In The News

Florida Daily — Florida Democrats didn’t entirely loss every race or initiative they supported on Election Night. Amendment 2, the controversial measure to raise Florida’s minimum wage to $15/hr passed as voters voted for a the pay increase.   Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D) was one of a handful of legislator that pushed the amendment from the very beginning, offering her own congressional bill to gradually raise the national minimum wage from $7.25/hr to 15/hr.   Republicans railed against the... Read more

Wall Street Journal — Republicans were on track to shrink House Democrats’ majority Wednesday as GOP victories in the suburbs piled up.   While votes in some contests were still being counted, it was clear Wednesday that Republicans had defied predictions of a blue wave to hold off well-funded Democratic challengers and oust some vulnerable first-term lawmakers.   By Wednesday, Republicans had defeated at least six Democratic freshmen, as well as a longtime Democratic lawmaker in a conservative... Read more

Florida Politics — Republican U.S. Rep. Michael Waltz and Democratic U.S. Rep. Stephanie Murphy are back with their bipartisan quest for national security briefings on foreign interference campaigns in American elections.   This time the duo from adjacent Central Florida districts are doing so just days before the next election, in which both are favored to win reelection.   This time they’re raising alarm and wanting information after fresh FBI reports that Russia and Iran are both playing... Read more

Florida Politics — The U.S. Centers for Disease Control has awarded 16 grants to pay for gun violence research, the first since Democratic U.S. Rep. Stephanie Murphy‘s bill was approved lifting the federal ban on such grants, her office announced Thursday.   The $7.8 million in grants go to researchers in North Carolina, Michigan, California, Alabama, and elsewhere to study such things as firearm behavioral practices and suicide risk in U.S. Army soldiers and veterans, and evaluation of an app... Read more

Florida Politics — The possibility of a Medal of Honor for the late Army Sgt. 1st Class Alwyn Cashe of Oviedo came a step closer Tuesday when the U.S. House of Representatives approved a bill making it possible.   By unanimous consent late Tuesday, the House passed House Resolution 8276, introduced by Democratic U.S. Rep. Stephanie Murphy of Winter Park and cosponsored by Republican Rep. Michael Waltz of St. Augustine Beach and Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw of Texas.   HR 8276 would waive... Read more

CNN — The Pentagon is seeking to posthumously award the Medal of Honor to a US Army sergeant who died saving others in Iraq nearly 15 years ago.   US Army Sgt. 1st Class Alwyn C. Cashe was on patrol on October 17, 2005, in Samarra, Iraq, when a roadside bomb detonated near the Bradley fighting vehicle carrying the Florida native and his fellow soldiers. Cashe, 35, suffered fatal burns while pulling the soldiers from the burning vehicle. He died on November 8 of that year at the Brooke Army Medical... Read more

Washington Post — The Pentagon is poised to posthumously award the Medal of Honor to Sgt. 1st Class Alwyn C. Cashe, who suffered fatal burns while repeatedly entering a burning vehicle in Iraq to save the lives of fellow soldiers.   Cashe’s actions “merit award of the Medal of Honor,” Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper said this week in a letter to members of Congress who have taken up his case. That determination means that the award, the nation’s highest for valor in combat, has agreement from... Read more

Florida Politics — Republican Sen. Rick Scott and Democratic Rep. Stephanie Murphy have been named “Fiscal Heroes in Congress” by The Campaign to Fix the Debt, a nonpartisan federal budget watchdog group.   Scott was one of eight Republicans plus six Democrats in the U.S. Senate to be selected.   Murphy was one of 15 Democrats plus 12 Republicans and one Libertarian in the U.S. House of Representatives to be selected.   They were the only Florida lawmakers.   “The current public... Read more

Orlando Sentinel — Rep. Stephanie Murphy introduced a bill Thursday requiring Congress to be notified if intelligence agencies believe a foreign government not at war with America is deliberately targeting U.S. service members.   The bill, co-sponsored with U.S. Rep. Joe Cunningham, D-S.C., comes after reports that Russia had paid bounties to Taliban insurgents to kill or injure American troops in Afghanistan.   The White House initially denied President Donald Trump was informed about the... Read more

Florida Daily — As Republicans ramp up their rhetoric on China and introduce legislation to oppose that communist nation, Democrats are taking notice–and a congresswoman from Central Florida is pushing the U.S. House majority to do more.   U.S. Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., has joined several fellow Blue Dog Democrats in backing the “Preventing China From Exploiting COVID-19 Act” which would have the Director of National Intelligence study all of the methods China is using to exploit the pandemic... Read more