Last week, Senator Coons took part in a launch celebration unveiling the new Horn Program in Entrepreneurship at UD.
Made possible by a generous gift from Charles and Patricia Horn, this program will encourage students to pursue the kind of entrepreneurial ideas that will power Delaware’s economy for years to come.
The Horn program will enhance and expand entrepreneurial studies at UD and be made up of a variety of initiatives like the Venture Development Center, a student business incubator, Hen Hatch, UD’s premier startup funding competition and an annual President’s Forum on Innovation and Entrepreneurship. It will also support new curricular offerings at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.
Chris believes that supporting our innovators and entrepreneurs is critical to our economic recovery.
To read more about his work to create jobs and promote American economic competitiveness, click here.
NEWARK — For years, the Newark Toll Plaza has been a bottleneck for vehicles traveling on I-95, especially during the holidays. Thanks to the completion of the new toll plaza and its high-speed E-ZPass lanes, this Thanksgiving’s traffic moved swiftly, handling 611,332 vehicles — an increase of 41,642 vehicles over 2010. Even more impressive was the rate at which cars passed through the new toll plaza — an average of 400 more per hour as compared to 2010.
The toll plaza has been under construction for about two years and was opened in July, both on budget and a month ahead of schedule. This $32 million project was one of the main American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) infrastructure projects for Delaware, improving the flow of traffic through Delaware. The success of the project is one example of the importance of investing in our nation’s infrastructure to keep up with the demand.
Chris has called for the modernizing and expanding of our national infrastructure since coming to the Senate because it would help boost the economy by providing Americans with highly skilled, high-paying jobs. In November, Chris spoke on the Senate floor in support of the Rebuild America Jobs Act, which was introduced to help address America’s jobs crisis by investing in America’s crumbling infrastructure.
Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) hosted at a press conference on Tuesday to unveil their bipartisan bill to support job creation — the American Growth, Recovery, Empowerment and Entrepreneurship (AGREE) Act. The AGREE Act stems from areas of common agreement between the President’s jobs plan, recommendations from the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, and plans put forward by both parties in Congress.
If enacted, the AGREE Act would do the following:
Extend 100 percent bonus depreciation through 2012 for the full cost of qualified investments such as equipment and property.
Extend Section 179 expensing levels for small businesses through 2012.
Eliminate taxes on certain small business stock through 2012.
Extend the Research & Development tax credit until 2013, increase the Alternative Simplified Credit (ASC) from 14 percent to 20 percent, and makes the ASC permanent.
Provide veterans with a tax credit equal to 25% of the fee associated with starting a franchise up to $100,000.
Provide a five-year exemption from Section 404(b) of Sarbanes-Oxley for the first five years of a company going public, or for those below $250 million in total gross revenue (whichever comes first).
Eliminate the per-country numerical limitation for employment-based immigrant visas and adjusts the limitations on family based visa petitions from 7% per country to 15%.
Protect intellectual property by clarifying the Trade Secrets Act, and making it explicitly clear that it is not a crime for federal officials, in the performance of their duties, to share information about suspected infringing products with the right holder of a trademarked good.
With input from Delawareans at three roundtable discussions the Senator hosted in August, and from hundreds of meetings and conversations with business leaders and out-of-work Delawareans this year, today Senator Coons released his six-point jobs plan, dubbed, "A Blueprint for American Jobs."
“As today's disappointing jobs report re-confirms,Congress needs to pursue a new jobs agenda,” Senator Coons said, “one that will not only lead to the growth of skilled and sustainable American jobs for decades ahead but that will also put Americans back to work now. Instability in the job market is an urgent threat that we need to address immediately.”
The strategy details 38 bills that Congress could pass and ideas that Congress should explore to help propel America’s economic recovery. They are spread across six key actions:
Invest in critical infrastructure projects
Reform our tax code and stabilizing our nation’s debt
Offer greater support for America’s small businesses
Develop and protecting the next generation of American technology and ingenuity
NEWARK — Senator Coons joined Delaware Department of Transportation Secretary Shailen Bhatt, Governor Jack Markell, Federal Highway Administrator Victor Mendez and the rest of the Congressional Delegation at the I-95 Newark Toll Plaza Highway Speed Lanes Completion Ceremony.
Chris helped commemorate the completion of the toll plaza’s reconstruction, and the establishment of the highway speed E-ZPass lanes. The $32 million project was funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and was completed nearly a month ahead of schedule. A major benefit of the project included the 300 construction-related jobs.
Chris spoke about the importance of I-95 as it passes through the First State. He highlighted the fact that the highway plays a key role in boosting tourism, and that it makes Delaware more accessible for those who want to do business here. Chris, who is on the Energy Committee, also pointed out that the addition of highway speed E-ZPass lanes eases congestion and therefore saves in fuel costs.
DelDot officials say the upgrades will significantly reduce traffic delays. A toll collector is able to process about 250-300 transactions an hour while the highway-speed EZPass lanes can process over 2,000.
DOVER — Senator Coons teamed up with Senator Tom Carper and U.S. Representative John Carney to host a job fair in Kent County at Delaware Technical and Community College. More than 1,100 jobseekers connected with 80 employers from across Delaware.
For Chris, it’s all about creating jobs. “I look forward to hearing from folks who made connections at the job fair, turned them into interviews and, ultimately, job offers. With 35,000 Delawareans still looking for work, we still have a lot more to do. Jobs remain my top priority.”
The delegation was joined at the job fair by Governor Jack Markell and Dover Mayor Carleton Carey, Sr.
Chris hosted a similar job fair in Wilmington in April. Working together, the Congressional delegation will hold another fair in Georgetown later this year.
From Friday's New York Times, noted economist Paul Krugman discusses the "manufacturing renaissance" underway in large part because of President Obama's economic strategy.
By the middle years of the last decade, I used to joke that Americans made a living by selling each other houses, which they paid for with money borrowed from China. Manufacturing, once America’s greatest strength, seemed to be in terminal decline.
But that may be changing. Manufacturing is one of the bright spots of a generally disappointing recovery, and there are signs — preliminary, but hopeful, nonetheless — that a sustained comeback may be under way.
And there’s something else you should know: If right-wing critics of efforts to rescue the economy had gotten their way, this comeback wouldn’t be happening.
...
America’s industrial heartland is now leading the economic recovery. In August 2009, Michigan had an unemployment rate of 14.1 percent, the highest in the nation. Today, that rate is down to 10.3 percent, still above the national average, but nonetheless a huge improvement.
Senator Coons talks with Iraq war veteran Navy Corpsman Eric Smith of Baltimore about his experience trying to find a job after a press conference announcing the Hire America’s Heroes Act outside the Capitol on Wednesday.
Senator Coons today joined Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash.) at a press conference with veterans struggling to find work to discuss aggressive new legislation they introduced today to will address rising unemployment among our nation’s veterans.
“After they fought for our freedom abroad, our veterans shouldn’t then have to fight just to get a job at home,” Senator Coons said in a statement. “Especially during this difficult economic recovery, it is more important than ever to equip our veterans with the resources necessary to successfully reenter civilian life. We must make it a priority to connect returning soldiers with job training and job opportunities. It’s not enough for us to bring them home — it’s our duty and responsibility to give them the tools and training to be as successful in civilian life as they were while they were deployed.”
Watch Chris' full remarks at the press conference below:
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.
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."
