{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.blumenthal.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/senator-blumenthal-week-in-review-8/7/2026-8/14/2026", "Senator Blumenthal: Week in Review 8/7/2026-8/14/2026", "2026-08-14", "2026", "2026-08", "Democrat", "Senate", "CT", "Richard Blumenthal", "B001277", "www.blumenthal.senate.gov", "blumenthal", "https://www.blumenthal.senate.gov/newsroom/press", "scraper", "Demanding Answers About Health & Safety Concerns Aboard USS Abraham Lincoln\n\n[Hartford, CT] \u2013 U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, wrote Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao today demanding to know what action is being taken to improve conditions for sailors deployed on board the USS Abraham Lincoln, which has been continuously at sea for a record length of nearly seven months. The deployment was scheduled to end in May but has been extended with no publicly announced return date.\n\n\u201cThere have been widespread reports of shortages of basic supplies, water contamination, plumbing issues, deteriorating mental health, deck safety concerns, and disruptions in the mail system, which have caused many care packages in route to the ship to be lost in transit for months,\u201d Blumenthal wrote.\n\nBlumenthal also asked for information about what steps the Navy is taking to prevent similar issues in the future, given that recent carrier deployments have repeatedly stretched long beyond their originally planned durations:\n\n\u201cThese reports warrant immediate attention, but they also raise a broader question: whether the Navy can sustain the operational tempo now being demanded of its carrier force, particularly as this Administration repeatedly commits U.S. forces to conflicts of its own choosing and increasingly relies on aircraft carriers to sustain those operations.\u201d\n\nBlumenthal has previously raised concerns regarding the mental health and well-being of sailors facing extended periods of demanding working and living conditions.\n\nIn 2022, Xavier Sandor, a Connecticut sailor from Shelton, was one of three USS George Washington crew members to die by suicide while the ship was undergoing extended Refueling and Complex Overhaul at a Virginia shipyard. During this time, crew members were subject to frequent interruptions of electrical power, heating, air conditioning and hot water for weeks at a time and no access to welfare or recreation services. Sailors also often experienced a two months long backlog for mental health screenings.\n\nIn 2023, Blumenthal fought to include the Seaman Xavier Sandor Support for Sailors Act in the Fiscal Year 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, allowing junior sailors to live in commercial housing when their assigned ship undergoes an extended maintenance overhaul in a shipyard.\n\nThe full text of the letter to Hegseth and Cao is available here.\n\nBlumenthal highlighted his letter and the need to better support our servicemembers aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln on Twitter/X.\n\n\u201cThe Trump Admin must explain what they are doing to support sailors on the USS Abraham Lincoln who have been continuously at sea for nearly 7 months. Widespread reports of supply shortages, plumbing issues, deteriorating mental health & more demand immediate attention,\u201d wrote Blumenthal on Twitter/X.\n\nBlumenthal also joined CNN\u2019s Erin Burnett and Pamela Brown to discuss his letter to Hegseth and Cao.\n\nSlamming the Trump Administration\u2019s Dangerous Immigration Policies\n\nBlumenthal, a member of the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, wrote to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Inspector General T. March Bell demanding he launch a formal investigation the Office of Refugee Resettlement\u2019s evasion of its legal responsibilities to the immigrant children in its custody.\n\nThe U.S. Department of Health and Human Services requires ORR to adjudicate a completed sponsorship application of a parent, legal guardian, or close relative for an unaccompanied immigrant child within 10 days. However, despite this requirement, at least two dozen children in Connecticut have languished in federal custody for lengthy periods of time raising serious questions about why ORR is delaying reunification.\n\n\u201cAt best, ORR is understaffed and woefully inept at carrying out its statutorily mandated functions in a timely fashion. At worst, and what mounting evidence points to, is that ORR\u2019s goal has become detaining children indefinitely in a callous attempt to deter future migration. Either way, the best interests of children in ORR\u2019s custody have been sacrificed, and those children, including those in Connecticut, continue to suffer,\u201d Blumenthal wrote.\n\nIn a letter, Blumenthal cites the case of 5-year-old Camila who was held for 118 days in federal custody while her mother was 9 miles down the road waiting for her application to be approved. Camila was only reunited with her mother after attorneys filed a habeas lawsuit challenging the legality of her detention.