Made in America, Manufactured in Delaware… Right here at Johnson Controls

MIDDLETOWN — Senator Coons attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony for a 400,000 square foot distribution center at Johnson Controls in Middletown. Johnson Controls is the world’s largest supplier of automotive batteries. 

Chris put on his hard hat and participated in the groundbreaking ceremony. The company is investing $60 million in the facility, which will perform the charging, packaging and distribution of automotive batteries for the Northeast region of the United States. This facility will have a capacity of 8.5 million units per year.

“It’s businesses like Johnson Controls that are reinforcing the mantra, ‘Made in America, Manufactured in Delaware. Job retention and job creation are key to our economic recovery, and this groundbreaking is a shot in the arm for Middletown and all of Delaware,” Chris said.

Chris also recognized Johnson Controls’ commitment to the First State through its investment in the community. The company currently has about 280 people working in Middletown. The new facility will create 67 new jobs.

Senator Chris Coons discussed the expansion of Johnson Controls with Middletown Plant Manager Rick Thompson. Johnson Controls currently has about 280 people working in Middletown.  The new facility will create 67 new jobs.

Video: Senator Coons at ONE forum on global poverty

Back in April, Senator Coons participated in a forum on global poverty hosted by the ONE Campaign at the University of Delaware. Below is a video produced by ONE at the event.

Chris tours UPS facility in Newark

NEWARK — Senator Coons greeted workers at the UPS sorting facility in Newark this morning, getting a first-hand look at how packages from all over the world get to homes and businesses across the First State. This facility processes about 15 million items each year—and they do it all with about 400 employees and state-of-the-art technology.

UPS prides itself on being one of the most advanced logistics companies in the world, and also for its ability to quantify the safety and productivity of each employee.  Chris was impressed to learn that UPS can track a truck’s idle time, speed and the route of every driver.  They can even tell how long it takes before a driver puts on his or her seatbelt. Today, Chris helped hand out awards to those employees meeting safety goals.

Many employees are veterans at the Newark facility.  UPS enjoys recruiting from the military because of the similarities in work ethic.  Today, Chris was honored to meet UPS employee Master Sgt. Joe Leighton (in photo above) who is also in the Delaware National Guard.  Master Sgt. Leighton is gearing up to deploy to Afghanistan later this month.  

In op-ed, Chris expresses frustration with slow patent processing

In an op-ed appearing on HuffingtonPost.com today, Senator Coons reports on the Patent and Trademark Office’s decision to call off a program scheduled to begin this week that would have sped up the devastatingly slow speed patents are processed in the United States.

“The pace of American innovation far exceeds the pace of American bureaucracy,” Senator Coons wrote in an op-ed on Huffington Post today. “If you were looking for ways to limit economic recovery, stifling PTO’s ability to grant patents would be pretty high on the list. Fee diversion is effectively a tax on innovation, punishing the very people we ought to be empowering.”

The root of the problem is a little confusing, but here it goes.

Similar to the Postal Service, the Patent and Trademark Office is funded by the fees it collects. But its budget comes from Congress, so every year, PTO has to ask Congress for a budget that matches what it thinks it will collect in fees. It’s a guess.

If it actually collects less in fees than projected, it would have to spend less than what was budgeted. But if it collects more than what was projected, they have to turn that money over to the Treasury… instead of using that money to hire more patent examiners to clear through the massive backlog of 700,000 patent applications stuck at PTO. 

The backlog is so big that if you filed a patent application today, an examiner wouldn’t even see it for two years and you wouldn’t receive a decision for three. Three years! Studies have shown a single patent can create between three and 10 jobs. In this fledgling economic recovery, this is a HUGE problem.

The big-picture fix is the America Invents Act, which Chris cosponsored and which passed the Senate overwhelmingly in March. It cleared the House Judiciary Committee last month but a vote on it hasn’t been scheduled yet. That needs to happen quickly.

PTO came up with its own short-term fix — a clever pilot program that Congress approved that would allow up to 10,000 businesses and individuals who needed their patent in a hurry to pay a significant extra fee that would allow PTO to staff-up appropriately. It wouldn’t slow down patent-processing on the normal track, just create a separate track for expedited consideration.

