In The News
Law protects waterways, calls Saint-Gaudens historical park
The wide-ranging public lands bill signed into law by President Donald Trump has provisions that protect some New Hampshire waterways and redesignates Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site as a "National Historical Park." New Hampshire's congressional delegation has championed the provisions. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen said the redesignation of Saint-Gaudens finally recognizes the landmark appropriately "for its natural beauty, historical architecture and art." The legislation also will designate port… Continue Reading
March 12, 2019
Shipyard group to Trump: ‘Hands off PNSY, please’
by Hadley Barndollar
KITTERY, Maine - To open its quarterly meeting Tuesday, the president of the Seacoast Shipyard Association sent a strong message aimed at the Trump administration: "Hands off the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, please." The statement of third generation, 40-plus year shipyarder John Joyal referred to the possibility that military construction funds already allocated to projects at the shipyard, and others around the country, may be raided to build the southern border wall. It's currently unknown whi… Continue Reading
March 11, 2019
Regional program is key to helping rural communities
by Senator Jeanne Shaheen and Congresswoman Annie Kuster
The Northern Border Regional Commission is an important partnership between New Hampshire and the federal government. The NBRC provides opportunities to Granite State startups, projects and programs, helping economically distressed areas of New Hampshire that otherwise wouldn't have access to the investments they need. That's why we've made it a top priority in Congress to ensure the NBRC is funded, and most recently, to expand its reach to include Cheshire County. In legislation recently signe… Continue Reading
March 09, 2019
Shaheen hosts roundtable on prescription drug prices
by Glynis Hart
LEBANON - Sen. Jeanne Shaheen sat down with hospital administrators, clinicians and people in the front lines of medical care to discuss what can be done about the high cost of prescription drugs. The roundtable took place Friday afternoon at Alice Peck Day Memorial Hospital, with health care stakeholders from Alice Peck Day Memorial Hospital, Dartmouth-Hitchcock, Mascoma Community Health Center and the New Hampshire Hospital Association. Shaheen invited those assembled to tell her what they're … Continue Reading
March 03, 2019
Shaheen, Hassan co-sponsor PFAS bill
by Jeff McMenemy
PORTSMOUTH -- U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen is co-sponsoring a bill that would require the Environmental Protection Agency to declare PFAS chemicals hazardous substances that are eligible for federal cleanup funds. The lead sponsor of the bill, which is called The PFAS Action Act, is U.S. Sen. Tom Carper, D-Delaware. They are joined by a group of bipartisan co-sponsors, including U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H. The bill would require the EPA to act within one year of its passage and declare PFAS ch… Continue Reading
February 28, 2019
Shaheen bill would slap fees on e-cigarette makers
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) -- New Hampshire Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen has introduced a bill that would place a fee on e-cigarette manufacturers to help finance the Food and Drug Administration's efforts to regulate the products that are especially popular with underage users. The bill calls for the FDA to collect fees from fiscal year 2020 of $150 million, or 2 percent of total aggregate manufacturer sales of e-cigarettes sold in the United States the previous year. Currently, there are no user fee… Continue Reading
February 28, 2019
NH opioid recovery center testifies on importance of federal funding
by Monica Hernandez
WASHINGTON - Federal grants are making a major impact in the state of addiction, according to the executive director of a lakes region recovery center who testified in Washington, D.C. Thursday. Daisy Pierce, Ph.D, director of Navigating Recovery of the Lakes Region, told a Senate Appropriations subcommittee how millions of federal dollars are changing Granite Stater's lives. Advertisement "We map out recovery, the whole life process, not just abstinence from alcohol and other drugs but everythi… Continue Reading
February 22, 2019
USS Thresher memorial approval celebrated
by Hadley Barndollar
KITTERY, Maine -- On April 10, 1963, 16-year-old Carol Norton was playing basketball with her brother and neighbors when their mother approached the group slowly from afar, shaking and sobbing. "What Mama was to reveal to us was the unthinkable," Norton said Friday, while speaking at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard's museum. Her father, civilian shipyard inspector Fred Philip Abrams and 128 other men were missing. Nuclear attack submarine USS Thresher (SSN-593), while conducting deep dive exercises … Continue Reading
February 22, 2019
Sen. Shaheen targets ‘junk’ health plans
by Alex LaCasse
EXETER -- U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen is pushing legislation to protect people from being led into purchasing what she calls "junk" health-care plans. Shaheen, D-N.H., held a meeting with a group of public health officials at Exeter Hospital Friday to discuss the state of health care delivery, especially to more vulnerable populations. The senator said the Protect Americans with Pre-existing Conditions Act is intended to block the Trump administration from using federal tax credits to promote enr… Continue Reading
February 14, 2019
Shaheen bill: Age 50-plus could buy into Medicare
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) -- U.S. Sens. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and Debbie Stabenow of Michigan have introduced a bill to give people between the ages of 50 and 64 the option of buying into Medicare. The senators, both Democrats, said in a statement Thursday that millions of Americans who are approaching retirement or are being forced to retire early due to layoffs or mandatory retirement face increasing health care needs and rising costs. They say allowing more people to buy into Medicare ha… Continue Reading
February 07, 2019
