Problems of voting in 2012 election must be addressed

We are no longer in an election year — which makes this the perfect time to take action on election reform.

November’s elections were a wake-up call. Tens of thousands of Americans, including Republicans and Democrats in both “red states” and “blue states,” saw their fundamental right to vote for the candidate of their choice eroded by exceptionally long lines, confusing rules and voting-machine problems in well over a dozen states.

In the 2012 elections, we saw voting machine irregularities in Pennsylvania and Colorado. We saw errors on voter rolls in Ohio and delays in ballot counting in Arizona. We saw voters waiting in line five hours in Virginia and eight hours in Florida.

In his State of the Union address, President Obama should make clear that such problems have no place in our elections, and he should challenge Congress to help prevent them from happening again.

As Americans, the right to vote is in our DNA. We have to do better than this, and we can do better if we take action now by challenging states to implement common-sense changes well before the next election.

The Fair, Accurate, Secure and Timely (FAST) Voting Act, which I introduced just days after the November election, would incentivize states to turn around their poorest-performing polling places and improve the administration of their elections to make voting faster and more accessible to all voters. 

As a former county executive, I know that states are laboratories of democracy. When it comes to administering elections, many states and counties are getting it right, and it is important we learn from them and replicate their success elsewhere in the country.

Last month, elections administrators from around Florida presented Gov. Rick Scott with a list of reforms they’d like to see implemented to prevent the election problems they saw last year from happening again. Scott — who two years earlier signed into law a bill to reduce access to the polls — admitted his state’s elections process was “clearly in need of improvement,” and said he agreed with some of the elections supervisors’ proposals.

This type of analysis should be done in every state, and the federal government can play a role in incentivizing processes like this one and ensuring changes are made to last.

The FAST Voting Act focuses on cost-effective reforms such as making it easier to register to vote online and ensuring citizens who move to a new jurisdiction can easily transfer their voter registration. If we utilize the modern technology we already have access to, we can make it easier for all eligible Americans to cast their ballot and ensure that every vote is counted.

In his second inaugural address, Obama spoke of the long American march toward justice. “Our journey is not complete until no citizen is forced to wait for hours to exercise the right to vote,” he said.

He’s right.

Making it harder for citizens to vote is a violation of their civil rights. Long lines are a form of voter disenfranchisement. Running out of ballots is a form of voter suppression.  Access is denied when registration is cumbersome or inaccessible and when early-vote or vote-by-mail options are not available.   

The philosopher George Santayana once said that “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

If we ignore the assaults on Americans’ civil rights that we saw last November, we are certain to have to endure them next time around. We cannot stand by and allow that to happen, and instead we must take action to put meaningful election reforms in place now.

The op-ed appeared in The Hill: http://bit.ly/Yn8sp8

Time for a balanced, bipartisan deal to avoid fiscal cliff

With only 12 days left before the calendar turns to 2013, the time for a big, balanced, bipartisan deal to address the so-called “fiscal cliff” is running short – but it is not too late.

More than $500 billion in automatic spending cuts, tax increases and other fiscal changes are scheduled to take place at the beginning of next year, and if a compromise isn’t reached to prevent it, middle class families in Delaware will see their tax bills go up and our economy could be pushed back into recession.

Over the last few weeks and months, I have heard from families and business owners across Delaware who want their elected officials to find the political will to reach a bipartisan compromise – and quickly.

The hour is late, but we still have the opportunity to make budgetary choices that reflect our values, protect the middle class and reduce our unsustainable debt and deficit.

It has been difficult to watch the months turn to weeks and the weeks turn to days as this deadline approached. It now seems unlikely a bipartisan deal can be struck, studied and voted on before Christmas, but it is my hope that Congress will return immediately after the holiday and address this problem before the new year.

No matter what happens in these waning days, we can’t give up on finding a balanced solution that responsibly reduces our deficits. The best way to do that is to combine tough spending cuts with reforms to our tax code that bring in more revenue while increasing fairness to taxpayers.

As it stands, our deficit and debt are unsustainable. Last year, we ran a budget deficit of more than $1 trillion and we now have a national debt of over $16 trillion. Republicans and Democrats alike agree that excessive debt hurts our competitiveness, causes interest payments to rise and crowds out critical investments in our country’s future.

The interest rate we pay on our debt will only grow over time, so if we want to protect essential, pro-growth investments in priorities like education, infrastructure and innovation, we have to reduce the deficit. However, drastic, across-the-board cuts to domestic spending will only push our economy back into recession and put critical services at risk.

Jeopardizing public safety by reducing funding for cops and firefighters, leaving Delawareans out in the cold by cutting assistance for home heating oil, hampering the progress of scientific research, and causing families to abruptly lose their unemployment insurance are not American values, and they are not the way to solve our fiscal challenges.

In fact, many of these programs already sustained substantial cuts under the Budget Control Act, which was passed last year and will reduce spending by $1 trillion over the next decade.

The services on which the most vulnerable Americans depend should not take the full brunt of spending cuts. Here, too, we need balance.

We can ensure a strong national defense and a best-in-the-world military without spending additional money that the Department of Defense doesn’t need or want.

Likewise, those of us who seek to sustain and defend the progressive legacy of our entitlement programs must address the fiscal reality facing these programs in order to ensure they will be strong and sustainable well into the future.

Spending cuts must be part of our fiscal solution, but simple math tells us revenue must also play a meaningful role. Balance is the only way to provide the economic certainty necessary to sustain a recovery while continuing to invest in our future.

Although simply averting the fiscal cliff and kicking the can down the road seems like an easy choice, the reality is that our country will need to make an array of tough decisions about our competing priorities, such as keeping taxes low, investing in basic services and reducing our deficits and debt.

The best solution to our long-term economic challenges is a big, balanced, bipartisan solution that both reduces spending and raises revenue. That is the most responsible path toward bringing down our dangerous debt and deficit in a way that reflects America’s values.

It’s time for Washington to accept what Delawareans already know: only compromise can move us forward.

For both parties, simply blaming the other side and waiting for the next election is no longer a tolerable strategy. The truth is, working together is not a sign of weakness, it’s a show of strength – and there is no time to waste.

This op-ed appeared in the Wilmington News Journal: http://delonline.us/ZV5Lk7.

Finding God in the Party Platforms

Republicans did their level best to slow down the Democrats’ momentum last week by picking a fight on perhaps the only remaining issue on which they still think they have the upper hand with voters: faith.

The lack of the word “God” in the Democrats’ platform, they contended, was proof of the “hostility President Obama and the Democratic Party establishment have toward religion and people of faith.” So determined to create trouble around the initial absence of the word “God,” Republican pundits missed the greater point: the Democratic platform was, in important ways, far more consistent with the Word of God than their own platform.

One of the indelible lessons from my time at Yale Divinity School and a lifetime of devotion to the Christian faith is that there is more to honoring God than reciting His name. If we’re going to try to measure the Godliness of our politics, it shouldn’t be by the number of times the word “God” is used, but by the strength of the values put forth in our policies.

It was striking to see how much the Democratic National Convention had matured in welcoming public expressions of faith since my first convention in 1988. The open embrace of faith by convention planners and party leaders was on display each day last week with opening and closing prayers offers by leaders of many faiths, delegate prayer gatherings each morning, and gatherings of the Faith Caucus throughout the week.

On the sidewalks of Charlotte, though, caricatures of faith leaders berated delegates, journalists, and bystanders. Occasional summer showers only barely cooled the heated exchanges. On several corners, angry street preachers stood on boxes with bullhorns, waving Bibles and shouting calls for repentance amidst graphic posters condemning Democrats to Hell with photos of aborted fetuses and placards proclaiming “God hates fags!”

Back inside the arena, Democrats’ strong commitment to faith was on full display at the podium, too, with loud cheers from the floor Wednesday night for Sister Simone Campbell — one of the “Nuns on the Bus” –who declared “I am my sister’s keeper” and repeated the declaration of the Catholic Bishops Conference that Congressman Ryan’s budget failed a basic moral test because of the harm it would do to families living in poverty.

Rep. Emmanuel Cleaver, himself a Methodist clergyman, lifted up the discussion and brought down the house with a positive, passionate, faith-filled call for bipartisanship and principled progress that elicited not only applause, but pronounced exclamations of “Amen!”

People of faith have long played a central role in shaping the values of the Democratic Party, even during its most tumultuous times. From Dr. Martin Luther King and African American churches’ leadership in the civil rights movement to Rev. William Sloane Coffin and the anti-war movement, a faith-inspired focus on justice and peace, tolerance and inclusion have long driven the Democratic Party.

