Graduating alongside Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham in Yale Law School's class of 1973, Bruce Morrison was part of a class that also featured future Secretary of Labor Robert Reich. Nearly a decade after graduating with his Juris Doctor, Morrison was elected to Congress for Connecticut's 3rd district. He served on the House Banking Committee and the House Judiciary Committee before coauthoring the Immigration Act of 1990. This bill included a provision that permitted increased migration from countries such as Ireland which were considered to have lost out thanks to per-country limits to migration in the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act. The 1965 bill had received support from Ted Kennedy, despite its impact on Ireland, and Kennedy's involvement as the Senate author of the 1990 act would go some way to rectifying this. Morrison went on to run for Governor of Connecticut but finished behind third party candidate Lowell Weicker and Republican John Rowland. Disillusioned with politics, and the divided Connecticut Democrats, Morrison returned to legal practice and set up his own firm, returning to politics to support Clinton's bid for the Presidency.

Morrison was also familiar with Ireland and Irish issues, having visited Derry in August 1987 where he found himself held at gunpoint by the RUC. Six years on, Morrison and his Irish-Americans for Clinton–Gore co-chair, Boston Mayor Raymond Flynn, issued the organisation's statement of purpose. It cited the Clinton letter of 23 October and the five steps that he pledged to make to assist with the resolution of the Northern Ireland conflict: the appointment of a special envoy, attention to human rights abuses in Northern Ireland, continuing visa opportunities for Irish citizens, supporting the MacBride Principles, and eliminating foreign interference in the US Judicial system.