The historic Africa Summit in Washington last week aimed to cast Africa in a new light and give Americans a real understanding about the opportunities in a diverse set of countries with burgeoning middle classes. Senator Coons joined MSNBC's Jonathan Capehart on Sunday to discuss key takeaways from the three-day conference involving more than 40 African heads of state.
Senator Coons speaks with Comcast Newsmakers’ Jill Horner about the status of I-495 bridge repairs and bipartisan proposals to spur investment in critical infrastructure improvements across the nation. The federal Highway Trust Fund, which finances 80 percent of the cost of all state highway maintenance projects, will run out of funding as soon as early August if Congress fails to act.
"If we want modern infrastructure, if we want bridges and roads that work when we need them to, we have to pay for them," Chris said.
Senator Coons, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and a daily Amtrak rider, touted a new report released this week on the economic impacts of rail service in the Northeast Corridor (NEC). The report, produced by the Northeast Corridor Infrastructure and Operations Advisory Commission, describes the NEC as “an engine of economic activity” for the region and details the immense costs associated with service disruptions along the corridor.
“The Northeast Corridor rail network is a vital economic artery for Delaware and the entire region,” Chris said. “While ridership has steadily increased, critical infrastructure investments needed to sustain Amtrak’s growth have been repeatedly deferred. This report demonstrates just what we stand to lose if we fail to invest in repairing and modernizing our infrastructure. Our economy, our communities, and millions of jobs depend on safe and efficient rail service along the Northeast Corridor. We’ve got to make strong, sustained investments now to ensure this vital service will be there for generations to come.”
The 457-mile NEC is one of the busiest and most complex rail corridors in the world, carrying 750,000 daily commuter rail and intercity passengers and 350,000 car-loads of freight each year. Workers traveling the NEC contribute $50 billion annually to the American economy. According to the report, the unexpected loss of the NEC, even for a single day, would cost up to $100 million per day as a result of higher congestion on roadways and lost productivity.
Other key findings from the report:
The complete report is available here: The Northeast Corridor and the American Economy.
Senator Coons spoke on the Senate floor on April 10 urging his colleagues to support critical investments in Amtrak. Click here to watch and read his remarks.
Senator Coons praised the President’s launch this week of a new Climate Data Initiative, part of the administration’s national strategy to combat climate change first announced by President Obama last June.
The initiative is an effort to make climate-relevant information and resources collected by the federal government more accessible to the public. New datasets, web services, and tools related to coastal flooding and sea level rise will now be available on the new Climate.data.gov to help city planners, resource managers, farmers, hospitals, and businesses better understand and prepare for the impacts of climate change. An innovation challenge also launched this week will encourage entrepreneurs, technologists, and developers to create new tools that increase public awareness of coastal flood risks and other vulnerabilities.
“In Delaware, we’ve already begun to see the impacts of climate change on our businesses, our infrastructure, and our local environment,” Senator Coons said. “We can’t fight climate change by denying it, but we can make our communities safer and our economy more secure by sharing valuable tools and information that will help us prepare for the changes to come. The new Climate Data Initiative will leverage the tremendous data-gathering capacity of the federal government to fuel private sector innovation and address our most pressing climate challenges. This is an important step that will help our communities take smarter, more coordinated action on climate change.”
Read more about the White House’s Climate Data Initiative here: http://1.usa.gov/1gPGWd5
Last week, Senator Coons and 27 of his colleagues held an all night session on the Senate floor to urge action on climate change. You can watch and read Senator Coons’ remarks here: http://1.usa.gov/N46Hyd
The White House on Thursday launched the first Quadrennial Energy Review (QER), a national assessment of the nation’s energy infrastructure that builds upon legislation co-sponsored by Senator Coons last year.
The QER, which is part of a broader national climate action plan announced by the President last summer, will help to coordinate energy policy around national priorities such as greater energy and climate security. The initiative builds upon goals laid out in the Quadrennial Energy Review Act, legislation co-sponsored by Senator Coons to authorize a comprehensive review of current domestic capabilities and future energy needs. The proposal is modeled after the highly-regarded Quadrennial Defense Review, a legislatively-mandated review of defense strategy and priorities.
