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        <title><![CDATA[Richard Blumenthal - Senator:Connecticut]]></title>
        <description><![CDATA[
By Greg Giroux
     (Bloomberg Government) -- More than a decade into his
Senate career, Richard Blumenthal’s biography on his Senate
website still dwells largely on accomplishments during his 20
years as Connecticut’s attorney general. That’s partly because
his record as attorney general included many notable victories.
And partly it’s a reflection of how difficult it is for one
among 100 lawmakers to effect change in a legislative body
increasingly hobbled by political polarization.
     Blumenthal carried with him to the Senate the consumer-
focused agenda that characterized his career as attorney
general, when he was known for taking on powerful industries.
With Democrats taking over the Senate majority in the 117th
Congress, Blumenthal became chair of the Commerce, Science, and
Transportation Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Data
Security Subcommittee, where his issues of focus include
protecting children’s internet privacy.
     He’s gone after Facebook Inc. for misuse of personal data
and allegedly scamming kids, and raised concerns about possible
anticompetitive and deceptive business practices by Amazon.com
Inc. He’s pursued automakers with questionable safety records
and accused financial firms of misleading practices and failing
to protect customers’ privacy. He took on the National Football
League over its handling of domestic violence cases among its
players as well as the National Hockey League over its treatment
of player concussions.
     Blumenthal’s subcommittee conducts oversight of the Federal
Trade Commission, and in the 117th Congress he called for a
beefed-up FTC to combat the dissemination of medical
misinformation on social media platforms during the coronavirus
pandemic. “We need to bolster and support the FTC, providing
more legal tools and resources where necessary to defend
consumers,” Blumenthal said at a subcommittee hearing in April
2021.
     Bipartisan federal privacy legislation envisioned by the
end of 2022 should be “very demanding” on consumer data privacy
protections, Blumenthal said in May 2021. “We need to be setting
the bar high on a federal statute in all of those areas where
consumer privacy is at stake. It is the premier consumer
protection issue of our time, and it cuts across a vast variety
of different industries and subject areas. So we need to be
mindful of the sweeping consequences of action if we take it.”
     The tobacco, gun, and airline industries have been
particular Blumenthal targets. He has called for a ban on
flavored tobacco products and proposed the creation of a federal
program to keep youths from using e-cigarettes or vaping pens.
     One of his biggest victories as attorney general was
against the tobacco industry. Blumenthal was one of the leaders
of a 46-state lawsuit that alleged tobacco companies had long
deceived the public about the dangers of smoking. In 1998, the
companies reached a $246 billion national settlement with the
states to be paid out over 25 years.

               Committee & Legislative Highlights


* Curbing gun violence is an issue that gained special poignancy
for Blumenthal after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting
in his home state in 2012. He supports expanding federal
background checks for firearms purchases and banning sales of
semiautomatic assault-style weapons and high-capacity ammunition
magazines. He’s repeatedly introduced legislation that would
repeal special legal protections that prevent gun manufacturers,
sellers and trade groups from being sued by gun violence
victims. “Inaction has made this horror completely predictable.
Inaction by this Congress makes us complicit,” Blumenthal said
in March 2021, one day after 10 people were shot to death at a
supermarket in Boulder, Colo.
* Blumenthal has worked with Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Josh
Hawley (R-Mo.) on legislation that would require big technology
companies to make their platforms interoperable and let
consumers move their data to different networks. “Google and
Facebook have dug moats around their very formidable castles,
trapping users from leaving the network,” Blumenthal said at a
Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing in March 2021.
* A 2021 law called the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, directing the
Justice Department to award grants to state and local
governments to support hate crimes reporting, included
provisions from a Blumenthal bill called the NO HATE Act.
* Blumenthal has long been critical of airline practices he says
are detrimental to consumers. Airline fees, for example, are a
“shell game in the skies,” he told USA Today, because they are
“shrouded in secrecy and clouded in confusion, making it nearly
impossible for passengers to price compare and make informed
choices.” Working alone or teaming up with other Democrats,
Blumenthal has backed requiring airlines to refund baggage fees
when luggage is damaged in transit, provide more transparency
about ticket fees, protect passengers and crews from toxic
fumes, and halt further shrinkage of seat sizes. He’s also
demanded airlines back up their computer systems and rebook
consumers at no extra cost in the event of outages.
 


