Senator Coons praises start of federal review of skills-training programs

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.), who leads the Manufacturing Jobs for America campaign in the Senate, praised President Obama’s memorandum to the Secretaries of Labor, Commerce, and Education on Thursday instructing them to conduct an across-the-board review of the nation’s job training programs. Vice President Biden will lead the effort. 

“Washington needs to do everything it can to invest in American workers,” Senator Coons said. “The government-wide review of job training programs announced by President Obama in the State of the Union and made official today is an important first step. The President and Vice President are doing their part to help American workers, but Congress needs to do its part. There are already a number of good bills in the Senate that could help American workers get the training they need for modern manufacturing jobs, like Senator Franken’s bill to strengthen ties between community colleges and local manufacturers, Senator Hagan’s bipartisan American Works Act, and Senator Shaheen’s bipartisan On the Job Training Act. The Senate HELP Committee passed the bipartisan Workforce Investment Act led by Senators Murray and Isakson with an overwhelming 18-3 vote in July. The President’s memo today is progress, and I hope Congress will work with him to make even more.”

The memorandum says that the Vice President must develop, within 180 days, a specific plan of action to make the workforce and training system more job-driven, integrated, and effective by making programs more relevant, accessible, and accountable. More on this effort here: http://1.usa.gov/1flKC8r. The memorandum is available here: http://1.usa.gov/1aKQg5s

Since its debut in October, Manufacturing Jobs for America has grown to include 46 bills from 26 senators. Thirty of the bills have already been introduced — 14 with bipartisan support — around four principles: strengthening America’s 21st century workforce; opening markets abroad; creating the conditions necessary for growth; and expanding access to capital. 

More on Manufacturing Jobs for America can be found here: http://www.coons.senate.gov/manufacturing 

Senator Coons earns DOJ support for critical law enforcement programs

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and co-chair of the Senate Law Enforcement Caucus, earned support from Attorney General Eric Holder Wednesday for efforts to restore funding to Children’s Advocacy Centers and the Bulletproof Vest Partnership, two critical law enforcement programs administered through the Department of Justice.

Children’s Advocacy Centers serve child victims of violent crimes and the Bulletproof Vest Partnership helps state and local law enforcement agencies purchase life-saving body armor. Federal funding for both programs was zeroed out in the President’s proposed budget for 2014, but restored in the omnibus appropriations bill passed by Congress earlier this month.

“Children’s Advocacy Centers are an important tool that has played a central role in strengthening our enforcement against sex trafficking,” Senator Coons said. “The Bulletproof Vest Partnership Act has made possible the deployment of cutting-edge vests that protect local law enforcement officers, particularly in smaller, or more rural departments where they could not sustainably field them themselves.”

Questioning the Attorney General during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Senator Coons asked Holder to comment on the importance of preserving funding for the programs in the FY15 budget.

“I think Children’s Advocacy Centers…are a good tool for people in law enforcement to successfully prosecute cases that involve children who are victims,” Attorney General Holder responded. “But beyond that, it also helps the healing process for young victims so they don’t get re-victimized by the process that they go through, and then once through with the process, can try to get on and to heal. For too long, we did not understand the unique needs that children had, and Children’s Advocacy Centers have really gone a long way to increase our sensitivity in that regard.”

The Attorney General continued, “I will be advocating on behalf of these Children’s Advocacy Centers. I think they are proven to work, and given who they assist, I think that as we’re trying to decide what our priorities are, the protection of our most vulnerable citizens, our children, has to be a place where we put our money.” 

In December, Senator Coons introduced bipartisan legislation to reauthorize the Victims of Child Abuse Act, which provides funding for Children’s Advocacy Centers. Read more about the bill here: http://1.usa.gov/1f747jY

Attorney General Holder also agreed that bulletproof vests provide critical protection for law enforcement and should be made readily available to all officers. “To the extent that we can, we want to get as many of these vests out there as we can,” Holder said. 

On February 11, 2013, bulletproof vests purchased through the federal Bulletproof Vest Partnership saved the lives of two Capitol Police officers, Sergeant Michael Manley and Corporal Steve Rinehart, during a shooting at the New Castle County Courthouse in Wilmington. Both officers were struck, but survived because of their vests. 

