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McConnell Helps Eastern Kentucky Employment Job Training Program Secure New Competitive Federal Grant

May 7, 2015

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced Thursday the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has approved nearly $7.5 million for the Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program (EKCEP) to continue its services to assist individuals who lost their jobs as result of the decline in the coal industry. Earlier this year, Senator McConnell wrote a letter to U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez in support of EKCEP’s efforts.

“EKCEP is doing great work assisting Kentucky coal miners and others seeking employment and training opportunities,” Senator McConnell said. “I was pleased to work with EKCEP Executive Director Jeff Whitehead to ensure these funds come to Kentucky for this critical program that is helping eastern Kentuckians struggling under this Administration’s War on Coal.”

According to the DOL, the “[r]ecent decline in the coal mining industry – eastern Kentucky’s largest employer – have led to job losses across the area and increased the region’s unemployment rate to the highest in the commonwealth.” The $7,494,017 provided by this competitive federal grant will help provide training and assistance in finding new jobs.

“Kentucky’s coal miners, their families and those working in coal-related jobs continue to suffer under this Administration’s War on Coal and its burdensome regulations, the result of which has been the loss of thousands of high-wage jobs in a region facing serious economic challenges,” Senator McConnell said. “The loss of these coal jobs has had a negative and wide-reaching impact across the region’s economy, causing closings and worker dislocations in many businesses only marginally related to coal. This funding will help EKCEP provide essential reemployment services – including for emerging information technology jobs – to approximately 700 Kentuckians who have lost jobs or businesses as a result of the decline in the coal industry.”

"Today’s announcement is good news for Eastern Kentucky's collective efforts to retrain our workforce and diversify our economy. More importantly – it’s good news for the workers who need help transitioning into new jobs and careers. U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell is a champion for Eastern Kentuckians, and we at EKCEP certainly appreciate what his steadfast support makes possible,” EKCEP Executive Director Jeff Whitehead said. “For example, working with community partners, EKCEP has served nearly 2,300 out-of-work miners and their spouses since 2013 through our H.O.M.E. initiative, which stands for ‘Hiring Our Miners Everyday.’ Thanks to that assistance, more than 1,100 of those former coal industry workers have already obtained new employment. As with H.O.M.E, the new grant from the U.S. Department of Labor will fund efforts to bring critical services like expert career advising, job placement assistance, and training referral and enrollment to additional unemployed Eastern Kentuckians affected by the region's economic downturn, but who were not directly employed in the coal industry.”

In 2013, Senator McConnell helped EKCEP secure a nearly $5.2 million competitive federal grant for the program.

 

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Tribute to Don Ritchie, Senate Historian

‘The Senate wishes him the very best in retirement, and sends its heartfelt congratulations to a man who’s been an institution around here for four decades.’

May 7, 2015

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made the following remarks on the Senate floor today celebrating the career of Don Ritchie:

“I’d like to bid a fond farewell to one of the smartest guys around here, Don Ritchie, who will be leaving us later this month.

“He’s been the Senate’s Historian since 2009.

“Don’s only the second one we’ve ever had.  His immediate — and only — predecessor, Richard Baker, hired him when the Senate Historical Office came into being in the mid-seventies.

“There were a lot of applicants to be Baker’s number two back then. But Don quickly rose to the top of the heap.

“Baker said he received ‘several extremely heartfelt letters’ of recommendation for Don that were just ‘over the top.’

“One, he said, was from ‘a leading diplomatic historian…who said that in his whole 30-odd years of teaching he had never encountered a more perceptive or diligent…[or] brighter student than Don.’

“‘No more superlatives,’ he said, ‘could be used.;

“Apparently, no more superlatives were needed, because Don Ritchie got the job.

“He hasn’t disappointed. Even if he did have to wait three decades for the big promotion.

“Don came into the Senate with all the hype of New Coke.

“But his performance and staying power have had more of a Coke Classic feel.

“Don likes to say he has ’a front-row seat to the best show in town.’

“Don is the one we turn to when we want to learn more about where the Senate’s been, so we can chart a better course for where it’s going.