"A strategic blueprint of America’s energy priorities is a critical resource for innovators working to support our clean energy economy,” Chris said. “The Quadrennial Energy Review is a great planning tool to identify a baseline assessment of our technological, economic, and national security capabilities. It will then put our federal resources to work to help us better coordinate with the private sector and promote energy innovation. This is a critical component of an all-of-the-above energy policy, and I am pleased that the President is putting it into action today.”
The first review is expected by January 2015, and will focus on the development of a national strategy for securing the infrastructure needed to transport, transmit, and distribute energy. More than a dozen federal agencies will participate in the review, along with members of the private sector, state and local governments, labor organizations, and the academic community.
Read more about the Quadrennial Energy Review here: http://1.usa.gov/1iWVs8C
At the second meeting of the budget conference committee Wednesday, Senator Coons questioned Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf about the impact of Congress’ current spending decisions on the nation’s economic competitiveness and the long-term unemployed.
“You've testified before that not all cuts are the same, and that there are some ways in which we are cutting that are hurting our long-term competitiveness,” Senator Coons said. “That short-term cuts in things like education, or infrastructure, or research and development produce longer-term reductions in our capacity, and that we should be prioritizing things that will accelerate growth – that we should not be simply trying to get through this difficult fiscal time in a way that focuses on austerity; that we should also be investing in a way that sustains growth.”
When asked about policies that could accelerate growth and help the long-term unemployed, Director Elmendorf said, “Of all non-defense discretionary spending, half represents investment of some sort. About 20 percent of non-defense discretionary spending is investment in physical capital, such as highways, another 15 percent goes for education and training, and about 10 percent goes for R&D, such as health research. Over all, we think those investments help to build a stronger economy in the future and cutbacks in those investments would reduce output and income in the future.”
The problem of long-term unemployment, Elmendorf noted, also “has important economic effects over time… It poses a very large risk of there being some set of people who will not find their way back to work at all or will not find their way to the productive sort of work that they were in before they lost their jobs.”
Elmendorf said the CBO has “reviewed the evidence on a large number of different ways of trying to help people get back into the labor force,” a number of which “have been successful on a small scale and have not been tried on a large scale.” Elmendorf pledged to work with Senator Coons on developing policies that help the long-term unemployed get back to work.
Watch the entire exchange:
Senator Coons was pleased to join the Caesar Rodney Rotary Club Friday to congratulate the University of Delaware’s Dr. Steve Dentel and his Engineers Without Borders students on the completion of successful projects in Cameroon and Guatemala, and hear about the group’s future plans to bring clean water to communities in Malawi.
“Clean water and sustainable infrastructure are basic human necessities that we often take for granted here in the United States,” said Senator Coons. “Under the leadership of Dr. Dentel, the Engineers Without Borders chapter of the University of Delaware has done inspiring work to expand access to clean drinking water in Cameroon and construct a bridge uniting a community in Guatemala. I look forward to hearing about the life-changing impacts they will make as they embark on their next project in Malawi. In each community they touch, these student leaders serve as remarkable ambassadors for both Delaware and the United States, and I thank them for their hard work and dedication to serving communities around the world.”
During Friday’s Rotary Club meeting, EWB students Jon Perna, Caroline Bibb, Erica Addonzinio, and Sam Meahan discussed in detail their successful Cameroon Water Distribution System project, which expanded access to quality clean drinking water in the villages of Bakang and Balatsit in Bamendjou. Students then announced their five-year commitment to projects in the areas of Blantyre and Zomba in Malawi.
The students were also on hand to accept financial support from the Rotarians. A special auction of 15 uniquely painted rain-barrels by local artists raised $6,000 for the EWB club.
University of Delaware EWB’s mission is to design and implement sustainable solutions to problems in international developing communities and bridge cultural, economical, and political divides.
Senator Coons and 11 colleagues held a press conference on October 29, 2013 to announce the launch of Manufacturing Jobs for America, a campaign to refocus Washington's attention on manufacturing jobs. The effort comprises 40 bills from 22 senators, many of which are bipartisan, that will help America's manufacturers grow and prepare American workers for careers in advanced manufacturing.
