Senator Coons was one of 50 senators to write to National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell on Thursday urging the league to change the name of Washington's team, the Redskins.
"Now is the time for the NFL to act," the senators wrote. "The Washington, D.C. football team is on the wrong side of history. What message does it send to punish slurs against African Americans while endorsing slurs against Native Americans?"
Civil rights organizations and Tribes across the nation have called on the Washington football team to change its name. Other prominent national organizations in support of a name change include the NAACP, National Council of La Raza, American Association of People with Disabilities, the ACLU, National Organization for Women, and the Anti-Defamation League.
The senators urged the NFL to follow the example of the National Basketball Association in sending a clear message against racism in sports. The Senators pointed to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver’s swift decision to ban Los Angeles Clippers’ owner Donald Sterling from the league for his racist comments about African-Americans attending basketball games.
Read the letter below:
In addition to the 49 senators who signed this letter, Senator Bill Nelson of Florida sent a separate letter to Commissioner Goodell urging a name change.
Good news! Chris just received this letter from the Treasury Department saying that Delaware's volunteer fire companies will not have to count their volunteer firefighters as "employees" under the Affordable Care Act.
The key section:
"The forthcoming final regulations generally will not require volunteer hours of bona fide volunteer firefighters and volunteer emergency medical personnel at governmental entitities or tax exempt organizations to be counted when determining an employer's full-time employees or full-time equivalent employees."
Above: Senator Coons wears a Russian-language "Love Conquers Hate" t-shirt in support of the Human Rights Campaign's fight against Russia's anti-LGBT laws.
Senator Coons and ten of his colleagues have written to the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), expressing their concern about the IOC’s recent declaration that it is “fully satisfied” that a Russian law banning “homosexual propaganda” does not violate the Olympic Charter.
The senators noted that the Olympic Charter requires the IOC to take action against any form of discrimination. According to the Olympic Charter, "any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, gender or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement."
"In that regard, we write to express our deep concern about the IOC’s recent declaration that ‘as long as the Olympic Charter is upheld, we are fully satisfied,’ ” the senators wrote. “We disagree with this position, and strongly urge you to reconsider given that the Russian law banning ‘homosexual propaganda’ is clearly inconsistent with the Olympic Charter."
A member of the Senate Budget Committee and Senate Appropriations Committee, Senator Coons released his six-page letter to the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee detailing his priorities for their effort to reform the nation’s tax code.
As part of their “blank slate” approach to comprehensive tax reform, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Ranking Member Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) gave their colleagues the opportunity to submit letters explaining the tax “expenditures” they’d like to see preserved or added to the tax code. Although senators were given the opportunity to submit their letters confidentially, Senator Coons volunteered to make his letter public.
"America’s tax code is too long, too complex, and unfair," Senator Coons wrote. "It stifles economic growth and the government’s ability to efficiently collect the revenue it needs. We badly need reform that broadens the tax base and lowers tax rates, simplifying a process that wastes too much time and money, and hurts our global competitiveness. We can achieve this kind of reform by following three broad principles: a new code must maintain or increase progressivity, raise revenue to reduce our deficits, and spur economic growth."
The letter highlghted Senator Coons' eight priorities, saying Congress should:
Preserve and strengthen the social safety net;
Encourage savings for retirement;
Protect access to affordable housing and home ownership for families, while making renting more affordable for low-income households;
Incentivize state and local investment in infrastructure, public facilities, and community development;
Make college more affordable;
Broaden access to health insurance, especially by helping small businesses offset the cost of insurance for their employees;
Support policies that help families and caregivers pay for dependents; and
Promote a robust network of non-profit and charitable organizations.
A coalition of governors from 23 states wrote to Senator Coons Thursday to thank him for his efforts to create cheaper, cleaner energy. In the letter, the governors called for the passage of the Master Limited Partnerships Parity Act. The legislation was co-sponsored by Senators Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska).
The bill would make it easier and cheaper for investors to fund a broad range of clean energy projects including wind, solar, fuel cells, and energy efficient buildings. The Governors Wind Energy Coalition’s letter states that “the Master Limited Partnership structure can help reduce the cost of capital and attract more investors to our states.”
The legislation expands access to a business structure known as "master limited partnerships." Since 1987, the ability to form a master limited partnership has been mostly limited to projects involving oil and gas pipelines. This has allowed those industries to explode in size and attract huge amounts of investment. This letter reflects that the reality that equal access to financing for all sources of energy makes sense, regardless of party or regional affiliation. From Hawaii to Iowa and from Maryland to Montana, governors see that master limited partnerships make sense and passage of Senator Coons’ legislation is a step towards a better energy future.
