Blog
Joining Cavuto to discuss Opportunity Agenda, Ferguson
Yesterday I joined Your World with Neil Cavuto to discuss the importance of education and mentoring, my Opportunity Agenda, and Ferguson. You can watch the clip below!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Thoughts and Prayers
My thoughts and prayers are with the victims of today’s terrorist attack in Jerusalem and their families. Terrorists will never win—not against the American way of life, and not against our allies.
We stand with Israel.
Veterans Day
This Veterans Day, we have much to be grateful for. As someone with two brothers serving in our military, I have seen first hand the commitment required by the servicemen and women and their families, and it is truly incredible. With the greatest respect, we also remember those soldiers that made the ultimate sacrifice defending our country. To all who have served and to their families, a very heartfelt thank you.
The 19.6 million men and women that have worn our nation’s uniform for the cause of freedom deserve our gratitude daily, but today we pause to honor them as a country, a practice that America has done since 1919.
As home to nearly 400,000 veterans, South Carolina is very proud of our veterans community. They represent the best of South Carolina and contribute in so many ways to their local communities and our state at large.
In addition to honoring our veterans and their families today, my commitment is to continue to fight to end the VA claims backlog, protect veterans’ pension cuts, increase accountability at the VA and allow our veterans improved access to care both inside and outside of the VA system. Our veterans who have worn our nation’s uniform, and they deserve nothing less.
May God bless each of our brave veterans - past and present – and their families.
Click here to learn more about my work to support South Carolina’s military and veterans.
Fighting for Education
Education was the force that turned my life around and allowed me to achieve far more than I ever thought was possible. My goal is to make sure that all Americans have access to a great education, no matter their zip code. I discussed the importance of access to education on Morning Joe earlier this week—you can watch below!
Continuing the Veterans Statewide Training Initiatives
Continuing the Veterans Statewide Training Initiatives
My staff and I are working hard to keep the promise to help our veterans once they return from duty. After a great first round of veteran job training workshops last month, we will be hosting another set of workshops in November focusing on transferring military skills and certifications to the civilian world.
On November 13, there will be events in Florence and St. Matthews, on November 18, there will be one in Beaufort, and on Wednesday, November 19, the final November workshop will be in Conway. You can find more information here, and the gold stars on the map below indicate upcoming events!
Opportunity Agenda in South Carolina
In case you haven’t seen my Opportunity Agenda, here are 10 important facts about it.
1.Significant parts of my SKILLS Act were signed into law this year, working to make job training more efficient and better tied to local needs.
2. The CHOICE Act puts education back in the hands of parents, and out of the hands of bureaucrats in Washington.
3. The LEAP Act enjoys bipartisan support, and makes South Carolina’s successful apprenticeship program a national model.
4. The SEA Jobs Act calls for using sound science to determine our coastal resources, and could create up to 280,000 jobs.
5. The CHOICE Act helps kids with special needs have access to the education they deserve. I have had the honor of meeting Ms. Rachel Lewis of Greenville who benefitted from a similar program, and talked about her story here.
6. My Opportunity Agenda was inspired in part by my grandfather. I talked about his life and what he means to me here.
7. The LEAP Act would help fill our nation's 4 million vacant jobs, and is paid for by cutting wasteful government printing.
8. The SEA Jobs Act would both help veterans with job training and emphasize STEM education at colleges, universities and HBCUs.
9. The CHOICE Act expands educational options for 200,000 children living on domestic military installations.
10. I’ll announce multiple new initiatives in the coming months to help ensure all Americans have the chance to succeed! Learn more at www.scott.senate.gov/OpportunityAgenda !
Veterans Job Training
Tomorrow’s veterans’ workshop at Trident Technical College in North Charleston will conclude the first part of my veteran job training initiative, and I am looking forward to meeting with veterans there. We have had a great reaction from veterans and the community so far to these workshops. I am hopeful that the events were useful for those who have served our nation and are looking to transition back into civilian work. Here is more information about the workshops that took place across the state over the past week, as well as on tomorrow’s event.
Continuing our commitment to serve and support those who have defended our nation, we will have another set of workshops on different topics in December, as well as veterans job and resource fairs in early 2015, so stay tuned for those!
Celebrating South Carolina’s Businesses
South Carolina is leading the nation’s manufacturing renaissance and I’m proud that businesses - large and small - are continuing to select South Carolina to open and expand their businesses because of our pro-business, pro-growth approach to growing our economy. I was pleased to receive the NAM Award for Manufacturing Legislative Excellence because it is truly a testament to our well trained workforce and commitment to workforce development and job training that lead to good paying jobs in the manufacturing industry.
Because several key components of my SKILLS Act are now law, South Carolinians wanting to move into today’s in demand jobs, like manufacturing, have an easier time accessing the workforce development system, an important step to ensuring our nation remains competitive in the global 21st century economy.
Standing Up for Taxpayers
I was honored to be recognized this week by the National Taxpayers Union for standing up for economic opportunity and freedom and protecting taxpayer dollars. I received the “Taxpayers’ Friend Award,” and will continue working to reduce federal spending, lower taxes and repeal burdensome regulations so that every South Carolinian has the opportunity to succeed.
