Member of Congress and Campaign For Governor
In 1982, Morrison mounted a successful grass roots campaign for Congress. He defeated the party-endorsed Democrat in a primary and then defeated Republican incumbent Lawrence J. DeNardis by 1987 votes to become the U.S. Representative from Connecticut's Third District. After narrowly defeating DeNardis again in 1984, he won easy re-elections in 1986 and 1988.
Morrison was the first chairman of the Freshman Democratic Caucus of the 98th Congress. He was selected to serve on the House Banking Committee and the House Judiciary Committee, as well as the Veterans Affairs and DC Committees and the Select Committee on Children, Youth and Families. He was an expert on housing issues and authored numerous amendments to improve housing opportunites for the poor. He was deeply involved in human rights issues, visiting Cuba to demand the release of prisoners, Chile as part of a campaign to oust dictator Augusto Pinochet, South Africa to protest apartheid, Nicaragua to oppose aid to the Contras and Paraguay to observe elections after the overthrow of dictator Stroessner. Morrison was a leader in efforts to reduce deficits and balance the federal budget. He was the Democratic sponsor of floor amendments to freeze spending in 1984 and 1985.
He served as chairman of the House Immigration Subcommittee from 1989-1991. He was the House author of the Immigration Act of 1990, one of only two major immigration bills in the country’s history to increase legal immigration. The legislation increased the focus of immigrant admission toward high skilled workers. The bill also included a provision that became known as the Morrison visa program. It allotted 40,000 visas each year for three years to countries that had been disadvantaged by the 1965 immigration legislation. Immigrants from the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland were allotted with 40% (48,000) of the visas.
Morrison ran for governor of Connecticut in 1990. The incumbent Democratic Governor, William O'Neill, had become very unpopular due to years of state budget crises and chose not to seek re-election. Although he defeated William Cibes in the Democratic primary, hefinished a distant third in the general despite a sizable Democratic voter registration advantage, behind Republican John G. Rowland and the eventual winner, Independent Lowell Weicker. Morrison could not overcome public dissatisfaction with the Democrats. After losing, he started his own law firm specializing in immigration law in New Haven, Connecticut.
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