What matters more than whether in the party’s platform the word “faith” was followed by the phrase “in God” was whether the values reflected in the platform showed an intention to honor God’s call to us for action that shows His preference for the poor, His demands that we care for each other as neighbors and work to heal the sick, feed the hungry and protect those in need.

The Democratic platform fully embraces those values, but they are hard to find in the Republican platform.

Psalm 72 teaches us that to defend the cause of the poor and to give deliverance to the needy is one of our highest callings — a call that is repeated throughout books of the Torah and the New Testament. To reject the great tradition of a circle of protection defies God’s will and undermines America’s values.

As the last night of the convention came to a close, the soaring rhetoric of our President had barely finished echoing from the hall when the final benediction was offered by Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, the same head of the Catholic Bishops Conference who had famously battled with Obama over access to contraception and religious liberty just months earlier. He’d offered the closing prayer at the Republican Convention in Tampa, too.

The patience and reverence showed by the thousands of delegates who prayed calmly with the Archbishop showed a party inclined to respect rather than conflict. Even when his reflection turned to explicit advocacy against abortion and marriage equality, the convention hall remained quiet. I held my breath in fear of a shouted objection or disrespecting catcall that would overshadow the positive tenor of the whole week, but none was uttered.

Ours has grown into a party, a platform and a convention that highlights the best of our values — traditions of respect for one another, of tolerance, of inclusion, and of a willingness to fight for a path forward that embraces our obligation to invest in each others’ education, opportunity and prosperity.

The op-ed appeared in the Huffington Post.

Obama should arm Syrian rebels

As Syria approaches a turning point in the uprising against President Bashar Assad’s repressive regime, it is time for the U.S. to engage with rebel leaders directly and materially to encourage an outcome that brings peace to Syria, stabilizes the region and promotes American values.

Recent developments — including the defections of the former prime minister, several diplomats and generals; the resignation of United Nations special envoy Kofi Annan; and the increasingly horrific attacks on civilians ordered by Assad — paint a picture of a desperate regime that has lost all legitimacy and is clinging to control of a country on the precipice of change. If the U.S. fails now to take a more decisive role in shaping Syria’s future, it risks a post-Assad Syria transforming into an anti-American haven for jihadist threats to the West and our regional allies.

President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have gone to extraordinary lengths in their tenacious diplomacy and are to be applauded for leading repeated multilateral efforts at the U.N. to stop the violence, but the opportunity now confronting the United States is limited. Every day we wait, the cost of engagement gets bigger, its potential impact smaller and the risks more dangerous.

Direct U.S. involvement in the Syrian conflict should take several forms, starting with increased humanitarian aid and support for regional allies, such as Turkey and Jordan, that are taking in tens of thousands of Syrian refugees fleeing the escalating violence. Secretary Clinton’s recent announcement of millions in additional humanitarian assistance was a strong first step. In parallel, the U.S. should continue enforcing the toughest possible sanctions on the Assad regime and call on its allies to do the same.

The ordinary Syrians who first demonstrated against Assad’s regime and who are openly challenging Assad’s brutality have repeatedly asked for American help. Today, they question whether our brave words at the U.N. will ever translate to support on the ground. There is little time left to find constructive partners among the Syrian rebels and to press for a path consistent with American values.

In line with proposals already floated by the Obama administration, the U.S. should strengthen its direct engagement with Syrian rebels by providing more robust support — up to and including lethal aid — to opposition groups that specifically commit to building a pluralistic and democratic Syria. Increasing support for responsible opposition leaders is an investment in a post-Assad Syria that is more likely to become our partner than our enemy.

Engagement with rebels must also come with reciprocal commitments to no reprisal killings, and to allowing unimpeded access for humanitarian organizations, journalists and human rights advocates. Accepting U.S. support should also mean the rebels must reject support from al-Qaeda and other jihadist organizations. Foreign fighters are already taking advantage of the turmoil and crossing into Syria from Iraq and Lebanon, seeking to expand their reach. Given Syria’s robust military assets and sizable chemical weapons stockpile, the jihadist influence cannot be allowed to take hold in an emerging power vacuum.

Though we shouldn’t give up on winning NATO or U.N. support, we can’t keep waiting for a consensus to emerge while Russia and China shield the brazen Assad regime from accountability. U.N. investigators declared that Syrian government forces and the civilian shabbiha militia have committed war crimes against the Syrian people — crimes that will certainly continue without greater intervention.