Last May, Senator Coons and Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) re-introduced the Bulletproof Vest Partnership Grant Act to reauthorize the program. Read more about the bill here: http://1.usa.gov/1nltm7H

Click here to watch a video of Senator Coons and Attorney General Holder’s exchange at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday: http://youtu.be/kPcYfhqkEzk

Senators Coons and Rubio introduce bill to modernize aspects of national lab system

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) introduced legislation Wednesday to modernize the United States’ national lab system through targeted reforms, making the nation’s innovation pipeline more efficient and giving the labs new flexibility to support innovation in partnership with the private sector. America’s 17 national labs conduct research in a broad range of scientific and technological fields, but are not always equipped to translate their scientific discoveries into commercial breakthroughs. 

“Our nation’s economic growth is tied to our ability to turn promising ideas into job-supporting innovations,” Senator Coons said. “Too many transformative ideas and scientific breakthroughs never leave our national labs, which squanders enormous potential. This bill will modernize critical aspects of our national lab system and give our labs new tools and flexibility to partner with the private sector, helping American businesses access the tools they need to innovate. The America INNOVATES Act will widen and streamline our nation’s innovation pipeline, helping to create badly needed jobs.”

“For over 200 years, American innovation has given the world countless breakthroughs in the fields of science, medicine, energy and technology,” Senator Rubio said. “Unfortunately, our network of national labs, which have long been a leading source of innovation and research, currently lack the tools they need to translate American ingenuity into American jobs. This is especially the case with research relating to the rapidly evolving energy industry, which is too often hampered by regulations, mandates and burdensome taxes. To change this, our national labs need the ability to partner more easily with the small businesses that make up the backbone of the American free enterprise system. This bill will make it easier for our labs to work together with the private sector to bring groundbreaking research to fruition in the marketplace.”

The America INNOVATES Act would:

• Integrate the management of the Department of Energy’s science and energy programs to create a vertically integrated research enterprise
• Direct the Department of Energy to implement best practices to improve operations and management across the National Lab complex
• Allow national labs to partner more effectively with the private sector to create new technologies and enhance technology commercialization
• Allow the Department of Energy more flexibility to support applied research and development activities conducted by universities and nonprofits
• Give startups more access to cutting-edge facilities at the national laboratories

The legislation is based, in part, on a June 2013 report by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, the Center for American Progress, and the Heritage Foundation that aimed to “bring greater efficiency and effectiveness to the DOE lab system, produce more relevant research, and increasingly allow that research to be pulled into the private sector.” 

“The America INNOVATES Act is a significant step towards moving the DOE national labs from its atomic roots and into the 21^st century innovation economy,” said Matthew Stepp, Senior Policy Analyst with the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation and coauthor of the report Turning the Page: Reimagining the National Labs in the 21st Century Innovation Economy. “For decades, the labs have produced world leading science, but have under-performed at moving research from the lab bench into the marketplace. This legislation provides much needed flexibility in how the labs collaborate with industry, which will enhance innovation, technology transfer, and job creation. INNOVATES is also a model for the bipartisan, innovation-based institutional reforms that are desperately needed to re-shape America’s innovation enterprise.”

“As the United States moves deeper into the 21st century, innovation is key to job creation and economic prosperity,” said Darryl Banks, Vice President for Energy Policy at the Center for American Progress. “This bipartisan bill reforms the national labs from their 20th century roots and will bring greater cooperation between the labs and the private sector to develop and deploy needed advanced technologies. These pragmatic reforms will bring greater efficiency and effectiveness to the DOE lab system, produce more relevant research, and create mechanisms that can increasingly accelerate tech transfer and job creation.”

“This legislation will introduce market forces that will help bring efficiency and rationality to the national lab system,” Heritage Action for America Communications Director Dan Holler said. “The reforms will protect the taxpayer while spurring more innovation and economic growth by establishing a more seamless pathway for the private sector to transition basic research into market success stories.”

More information, including full legislative text, can be found at coons-staging.creativengine.com/innovates.

Senator Coons marks fifth anniversary of Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) on Wednesday marked the fifth anniversary of the enactment of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, the law allowing victims of wage discrimination to petition for fair pay within 180 days of each discriminatory paycheck. The 2009 law reversed a Supreme Court ruling holding that claims could not be filed more than 180 days after the employer’s original discriminatory salary decision.

