By Ana Radelat

Washington– Sen. Chris Murphy will introduce Scott Gottlieb, a Westport resident and candidate to head the Food and Drug Administration, to fellow members of the Senate panel that’s key to his confirmation – but that won’t keep the nominee from having a bit of a rough ride among Democrats.

Scott Gottlieb: Westporter awaits Senate confirmation. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) American Enterprise Institute photo

At Wednesday’s confirmation hearing by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, Murphy is expected to talk about Gottlieb’s career as a doctor – he once practiced at Stamford Hospital – and of his prior experience at the FDA.

Fellow Democrats on the HELP Committee say they will scrutinize possible financial conflicts. The 44-year-old Gottlieb serves on advisory boards for several major pharmaceutical companies. President Donald Trump chose Gottlieb to head the FDA last month.

In his recent financial disclosure letter to the Department of Health and Human Services counsel for ethics, Gottlieb disclosed financial relationships with over 25 companies, many of them giants in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries, including GlaxoSmithKline.

By Ana Radelat

Washington — Even as President Donald Trump wants to strip all money from the program, a key congressional committee today moved on a bill that would authorize the Environmental Protection Agency to spend $65 million a year on cleanup of Long Island Sound.

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee considered the “Long Island Sound Restoration and Stewardship Act,” a bill cosponsored by Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand and Charles Schumer of New York and Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy of Connecticut, all Democrats.

The bill would reauthorize a number of projects in the Sound for five years including the Long Island Sound Study, the EPA’s Connecticut-New York partnership established in 1985 to oversee restoration of Long Island Sound.

Erin Crotty, the executive director of Audubon New York, testified in support of the legislation, saying the federal money it provides leverages many times more in funding form local and state governments and private donors.