The U.S. should redouble its efforts to assemble a coalition of allies to diversify and strengthen conditions-based aid to rebel groups. As opposition groups demonstrate they are reliable partners, such assistance should including greater intelligence sharing, training and logistical support, and, ultimately, lethal aid and the defense of safe havens for innocent civilians through the enforcement of no-fly zones over Syrian air space.

The Syrian people are crying out for freedom and are being murdered for it. The heart-wrenching reports of patriotic rebels struggling to prevent government forces from massacring innocent civilians cannot be ignored.

 Without question, America is a country weary of war. The last U.S. servicemembers to return from Iraq have been home for just a few months, and given our ongoing commitments in Afghanistan, no one wants to risk needless entanglement in another complex conflict in an unstable region.

The will to do what is difficult because it is right has always been part of our national identity, though, and America now has a moral and strategic imperative to stop these unconscionable acts of violence against innocent civilians.

For the safety of Syrians and the security of Americans, now is the time for the U.S. to act.

You can read this article on USA Today’s website.

Tax Cuts, Like Spending Cuts, Must be Fair

The Senate this week faced a choice between two starkly different tax plans – one, authored by Democrats, which would protect tax cuts for every American family, and another, authored by Republicans, which raises taxes on working-class families to fund special breaks for the very wealthiest Americans.

It really wasn’t much of a choice.

I’m proud to say that 50 of my colleagues agreed, and we passed a fair and responsible tax plan that will allow us to responsibly reduce our deficit while also investing in the next generation of the American dream. Unsurprisingly, not a single Senate Republican voted for this plan, and it is sure to die a slow death in the Republican-controlled House. So committed to preventing the richest two percent of Americans from paying their fair share, Republicans are willing to hold middle class tax breaks hostage.

This political obstructionism is even more disappointing given the broad, bipartisan agreement that our national debt and annual deficits are dangerous and unsustainable.

We all know that too much debt leads to lower growth and starves critical investments of the resources they need to help our communities grow. We all know we have to take steps to bring our budget back to balance, but I believe the key is that we do so responsibly, fairly and in a way that reflects America’s values.

It’s time we recognize the sobering reality that if we’re going to plug the hole in our national balance sheets while still continuing to invest in our future, we have to find a balance between spending cuts and revenue increases. We simply cannot achieve the level of savings we need through spending cuts alone. Revenue must also play a meaningful role.

A balanced approach is the only way to responsibly reduce our deficit while still maintaining America’s future competitiveness. We have to invest in education, infrastructure, research and development if we hope to innovate and cure our way out of the great challenges of our time.

Balancing our budget by shredding the vital safety net for our most vulnerable citizens is not consistent with American values. Essential programs have already sustained deep and painful cuts. Programs important to my home state of Delaware, like heating assistance to low-income families, Community Development Block Grants and the HOME program, have already been cut by as much as 30 percent.

Programs like these can’t afford additional cuts, so this week, Senate Democrats turned to the revenue side of the equation, voting to reduce our deficit by $1 trillion while still protecting critical tax credits for the middle class and working poor families that need them most — simply by asking the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans to pay their fair share.

In response, our Republican colleagues offered a plan that would raise taxes on 25 million working families still struggling to get through this difficult recession. At a time like this – when poverty in this country is at the highest rate since the 1960s, affecting one in six Americans — we are called to do better.

My faith tradition, along with a broad range of other faith traditions, challenges us to show our values in our budget. Psalm 72 teaches that to defend the cause of the poor and give deliverance to the needy is one of our highest callings. That call is repeated throughout books of the Torah and the New Testament — in many faith traditions across this country — so to reject this deliverance to the needy, to reject the circle of protection, and instead say we will extend ad infinitum the tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans defies our most basic values and our greatest tradition of creating and sustaining opportunity while protecting the most vulnerable amongst us.

This bill is not a substitute for the comprehensive tax reform our nation truly needs — tax reform that simplifies the code and closes unsustainable and costly loopholes while lowering rates and broadening the base — but in the current political environment, this bill is our best chance at retaining critical middle class tax credits and opportunities for the working poor, while still responsibly reducing our deficit.

