In The News
Defense Bill Contains Money on Shaheen-Supported Water Study
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - A $700 billion defense authorization bill signed into law by President Donald Trump includes an amendment by New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen to fund a nationwide health study on the implications of PFOA and related chemicals in drinking water. The nationwide study will be conducted by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. Shaheen, a Democrat, said Tuesday the amendment is particularly important for families living in the Seacoast area, following t… Continue Reading
December 12, 2017
Health study on PFC exposure moves forward
by Jeff McMenemy
PORTSMOUTH -- The first national health study on the health effects on people exposed to PFCs in drinking water continues to move forward as a result of legislation from U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen. President Donald Trump signed the Defense Authorization Act into law, which includes an amendment for the health study from Shaheen, which gives the Department of Defense authority to fund the health study. Thousands of adults who work at Pease International Tradeport, and children who attend two day-… Continue Reading
December 12, 2017
Trump signs into law U.S. government ban on Kaspersky Lab software
by Dustin Volz
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump signed into law on Tuesday legislation that bans the use of Kaspersky Lab within the U.S. government, capping a months-long effort to purge the Moscow-based antivirus firm from federal agencies amid concerns it was vulnerable to Kremlin influence. The ban, included as part of a broader defense policy spending bill that Trump signed, reinforces a directive issued by the Trump administration in September that civilian agencies remove Kaspersky Lab sof… Continue Reading
December 11, 2017
Granite Staters urged to sign up for health coverage before Dec. 15
by Amy Coveno
MANCHESTER, N.H. - New Hampshire's senators are urging Granite Staters who need health insurance to sign up this week for coverage under the Affordable Care Act. Dec. 15 is the final day to register for coverage for 2018. Advocates said obstacles thrown up by the federal government have made it more challenging to sign up this year, but a grassroots effort is underway to make sure everyone who needs it has coverage. There are six fewer weeks to register this year, and the advertising budget h… Continue Reading
December 08, 2017
Twin State officials urge Congress to reauthorize funding for health centers
by Ethan DeWitt
New Hampshire and Vermont's governor and senators urged Congress to reauthorize funding for community health centers Friday, arguing in a pair of letters that the current halt in funding is hurting organizations within the state. "Health Centers across our states are the pillar of primary health for our most vulnerable population," read a joint letter from Republican Govs. Chris Sununu and Phil Scott, of Vermont. "Without action by Congress, New Hampshire and Vermont's Health Centers face a los… Continue Reading
December 01, 2017
Why Senator Jeanne Shaheen Is Fighting to Put Women and Families at the Forefront of the Health Care Debate
by Heidi Murkoff
There's been no issue that's divided Americans this year the way health care has. Congress has spent the year trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and proposing bills that would gut Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), allow states to opt out of providing essentials benefits, such as birth control, well-woman visits and prenatal care and newborn care, and take us back to the days where insurers could charge people with preexisting conditions more for life-saving… Continue Reading
December 01, 2017
Congressional Delegation Joins Gov to Request Disaster Aid
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - New Hampshire's congressional delegation is joining Gov. Chris Sununu in requesting a major disaster declaration and federal emergency assistance for five counties following an October storm that caused widespread damage and power outages. The all-Democratic delegation wrote to President Donald Trump on Thursday, saying the magnitude of the damage caused by the Oct. 29-Oct. 30 storm is such that an effective response is beyond the capacity of New Hampshire's state and l… Continue Reading
November 29, 2017
Shaheen: GOP Tax Bill Would Hurt N.H. Homeowners By Eliminating Property Tax Deduction
by Peter Biello
Now that the Senate Budget Committee has passed the Republican tax plan, GOP leaders hope the full Senate will take it up this week. While the fate of the bill is unclear, Democrats seem to be united against it, calling it a giveaway to the wealthy at the expense of the middle class. New Hampshire Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen joined NHPR's Peter Biello to discuss the legislation. Note: This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity Republican Senator John Cornyn has dismissed repor… Continue Reading
November 28, 2017
When Sexism is the Difference Between War and Peace
by Kristina Romines
Most women have attended a talk or panel where every single speaker was male. Most of us have been talked over. Most of us have witnessed first-hand how women are shut out of critical discussions. It happens on issues that almost exclusively impact women, like their healthcare, and it happens on matters of grave national importance. The latest case in point: Before Thanksgiving, a committee with a 21:1 male-to-female ratio heard testimony from three men on whether one man should be able to blow… Continue Reading
November 28, 2017
The Afghan All-Girl Robotics Team Just Had Another Major Win
by Natalie Gontcharova
The Afghan all-girls robotics team is racking up the victories this year. When attempting to travel to the U.S. for the FIRST Global Challenge robotics competition this past summer, the team was denied entrytwice for unknown reasons. But at the last minute, they were able to enter the country with intervention from the government and finished with a silver medal for courage at the competition in Washington, D.C. Last weekend, the six teenage girls scored another major win, earning the Entrepre… Continue Reading