Chris opened the press conference, discussing the need for progress on legislation that will strenghten America's modern workforce, secure a more level global playing field, expand access to capital for new and smaller-scale manufactuerers, and establish a national manufacturing strategy. Citing the success of Miller Metal Fabrication in Bridgeville, Delaware, which has won manufacturing work back from China, Italy, and other countries, Chris urged renewed bipartisan efforts to accelerate America's manufacturing revival.
Participants in Tuesday's press conference included Senators Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.), Al Franken (D-Minn.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.).
Watch Chris' opening remarks:
Watch a highlight reel of senators' remarks at the press conference:
Watch the full press conference:
Most Americans are familiar with the importance of oil for gasoline and diesel, copper for electric wiring and motors, and aluminum for packing and vehicles. However, we do not often hear about the importance of yttrium, cerium, neodymium, or lanthanum for consumer uses. These basic elements are critical for more efficient light bulbs, oil refinery catalysts, lasers, and batteries respectively.
To help secure the continued supply of minerals vital to our national defense, domestic energy, electronics production, and medical industry technologies, Senator Coons recently joined a bipartisan group of 16 senators to introduce the Critical Minerals Policy Act of 2013 (S. 1600). The legislation includes a number of provisions that would help revitalize the domestic supply of these precious minerals, many of which are in short supply domestically and come from overseas.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the United States is currently 100 percent dependent on foreign sources for 17 key mineral commodities and 50 percent dependent on overseas suppliers for some 24 additional minerals. The goal of the Critical Minerals Policy Act is to secure a more stable supply of mineral commodities by developing domestic sources, recycling existing supplies, and researching alternatives for critical minerals. Chris is also a strong supporter of efforts at the University of Delaware to develop alternatives to the use of rare earth elements, a subset of critical minerals.
Through the establishment of a federal register in the Department of the Interior (DOI), the Critical Minerals Policy Act will help officials pinpoint which minerals are subject to potential supply restrictions and develop strategies to prevent price shocks and balance market demand. Other agencies, including the Department of Energy (DOE) and USGS, will join the DOI to strengthen educational research and workforce training critical to the development of domestic mineral supply chains. The legislation would also streamline the permit and review process of critical mineral mining on public lands to reduce costs and facilitate the environmentally responsible production of domestic resources.
To further public understanding of critical mineral solutions, the Critical Minerals Policy Act would expand research programs aimed at promoting efficient mineral use and recycling across various U.S. industries. The DOE would also submit an assessment of domestically trained workers capable of carrying out critical mineral research, analysis, manufacturing, and production to enhance the domestic availability of critical minerals.
According to the National Academy of Sciences, more than 25,000 pounds of new minerals are needed every year for each person in the United States in order to make the items we use every day for infrastructure, energy, transportation, communications, health care and defense. By coordinating efforts across federal agencies, the Critical Minerals Policy Act will help to update mineral policy for the 21st century and ensure our position in the world as both an economic and technological leader.
With the Senate considering an appropriations bill that includes funding for Amtrak this week, Senator Coons stuck up for the passenger rail service in a speech on the Senate floor Wednesday. Later in the day, he filed an amendment to the Transportation/Housing and Urband Development appropriations bill calling for additional investment in Amtrak to help it make progress on the nearly $6 billion backlog of deferred capital improvements to infrastructure assets already beyond their designed life.
The amendment would increase the appropriated amount by $113 million. While the Senate bill would already provide $862 million for capital grants (as opposed to the House's $400 million), it is still not enough to perform any infrastructure upgrades, let alone start much-needed multi-year projects, like tunnel and bridge replacements.
"Now is not the time, in my view, given all these standards of progress that they have met, to gut Amtrak, as our counterparts in the House seem determined to do," Senator Coons said. "Now is the time to help Amtrak build on its steady gains and continue to grow. Amtrak is a vital part of hundreds of communities across this country, so, in my view, to invest in Amtrak is to invest in those communities and their future."
Senator Coons cited the work of the late Senator Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey, who fought tirelessly for Amtrak for decades in the Senate. "He fought harder than anybody to build Amtrak into what it is today because he saw that with our population steadily growing, we needed to be prepared and to provide reliable, safe, affordable transportation, in particular here in the eastern region."