As my friend, Senator Patty Murray, said shortly after Wednesday’s vote, Speaker Boehner is all that stands between 100 million middle-class families and the tax cuts the Senate voted to preserve. She’s right, and Speaker Boehner needs to get out of the way. The House ought to take up this bill and extend these tax cuts for America’s middle class.

This op-ed appeared in the Huffington Post.

Supporting innovation to fuel job creation

The most important responsibility I have as your senator is to support job creation. Our economy is starting to recover, but there are still far too many Delawareans out of work. That is why we are continuing to host job fairs across the state, connecting job seekers with employers ready to hire, and working to help Delaware businesses access the capital they need to grow and create new jobs.

One of the keys to fueling American economic growth and ensuring we remain competitive in the global economy is putting in place policies that support and sustain innovation. American ingenuity has always been at the core of our economic success. From inventing the light bulb to perfecting the search engine, we have never lacked good ideas. The challenges of the global economy may be new, but America’s advantage – our entrepreneurs and innovators – remains the same. We just have to support their work so they can continue to grow and create jobs.

Over the last few months, I’ve partnered with Republicans and Democrats alike to introduce legislation that will support our most innovative companies – the ones with the highest job-creation potential.

Watching cable news, it would be easy to think the Senate is stuck in partisan gridlock, and to an extent, that is true. Yet there are also decent people of both parties who want to get things done, especially when it comes to our economy. To those of us in Delaware, that is the rule, rather than the exception, but unfortunately, Washington doesn’t always work the same way.

That is why I was so glad to find partners like Senator Marco Rubio from Florida and Senator Jerry Moran from Kansas. They are both conservative Republicans, but I’ve worked with them and Senator Mark Warner, a Democrat from Virginia, on a series of job-creation proposals we bundled together in a bill called the Startup Act 2.0.

The Startup Act 2.0 is designed to promote innovation and jumpstart the economy through the creation and growth of new businesses and jobs. It is based on research showing that for almost 30 years, companies less than five years old have created almost all the net new jobs in America – at an average of about three million new jobs a year. So we pulled together ideas that help bring university research from the lab to the marketplace, ideas that encourage investments in new startup companies and more in the hopes of creating an environment where entrepreneurs can succeed.

Our bill contains an array of job-creating measures for small businesses, such as exempting capital gains taxes on investments in startups, which the independent Kauffman Foundation tells us would unlock $7.5 billion of new investment. It also supports innovative small businesses with an expanded research and development tax credit, an idea Senator Rubio and I introduced together last fall as part of our bipartisan AGREE Act and something I will continue fighting to pass because it is critical for Delaware small business.

With the right resources, American products can be manufactured in Delaware and remain competitive in the global marketplace. It is happening every day across our state, at companies of all sizes, including Miller Metal in Bridgeville, a local shop that is going head-to-head with Chinese metal fabricators – and winning.

We have to continue to support this kind of entrepreneurship and innovation in all sectors of our economy, including in the energy sector. There is going to be a clean energy economy in the years ahead, the only question is whether American businesses, families and workers will be at the center or the periphery. If we want to stay competitive in the race for homegrown, affordable, renewable sources of energy, we have to make sure our financial innovation keeps up with our technological innovation.

That is why this spring, I introduced bipartisan legislation to level the playing field and make a tax credit that has long supported oil and gas projects available to renewable energy projects like wind, solar and biofuels. The bill I wrote with Senator Moran, the Master Limited Partnership Parity Act, could bring significant capital off the sidelines to give clean energy innovators and projects the critical private sector support they need to get their product to the marketplace.

The bottom line is that America’s researchers, business leaders, innovators and entrepreneurs are already working to help create jobs and ensure American competitiveness in the global economy. We just have to support and sustain their hard work, and we cannot take the rest of the year off just because there’s an election coming up. Even in this difficult, partisan atmosphere, we have to find ways to work together and get things done. Innovation will drive American economic competitiveness for generations to come, and our job is to help our innovators and entrepreneurs do their jobs.

Startup Act’s economic benefits

Inside the Beltway, conventional wisdom says that Congress does little during an election year. But Americans are eager to see Congress address our country’s challenges — most important, the economy and job creation.

We are introducing bipartisan legislation, Startup Act 2.0 on Tuesday — to help jump-start the economy through the creation and growth of new businesses. We want to prove the critics wrong: Congress can get something done in an election year when we work together to strengthen the economy and create jobs.

