Status: Introduced

The Jesse Lewis Empowering Educators Act would provide teachers powerful tools and training to support students’ social and emotional learning. The bill is named in honor of Jesse Lewis, who at six years old was tragically killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School. U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) is a co-sponsor, and Congresswoman Elizabeth Esty (CT-5) is a co-sponsor of the House bill. Specifically, the bill would amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act so that existing professional development funding could be used to train teachers in concepts related to social and emotional learning. Read More »

The Women's Health Protection Act

Status: Introduced

This legislation would prohibit laws that impose burdensome requirements on access to reproductive health services such as requiring doctors to perform tests and procedures that doctors have deemed unnecessary or preventing doctors from prescribing and dispensing medication as is medically appropriate. Other examples of laws that make it more difficult for a woman to access an abortion include: restrictions on medical training for future abortion providers, requirements concerning the physical layout of clinics where abortions are performed, and forced waiting periods for patients. Read More »

The Permanently Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act

Status: Introduced

The Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act, first passed in 2009, ensured that most tenants in foreclosed homes could stay in their homes for the remainder of their lease, or for at least 90 days post-foreclosure. But Congress allowed the measure to expire on December 31, 2014, leaving renters with limited legal recourse in the event of a foreclosure. Blumenthal is now seeking to permanently extend PTFA’s vital protections. Read More »

The Campus Accountability and Safety Act

Status: Introduced

Currently, an American woman who attends college is more likely to be a victim of sexual assault than a woman who does not attend college. At the same time, institutions of higher education across the country do not have an incentive to acknowledge the problem publicly or address it proactively. The current oversight of the federal laws has the perverse effect of encouraging colleges to under-report sexual assaults. The bipartisan Campus Accountability and Safety Act will create incentives for schools to take proactive steps to protect their students and rid their campuses of sexual predators. Read More »

The Death In Custody Reporting Act

Status: Passed

This bill requires states and federal law enforcement agencies to report to the Attorney General basic information regarding deaths occurring in law enforcement custody or during an arrest. It also requires the Attorney General to study this information and provide suggestions to reduce the number of such deaths. Read More »

The Tobacco Tax and Enforcement Reform Act

Status: Introduced

Under current law, tobacco products are disparately taxed, enabling and incentivizing manufacturers to manipulate products so they can be classified in a lower-tax category. These tax inequities and loopholes not only sharply reduce federal revenues, but by lowering tobacco product prices, they increase overall tobacco use and health related harms. Additionally, illegal tobacco trafficking, in which “tax-free” black-market tobacco is sold at artificially low prices compared to legal tobacco, fuels increased consumption, increases tobacco-related illness and subsidizes criminal organizations trading in black-market tobacco – action which cheats the federal and state governments out of much-needed revenue. Read More »

The SPORTS Act

Status: Introduced

The SPORTS (Sustained Promotion of Responsibility in Team Sports) Act aims to hold major sports leagues accountable for their response to major events within their leagues: from domestic violence to traumatic brain injuries. Read More »

The Lori Jackson Domestic Violence Survivor Protection Act

Status: Introduced

The Lori Jackson Domestic Violence Survivor Protection Act would restrict those under temporary restraining order from purchasing or possessing a firearm, and would extend the protections granted domestic violence victims to victims abused by their dating partners. Read More »