Washington - Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., said Thursday he will stay at the helm of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee in order to serve his constituents and tackle “the defining issue of our day”- the economy.

”Our economy is the center of gravity to which all our problems are being pulled,” Dodd said at a press conference on Capitol Hill. “As the United States senator from Connecticut, there is no more important way right now that I can serve the people of Connecticut and our country than as banking committee chairman.”

WASHINGTON -- Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd said Thursday he intends to remain at the helm of the Senate Banking Committee next year rather than take on a new assignment in the post-election leadership shuffle.

After taking a day to consider his options, Dodd decided against succeeding Sen. Joe Biden as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and will instead remain chairman of the Banking Committee -- a post he assumed in January 2007 when Democrats regained the majority in the upper chamber.

Sen. Chris Dodd made it official Thursday that he will remain chairman of the Senate banking committee as the U.S. financial crisis rages on.

The announcement lays to rest questions of whether Dodd, D-Conn., would decide that the grass was greener on another committee. With Vice President-elect Joe Biden's departure from the Senate, there is an opening on the foreign relations committee, where Dodd is the next Democrat on the seniority list. On Thursday, Dodd recalled Biden having told him that an Obama-Biden victory would mean the gift to Dodd of the foreign relations chair.

U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., and U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, are asking Pfizer Inc.'s chief executive officer to reconsider plans to replace local contractors at its southeastern Connecticut campuses with foreign workers.

In a letter Monday to Jeffrey B. Kindler, Pfizer's chairman and chief executive officer, Dodd and Courtney said they are concerned about a companywide policy dubbed Procedure 117 that would replace local information-technology contract workers at its Groton and New London sites with workers from outside firms, including those from overseas.

WASHINGTON -- Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd is urging the Bush administration to focus its attention on a strategy to help homeowners facing foreclosure.

In a letter sent to the president Thursday evening, Dodd criticized the administration for failing to "dedicate the time, attention or resources" needed to address the historic levels of foreclosure that were the root cause of the nation's economic crisis.

NEW BRITAIN - For years, Richard Ahern labored to put food on his family's table and a roof over their heads. Then, three years ago, he was injured and went on Social Security disability. Unable to pay his heating bills, he turned to the Human Resources Agency of New Britain for help.

Ahern's story was one of several Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd heard Monday in a visit to the Human Resources Agency's Arch Street office.

NEW BRITAIN - For years Richard Ahern labored to put food on his family's table and a roof over their heads. Then, three years ago he was injured and went on Social Security disability. Unable to pay his heating bills, he turned to the Human Resources Agency of New Britain for help.

"I found people here wanting to help me, to keep my family in our home," he said. "If it hadn't been for HRA, we'd be on the streets."

CHESHIRE - U.S. Senator Christopher Dodd (D-Conn) fielded questions from more than 120 high school juniors and seniors Tuesday and defended his support of the $700 billion bailout - or what he called a "workout."

"The idea isn't so much to have a bailout as a workout," Dodd said.

The heightened scramble to procure and pay off student loans at Southern Connecticut State University has barely fazed nearby Yale, Democratic Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut said Tuesday.

Students at SCSU, like millions across the country, are concerned about the availability of student loans as the nation’s credit market tightens, Dodd said in a presentation at the university’s campus near West Rock. While Dodd tried to allay the worries of SCSU students, he said no immediate fix for the national loan situation is in sight. Yale, on the other hand, is fortunate in being largely unaffected, he said.

NORWALK -- In the face of looming federal budget constraints, Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., told employees of Norden Systems on Monday that $20 million has been included in the 2009 defense budget for an improved radar system to be built at the plant.

The allocation would allow continued development of the multi-platform radar technology insertion program, designed to replace air-to-ground systems on 17 Joint Stars Air Force aircraft.The new version would expand the surveillance system to air-to-air capabilities.