Companies less than five years old have created nearly all net new U.S. jobs for almost three decades, according to Kauffman Foundation research, averaging roughly 3 million each year. Passing the JOBS Act in March was good news for the young companies now creating jobs. But entrepreneurs face additional challenges beyond access to capital. Startup Act 2.0 picks up where the JOBS Act left off — by helping entrepreneurs to succeed.

Vital to any new business are the talented individuals who turn ideas into reality — including foreign-born entrepreneurs. More than a quarter of technology and engineering companies created in the U.S. between 1995 and 2005 had at least one key founder who was foreign-born, according to researchers at Duke and at the University of California, Berkeley. Yet current immigration policies have hurt U.S. efforts to compete in the global contest for entrepreneurial talent.

Startup Act 2.0 creates an Entrepreneur’s Visa for legal immigrants, so they can remain in the U.S., where their talent and ideas can fuel growth and create American jobs. It also creates a new STEM visa so that U.S.-educated foreign students who graduate with a master’s or a doctorate in science, technology, engineering or mathematics can receive a green card and stay in this country, launch businesses and create jobs.

Our plan also eliminates the per-country caps for employment-based immigrant visas — which hinder U.S. employers from recruiting the top-tier talent they need to succeed. U.S. future economic competitiveness depends on our winning the global battle for talent.

Another significant challenge facing startups is gaining access to enough capital to get off the ground. So our plan provides incentives to encourage investment in startup companies.

Startup Act 2.0 will make permanent the exemption of capital gains taxes on the sale of certain small-business stock held for at least five years — so investors can provide financial stability at a critical juncture of firm growth. Our plan also creates a targeted research and development tax credit for young startups less than five years old and with less than $5 million in annual receipts. This research and development credit is designed to allow startups to offset employee taxes – freeing up resources to help these young companies expand and create jobs.

Startup Act 2.0 also seeks to move taxpayer-funded university research more quickly to the marketplace, where it can propel economic growth. U.S. universities have historically been responsible for groundbreaking discoveries — spawning new industries and creating countless jobs.

But not every institution is fully equipped to successfully mentor entrepreneurial researchers as they create new companies or work with industry to find innovative uses for the fruits of university-based research. Our proposal will use existing federal research-and-development funding to support university initiatives designed to bring cutting-edge research to the marketplace more quickly.

Another obstacle facing new businesses is the expense and time required to comply with government regulations. Firms with fewer than 20 employees spend 36 percent more per employee to comply with federal regulations than larger firms, according to the Small Business Administration. Our bill requires all government agencies to conduct a cost-benefit analysis of all proposed “major rules” with an economic impact of $100 million or more. This new requirement will help determine the efficacy of the rule and its potential impact on the formation and growth of new businesses.

Finally, Startup Act 2.0 will direct the Commerce Department to assess state and local policies that aid in the development of new businesses. Through the publication of reports on new business formation and the entrepreneurial environment, lawmakers will be better equipped to encourage entrepreneurship with the most successful policies.

In the past 16 months, six countries have implemented new policies to encourage more entrepreneurship, innovation and job creation within their borders. The U.S. cannot afford to turn a blind eye to our competitors or use the coming elections as an excuse to delay action on an issue so critical to our economic future.

Many of these bipartisan ideas are supported by President Barack Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. We look forward to working with the president and our colleagues to prove that conventional wisdom about Washington won’t hold true this year.

Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) is on the Appropriations Committee and Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee. Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) is on the Budget Committee and Commerce Committee. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) is on the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee. Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) is on the Budget Committee.

Remaining Engaged After the Kony Viral Video

For some, it was easy to dismiss the effect a viral video could have on the effort to stop crimes against humanity being committed in central Africa. After all, what possible influence could tens of millions of young people in the West have on a conflict half a world away?

When the African Union announced it was supporting and strengthening a force of 5,000 regional soldiers combatting the Lord’s Resistance Army just two weeks later — explicitly citing new global engagement on the issue — the world got its answer.

If nothing else, opening our children’s hearts and minds to a faraway humanitarian issue has been the great success of the “Kony 2012” movement, which last month mobilized offline with grass-roots activities in communities around the world.

As parents, it’s remarkable to see our own children so passionate about the issue.

As Senators who have been deeply engaged in the challenges of central Africa for many years, we can say that the engagement of so many Americans, especially young Americans, supporting the U.S. mission to aid in the capture of LRA leader Joseph Kony and his top lieutenants has never been stronger.