\n\n\u201cIn each case, ORR plays the same song and dance, requiring an application be \u201ccomplete\u201d before the 10-day clock starts, while simultaneously delaying needed checks or moving the goal post of what is required to complete an application as soon as previous requirements are met. For example, in Camila\u2019s case, her mother submitted an application, then waited two months for ORR to schedule a home inspection and three months for ORR to schedule a DNA test. All the while, Camila languished inside federal custody, away from her mother,\u201d Blumenthal wrote.\n\nBlumenthal\u2019s letter demands HHS promptly launch an investigation into these delays and determine whether ORR is evading its legal responsibilities to the children in its custody and determine whether ORR is in violation of its obligations.\n\nA full copy of Blumenthal\u2019s letter is available here.\n\nBlumenthal held a press conference in Hartford announcing his call for an investigation into the prolonged and inhumane detention of unaccompanied immigrant children in the custody of ORR.\n\n\u201cThousands of children are confined by ICE, away from their parents, they\u2019re unaccompanied children, for extended periods of time\u2014not just weeks, months. The story of Camila, a five-year-old detained for 118 days, is gripping and heartbreaking, but only one of dozens in Connecticut alone and thousands across the country,\u201d said Blumenthal at the press conference. \u201cThese children are confined for an average of 205 days. For a child who is 3, 4, 5 years old 205 days is like a lifetime\u2014away from parents, confined in really inhumane settings in federal custody. What we\u2019re seeing is family separation 2.0. And we are seeing the same craven, cruel, inhumane policy repeated now in a slightly different way.\u201d\n\nVideo of Blumenthal\u2019s press conference is available here.\n\nOn Twitter/X, Blumenthal further highlighted his call for an investigation into the inhumane treatment of unaccompanied immigration children.\n\n\u201cWe are hearing gripping & heartbreaking stories of kids being held in federal custody for months on end. I\u2019m demanding HHS investigate the prolonged & inhumane detention of minors at unmonitored & unlicensed facilities\u2014putting children at incredible risk,\u201d wrote Blumenthal with an accompanying video on Twitter/X.\n\nFurther condemning the Trump Administration\u2019s harmful immigration policies, Blumenthal joined U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA) in writing Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel slamming a policy allowing ICE agents to hide from investigation after violent confrontations. Following reporting in The New York Times that the FBI will no longer investigate violent confrontations between civilians and federal immigration agents, Blumenthal and Schiff are calling for the new policy be rescinded. The senators also asked for information and records about how the decision to implement the policy was reached.\n\nAgents reportedly received instructions about the change just days after ICE agents shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston, Texas and Joan Sebastian Guerrero in Biddeford, Maine.\n\n\u201cFaced once more with the duty to investigate DHS agents\u2019 wanton violence, you apparently made the extraordinary decision to issue a policy that FBI agents will no longer investigate confrontations between civilians and immigration agents. Instead, leaving DHS to investigate itself,\u201d the senators wrote. \u201cIt is hard to see any justification for this policy change other than to avoid discovering evidence that could be used to call into question the practices of DHS agents or to prosecute them when they use excessive force in violation of the law.\u201d\n\nThe full text of letter is available here.\n\nCombatting the Rapid Spread of the Spotted Lanternfly\n\nBlumenthal called on Congress to pass the Spotted Lanternfly Research and Development Act, new legislation to stop the spread of the Spotted Lanternfly, an invasive species that poses a significant threat to the environment and our state\u2019s agricultural economy. Spotted Lanternflies, which are native to Asia and were first found in Connecticut in 2020, have destroyed crops and trees in the Northeast \u2014 putting our local farmers, winemakers, and brewers at serious risk.\n\nThe Spotted Lanternfly Research and Development Act designates the Spotted Lanternfly as a high-priority research and extension initiative under the National Institute of Food and Agriculture. This designation authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture to make competitive grants available for research projects related to the mitigation of this invasive species to find creative solutions to stop the spread before Connecticut\u2019s crops and trees species are further decimated.\n\n\u201cThe Spotted Lanternfly is really much more than just a pest. These guys are a menace. Literally half the trees in Connecticut are at risk of death as a result of the Spotted Lanternfly\u2014and more immediately, our vineyards, our hop fields, our wine and brewery industries are very much threated by the spotted lanternfly. We need to counter this threat with research and development and citizen action,\u201d said Blumenthal at the press conference.\n\nBlumenthal further highlighted the need to combat the spread of the Spotted Lanternfly on Twitter/X.\n\n\u201cThe Spotted Lanternfly is a hitchhiking pest that puts at risk \u00bd the trees in CT, plus orchards, vineyards, & hops fields. States like CT need strong federal funding to counter this menace & develop systemic, strategic ways to stop this invasive species,\u201d wrote Blumenthal on Twitter/X.\n\nDenouncing the $900 Million Price Tag for Trump\u2019s White House Renovations\n\nBlumenthal, Ranking Member of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI), demanded answers from White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles about the ballooning costs associated with renovations to the White House and surrounding grounds. Blumenthal sent the letter to Wiles amid new reporting in the Washington Post that detailed a significant increase in the projected cost of various projects that President Trump has directed to take place on the White House grounds, totaling $927 million, with taxpayers set to pay much of the multimillion-dollar sum.\n\nSeeking information regarding the reconstruction and renovation of the White House and surrounding grounds, Blumenthal wrote, \u201cThis astronomical expenditure, which has not been approved by Congress, has been rushed through unconventional means under incredible secrecy. A project of this cost and significance demands oversight and accountability to determine not just how funds are being spent but whether any rules were violated in the President\u2019s haste to complete his chief vanity project.\u201d\n\nPointing to the costs associated with various projects undertaken by the White House, including a massive ballroom, repairs to an adjacent park, construction of a new visitor screening facility, and construction of a new helipad, Blumenthal continued, \u201cThis new calculation dwarfs previous estimates provided by the President, and the accompanying reporting details how taxpayers will be expected to fund more than half of that amount. It also directly contradicts numerous statements by the President, who has repeatedly insisted that construction costs would be paid by private donors and himself personally, at no cost to taxpayers.\u201d\n\nBlumenthal raised concerns about the Trump Administration\u2019s use of no-bid contracts for many of the projects and its redirection of Congressionally-appropriated funding to benefit the President\u2019s vanity projects: \u201cThe reporting also details the extraordinary measures that the Trump Administration has undertaken to apparently circumvent traditional contracting practices and basic transparency by routing the contracts for construction projects through the Executive Residence, which has no experience with these kinds of large-scale projects and typically handles routine maintenance projects for the White House and its grounds. Importantly, contracts originating out of the Executive Residence are not forced to undergo the same contract bidding rules or public disclosure requirements as other federally funded projects.\u201d\n\nAs Ranking Member of PSI, Blumenthal is leading an inquiry into waste, fraud, and abuse associated with the White House ballroom and other projects throughout the nation\u2019s capital.\n\nThe full text of Blumenthal\u2019s letter to Wiles is available here.\n\nBlumenthal Bulletin\n\nBlumenthal released a statement on the passing of former Lieutenant Governor Nancy Wyman.\n\nBlumenthal pressed MLB, MLBPA, and FanDuel for answers after Phillies Star Bryce Harper was used to target gambling addict with a promotional video.\n\nBlumenthal introduced a bipartisan bill banning bonuses for utility company executives as consumer energy costs skyrocket.\n\nBlumenthal reintroduced legislation to protect passengers and crew from toxic cabin air.\n\nBlumenthal led colleagues in demanding HHS rescind cancelation of lifesaving research grants that improve patient safety and care.\n\nBlumenthal introduced bicameral legislation to improve end of life care.\n\nBlumenthal celebrated the Senate passage of his Russia Sanctions bill.\n\nBlumenthal joined CNN to discuss Trump\u2019s secret exit from Turkey.\n\nBlumenthal joined MS NOW to discuss Trump\u2019s judicial nominees\u2019 refusal to say Joe Biden won the 2020 election.\n\nBlumenthal highlighted his Passport Day event on August 21.\n\nBlumenthal applauded the introduction of the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026 in the U.S. House of Representatives.\n\nBlumenthal joined the Puerto Rican festival in New Haven.\n\nBlumenthal visited the North Branford PoCo Festival.\n\nBlumenthal attended the Wolcott Fair.\n\n-30-", 1, "2026-08-15T05:23:20Z", "2026-08-15T05:24:50Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.blumenthal.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/senator-blumenthal-week-in-review-8/7/2026-8/14/2026"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.5087430365383625, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}