Community and Economic Development

Congresswoman Slaughter has a long and strong record of enacting and promoting initiatives to bolster Western New York businesses and to foster a positive climate for economic growth in our region. One of Rep. Slaughter's highest priorities is directing federal funding back to the Western New York region and her district.  This funding has helped local universities better prepare our workforce, companies expand, municipalities invest in necessary infrastructure improvements, and non-profit organizations move our community forward.  Each project must meet Congresswoman Slaughter's goal of strengthening our local economy and meet her three criteria: creating jobs, enjoying broad public support, and being fiscally responsible.

Funding to keep Western New York competitive

She has stood out as a leader in Upstate New York as a tireless and effective leader in fighting for our fair share of federal funds.  The Buffalo News reported that when Rep. Slaughter was the primary Congressional Representative in Monroe County, the City of Rochester had the biggest increase in Congressional set-asides for local projects at 533 percent compared to other New York cities.  As the funding analysis showed, the Rochester metropolitan area had the largest amount of federal funding among any of the Upstate cities, and Congresswoman Slaughter was more successful in securing funding for high priority projects.

In 2008, local victories for the Rochester area included: over $625,000 for the Monroe County Crime Lab, $100,000 for the restoration of Mount Hope Cemetary, $340,000 for the Hillside Children center adoption program and the Work Scholarship youth employment training academy, $1 million for the University of Rochester Nanosystems Initiative, nearly $1.5 million for the Rochester Harbor dredging project, $2.75 million for a joint project between RIT and Delphi to develop a solid oxide fuel cell for the armed forces, and over $3 million the development of a low-radiation CT scan for breast cancer.

In addition, victories for the Buffalo area included: $470,000 for a law enforcement camera system, $500,000 for micro and small business loan programs, $400,000 for the Burchfield-Penney Art Center Museum Project, $1.6 million for the Fruit Belt Redevelopment project, $1.6 million for the development of new anti-viral drugs, and $3 million for the Hauptman Woodward Medical Research Institute to research virus mutation and transmission.  In Niagara and Orleans Counties, Rep. Slaughter secured almost $500,000 for the Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center for upgrades and staffing for cardiac research, nearly $200,000 for an Olcott Harbor breakwater project, $1.95 million for the completion of a cargo apron at the Niagara Falls International Airport, and $440,000 for a wastewater treatment plan in Lyndonville.

This year, Rep. Slaughter secured a $400,000 grant for the Niagara Falls School district to be used for the expansion of school counseling programs, a $20,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts for the Big Read program, $1.2 million to rehabilitate Fillmore Ave as part of the transportation bill amendments, and $9 million for a new dining facility at the Niagara Falls Air Force Reserve station, pending Senate passage and the President’s signature.

Since being elected to represent the Buffalo area, Rep. Slaughter has supported the Western New York Congressional delegation's funding requests aimed at reinvigorating Buffalo's waterfront.  The proposed Inner/Outer Harbor Development projects will provide economic growth for the City of Buffalo and the entire Western New York region.  Previously appropriated funds have gone to complete roadwork to create new access points into the Harbor area and construct port, terminal and US Customs facilities.

She has also worked tirelessly to provide assistance to rehabilitating our communities.  Among other efforts, Congresswoman Slaughter worked to attain federal funding for local affordable housing and waterfront improvement and harbor development.  She worked with Federal Home Loan Bank of New York and M&T Bank to secure over $580,000 for local affordable housing projects that will bring 61 families one step closer to achieving homeownership.

Promoting Economic Development

Rep. Slaughter has secured more than $22 million in federal funding for Rochester Institute of Technology's Center for Integrated Manufacturing Studies (CIMS). Manufacturing is the second largest employment sector in this area and the foundation of this economy.  CIMS was designed to specifically meet the needs of small and medium sized manufacturing firms to help them adapt and adopt new methods to become more productive and competitive in the world market.  CIMS accomplishes this goal by developing state-of-the-art manufacturing techniques and facilities that local companies can use for prototype research and development.  Sharing these facilities allows a wide range of businesses to develop new products without having to build expensive capital facilities before they are ready to go into full production.

As mentioned above, the Congresswoman was able to secure $2.75 million for a Delphi / Rochester Institute of Technology venture to develop a better fuel cell battery, which will help accelerate the application of SOFC technology into stationary and mobile systems within the U.S. Department of Defense. A SOFC is a highly-efficient electrochemical generator that produces environmentally-friendly electricity directly from currently-available fuels. This work builds upon Delphi’s fuel cell development efforts and will utilize CIMS’ state-of-the-art sensors-monitoring technology to evaluate the quality of fuel-cell powered systems. She also secured $2.4 million for a joint program between Logical Images and the Navy to allow them faster recognition and response to disease conditions, improving the quality of care given and overall health of their personnel.

Over the past years, Rep. Slaughter has secured funds for the Centers of Excellence in Buffalo and Rochester. The Infotonics Center outside Rochester and the Bioinformatics Center at the University of Buffalo bring cutting-edge technology and world-class research scientists to Western New York to help solve some of the worlds most difficult problems. Since 2001 Rep. Slaughter has brought over $18 million dollars to the area for the Centers for Excellence.