Letters and emails have poured into Washington from students from around the country, each bearing the same message our own children delivered to us: Kony and the LRA must be stopped and brought to justice.

Congress has received that message. The engagement of the past few weeks is helping to focus and strengthen the work of a broad bipartisan coalition on Capitol Hill that is committed to finishing the job.

The facts are clear. Kony and his band of criminals have cut a path of destruction through central Africa for more than 25 years. The LRA has kidnapped tens of thousands of children, turning the boys into soldiers and the girls into sex slaves. The vicious nature of the LRA’s crimes and the youth of many of its victims have left scars that are tough to heal. Today, Kony and his top lieutenants are on the run and the United States is working closely with regional militaries to “remove them from the battlefield.”

Since 2010, it has been U.S. policy to work with governments in the region to stop the LRA and help central Africa recover from its destruction. With bipartisan Congressional support, President Barack Obama enhanced that commitment by sending 100 military advisers to provide training, technical support and strategic counsel to regional militaries attempting to kill or capture Kony and his commanders. The administration also increased efforts to provide humanitarian assistance to LRA-affected communities and early warning systems to vulnerable populations.

Congress’ strong bipartisan support for Kony’s capture and investment in Africa is nothing new, but it’s important to keep the pressure on. Last month, we introduced a Senate resolution with more than 40 co-sponsors — nearly half the Senate, both Republicans and Democrats — to support efforts by the United States to strengthen the capabilities of regional military forces to protect civilians and pursue what remains of the LRA.

The mission is championed by Sens. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), John Kerry (D-Mass.), James Inhofe (R-Okla.) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.).

Our challenge as Senators is now the same as our challenge as parents — sustaining this newfound level of engagement and interest. In today’s global economy, we want our kids to grow up as citizens of the world, equally concerned about injustices in Africa as they are in their own neighborhoods. We want to ensure that young people continue to feel empowered to speak out and make a difference, and we want them to know that their message about Kony and the LRA has been heard loudly and clearly.

There are moments in history, rare as they are, when millions of Americans galvanize around a crisis far from home and try to find a way to act.

This can be one of those once-in-a-generation moments.

From fighting in the border regions of Sudan to humanitarian crises and conflicts around the world, we will face many more global challenges in the years ahead. If America is to continue to be a moral force for good in the world, we will need the sustained engagement of citizens of all ages, as advocates and catalysts for change, just as they have been in response to “Kony 2012.”

Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) is chairman of the Foreign Relations Subcommittee on African Affairs. Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) is chairwoman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security and a member of the Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations.

This op-ed appeared in Roll Call.

‘Dream Accounts’ would be a boon to U.S. education

As parents, we worry so much and work so hard for our children — for their health, for their safety, and for their future. We all want the best for our kids, so let’s consider a few potent statistics. During this long, tough recession, the unemployment rate among high school dropouts was 13 percent, high school graduates 8 percent, but for those with a college degree, it was just 4 percent.

In the new global economy, Americans who do not earn some higher education — whether community college or a four-year degree — will, on average, earn a million dollars less in their lifetimes. American employers have, today, thousands of jobs available for those with the right training, but that training is out of reach for too many.

That’s why last week I introduced the American Dream Accounts Act of 2012. This legislation encourages partnerships among schools, colleges, nonprofits and businesses to develop secure, Web-based student accounts that contain information about academic preparedness, financial literacy and high-impact mentoring and are tied to a college savings account. Instead of approaching these threads independently, this bill connects students, parents and teachers across these silos. It is a small but significant step toward helping more students of all income levels access, afford and complete a college education.

The journey from elementary school to a high school diploma and higher education is a long one, and students who drop out along the way often do so because those educational experiences are not connected. Schools can be large and anonymous and parents are often stretched too thin in a tough economy. An amazing new generation of social networking technology makes it possible for us to solve those problems. American Dream Accounts are Facebook-inspired, personalized hubs of information that engage students in a powerful new way.

The American Dream Accounts Act recognizes that linking college savings to online accounts is one of the most powerful ways to keep kids focused on the long-term goal. Studies show that students with a dedicated college savings account in their own name are seven times more likely to go to college than their peers without one, so this legislation would help open a savings account for each child, harnessing the power of early seed money and compound interest.

