Carlos Curbelo, Stephanie Murphy to lead congressional ‘Future Caucus’

Carlos Curbelo and Stephanie Murphy

A new congressional caucus has been formed aimed at millennials with two Floridians, Republican U.S. Rep. Carlos Curbelo of Kendall, and Democratic U.S. Rep. Stephanie Murphy of Winter Park, among the leaders.

Curbelo and Democratic U.S. Rep. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona will be co-chairs of the newly-announced “Future Caucus,” and Murphy and Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin will serve as co-vice chairs.

The caucus was organized by the Millennial Action Project, which says it to to create a bipartisan block of young lawmakers, under the age of 45, to focus on next-generation leadership and policy issues.

The organization also is arranging state-level “Future Caucuses” in state legislatures, including Florida’s, with Democratic state Sen. Lauren Book, Republican state Sen. Anitere Flores, Republican state Rep. Holly Raschein and Democratic state Rep. Sean Shaw all serving as co-chairs.

“I’m excited to be co-chairing the Future Caucus with my friend and colleague Representative Sinema,” Curbelo said in a press release from Millennial Action Project, and forwarded by his office. “I look forward to working together and building consensus on issues important to our generation and finding opportunities for legislative initiatives. We will do everything we can to make sure America’s youth is a priority in the 115th Congress.”

“Young Americans in our country are facing a unique set of challenges that require a new approach to problem solving,” Murphy said in a statement released by her office. “I am proud to be part of this bipartisan group of legislators and look forward to working with them to overcome the obstacles of future generations, like student debt, climate change and access to well-paying jobs and affordable housing.”

The release states that Curbelo, 37, and Sinema, 40, backed by Murphy, 38, and Gallagher, 33, will seek to lead a national movement of young elected officials breaking through partisan gridlock to re-establish political cooperation and create meaningful progress in government.

They are to focus on issues millennials care about, including student loan debt relief, veterans’ employment, and entrepreneurship, according to the release.

“These leaders are countering the notion that Congress is no longer functional, and I can proudly say that the Future Caucus members give us hope for the well-being of our democratic institutions,” said Steven Olikara, President and Co-Founder of Millennial Action Project.

Scott Powers

Scott Powers is an Orlando-based political journalist with 30+ years’ experience, mostly at newspapers such as the Orlando Sentinel and the Columbus Dispatch. He covers local, state and federal politics and space news across much of Central Florida. His career earned numerous journalism awards for stories ranging from the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster to presidential elections to misplaced nuclear waste. He and his wife Connie have three grown children. Besides them, he’s into mystery and suspense books and movies, rock, blues, basketball, baseball, writing unpublished novels, and being amused. Email him at [email protected].


One comment

  • Amy Campbell

    May 24, 2017 at 6:06 pm

    I am not a millennial, but faced with forced retirement , I need all the benefits that I have paid into all the years of my employment.
    I can not state enoughbthe biggest danger we are facing is the decimation of public education by Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. Please dismantle tax monies tied to Charter Schools. In Florida they have a high failure rate and the Administrators of the schools walk away with our money leaving Students stranded when these shools close unannounced. Make sure that we don’t lose STEM in public education ,keep religion out of schools it has no place there. Our planets future that is at stake, so ramp up the converstion about global climate change and hiw it will affect our economy.
    Start the conversation about Vote-by-Mail. The state of Washington already does this and successfully. It will save money,reduce /eliminate voter suppression by gerrymandering. It makes it almost impossible to hack your vote. Open Primaries so that Independent voter’s voices are heard! Thank you for your Service and hard work !

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