“Equal pay for equal work goes beyond basic fairness. It’s beneficial to our economy, our families, and our children,” Senator Coons said. “As we mark the fifth anniversary of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, we should take stock of the progress made and the work that remains to eradicate wage discrimination from America’s workplaces. In Delaware, women working full time still make just 80 cents on the dollar compared to men — a loss of $9,911 a year. Across the nation, even more striking wage gaps persist in many industries.

“As a father and a husband, I am thankful that the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act makes it easier for workers faced with discrimination to claim the compensation they deserve, but we must not stop there. Congress needs to continue working to end unacceptable pay discrimination in our workforce. Equal pay for equal work must be more than an ideal, it must be a guarantee in our society.”

Senator Coons is an original cosponsor of the the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would deter wage discrimination by closing loopholes in the Equal Pay Act and barring retaliation against workers who disclose their wages to colleagues.

Senator Coons reacts to President Obama’s State of the Union address

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) released the following statement Tuesday night following President Obama’s State of the Union address.

“President Obama tonight laid out a clear vision for strengthening America’s economy and investing in American workers, focusing on ideas that hold real promise for revitalizing America’s manufacturing sector. Simplifying the tax code and closing loopholes that reward companies that move American jobs overseas just makes good sense, as does increasing our investment in infrastructure and finding creative new vehicles for financing it. The President also called for a new commitment to federally funded scientific research, which plays a critical role in the nation’s innovation pipeline and our nation’s global competitiveness.

“I could not be happier with the emphasis President Obama placed on skills training in tonight’s speech. An across-the-board review and reform of the nation’s training programs is a terrific idea, as is having Vice President Biden lead it. We need to make sure that at every level, we’re training Americans for the needs of the modern economy. Investing in American workers is how we’ll be able to rebuild our middle class and ensure that our nation can compete over the long-term.

“The President also announced his intention to launch six new public-private manufacturing hubs this year, like the one launched in North Carolina earlier this month. He also correctly noted that if Congress were to take up and pass the bipartisan legislation introduced by Senators Sherrod Brown and Roy Blunt — the Revitalize American Manufacturing and Innovation Act — we could double the number of these manufacturing hubs and make a difference in even more communities in this country. There are more than a dozen of good bipartisan manufacturing bills Congress could consider today if it can get past the partisan gridlock. 

“Finally, while I understand and even appreciate President Obama’s commitment to making at least some progress in the coming year through executive orders, he should not give up on working with Congress. Now more than ever, the country can’t afford for Republicans and Democrats in Washington to remain paralyzed. Congress needs to find a way to work together and with President Obama to grow our economy and rebuild our middle class.”

Senator Coons is a member of the Senate Appropriations, Budget, Judiciary and Foreign Relations committees, and leads the Senate’s Manufacturing Jobs for America campaign.

Farm bill agreement includes Coons-authored provision to assist poultry growers

WASHINGTON – The farm bill agreement announced last night by the House-Senate conference committee includes a provision authored by U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.), co-chair of the Senate’s Chicken Caucus, and Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) to assist poultry growers during uncertain economic times. The bipartisan Coons-Chambliss provision commissions a pair of studies on the feasibility of insurance programs to protect America’s poultry growers from catastrophic loss, such as disease outbreaks, and from bankruptcies of poultry integrators. The provision was passed as an amendment to the 2012 Senate farm bill and retained in the Senate’s 2013 farm bill, approved last June. 

“Poultry growers and integrators employ thousands in Delaware and across the country, and provide healthy and delicious meals to consumers around the world,” Senator Coons said. “When drought, disease, or other disaster strikes, the livelihoods of growers and the many who depend on them are put in jeopardy. These studies will explore the potential for insurance programs to help protect poultry farmers from catastrophic losses brought on by factors outside of their control. I am thankful to Senator Chambliss and the members of the conference committee for working with me to support our vital poultry industry.”

Sussex County, Delaware is the birthplace of the modern broiler industry, and produces more chickens than any other county in the United States. Delaware’s poultry industry supports 13,000 jobs and contributes more than $3.2 billion to the state economy.

Senator Coons: Manufacturing jobs must be a focus of State of the Union

WASHINGTON – On the eve of President Obama’s fourth State of the Union address, U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.), urged the President to prioritize investments that will help American manufacturers grow and create jobs, saying it was premature to give up on American manufacturers and the workers they employ.

