 11, 2018
The United States has leverage to end the Yemeni civil war. Use it.
by Jeanne Shaheen and Todd Young
Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat, represents New Hampshire in the U.S. Senate. Todd Young, a Republican, represents Indiana in the U.S. Senate. The civil war in Yemen has been raging for more than three years and has created the world's worst humanitarian crisis. The statistics are staggering: Three-quarters of Yemen's population, approximately 22 million people, need humanitarian assistance; 8 million are threatened with starvation; and 400,000 children suffer from severe malnutrition. Yemenis are e… Continue Reading
September 10, 2018
$10M in funding delivered for PFAS study
by Jeff McMenemy
PORTSMOUTH -- The Department of Defense has transferred $10 million to a federal agency so it can move forward with the first national health impact study on people exposed to PFAS chemicals in their water, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen announced Monday. The DOD transferred the money to the Agency For Toxic Substances and Disease Registry for the study Shaheen established in the fiscal year 2018 National Defense Authorization Act. Shaheen, D-N.H., a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, also se… Continue Reading
September 10, 2018
Londonderry Fire Department receives $700k FEMA grant
by Ryan Lessard
LONDONDERRY - For the first time, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has awarded the Londonderry Fire Department a federal SAFER grant totaling $700,566. U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., visited the town's central station Friday, the same day as the official announcement of the grant, to discuss the grant and a bill she's co-sponsored to create a cancer registry for firefighters.Shaheen wrote a letter to FEMA officials in June in support of Londonderry's bid for the SAFER grant.With… Continue Reading
September 07, 2018
Shaheen defends federal worker raises at shipyard
by Hadley Barndollar
KITTERY, Maine -- During a Friday afternoon shift change at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen stood outside Gate 1 opposing President Donald Trump's pay freeze that would affect 2 million federal civilian workers nationwide, including the ones driving in and out of the yard behind her. Just ahead of Labor Day, Trump announced his intention to freeze the promised pay raises that were slated to go into effect next January, citing his reasons as the need for performance-based pay and … Continue Reading
September 06, 2018
Seacoast Indonesians get deportation reprieve
by Brian Early
SOMERSWORTH - Some 50 Indonesians facing deportation, most of whom reside in the Seacoast area, have had their deportation orders voided and their asylum proceedings reopened after recent orders from the Board of Immigration Appeals. "This is a miracle," said the Rev. Sandra Pontoh of the Maranatha Indonesian United Church of Christ in Madbury, a vocal advocate for the locals facing deportation. "I am so thankful. All of us are thankful." Boston-based law firm Hahn & Matkov attorney Willia… Continue Reading
September 03, 2018
Trump’s pay freeze plan rattles shipyard
by Hadley Barndollar
PORTSMOUTH -- After announcing ahead of Labor Day that he would freeze the salaries of nearly 2 million federal workers, including those at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and Pease Air National Guard Base, President Donald Trump said he is "studying" the matter after outcry among unions, Democrats and some Republicans. New Hampshire elected officials chirped back at Trump's proposed pay freeze last week, where he cited "serious economic conditions" that prevented the country from affording the raise… Continue Reading
August 24, 2018
Military Sexual Assault Survivors May Not Be Getting Benefits — And This Senator Wants Answers
by Morgan Brinlee
One senator is demanding answers following reports that clerical errors may have caused the Department of Veteran Affairs to deny benefits to survivors of military sexual assault. In a letter sent Thursday to Veteran Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie, New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen asked how the VA will assist military sexual assault survivors going forward and urged the agency to immediately begin implementing new ways to handle benefit claims related to military sexual assault. "I write to e… Continue Reading
August 16, 2018
Our view: A step forward on at-sea monitoring
by Editorial
The New England fishing industry is enjoying a rare victory over federal regulators, as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced earlier this week that it would pick up the cost of at-sea monitoring of boats this year. What's more, NOAA will reimburse fishermen for some of their out-of-pocket expenses from 2017. While that's good news, there is still work to be done. There is no guarantee the new policy -- less a promise of change than a one-time concession tucked in the fe… Continue Reading
August 14, 2018
NOAA to pay fishermen's at-sea monitoring costs
by Sean Horgan
