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:
Senator Coons is teaming up with Senator Carper and Congressman Carney to host a second Delaware job fair — this one on May 31st on the Dover campus of Delaware Technical and Community College.
(We had originally said this job fair would be on June 1, but we had to change the date to make it work.)
We've begun recruiting employers to come to the job fair to meet with Delawareans looking for work, but this time we're widening the call in hopes that more employers reach out to us instead.
"There is still room at the job fair for more employers in the region looking to hire capable, energetic Delawareans," Senator Coons said in a statement announcing the fair. “Businesses that have openings and would like to participate in the job fair should contact my office to reserve their spot. We’re committed to doing everything we can to help Delawareans get back to work."
Businesses looking to hire at the job fair should contact Latisha Bracy in Senator Coons’ office at 302-573-6345. Delawareans interested in attending should call 302-573-6345 or email workshop@coons.senate.gov for more information or to pre-register.
WILMINGTON — Though more than 2,200 Delawareans came out to the Chase Center today to connect with potential employers, we won't consider the job fair a success until we start getting word of Delawareans being hired as a result.
Hosted by Senator Coons in Wilmington Monday, the fair featured 80 employers and institutions of higher learning. Most were there because they were ready to hire – a sign of the improving jobs outlook but not enough that we can stop fighting. That's why Chris also announced plans to host a similar job fair on June 1 at a location more convenient for residents of Kent and Sussex counties.
With 38,000 Delawareans still out of work, we still have much to do. But, as today's jobs fair attests, we're on our way. Walking the aisle at the Chase Center, one could hear employer representatives speaking with job-seekers about openings, employment counselors providing résumé tips, and members of Chris' staff talking to Delawareans about ways the Senator has been fighting for investments in job growth. All of us on Chris' team are excited to be able to share stories with him over the coming weeks of folks who were hired as a result of connections they made at the jobs fair.
Chris has been focusing relentlessly on jobs since taking office, so much so that Governor Markell, speaking to those who had gathered at the Chase Center this morning, called him the "Jobs Senator."
Starting with his maiden speech to the Senate in January, Chris has called for strategic, long-term investments in middle class job creation. In particular, he has been urging tax credits for research and development so Delaware's burgeoning community of biotech and clean energy start-ups can scale-up and hire more workers. His focus also includes advanced manufacturing that creates sustainable jobs.
America has always excelled at turning our latest innovations into products that keep us competitive worldwide. Chris believes that by investing in what we've always done best, we can win the future and continue providing opportunities for America's families.
In order to get our fiscal house in order, both parties need to come together to pass a budget that deals comprehensively with our growing deficit. This was the message Senator Coons and sixty-two other senators from both sides of the aisle sent to the President today in a letter that can be read here in full.
Chris and his colleagues are urging the President to lead a more comprehensive approach to deficit reduction based in part on the recommendations of the bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. These include tax reform, entitlement spending changes, and cuts to discretionary spending.
“While we may not agree with every aspect of the Commission’s recommendations,” the bipartisan group of senators wrote, “we believe that its work represents an important foundation to achieve meaningful progress on our debt.” This is a message Chris has been repeating since taking office – that our challenges are interrelated, and we will need to approach the budget comprehensively in order to achieve real bipartisan solutions.
In his maiden speech to the Senate in January, Chris similarly spoke of the need to address our greatest national challenges, such as unemployment, energy security, economic growth, and education access, comprehensively. “Our problems are interrelated,” he told his colleagues, “and the solutions must be as well.”
Chris is committed to working with leaders of both parties to reach the necessary compromises that will get our budget in order, promote economic growth and job creation, and set our country on a path toward greater competitiveness.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Friday that 192,000 jobs were created in February, bringing the unemployment rate down below 9% for the first time since April 2009. This is good news for our economic recovery, but job growth remains slower than hoped for. Senator Coons weighed in on what these new numbers mean for the economy in a press statement this afternoon:
“What we’re seeing is an economy that is clearly in recovery. Last month’s national jobs numbers are a welcome sign of progress I’m optimistic we’ll see in Delaware when its February numbers come out – that the economic policies put in place by President Obama and the Democratic Congress over the last two years are working. Entrepreneurs are investing in their businesses and putting more Americans to work. Make no mistake: there is considerably more work to do to keep our economy moving in this positive direction. Congress should remain focused on measures that help create jobs and make it easier for businesses to grow.”
Since taking office, Chris has been stressing the importance of focusing on job creation. In his maiden speech to the Senate on January 27, he proposed strategic investments in growing our high-tech and clean energy manufacturing sector, which creates quality, middle class jobs. Delaware, he noted, is already making strides is this area, with new innovation-based businesses choosing to locate there due to its talented workforce and state and local governments’ willingness to partner with the private sector. He said:
“One of the most compelling examples of this partnership took place over the past two years. More than one thousand people lost their jobs when General Motors shut down its plant in Newport, Delaware, in 2009, a plant that had been in production more than sixty years and was long touted as one of the most productive in the country.
Some of those workers packed up their families and sought work elsewhere in the country. Some stayed and found other work. Too many are still looking today. But they weren’t the only ones looking for jobs. Led by our tireless Governor, Jack Markell, those of us in state and local government in Delaware were engaged in a job search as well, and after months of searching and hard work, we were able to bring Fisker Automotive to Newport, Delaware, to take over and reinvest in the shuttered GM plant. We did it by bringing together state and local officials, UAW union leaders, and federal tax credits and investments.
…I was proud to be a small part of the team that brought Fisker to Delaware, but I’ll be even prouder to watch hundreds of Delawareans stream through the plant’s gates again when it reopens to build cutting-edge plug-in electric automobiles. When I asked the leadership of the new company what made them choose Delaware, it was a familiar answer - a skilled and reliable workforce, a responsive state and county governments, strong local infrastructure, and access to global markets through our roads, rails, and the Port of Wilmington.
…My state has also been at the forefront of high-tech job growth with innovative Delaware companies like ILC Dover, Solar Dock, and Miller Metal, as well as multinationals like Sanosil, Motech, and Fraunhofer USA that have brought jobs there.
I am proud that so many new products and technologies that are invented here are also ‘Made in America, Manufactured in Delaware.’ In Delaware, businesses have seen that we are ‘ready to go.’”
Over the coming months, Chris will continue to work with his colleagues to make the critical investments we need to spur the creation of more sustainable middle class jobs. At the same time, he will fight against budget proposals that focus solely on broad, disastrous cuts but fail to create jobs, like the budget passed by House Republicans earlier this year and defeated in the Senate. That measure, if adopted, would lead to a loss of an estimated 700,000 jobs, erasing the gains already made over the past few months. It is a budget Americans simply cannot afford.