“This is about fighting for American workers,” Senator Coons said on Monday. “Not just those who are long-term unemployed, who are a core concern, but those who are underemployed, and those who are working two jobs. What I hear from Delawareans, week in and week out, is that they used to work at the auto plant and now they’re working two jobs to make half as much as they did at the auto plant. They want to hear the President stand up at the State of the Union and say that we’re going to fight for the middle class by growing manufacturing in this country.”

Speaking at an event hosted by the Alliance for American Manufacturers on Monday, Senator Coons, who leads the Manufacturing Jobs for America campaign in the Senate, discussed a meeting at the White House on January 15th where he urged the President to focus on manufacturing jobs in the coming year.

“Given the opportunity, I wanted to emphasize where he’d been that day — North Carolina — and what there is right in front of us in terms of a package of bills,” Senator Coons explained. “I took my five minutes to reference a great bill that Kay Hagan has dealing with skills certification; a bill that Al Franken has dealing with strengthening the role of community colleges; and sort of went around the caucus and said, ‘Mr. President, there is a bill here, a bill here, a bill here, and you’ve got real partners. These are bipartisan bills. You can elevate the visibility and trajectory of manufacturing and job creation in the State of the Union, and there is immediate progress that’s possible in this caucus and in the Senate.’ There were five different senators who spoke about manufacturing and urged the President to make some recognition of its importance.” 

New polling data generated jointly by Democratic and Republican firms and released by the Alliance for American Manufacturers on Monday revealed that, among voters who struggling to get by, the loss in manufacturing jobs ranks above taxes, diminishing quality of life, and income inequality as the biggest concern. The poll also revealed that voters blame policies — not economic forces like globalization, automation, or a shortage of skilled workers — for the recent slow growth in new manufacturing jobs. 

“Polling reflects what Americans know in their guts: that manufacturing jobs are good jobs,” Senator Coons said. “In fact, they are better than jobs in almost any other sector. They offer better pay, better benefits, and they have a better secondary impact on the local economy than any other sector. Manufacturing jobs are not just good jobs — they’re great jobs.”

Since its debut in October, Manufacturing Jobs for America has grown to include 44 bills from 26 senators. Thirty of the bills have already been introduced — 14 with bipartisan support — around four principles: strengthening America’s 21st century workforce; opening markets abroad; creating the conditions necessary for growth; and expanding access to capital. 

“We can regain our leadership in manufacturing,” Senator Coons said. “We have one of the most productive manufacturing workforces in the world, and there are things we can and should do on a bipartisan basis. Bipartisan action is possible and relevant.” 

More on Manufacturing Jobs for America can be found here: http://www.coons.senate.gov/manufacturing 

Carper, Coons, Carney host job fair for more than 1,000 jobseekers

DOVER, Del. – More than 1,000 job seekers packed in to the Education Technology Building Conference Center at Delaware Technical Community College Terry Campus for the first job fair of the year hosted by U.S. Senators Chris Coons and Tom Carper, and U.S. Representative John Carney in Kent County. The fair brought more than 45 private and public entities together to meet candidates in hopes of filling over 500 open positions.

The Kent County job fair was organized with the help of Brandywine Counseling and Career Services, and service and government employment agencies were also on hand to facilitate job-search skills workshops, career counseling, and resume reviews.

In 2013, the Delaware delegation hosted seven job fairs for more than 3,500 job seekers. Since 2011, the delegation has hosted 17 jobs fairs in Delaware, including four specifically for veterans.

Senator Coons applauds new partnership between Bank of America, U2, and (RED) to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS

WILMINGTON, Del. – U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.), chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on African Affairs, praised a new partnership between Bank of America, rock group U2, and global HIV/AIDS fundraising organization (RED) announced at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Thursday. The bank, which employs 7,000 in Delaware, announced a multi-pronged commitment to the global fight against HIV/AIDS, including:

• A $10 million donation to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
• The donation of $1 to the Global Fund for each free download (up to $2 million total) of a new U2 song, “Invisible” to be unveiled in a commercial during the Super Bowl on February 2.
• A campaign to encourage Bank of America customers and employees to join the fight. 

“Stopping the spread of HIV/AIDS and its destructive impact on families, communities and even countries is a global health priority,” Senator Coons said. “Without the funding to set up and run clinics, train medical personnel, and educate at-risk populations about prevention, the tremendous progress made by the Global Fund and its partners over the last decade would not have been possible. Bank of America’s commitment to the global effort to eradicate mother-to-child transmission of HIV by 2015 can and will make a difference in the lives of millions of Africans.” 