                     Politics & Personality


* Blumenthal seemed to have a special talent for infuriating
Donald Trump when he was president. Trump repeatedly attacked
Blumenthal in tweets, usually after the Democrat was critical of
the president or one of his nominees during a cable television
interview or other public forum. In 2019, Trump’s re-election
campaign sent a memo to producers at all the major broadcast and
cable news networks urging them to reconsider booking six Trump
critics whom the campaign said had made “outlandish, false
claims” regarding alleged collusion with Russia. Blumenthal’s
name was first on the list.
* A member of the Judiciary Committee, Blumenthal was one of six
Senate Democrats who filed a lawsuit seeking government records
from then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s time in the
George W. Bush White House. He termed an FBI report into
Christine Blasey Ford’s allegation of sexual assault a
“whitewash” that “smacks of a cover-up.” Saying he believed
Ford, Blumenthal called her testimony before the committee “a
teaching moment” for America. Confirmation of Kavanaugh, he
said, “would stain the United States Supreme Court irreparably.”
* As a Jewish lawmaker from a state with a sizable Jewish
constituency, Blumenthal was under heavy pressure in 2015 from
opponents of then-President Barack Obama’s negotiation of a deal
with Iran to abandon nuclear-weapons work in exchange for easing
some economic sanctions. But he ultimately voted with 41 other
Democrats to block a GOP-sponsored resolution of disapproval of
the agreement.
 


                         Road to Office

     Blumenthal has been well-connected throughout his life.
     He grew up in New York City, where his father headed a
commodities trading firm. At Harvard he wrote editorials for the
Harvard Crimson and had an internship at the Washington Post as
an assistant to publisher Katharine Graham.
     Then he went to work with Daniel Patrick Moynihan in the
Richard Nixon White House. After law school at Yale, where he
was editor of the law journal, he clerked for a federal district
judge and then Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun. Then he
worked for Connecticut Democratic Senator Abraham Ribicoff.
     Ribicoff backed him for appointment by President Jimmy
Carter as U.S. attorney for Connecticut, a post he held for more
than three years.
     Blumenthal began his political career in 1984 when he won a
seat in the Connecticut House of Representatives and followed
that with one term in the Connecticut state Senate from 1987 to
1990. He won his first of five terms as state attorney general
in 1990.
     Besides taking on Big Tobacco, Blumenthal made headlines as
attorney general for initiating lawsuits or investigations into
insurance and social-networking companies and pushing consumer
causes. Working with attorneys general in 19 other states and
the District of Columbia, he filed an antitrust lawsuit against
Microsoft Corp. accusing the company of abusing its monopoly
power to stifle competition. In 2005, he used public nuisance
laws to force power companies to reduce carbon emissions.
     In 2010, when longtime Democratic Sen. Christopher Dodd
retired, Blumenthal finally saw a chance to move up. He was
unopposed in the Democratic primary, and faced a wealthy
Republican opponent in Linda McMahon.
     His campaign ran into trouble when The New York Times
reported that Blumenthal had sometimes mischaracterized his
Vietnam-era military service as having served in Vietnam.
Blumenthal, who was in the Marine Corps Reserves during the
conflict, never went to Vietnam. Although he won the election
with 55% of the vote, the issue didn’t go away. Trump suggested
Blumenthal can’t be trusted to tell the truth and mocked him as
“Da Nang Dick.”
     “Mr. President: Your bullying hasn’t worked before and it
won’t work now,” Blumenthal replied to one of the attacks.
     Blumenthal’s re-election in 2016 was easier than his first
race. He trounced Republican state Rep. Dan Carter with 63% of
the vote.
     Updated June 22, 2021
     To contact the reporter on this story: Greg Giroux in
Washington at ggiroux@bgov.com
     To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew
Small at asmall@bgov.com

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            <dc:creator><![CDATA[Richard Blumenthal]]></dc:creator>
            <pubDate>Mon, 05 Feb 2018 12:00:26 GMT</pubDate>
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