So PTO projected it would take in $40 million for the pilot program and included that in its budget request for FY11 since if that money wasn’t approved by Congress, it wouldn’t be able to spend it on staffing up. Then came the showdown on spending cuts and the near-shutdown. The deal authorized PTO at its FY11 level — not enough to allow the pilot program to proceed.

Last week, PTO had to abandon the program.

America needs the jobs these patents would create, so now it needs the House of Representatives to pass H.R. 1429. As Chris wrote, “Congress’ delay in ending patent-fee diversion is costing America jobs at a time when we desperately need to be getting more Americans back to work. We need to move more good ideas from the PTO’s inbox to the marketplace.”

The Senate should move faster on judicial nominations

Asked to chair this afternoon’s Judiciary Committee hearing on five nominees to the federal bench, Senator Coons took the opportunity to urge his colleagues to move more quickly on judicial confirmations.

“I am disheartened that the Senate stands poised to spend 30 hours over the coming days engaged in protracted, post-cloture ‘debate’ regarding the nomination of one U.S. District Court judge,” Senator Coons said. “To have to file cloture on a district court nominee who has the unanimous support of his home state senators is nearly unprecedented.”

At issue was the nomination of John McConnell of Rhode Island, whose confirmation today was slowed by a cloture vote and the accompanying 30-hour period for debate. (Several hours after the debate period began, Republicans conceded back the time and allowed the confirmation vote to proceed early this evening.)

There are 93 vacancies on the federal bench, of which 37 are considered “judicial emergencies” because they have been open for more than 18 months, forcing other judges on those courts to shoulder an overly burdensome caseload.

“Today, Attorney General Holder testified before this very committee that the number of vacancies has created a crisis in our courts,” Chris said in his opening statement. “This is not a partisan issue – Chief Justice Roberts has similarly noted that the vacancies are causing acute difficulties for some judicial districts.” 

Download an MP3 audio file of Chris’ opening statement here.

Chris meets with pair of outstanding young Delawareans

Chris met with two outstanding Delaware students in his Washington office Tuesday to thank them for their service to the community and to congratulate them on being recognized with 2011 Prudential Spirit of Community Awards.

Cab Calloway School of the Arts sixth-grader Genevieve Spence (above at left) and Charter School of Wilmington senior Jon Austin Osborne (above at right) were among 102 young people from across the nation to receive the award.

“It was a true honor to meet with these outstanding young people,” Chris said after meeting Genevieve and Jon. “I was impressed to learn about their humanitarian efforts and their deep commitment to serving their communities. They are true role models for their peers and I offered them my sincerest congratulations.”

Jon co-founded the student-run Humanitarian League of Delaware to encourage young people to participate in humanitarian activities and now has 80 students involved in both local and international volunteer projects. Members of the organization, including Osborne, have traveled to Haiti to organize a children’s summer camp, assist with food distribution and to help at a clinic.

Genevieve, after learning about the benefits of mental and physical exercises for Alzheimer’s patients, came up with the idea of donating Wii video game systems to local nursing homes. She raised money by making and selling friendship bracelets, holding a garage sale and soliciting a donation from Best Buy. She has also spent time visiting with and playing with the residents. 

The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards is the United States’ largest youth recognition program based exclusively on volunteer community service. The awards were created in 1995 by Prudential in partnership with the National Association of Secondary School Principals to honor middle and high school students at the local, state and national level for outstanding service to others.

Video: Chris salutes U.S. forces for their service since 9/11

Senator Coons spoke on the Senate floor on Monday to praise U.S. forces’ service since the terror attacks of 9/11. Read the transcript here or watch the video below.

U.S. forces kill Osama bin Laden

After President Obama’s announcement tonight that U.S. spec ops forces had killed Osama bin Laden, Senator Coons issued the following statement:

“This is a momentous development for our country. For nearly 10 years, America and its allies around the world have fought to stop the terrorism of al Qaeda and its leader, Osama bin Laden. President Obama’s announcement tonight that bin Laden has been killed is a tribute to the hard, dedicated work of our armed forces. I hope his death will both make the world safer and speed the day when our troops can return home.”

What We’re Reading: School board reverses vote that jeopardized Race to the Top funds

From Sunday’s News Journal, in-depth reporting from education reporter Nichole Dobo on the 11-day drama in the Christina School District over whether the district would still receive its share of Delaware’s Race to the Top funds after the school board failed to follow the school reform plan to which it agreed. 