During the 110^th Congress, Rep. Slaughter introduced H.R. 5469, Waterfront Brownfields Revitalization Act. This legislation provides support to communities seeking to overcome the unique challenges of revitalizing waterfront brownfield properties. It would establish a pilot program to provide local communities with up to $500,000 to assist and showcase communities that are overcoming the challenges of waterfront brownfields. These grants can be used for reuse planning, design and engineering, technical assistance and capacity building, and waterfront brownfields assessment and cleanup. This pilot program will help lay the ground work for the development and revitalization of waterfront brownfields around the country and helps local communities reconnect with their waterfronts after decades of environmental contamination stemming from our nation’s industrial heritage.

In April, the EPA selected the Village of Youngstown for a brownfields cleanup grant worth $110,000 for hazardous substances. Hazardous substances grant funds will be used to clean up the Youngstown Cold Storage site at 701 Nancy Price Drive. The site was once used to wash, store, and pack locally grown apples. Buildings and soil on the site are contaminated with volatile organic compounds, PCBs, metals, and inorganic contaminants. Grant funds also will be used to support community outreach activities.

Helping Small Businesses to Compete

For 2008, Rep. Slaughter secured $500,000 in 2008 for the City of Buffalo small business program. This money will help to further capitalize and expand the Buffalo Economic Renaissance Corporation’s (BERC) Micro and Small Business Loan Program, which provides start-up and expansion loans to local entrepreneurs who often have difficulty accessing support through more traditional sources. With this funding, in conjunction with millions in local matching funds, BERC committed to providing 113 new loans, totaling over $12 million, over the next three years to small businesses for start-ups and expansions.

Rep. Slaughter also secured $100,000 in fiscal year 2008 for the Urban League of Rochester’s Business Development Division to provide guidance and assistance to Jefferson Avenue businesses beginning this summer. Ensuring that Jefferson Avenue businesses flourish is just one component of the effort to completely revitalize Jefferson Avenue. Recently, the Jefferson Avenue community came together to identify priorities for how the thoroughfare should look and function. Soon, University of Rochester graduate students will conduct an economic analysis, city-hired consultants will create street and infrastructure designs, and finally, a master revitalization plan will be created and implemented.

Voted for The Small Business Contracting Program Improvements Act, which expands and updates small business programs for veterans, women, and minorities.

Voted for the Venture Capital tax exclusion, to encourage investment in small innovative companies.

Supported the permanent extension and 100 percent tax deductibility of health insurance costs for the self-employed.

Supported judicial review of federal agency compliance with regulatory flexibility requirements. This will allow small businesses to challenge in court new regulations that put special burdens on small businesses.

Voted for the IRS Restructuring and Reform Act, which strengthens the rights of small businesses in tax cases and makes the IRS more customer-friendly.

Voted for the Small Business Job Protection Act to provide $19 billion in tax and regulatory relief to small businesses.

Expanding Opportunities for Rochester's Export-Driven Economy

Led efforts to enact into federal law tariff relief for high-quality fabrics required by Hickey-Freeman to ensure adequate supplies and competitive prices for the Rochester-based suit manufacturer.

Voted for the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which is benefiting Rochester's many exporting firms.

Led 218 Members of Congress in calling on the Government of Japan to live up to its promises to open Japanese markets to American exports of film, photographic paper and other products. Congresswoman Slaughter continues to work for full access to Japan's markets for American film, photographic paper and other products.

Stood up for FMC Corporation and asked the Secretary of Commerce to stop unfair dumping practices that the Chinese were employing.

Pushed for a hard stance in the Doha Round of trade negotiations to not grant tariff concessions on US imports of fiber optics without securing reciprocal market access.

Introduced legislation to extend the temporary duty reductions and suspensions on wool products.

Supports legislation to deter the smuggling of tobacco products into the United States.

Supported additional pressure be put on the EU to abide by the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Information Technology Agreement (ITA). Rep. Slaughter fought to protect U.S. products that are covered by the ITA from unfair tariffs by the EU.

Assisted area companies in lowering trade barriers here and abroad, including:

Bausch & Lomb

GRS

Harris Corporation

Lapp Industries

Minor Shoe

Redcom Laboratories

Terry Bicycles

Xerox

Kaufman Shoes

Hickey-Freeman

Assisting Rochester Companies to Expand and Increase Their Competitiveness

Supported the Empowerment Zone and Renewal Community Enhancement Act, to extend and expand the benefits for businesses operating in empowerment zones, enterprise communities, and/or renewal communities.

Voted to extend the R&D tax credit, reduce the corporate tax rate, extend the mortgage insurance and the state and local general sales taxes deduction.

Voted for the permanent extension of enhance small business expensing, which would raise the limits at which small business taxpayers are permitted to expense, while also indexing the limits to inflation.

Voted to extend the deduction for charitable contributions of food and charitable donations of books to public schools.

Supportive of legislation that will allow taxpayers to deduct qualified broadband expenditures, including installation and connection costs for subscribers in rural or hard-to-reach areas.

Supported the bipartisan Taxpayer Relief Act to cut capital gains and estate taxes while expanding the availability of IRAs.

Sponsored a Small Business Access to Capital Conference that brought small businesses together with small business officers from 16 banks and technical resource providers that participate in the SBA's loan guarantee program.

Personally intervened with former Vice President Gore to secure $50 million grant for Xerox/AT&T proposal to manufacture flat-panel displays.

Worked closely with Kodak to secure a nearly $1 billion federal contract with IBM to modernize systems at the IRS.

Assisted dozens of area businesses to obtain federal contracts or grants, resolve federal contracting problems or serve as a liaison with the federal bureaucracy.