Trump pushes an anti-abortion agenda abroad while paying lip service to women's empowerment
by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen and Rep. Nita Lowey
President Trump, during Tuesday's State of the Union, announced, with few details, that the administration would be "launching the first ever government-wide initiative focused on economic empowerment for women in developing countries." But while we share the goal of empowering women in developing countries, the overall health and socioeconomic wellbeing of women and girls depend in no small part on the availability of evidence-based health care services and information. The administration h… Continue Reading
February 06, 2019
Clean water advocate calls State of the Union ‘surreal’
by Jeff McMenemy
ORTSMOUTH -- Environmental activist Andrea Amico could not have had a better view of Tuesday night's State of the Union address. "I was up in the gallery directly in front of President Trump. I got to see him kind of head-on," Amico said Wednesday evening after flying home from Washington, D.C. "The first lady was off to the right of me, not directly near me but I could clearly see her and Ivanka (Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump.)" The Portsmouth mother attended the State of the Union address as… Continue Reading
February 05, 2019
Addressing costs: Battle on against high prescription drug prices
by Grace Pecci
NASHUA - U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and Nashua Public Health Director Bobbie Bagley know many people have to balance paying for rent, utilities, food and prescription drugs. They know this because members of their own families have felt the impact of constantly increasing prescription drug prices. During a Monday meeting at the United Way of Greater Nashua office, Bagley gave an example of someone who has to buy insulin. "They buy all the insulin they need. They take some of it, and t… Continue Reading
January 10, 2019
Don’t let Islamic State monsters get away with murder
by Jeanne Shaheen and Diane Foley
Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat, represents New Hampshire in the U.S. Senate and is a member of the Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committees. Diane Foley is the mother of James Foley, an American journalist murdered by the Islamic State in 2014, and founder and president of the James W. Foley Foundation. It was 2014 when the public executions of James Foley, Steven Sotloff and Peter Kassig awakened the American public and the world to the threat of the Islamic State. In January 2018, U.S.-bac… Continue Reading
January 07, 2019
N.H. Farmers Meet With Senator Shaheen To Discuss Impacts From Government Shutdown
by Robert Garrova
Senator Jeanne Shaheen met Friday with about a dozen representatives from New Hampshire's farming industry to discuss how the partial government shutdown is affecting them. It's not just federal workers who are starting to feel the effects of the shutdown. Because of the lapse in funding, USDA Farm Service Agency programs that allow farmers to take out low-interest loans have been stalled. Robert Wellington is with Agri-Mark dairy farms. He said trade tensions with China are the biggest wor… Continue Reading
January 07, 2019
Amid planned Syria withdrawal, U.S. scrambling to find places to send ISIS detainees
by Courtney Kube and Josh Lederman
President Trump's surprise announcement that he was pulling the U.S. military out of Syria came with no plan in place for what to do about more than 790 imprisoned ISIS fighters and their families. Now his administration is in a frantic search for solutions, including a renewed look at sending the most dangerous fighters to Guantanamo Bay, U.S. and congressional officials tell NBC News. The scramble has been complicated by the fact that the timeline for the planned U.S. withdrawal keeps evolvin… Continue Reading
December 30, 2018
Farm bill bonus: This year's reauthorization includes a potential leg up for Cheshire County
by Editorial
It wasn't a perfect bill, by any means; the political fodder that is the Department of Agriculture's omnibus funding bill is, every five years, a new opportunity for pork and policy tuning. And so it was with this year's farm bill. On the former, we'll simply note that one legislator's pork is another's justifiable aid, and that the entire point of what was originally called the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933 was to pay farmers not to grow certain crops. As for the policy issues, this … Continue Reading
December 15, 2018
Farm bill awaiting Trump's signature would benefit county
by Liora Engel-Smith
A provision that would make Cheshire County eligible for special economic development grants is headed to the president's desk, as part of a farm bill that cleared Congress this week. The $867 billion bill passed by a 386-47 vote in the U.S. House Wednesday after winning favor in the Senate, 87-13, the previous day. If President Donald Trump signs the bill into law, Cheshire County will officially become part of the Northern Border Regional Commission, a state-federal partnership tha… Continue Reading
December 14, 2018
Manchester Gets $3.7M From HUD To Remediate Lead Paint In Low-Income Housing
by Annie Ropeik
The federal government will give Manchester $3.7 million to address lead paint issues in city homes. The money comes from the Department of Housing and Urban Development as part of grants given out across the country. New Hampshire's Congressional delegation praised the funding as a way to help vulnerable families in the city's oldest housing. "This funding will allow the City of Manchester to perform healthy home assessments and address lead hazards in 180 housing units to ensure the safety … Continue Reading
December 14, 2018
New Hampshire man receives long-awaited Purple Heart medal
by Emily Sweeney
More than seven decades after he was wounded in World War II, Melrose native Francis Byrne finally received his Purple Heart. The 94-year-old veteran was presented the medal at a ceremony at Elliot Hospital in Manchester, N.H., on Friday morning. It was an honor he'd been waiting years to receive. The moment finally arrived after the Manchester Police Department escorted Byrne from his home in Manchester to the hospital, where he received the long-awaited honor. Brigadier General David J. Mik… Continue Reading