Faced with the loss of $11 million in federal funding, Christina called a special board meeting Saturday where school board members did two things. First, they voted unanimously to rescind their April 19 decision. Second, they voted unanimously to “reaffirm” that the school board is committed to helping the state fix the district’s schools.

“This whole thing was due to a lack of communication,” board member Eric M. Anderson said after the vote.

At nearly midnight on April 19 — after listening to hours of testimony from teachers and administrators — five of the seven Christina school board members voted to undo what had been done. The 19 teachers would be allowed to remain at their school because of what board members called flaws in the interview process.

The vote set off a chain reaction. Days later, the state Department of Education began a process to freeze the millions earmarked for the district.

Then last Monday, Education Secretary Arne Duncan, in charge of President Barack Obama’s Race to the Top efforts, inserted himself into the local fight, strongly supporting the state in its efforts.

Click here to read the full story in the News Journal.

The Senator’s week ahead schedule: May 2 to May 8

Monday, May 2 at 8:30 a.m. – The Congressional delegation will host its annual Youth Conference at Wesley College. The conference will include an open forum featuring all three members of the delegation, as well as breakout sessions. Students will also participate in a food drive for the Dover Interfaith Mission for Housing. Wesley College, H.B. DuPont College Center 2nd Floor, Dover, Del. – Open to Press.

• 8:45 am – Senator Tom Carper will address the conference
• 9:00 am – Senator Chris Coons will address the conference
• 9:15 am – Congressman John Carney will address the conference
• 9:30 am – Open forum with the Delegation and Wesley College President, Dr. Johnston

Monday, May 2 at 2:00 p.m. – The Senator will preside over the Senate. Washington, DC – Open to press who wish to sit in the Senate gallery.

Tuesday, May 3 at 10:00 a.m. – The Senator will attend the Senate Energy and Natural Resources hearing on clean energy deployment authority at the Department of Energy. 366 Senate Dirksen Office Building, Washington, DC – Open to press.

Tuesday, May 3 at 10:00 a.m. – The Senator will attend the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Afghanistan. 419 Senate Dirksen Office Building, Washington, DC – Open to press. 

Wednesday, May 4 at 10:00 a.m. – The Senator will attend the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on oversight of the U.S. Department of Justice. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder will testify.  226 Senate Dirksen Office Building, Washington, DC – Open to press.

Wednesday, May 4 at 2:30 p.m. – The Senator will chair the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the following nominations: John A. Ross, to be United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Missouri; Timothy M. Cain, to be United States District Judge for the District of South Carolina; Nannette J. Brown, to be United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Louisiana; Nancy Torresen, to be United States District Judge for the District of Maine; William F. Kuntz, II, to be United States District Judge for the Eastern District of New York. 226 Senate Dirksen Office Building, Washington, DC – Open to press.

Thursday, May 5 at 9:00 a.m. – The Senator will attend the Samuel Heyman Service to America Medals Breakfast. 325 Senate Russell Office Building, Washington, DC – Open to press.

Thursday, May 5 at 10:00 a.m. – The Senator will attend the Senate Judiciary Committee business meeting.  226 Senate Dirksen Office Building, Washington, DC – Open to press.

Thursday, May 5 at 10:00 a.m. – The Senator will attend the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Pakistan. 419 Senate Dirksen Office Building, Washington, DC – Open to press. 

Thursday, May 5 at 1:00 p.m. – The Senator will preside over the Senate. Washington, DC – Open to press who wish to sit in the Senate gallery.

Friday, May 6 at 7:30 a.m. – The Senator will tour the UPS Christiana Facility.  325 Ruthar Drive, Newark, Del. – Open to press. 

Friday, May 6 at 10:00 a.m. – The Senator will attend the Johnson Controls Ground Breaking Ceremony. 50 Patriot Drive, Middletown, Del. Open to press.

Friday, May 6 at 6:30 p.m. – The Senator will attend the Delaware HIV Consortium 7th Annual WOW Awards Celebration. Clarion Belle Hotel, 1612 North DuPont Highway, New Castle, Del. 

Note: Schedule is subject to change.