November 28, 2017
Women Leaders Aren't Making Enough Foreign Policy Decisions, And It's a Problem
by Meredith Horowski and Lillyanne Daigle
In this op-ed, Beyond the Bomb, co-founders Meredith Horowski and Lillyanne Daigle call to attention the lack of female voices in foreign policy. One day after President Trump's inauguration, millions of women - and some men - from coast to coast took to the streets for the Women's March in one of the most remarkable grassroots uprisings in recent decades. We were disgusted by the malignant behavior of our new president, an accused sexual predator and a swaggering bully. We were outraged by the… Continue Reading
November 28, 2017
Sen. Shaheen Leads Bipartisan Letter to the State Department, Seeking to Measure the Harm of Trump's "Global Gag Rule"
by Mattie Kahn
In a letter sent to Sec. of State Rex Tillerson earlier this month, four senators from both parties expressed their "grave concerns about the impact" of the global gag rule, which bans humanitarian organizations around the world from receiving U.S. funds if they provide women with or even just refer women to abortion services. The rule has been implemented under every Republican administration since Ronald Reagan was in office and overturned under every subsequent Democratic president. But when… Continue Reading
November 24, 2017
Shaheen touts Small Business Saturday in Newmarket
NEWMARKET - U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen visited several small businesses in downtown Newmarket earlier this week, including Lana's House, the Painted Peach and Good Juju by Ceci, to highlight Small Business Saturday taking place Nov. 25. Small Business Saturday is meant to encourage shoppers to buy from and support local small businesses. Shaheen is the lead Democrat on the U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship. "We were so honored to have Sen. Jeanne Shaheen come to Newmark… Continue Reading
November 21, 2017
Shaheen argues Senate GOP tax bill would hurt N.H. homeowners
by Paul Steinhauser
New Hampshire's senior senator is taking aim at the GOP tax plan making its way through the U.S. Senate. "The bottom line for me is that this is a tax plan that's going to undermine middle-class families. It's not going to give them the tax breaks that they need," Democrat Jeanne Shaheen declared in an interview with the Monitor. Shaheen's comments came minutes before she sat down for a roundtable discussion with real estate professionals in Londonderry on what she said would be the bill's neg… Continue Reading
November 21, 2017
Farmington Police get $125,000 federal grant
FARMINGTON - The Farmington Police Department is one of several in New Hampshire to benefit from federal funding to hire additional law enforcement officers and invest in community policing efforts. The $500,000 in funding for New Hampshire, which was announced on Monday by U.S. Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan, was awarded through the COPS Hiring Program (CHP), which is managed by the Department of Justice (DOJ). Farmington Police Chief John Drury said the $125,000 his department is get… Continue Reading
November 20, 2017
Grant Bosse: Shaheen sounded the alarm on Kaspersky
by Grant Bosse
The only thing I knew about Kaspersky Lab was that it used to sponsor the New England Patriots' radio broadcast.That was until this summer, when New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen started ringing alarm bells about the anti-virus software company.Shaheen sits on a Senate Homeland Security subcommittee that received a classified report on Russian interference in the 2016 elections. Shaheen can't share everything she knows, but there has been enough publicly-reported smoke for Shaheen to call for pu… Continue Reading
November 17, 2017
Shaheen Bill To Toughen Federal Checks on Gun Buyers
by Paige Sutherland
Senator Jeanne Shaheen has teamed up with colleagues across the aisle to sponsor a bill, introduced Thursday, that seeks to strengthen the federal database on gun background checks. Shaheen says the federal database, known as NICS, is "woefully" flawed and needs to be changed. Under the new legislation, there would be incentives for states and federal agencies to report to the database and punishments for failing to do so. Shaheen says holes in the system have become even more apparent since … Continue Reading
November 17, 2017
Foreign Service leadership being ‘decapitated’ and ‘depleted at a dizzying speed’
by Joe Davidson
When President Trump reported on his trip to Asia, he heaped praise on himself and said the nation's "standing in the world has never been stronger than it is right now." Using "I" 42 times in his 23-minute speech Wednesday, he declared "NATO, believe me, is very happy with Donald Trump and what I did," as he touted previous accomplishments. Trump's unmatched self-adulation might cloud his view of the hard work by foreign service staffers and their increased difficulties because of his adminis… Continue Reading
November 16, 2017
Shaheen joins GOP senators in push to improve gun background checks
by Paul Steinhauser
New Hampshire's senior U.S. senator is part of a bipartisan group of lawmakers trying to strengthen the national background check system for weapons purchases. The move comes less than two weeks after a mass shooting at a Texas church that may have been averted if authorities had reported the shooter's violent history. Democrat Jeanne Shaheen joined seven other senators Thursday to introduce the Fix NICS Act. NICS is the acronym for the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, which… Continue Reading
November 16, 2017
Shaheen introduces bill to prioritize opioid funding to hardest-hit states
by John DiStaso
TARGETED OPIOID FORMULA ACT. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen has been a leading voice on Capitol Hill demanding a change in the way federal opioid funding is distributed to the states under the 21st Century Cures Act, which was passed and signed into law last year by then-President Barack Obama. The New Hampshire Democrat has argued that funding from the law should be directed to the states suffering the most from the opioid crisis, rather than basing the funding solely on states' populations. That formula… Continue Reading