State and federal governments already fund programs to help students afford college. The tragic part is that many kids don’t know that money is available until years after they have made choices that knock them out of contention for higher education. American Dream Accounts focus students on the idea that financial support and opportunities are there for them if they make the grades.

My experience working at the national I Have a Dream Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to college access, taught me first-hand how often lower-income students who frequently move or change schools get lost in the system. That’s why portability and persistence are essential features of American Dream Accounts.

By utilizing existing Department of Education funds, this legislation comes at no new cost to taxpayers. We are simply building on existing programs and making them more efficient and effective. One of my favorite parts of drafting this legislation was collaborating with those on the front lines of addressing our education challenges in Delaware, including the Delaware PTA, and I’m proud they’ve endorsed the bill.

Our nation’s long-term economic competitiveness requires a highly trained, educated workforce, and we can meet that challenge by connecting students with a broad array of higher education options. Whether it is vocational school, professional training, community college, or a four-year university, this legislation will help students identify the type of higher education they need for the career they want, and give them the tools to get there.

As I’ve visited schools across Delaware, one thing is clear: When you ask elementary school students what they want to be when they grow up, their answers tend to be the same no matter where they live or their family’s income level. Our kids all start out with big dreams. The American Dream Accounts Act of 2012 is a modest, but powerful, bill that empowers students and parents of all backgrounds to achieve those dreams.

This op-ed appeared in The News Journal. 

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In pursuit of Joseph Kony

Fifty million people around the globe have turned their attention to Uganda this week thanks to the tremendous power of social media and the nature of cause célèbres. Together they have catapulted a video about the vicious crimes against humanity committed by Joseph Kony and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) to the front of our consciousness.  I applaud the leadership and initiative of Resolve, Enough and Invisible Children, the groups that have led the grassroots campaign against Kony and the LRA.

As chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on African Affairs, I share their goal of ending Joseph Kony’s influence on this earth and protecting innocent civilians. I feel passionately that the more people who are watching central Africa, the more likely we can come together as an international community to save lives in the face of conflict and mass atrocities.

As we work toward this shared goal, it is essential to be clear about certain facts that may have been blurred these last few days. Joseph Kony’s unconscionable crimes against humanity are not in doubt. Under his leadership, the LRA murdered and kidnapped tens of thousands of people and advanced the use of rape as a weapon of war.  Over two decades, they forced thousands of children to become child soldiers, displaced even more people from their homes and destabilized an entire region.

That’s why President Obama’s decisive action to bring Kony and his top lieutenants to justice is such a critical part of the story.

The Obama Administration has taken steps to “remove Kony from the battlefield,” and it has done so in the right way. In 2010, Congress passed and the President signed legislation authored by former Senator Russ Feingold to express support for increased U.S. efforts to help mitigate and eliminate the threat posed by the LRA.  With this authorization, President Obama deployed 100 American military advisors to central Africa to train and assist regional militaries in their pursuit of Kony. The Administration, with the strong support of Congress, has also taken steps to increase civilian protection, support the desertion of LRA combatants, and provide assistance to populations affected by the LRA.

By taking action, President Obama rejected the political convenience of sitting idly by and doing nothing to protect innocent civilians from ongoing crimes against humanity.  Many of us remember that Rush Limbaugh, in his headlong haste to criticize the President’s decision in October, defended the LRA and complained that President Obama was targeting Christians in Africa. Luckily, Limbaugh’s dangerous lie was quickly countered by those on both sides of the political aisle, including Senator Jim Inhofe, a conservative Republican from Oklahoma.

There is a bipartisan consensus in Congress that Joseph Kony must be captured and held to account for his crimes against humanity.  As my colleague, Senator John McCain, said last fall, “the LRA is one of the most atrocious and barbaric organizations in history.”

Kony’s evil has destroyed tens of thousands of lives, but he and what remain of his forces are now on the run. Our priority is now apprehending Kony, bringing him to justice, and working with our regional partners to build a better, safer future for all of central Africa. 

President Obama and Congress have taken decisive action against the LRA. The will to bring Kony to justice remains unshakable at the highest levels of the U.S. government, and it supersedes partisan divides. So let’s harness the power of the massive groundswell of interest created online this week and use it to do the right thing: support the Obama Administration’s decision to deploy military advisors and do everything in our power to ensure their mission succeeds.

The op-ed appeared on The Huffingon Post. 

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