“He’s been a great resource for my staff and me over the years. And Don’s office is there as a resource for the American public too. He’s the guy you see on TV explaining the historic significance of events like swearing-in ceremonies and inaugurations.

“I don’t think any of us would want to face him on Jeopardy. 

“His depth of knowledge really is something to behold. I’m sure he’s gained a lot of it from the part of his job he loves most: conducting the Senate Historical Office’s oral history project.

“He’s interviewed just about everyone you could imagine, from Senators to clerks to police officers.

“He even got to interview a man who once worked as a congressional page during the presidency of William Howard Taft.

“That page provided ‘some very good information’ Don said, even if he kept falling ‘asleep several times during the interview.’

“Here’s how Roll Call once described Don Ritchie: the Senate’s ‘memory keeper.’

“It’s fitting, then, that the Senate voted recently to designate Don Ritchie as Historian Emeritus.
It’s not like he plans to slow down in retirement anyway. ‘Historians never retire,’ Don says, ‘they just have more time to research.’

“Along with the research, Don also plans to spend more time with his three beloved grandchildren and to do some travelling with his wife Anne. The Senate wishes him the very best in retirement, and sends its heartfelt congratulations to a man who’s been an institution around here for four decades.

“The Senate would also like to offer its congratulations to Betty Koed, who has just been announced by the Secretary of the Senate as our next Senate Historian. We also wish Kate Scott well in her promotion to Associate Historian.”

Passage of Bipartisan Trade Bill Would Enhance U.S. Economic Leadership

May 7, 2015

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made the following remarks on the Senate floor today regarding the Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities and Accountability Act:

“On the topic of aggressive campaigns in pursuit of expansion and intimidation, there are several other countries that come to mind around the world.
 
“China, for one.
 
“China is determined to dominate its neighbors.
 
“China wants to diminish American influence in the Pacific.
 
“And China wants to substitute American-style rules of global economic fair play for Chinese-style rules of monopolistic cartels and mercantilism.
 
“That’s not an outcome any American should be willing to accept.
 
“We are a Pacific nation.
 
“We have important allies in the region, nations like Japan, Australia, South Korea, and New Zealand that are today just as much a part of a modern, democratic, and market-oriented West as we are.
 
“The 21st Century also promises to be an Asian-Pacific century. If we care about preserving and extending American leadership globally, then we cannot cede the most dynamic region in the world to China. 

“One way to preserve our leadership would be to invest in the weapons systems and platforms that would fulfill the Obama administration's would be ‘pivot' to Asia.
 
“Another important way would be to demonstrate our economic leadership.

“That’s one more reason why passing the Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities and Accountability Act is so important.
 
“The United States is currently negotiating an agreement with a whole host of Pacific nations — not just Japan and Australia, but also countries like Canada and Chile — that would cement and enhance our role in the world’s fastest-growing region. The so-called Trans-Pacific Partnership would lower unfair trade barriers to American-made goods and American produce sold in the Pacific. That would represent a huge win for American workers and American farmers, to say nothing of the far-reaching geopolitical implications for our country.
 
“But our trade negotiators cannot bring this Pacific agreement back to Congress for careful review and deliberation unless Congress assures our trading partners that the agreement they is going to get a fair up or down vote.  That’s just what the Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities and Accountability Act would do. This bipartisan bill would also force America’s trade negotiators to meet congressional objectives and consult with Congress regularly throughout the process, and it would ensure that an agreement like the Trans-Pacific Partnership could not be enacted without explicit congressional approval.
 
“It’s a common-sense bill that was supported by large numbers of Republicans and Democrats in committee, passing by a vote of 20 to 6.
 
“So there’s no reason we shouldn’t turn to this bill and then pass it.
 
“The other countries in the region have made clear that they will have regional trade agreements with or without us. And if we walk away, China will step in. There’s no question of that.
 
“So we will soon turn to the Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities and Accountability Act. And when we do, we’ll have a choice to make. Would we rather see Chinese workers and Chinese farmers or American workers and American farmers reap the economic benefits of selling more to this dynamic region?”

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