The following states are members of the Governors Wind Energy Coalition: Arkansas, California, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, and Washington
Senator Coons and 30 of his colleagues wrote to the Appropriations Committee Friday urging a restoration of funding for Children's Advocacy Centers. Their letter is below:
The sponsors of the Senate and House versions of the Master Limited Partnerships Parity Act will hold a press conference on Wednesday morning to discuss a letter they and more than two-dozen of their colleagues are sending to President Obama this week calling for Master Limited Partnerships and Real Estate Investment Trusts to be a priority in the federal government’s “all of the above” energy strategy.
Their letter is below:
December 12, 2012 The President The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President,
Over the past four years, the renewable energy sector has seen major reductions in technology costs, including a 75 percent decline in the price of solar panels and about a 25 percent decline in the price of wind turbines. But even as technology costs have dropped, the cost of capital required to deploy those technologies has remained stubbornly high – inflating overall project costs and presenting a major barrier to wider deployment.
Minor changes to the federal tax code could provide the renewable energy industry access to large pools of low-cost private capital. Already, oil, gas, and coal infrastructure projects raise cheap capital by selling shares of Master Limited Partnerships (MLPs), as do energy transmission projects using Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs). Wind, solar, and other renewable energy projects cannot use these investment tools and, therefore, suffer from high costs of capital.
Opening MLPs and REITs to renewable energy would level the playing field by giving renewables the same access to low-cost capital enjoyed by oil, gas, coal and transmission infrastructure projects. Small tweaks to the tax code could attract billions of dollars in private sector investment to renewable energy deployment, reduce the cost of renewable electricity by up to one third, and dramatically broaden the base of eligible investors. In fact, bipartisan legislation has already been introduced in both the House and the Senate (H.R. 6437 and S. 3275 respectively) to allow renewable energy projects to raise low-cost capital through the MLP structure. In the case of REITs, a straight forward ruling by the Treasury Department would allow access to this investment vehicle for renewable energy projects.
We strongly support moving America towards energy independence using an “all of the above” energy strategy. Renewable energy can play a critical role in accomplishing that goal. We ask that your administration move to unlock capital markets for broad-scale investment in renewable energy and help move our country towards cleaner, more efficient energy. We stand ready to work with you to accomplish this goal.
Sincerely,
Senator Coons (D-DE) Senator Moran (R-KS) Representative Poe (R-TX-2) Representative Thompson (D-CA-1) Representative Welch (D-VT) Representative Carney (D-DE) Representative McCollum (D-MN-4) Representative Moran (D-VA-8) Representative Garamendi (D-CA-10) Representative Schakowsky (D-IL-9) Representative Clay (D-MO-1) Senator Begich (D-AK) Senator Harkin (D-IA) Representative Kissell (D-NC-8) Senator Murkowski (R-AK) Senator Bennet (D-CO) Senator Tester (D-MT) Representative Lujan (D-NM-3) Senator Brown (R-MA) Representative Grijalva (D-AZ-07) Representative Capps (D-CA-23) Representative Connolly (D-VA-11) Senator Franken (D-MN) Representative Matsui (D-CA-5) Senator Shaheen (D-NH) Representative Watt (D-NC-12) Representative Carson (D-IN-7) Representative McIntyre (D-NC-7) Representative Carnahan (D-MO-3)
Senator Coons and 41 of his colleagues wrote to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell to call for an extension of unemployment insurance for millions of out-of-work Americans. You can read the letter below:
Frustrated by the Senate's inability to pass the Cybersecurity Act of 2012 and determined to confront the growing threat of cyber attacks on our nation's critical infrastructure, Senator Coons teamed up with Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) to send a letter to President Obama Tuesday urging him to issue an executive order to take the first steps on implementing a voluntary system to increase information-sharing in the private sector.
"We remain committed to the passage of this important legislation, and are continuing our efforts to resolve differences regarding the appropriate role of government in the protection of critical infrastructure,” the senators wrote. “We write today to stress, however, that the failure of Congress to act should not prevent the executive branch from taking available steps to counter the enormous and growing cyber threat."
Working with the Cybersecurity Act’s authors, Senators Coons and Blumenthal were part of a bipartisan effort to build consensus around a voluntary system for owners of key power, transportation, and communication facilities to coordinate with the federal government on the strengthening of their cyber defenses. In their letter today, the senators urge President Obama to instruct Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano “to convene an inter-agency group that will develop, in close collaboration with the private sector, voluntary standards for digital safeguards for our nation’s critical infrastructure.”
“We recognize that an order directing the promulgation of voluntary standards cannot and should not be the final word in cybersecurity,” the senators wrote. “An executive order, for example, would not be able to provide the types of incentives for participating companies that Congress can establish. A well-crafted set of voluntary standards could, however, be an important step towards improving the cybersecurity of our nation’s critical infrastructure.”
Senator Coons this week cosponsored a bipartisan resolution condeming human rights violations and calling for free and fair elections in Iran. You can read the resolution below:
