{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.murphy.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/icymi-politico-i-care-about-it-sen-chris-murphys-battle-against-loneliness", "ICYMI: Politico: 'I care about it\u2019: Sen. Chris Murphy\u2019s battle against loneliness", "2023-11-06", "2023", "2023-11", "Democrat", "Senate", "CT", "Christopher Murphy", "M001169", "www.murphy.senate.gov", "chrismurphy", "https://www.murphy.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases", "scraper", "Politico: \u2018I care about it\u2019: Sen. Chris Murphy\u2019s battle against loneliness\n\nBy Erin Schumaker\n\nNovember 5, 2023\n\nHARTFORD, Conn. \u2014 Sen. Chris Murphy looks at us and doesn\u2019t like what he sees.\n\nWe don\u2019t get out enough and it\u2019s no wonder considering the amount of time we spend on our phones. We haven\u2019t gotten back to our pre-pandemic social routines and it shows: While 1 in 2 Americans reported being lonely prior to 2020, Covid turbocharged the problem.\n\nThe Connecticut Democrat calls loneliness \u201cone of the most important political issues of our time\u201d and he\u2019s at the head of an unspoken alliance of policymakers who see it as a key post-pandemic public health issue. The surgeon general, a Republican House member from small-town Nebraska, and the GOP governor of Utah are among those on a mission to help us reconnect.\n\nThey admit there\u2019s no quick fix, so they are batting around ideas, from funding community groups to regulating social media, as they grapple with how government can help us break out of our malaise.\n\n\u201cI care about it,\u201d Murphy said. \u201cAnd I\u2019m willing to spend the time to try to understand it.\u201d\n\nThis year, Murphy\u2019s written op-eds on isolation and technology. He\u2019s held roundtables. In July, he introduced legislation with fellow Democrat Tina Smith of Minnesota laying out a government strategy to advance social connection, proposing a White House office, an advisory council, and $5 million in research funding.\n\n[\u2026] Murphy explained his philosophy during a two-mile stroll through the business district and decaying south end of his hometown, the state capital, Hartford. He walked along the overgrown sidewalk dotted with Red Stripe beer bottles and talked with anyone on his route about their day-to-day problems, such as being unable to afford housing and needing better jobs.\n\nUnshaven and outfitted in athletic gear for his annual walk across his state, Murphy was emphatic that despite being an imperfect messenger, he felt compelled to lead.\n\n\u201cWhat the government is supposed to do is create the rules of the economy and society, which makes it easier for us all to live happier, healthier, fuller lives,\u201d he said.\n\n[\u2026]Lawmakers need to back up and figure out what\u2019s going on, he said.\n\nA hint came when he published an op-ed on loneliness on the conservative news site The Bulwark last year and got more positive feedback in Connecticut than anything he\u2019d ever written on foreign policy, guns or health care. It made him question his approach as a lawmaker. \u201cIt was a language they understood. Their kids are lonely. They\u2019re feeling lonely,\u201d he told a forum on building connected communities at Harvard in October.\n\nAs Murphy sees it, Americans feel exhausted and overwhelmed. They\u2019re working longer and can\u2019t disconnect from their jobs. They have fewer friends and it\u2019s harder to carve out time for those they do have. They\u2019re exhausted by how fast technology is evolving and the unforeseen mental health impacts of social media, leaving them \u2014 and their kids \u2014 vulnerable.\n\nHe sees an opportunity for bipartisan work in that shared reality.\n\nMurphy\u2019s first attempt at loneliness policy, the \u201cNational Strategy for Social Connection Act,\u201d was born out of those realizations. The bill calls for creating an office of social connection, with a director who would advise the president and create a national strategy combining public health, technology and social infrastructure to foster social connection. An advisory council with members from the departments of Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Labor, Veterans Affairs, Education, Commerce and other agencies would help assess and implement the plan.\n\n[\u2026] \u201cHe and I can make a pretty good team on this,\u201d Murphy said of Murthy, explaining that there\u2019s also a limit to what the surgeon general can do. \u201cHe can\u2019t go out and build a political coalition. He can\u2019t do hand-to-hand combat inside the Congress.\u201d\n\nThere, Murphy sees a need for more social media regulation, economic policy to provide more free time and direct support for the types of social organizations people used to belong to in droves.\n\nWhile he expects difficulty in directing money to barber shops or bowling alleys, he sees growing consensus around regulating social media.\n\nOn that, Murphy has proposed a bipartisan bill with Sens. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Katie Britt (R-Ala.) to regulate teenagers\u2019 access to Facebook, TikTok and other sites, and ban kids younger than 13 from the platforms.\n\n\u201cThere\u2019s no question that it\u2019s not too late to properly regulate social media,\u201d Murphy said. \u201cWe haven\u2019t tried.\u201d\n\nClick here to read the full story.\n\nThis summer, Murphy introduced the National Strategy for Social Connection Act, legislation to combat America\u2019s epidemic of loneliness and promote social connection in our communities. Earlier this year, Murphy co-wrote an op-ed in the Daily Beast with Ian Marcus Corbin, a philosopher at Harvard Medical School and a Senior Fellow at the think tank Capita, to call for a spiritual renaissance in American politics. In April, Murphy also authored an op-ed in TIME with Richard Weissbourd, a Senior Lecturer and the faculty director of the Making Caring Common Project at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, on how America\u2019s obsession with individual success has come at the expense of our sense of community and the collective good. Murphy first outlined the politics of loneliness in a piece for the Bulwark last year.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T01:01:09Z"]], "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.murphy.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/icymi-politico-i-care-about-it-sen-chris-murphys-battle-against-loneliness"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4619368594139814, "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"}