e-News 4/24/15

• Opening the World to New Jersey Products, Creating Jobs Here At Home
• “50 billion ‘signing bonus’ for Iran?”
• Military Academy Career Night Coming
• Salute: The 11th Congressional District
• Salute: Boonton’s “Doolittle Field”

Opening the World to New Jersey Products, Creating Jobs Here At Home

The “official” unemployment rate in our State of New Jersey stands at 6.5%.  But that rate is artificially low.  We all know people who want to work but have become frustrated in their job search and have given up altogether.  In fact, the number of people in the workforce, the so-called “labor participation rate,” is approaching record low territory. 

Of course, the key to job creation is a strong and healthy economy.

Ninety-six percent of the world’s customers are outside the United States.

Many businesses in New Jersey understand this fact. Companies of all sizes are exploring benefits of exporting and introducing their products to consumers outside our borders. Goods exports from New Jersey supported 165,695 jobs in 2014 - an increase of 8,345 (5.3%) from 2009.

But if we want to create more opportunity and more high-paying jobs here at home, we need to sell even more American-made products and services overseas. That means tearing down barriers to American exports. It also means laying down strong and enforceable rules for our trading partners, so American workers are competing on a level playing field. We need to ensure that the U.S.—not countries like China—is writing the rules of the global economy

The House will soon consider the Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities and Accountability Act (TPA) which will help deliver the strongest possible trade agreements that will boost American exports and benefit American workers, manufacturers and job creators.

Trade Promotion Authority—or TPA—is a partnership between Congress and the Administration that helps secure the most effective trade agreements possible. It has three main components: a list of congressionally-prescribed negotiating objectives that sets priorities for the Administration to follow; robust consultation and transparency requirements that give Congress adequate oversight of negotiations and give the public a full understanding of what an agreement would mean; and a streamlined procedure to vote on a trade agreement if the administration meets its TPA obligations.

The rest of the world has been busy completing trade agreements and the U.S. is losing. In the race to write the rules of the global economy, the question is: Who is going to write the rules? Is it the U.S. and our allies or is it in this case China? The TPA is designed to make sure that we write the rules of the global economy that benefit American workers and American jobs.

Read more about the Congressional Trade Priorities and Accountability Act here.

“50 billion ‘signing bonus’ for Iran”?

“The State Department on Monday would not rule out giving Iran up to $50 billion as a so-called 'signing bonus' for agreeing to a nuclear deal later this year, according to comments made to journalists following reports that the Obama administration had formulated a plan to release tens of billions of frozen Iranian funds.” Read the Washington Free Beacon story here.

Military Academy Career Night Coming

I will be holding my annual military Academy Night on Monday, May 11, 2015. It is the fifteenth consecutive year that I have brought interested high school students, parents, and guidance counselors together with representatives and cadets from the U.S. Naval Academy, the U.S. Military Academy, the U.S. Air Force Academy, the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, and the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy.

The details: 7:00 PM, West Essex Regional High School, 65 West Greenbrook Road, North Caldwell, NJ, 07006.

For further information on the requirements and the process for consideration to attend one of the academies, please visit http://frelinghuysen.house.gov/academy-nominations/ or contact my Morristown office at 973-984-0711.

Salute: The 11^th Congressional District

“Three New Jersey congressional districts notched top scores in a new analysis of well-being that focuses on health, education and income in the more than 400 districts across the country.” Read how the 11^thDistrict ranked #2 in New Jersey and #11 nationwide here.

Salute: Boonton’s “Doolittle Field”

In 1929, young Army Air Corps pilot Jimmy Doolittle made history at Boonton by taking off and landing from the Aircraft Radio Corporation (ARC) using on radio beacon and transmitter, without looking out of the cockpit. The pioneering research work he and the ARC technicians conducted on that field changed aviation forever, making it possible for pilots in virtually any conditions. Jimmy Doolittle was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal earlier this month.