Commercial groundfishermen will not have to pay any at-sea monitoring costs in the current fishing year and will be reimbursed for an additional 25 percent of their 2017 fishing trips that included monitor coverage, NOAA Fisheries said Tuesday. The expanded at-sea monitor funding, fueled by an additional $10.3 million secured by New Hampshire's U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen in the current federal budget, means fishing vessels in the Northeast Multispecies groundfishery are eligible to be reimbursed … Continue Reading
August 13, 2018
Revision Military breaks ground at Pease
by Jeff McMenemy
PORTSMOUTH - Revision Military held a ceremonial groundbreaking for its new Advanced Warfighter Equipment Development Center Monday morning at the Pease International Tradeport. Revision Military CEO Jonathan Blanshay said the company plans to hire somewhere "in the neighborhood of 50 to 75 (new employees) in the first year" of the company's operations in Portsmouth. Construction on the new center, which will be located off Corporate Drive, is expected to be finished in about a year. Blanshay… Continue Reading
August 13, 2018
First-ever nationwide PFAS health study gets additional $10m
by Kimberley Haas
PORTSMOUTH - Officials conducting the first-ever nationwide health study on the impacts of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances will receive another $10 million in federal funding.The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry is conducting the study. Pease International Tradeport in Portsmouth is serving as a model test site due to work that has already been done to assess the threat of PFAS chemicals in the area.The now bustling business park was home to Pease Air Force Base for 60 years.… Continue Reading
August 02, 2018
Bipartisan group of senators pushes to sanction Russia over midterm meddling
by Erin Kelly
WASHINGTON - With less than 100 days until the midterm elections, a bipartisan group of senators offered Thursday a bill that would impose tougher sanctions on Russia if it continues to interfere in U.S. elections. The bill would create new criminal penalties for anyone who targets election systems and slap sanctions on political figures, oligarchs, and others who engage in "illicit and corrupt activities" on behalf of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The bill's co-sponsors are Republicans Li… Continue Reading
August 01, 2018
Shaheen Amendment Could Advance Childhood Cancer Research In N.H.
by Annie Ropeik
The budget bill passed in the U.S. Senate Wednesday could advance childhood cancer research in New Hampshire. A recent federal study says the Granite State had the nation's highest pediatric cancer rate from 2003 to 2014. Senator Jeanne Shaheen and others have called on federal health officials to do more to study the causes of that problem. Now, Shaheen has tied the issue to the Senate's spending bill. Her amendment would require more detailed reports and public outreach about states' pediat… Continue Reading
July 21, 2018
Shaheen tours Londonderry meadery to hear about impact of tariffs on business
by Ryan Lessard
LONDONDERRY - Sen. Jeanne Shaheen visited Moonlight Meadery after company officials said they missed out on an opportunity to make an additional $750,000 per year because of Chinese retaliatory tariffs."Sadly, we're hearing from small businesses all over New Hampshire who are hurt by the tariffs," Shaheen said.Shaheen's staff supplied a study by Trade Partnership Worldwide LLC, an international trade and economic consulting firm, which projects a net loss of 1,889 jobs in the Granite State cause… Continue Reading
July 17, 2018
Action urged on NH’s highest-in-nation child cancer rate
by Jeff McMenemy
PORTSMOUTH - The state's congressional delegation is calling for the Trump administration to find out what is making New Hampshire children sick in light of a recent report indicating the state has the highest pediatric cancer rate in the country. The recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report states that between 2003 and 2014, New Hampshire had 205 pediatric cancer cases per 1,000,000 in the population. The report by the CDC comes after the state Department of Health and Human S… Continue Reading
July 17, 2018
Senator Calls For Hearing With U.S. Interpreter In Trump-Putin Meeting
by Jennifer Bendery
WASHINGTON ? Nobody knows what President Donald Trump told Russian President Vladimir Putin in their private, two-hour meeting on Monday, after which he publicly trashed U.S. intelligence and praised the Russian dictator. Well, almost nobody. At least one U.S. interpreter was in the room with the two leaders. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) says she wants to bring in that interpreter to testify before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on what, exactly, Trump shared with Putin. "That … Continue Reading
July 12, 2018
Senators ask new EPA head to act on PFAS contamination
by Jeff McMenemy
PORTSMOUTH -- U.S. Sens. Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen are calling for the acting administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to "understand and address the PFAS contamination problem facing the nation." Hassan and Shaheen state in their letter sent Thursday to Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler that "PFAS chemicals have been associated with birth defects, various forms of cancers and immune system dysfunction." Wheeler replaced the embattled Scott Pruitt, who resigned last we… Continue Reading
