WASHINGTON, D.C. – Volunteer emergency service workers will not be required to be counted as full-time equivalent employees for purposes of healthcare coverage, which could have gutted the ranks of emergency first responders across the country. In a letter on Friday, January 10, the U.S. Department of Treasury and Internal Revenue Service clarified that volunteer emergency responders will not be covered by the healthcare mandate. Senators Collins and King, along with Senators Mark... Continue Reading »
WASHINGTON – Members of Maine’s congressional delegation are continuing to push for a $100 million inclusion in the federal budget to help close a funding shortfall for a destroyer to be built at Bath Iron Works. Last summer, the Navy awarded BIW a $2.8 billion contract to build four Arleigh Burke-class DDG-51 destroyers through fiscal year 2017. A contract for an additional five ships was awarded to Huntington Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Miss., the competing shipyard to... Continue Reading »
It is the morning of September 11, 2013, and on this day, for a change, no one on Capitol Hill is talking about the looming impasse on the federal budget. Syria has been accused of using chemical weapons, and a fierce debate over the correct response is under way. On one side of Congress are the hawks who, like President Obama, say a red line has been crossed in a manner that demands a military response. On the other side, a sizable coalition that is weary of war and uneasy about the fallout of... Continue Reading »
If there was a single issue that really mattered in the last U.S. Senate race in Maine, it was anger over the dysfunction in Washington. Independent Angus King ran on a promise to work with both parties, and to challenge the rules of the Senate that give a minority of senators the ability to stop the other branches of government from doing their jobs. Pundits said that you can’t build a campaign around “process” instead of policy, but King won with 53 percent of the vote, no... Continue Reading »
Teaching students the structure of the nation’s government, teacher Sewall Janeway said he tries to make class special every year by finding a way to make textbook material come alive. That is why he contacted U.S. Sen. Angus King’s office in September. King “came to” Mt. Ararat High School on Nov. 7 with a virtual appearance via Skype — the online video-conferencing service. Recently, seniors in both Advanced Placement government classes gathered in the... Continue Reading »
Sen. Angus King (I-Maine.) on Wednesday floated a compromise proposal to the new House-Senate budget conference committee on which he serves. The King plan seeks to strike a balance between entitlement cuts, tax loophole closing and tax rate reduction to get both Democrats and Republicans onboard. The proposal would replace half of the next eight years of sequester cuts while also lowering the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 32.5 percent. Budget conference chairman Paul Ryan... Continue Reading »
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence approved an amendment on November 5 that would require an independent group to conduct a "red-team analysis" if the government is considering the legality or the use of targeted lethal force against a known U.S. person located outside the U.S. who is involved in international terrorism. The committee adopted the provision as an amendment to the Fiscal Year 2014 Intelligence Authorization Act. The Committee approved the... Continue Reading »
With Game 6 of the World Series looming, U.S. Sen. Angus King apparently had baseball on his mind as he spoke with Hall-Dale Middle School students today. Asked by eighth grader Cole Lockhart what he’s doing for Maine, King said the most important thing he can do is help Maine businesses create jobs. “Trying to make Maine a better place is the whole reason I’m doing this,” King said, speaking to students in a video conference. “You don’t hit too many home runs... Continue Reading »
The federal government shutdown is over — for the moment. Now what? The answer will likely be forged over the next two months by a bipartisan congressional budget panel charged with preventing another shutdown and debt ceiling crisis in early 2014. The stakes couldn't be higher, said Sens. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., and Angus King, I-Maine, who are on the committee. "Finding a resolution is going to be exceedingly difficult, and there has to be movement on both sides, which both sides have been... Continue Reading »
Independent U.S. Sen. Angus King of Maine said Thursday that he will try to bring Democrats and Republicans together in the coming weeks to develop a budget agreement that gets the nation’s debt under control. I hope I can be a bridge,” said King, who was appointed late Wednesday to a special bipartisan committee that will have the task of finding ways to reduce the federal deficit and boost the economy. The committee, a product of this week’s deal to reopen the federal... Continue Reading »
