page_title: Patrick Murphy (Pennsylvania politician)
section_title: U.S. House of Representatives
hierarchical_section_title: Patrick Murphy (Pennsylvania politician) / U.S. House of Representatives
caption_attribution_description: English: Rep. Patrick Murphy (right) and Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki, left.
context_page_description: Patrick Joseph Murphy was the thirty-second United States Under Secretary of the Army. The Washington Post referred to him as the "Soldier's Secretary." He was the first veteran of the Iraq War to be elected to the United States House of Representatives, representing Pennsylvania's 8th congressional district from 2007–2011. Murphy is a former anchor of Taking the Hill on MSNBC and is currently a Philadelphia-based partner at national law firm Fisher Broyles, LLP.
  Murphy was confirmed as Under Secretary of the Army by the U.S. Senate on December 18, 2015, after having been nominated for the position by the President on August 5, 2015. Murphy was sworn into the post on January 4, 2016.
context_section_description: During his time in Congress, Murphy served on the House Armed Services Committee and was on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence; he later became a member of the Appropriations Committee. Murphy was a member of the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of moderate to conservative Democratic representatives. In 2008, he was not only one of the first members of Congress to support then Senator Obama; he was the first to actually campaign for him.
  Murphy opposed the Iraq War troop surge of 2007. He was a cosponsor, with Senator Barack Obama and Congressman Mike Thompson (D-CA), of the Iraq War De-Escalation Act of 2007, which aimed to develop a plan to redeploy American troops out of Iraq starting May 1, 2007. The bill was incorporated into the 2008 National Defense Authorization Act, but was vetoed by President George W. Bush. 
  On February 13, 2008, he was the only member of the House to vote against a resolution congratulating the New York Giants for the team's victory in Super Bowl XLII. "As a former 700-level security guard and lifelong Eagles fan, I couldn't, in good conscience, vote for the New York Giants ... The only thing worse would have been a resolution honoring the Dallas Cowboys", Murphy stated.
  In the 2007 congressional vote rankings by the non-partisan National Journal, Murphy scored a 56.5 liberal rating and a 43.5 conservative rating, which is considered "centrist" in the Journal's rankings.
  In July 2009, Murphy became the lead advocate for a bill that would repeal the Defense Department's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy concerning open gays in the armed forces.
  In April 2010, the IMPROVE act (Improving Medicare Policy for Reimbursements through Oversight and Efficiency) was signed into law. Murphy authored the bi-partisan bill to help eliminate fraud in the health care system and protect taxpayer dollars. The IMPROVE act was endorsed by the AARP, the National District Attorneys Association, the Credit Union National Association, and the American Bankers Association
  In May 2010, the Officer Daniel Faulkner Children of Fallen Heroes Scholarship Act of 2010 passed the house. Murphy sponsored the bill which would assist children whose parent or guardian died as a result of performing service as a law enforcement officer, firefighter, or member of a rescue squad or ambulance crew.
caption: Then Congressman Murphy with Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki
exif: {"Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D3", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "96", "Image YResolution": "96", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Picasa 3.0", "Image DateTime": "2009:03:24 09:27:28", "Image Artist": "", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image Copyright": "", "Image ExifOffset": "328", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1120", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4864", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/60", "EXIF FNumber": "5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "200", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2009:03:24 13:01:13", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2009:03:24 13:01:13", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Flash", "EXIF Flash": "Flash fired, compulsory flash mode, return light detected", "EXIF FocalLength": "34", "EXIF SubSecTime": "08", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "08", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "08", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "600", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "412", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "996", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[0, 2, 0, 2, 0, 1, 1, 2]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Manual", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "34", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0", "EXIF ImageUniqueID": "4cfc87fdb4448c2d80a823cc39c96e05"}