Bono, the lead singer of U2, said, “Bank of America coming on as a (RED) partner to help the Global Fund’s efforts to eliminate AIDS is great news.  It’s the kind of game-changing influence that will not just deliver millions of dollars but raise consciousness and keep public pressure on putting an end to this devastating pandemic which has already taken the lives of 35 million people.  And just in… the bank’s commitment of $10 million has resulted in the Gates Foundation, SAP and Africa’s Motsepe Family matching for a total of $22 million. Incredible.” 

(RED) funds are fighting AIDS in eight African countries – Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Rwanda, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, and Zambia – and are used to support HIV/AIDS grants which provide treatment, testing and prevention, and care services, with a focus on ending mother-to-child transmission of HIV and achieving an AIDS-free generation. Of the more than $240 million generated by (RED), 100 percent has gone directly to the Global Fund for on-the-ground services, with no overhead taken out by (RED).

More from Bank of America here:

http://newsroom.bankofamerica.com/press-releases/corporate-philanthropy/red-u2-and-bank-america-partner-fight-aids

President’s elections commission includes recommendations addressed by Senator Coons’ election reform bill

WILMINGTON, Del. – In its report to President Obama on Wednesday, the Presidential Commission on Election Administration (PCEA) included several recommendations that would be addressed by the Louis L. Redding Fair, Accurate, Secure and Timely (FAST) Voting Act, first introduced by U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) after the 2012 elections. Among other key recommendations, the Commission urged:

• An expansion of online voter registration by the states to enhance both accuracy of the voter rolls and efficiency;
• The expansion of voting before Election Day, recognizing that the majority of states now provide either mail balloting or in-person early voting and that voters are increasingly seeking these options;
• Improving the ability of military and overseas voters to access ballots and other voting materials through the states’ websites;
• The increased use of electronic pollbooks for greater accuracy and efficiency;
• Assuring that polling places are accessible to all voters, are located close to where voters live and are designed to function smoothly;
• Increasing and enhancing training and recruitment of poll workers, in the recognition that volunteer poll workers are voters’ primary source of contact during the actual voting process;
• Addressing the needs of voters with disabilities and those with limited English proficiency.

“As Americans, the right to vote is among our most fundamental values,” Senator Coons said. “The 2012 elections were a wakeup call, revealing that significant challenges and dysfunction still plague the election process in many districts. I introduced the FAST Voting Act to jumpstart states’ election reforms, and I am glad to see that the recommendations released today by the PCEA reflect the same core ideas embedded in that legislation. We can and must take steps now to improve the voting experience across America. It’s time for Congress to pass the FAST Voting Act and follow through on the strong recommendations put forth today by the PCEA. Americans deserve better in 2014.”

Prominently featured throughout the 71-page PCEA report (http://bit.ly/1kY29ZX) is the testimony of Delaware State Election Commissioner Elaine Manlove, who appeared before the Commission on September 4, 2013.

“I am especially proud of the significant contribution made by Delaware State Election Commissioner Elaine Manlove to the PCEA’s report,” Senator Coons said. “Commissioner Manlove and Delaware’s state leaders are leading efforts to improve the voting process for our citizens, and their model will help to set the standard for free and fair elections across the country.” 

The FAST Voting Act would create a competitive grant program to encourage states to aggressively pursue election reform. The states that demonstrate the most comprehensive and promising reform plans would earn a greater portion of the grant funding. Applicant states are encouraged to improve access to the polls in at least nine specified ways, including: 

• Providing flexible registration opportunities, including same-day registration;
• Providing early voting, at a minimum of 9 of the 10 calendar days preceding an election;
• Providing absentee voting, including no-excuse absentee voting;
• Providing assistance to voters who do not speak English as a primary language;
• Providing assistance to voters with disabilities, including visual impairment;
• Providing effective access to voting for members of the armed services;
• Providing formal training of election officials, including State and county administrators and volunteers;
• Auditing and reducing waiting times at polling stations; and
• Creating contingency plans for voting in the event of a natural or other disaster.

The bill, which is cosponsored by Senators Mark Warner (D-Va.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), also requires an assessment of steps the state has taken to eliminate statutory, regulatory, procedural and other barriers to expedited voting and accessible voter registration.

The New York Times (http://nyti.ms/T5DvnK) and Washington Post (http://bit.ly/TmwS6b) offered their support for the FAST Voting Act in late 2012.