So, what is this thing called Obamacare? That was the question posed by Maine Sen. Angus King in a floor speech in Washington last week that followed a 21-hour oration by Texan Ted Cruz. In about 21 minutes, King answered his own question, dispelling five years of smokescreen and horror stories that Cruz and the anti-Obamacare forces have been churning up to derail a much-needed reform to a broken part of our social fabric. Anyone who thinks that they are no closer to understanding what the law... Continue Reading »
AUGUSTA, Maine — Sen. Angus King added his voice to the climate change debate during a speech on the U.S. Senate floor Tuesday, where he said a northward migration of lobsters looking for colder water could soon devastate Maine’s fishery. Lobster harvests in Maine have increased from about 50 million pounds a decade ago to 123 million pounds in 2011. While that statistic seems to oppose the argument that climate change is having a negative impact on the fishing industry, King said... Continue Reading »
BEIRUT — Syria’s government hailed as a “victory” a Russian-brokered deal that has averted U.S. strikes, while President Barack Obama defended a chemical weapons pact that the rebels fear has bolstered their enemy in the civil war. President Bashar al-Assad’s jets and artillery hit rebel suburbs of the capital again on Sunday in an offensive that residents said began last week when Obama delayed air strikes in the face of opposition from Moscow and his own... Continue Reading »
YORK, Maine — "Do you know why I came here today?" Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, asked a bunch of excited York Middle School students clearly enthralled to have a U.S. senator at their school. "I came because this is really cool." "This" is a project that intersects what King said are two of his favorite topics — energy and technology — as the ceremonial electricity began to surge from a 40-panel solar array on the school roof to power all the students' laptops. The panels were... Continue Reading »
PORTLAND, Maine — U.S. Sen. Angus King on Wednesday said he has not yet made a decision on whether to support military intervention in Syria. “I can tell you that in my years of public service, I think this is just about the most difficult decision I’ve ever had to deal with,” King said during a press conference at the Portland Jetport. King returned to Maine on Wednesday evening after a day in the Capitol, where he received confidential intelligence briefings from the... Continue Reading »
WASHINGTON – Maine Sen. Angus King on Wednesday channeled one of his favorite figures from history – Civil War hero Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain – to mark the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous speech. Speaking as part of Wednesday's commemoration ceremonies at the Lincoln Memorial, Sen. King said the crowd that day 50 years ago started as "small rivulets" but eventually grew into a "mighty river of people down to this... Continue Reading »
Nearly 30 years ago, I started a company called Staples Inc. SPLS -0.05% that went on to do pretty well. Launching a business like Staples in 2013 would be a much harder proposition, with success by no means certain. There are so many government impediments to business today that the next Staples—and its 50,000 jobs—might never get off the ground. Chief among those roadblocks: the blizzard of bureaucratic red tape that buries businesses and stifles job... Continue Reading »
A little more than two weeks ago a "little" story hit the news. And by little, I mean perhaps the biggest money story that you and I will likely see in our lifetimes. That's because, for the first time in decades, it sets up two opponents, Wall Street and Washington, on opposite sides of the ring. So who is "the most hated man on Wall Street" right now. That would be Senator Angus King, along with his cohorts Senators Elizabeth Warren and John McCain. They had the courage to introduce... Continue Reading »
BRUNSWICK, Maine — Sen. Angus King returned to Brunswick, where he lives, Monday to join representatives of Mid Coast Hunger Prevention Program and Good Shepherd Food Bank in announcing a new “Backpack Program” designed to feed hungry students and their families in eight midcoast communities. The program will send five to six pounds of nutritious, light-weight food staples, snacks and enough food for a family meal home with elementary school students on Friday night — in... Continue Reading »
WASHINGTON - Sen. Angus King, who rode Maine voters' penchant for "independent" politicians to a Senate victory last fall, has amassed a solidly Democratic record during his first seven months in Congress, voting on the same side as party leaders roughly 90 percent of the time. But King has also split with the Democratic leadership on a handful of key issues. And despite the lopsided vote tally, political observers see the independent former governor carving out a reputation as a willing... Continue Reading »
