Senator Blumenthal Outlines Provisions Of Two Jobs Bills, CONNSTEP

HARTFORD — On July 16, Senator Richard Blumenthal joined Connecticut steelworkers, Waterbury Mayor Neil O’Leary, and Connecticut AFL-CIO President John Olsen in calling for immediate passage of the Bring Jobs Home Act (S.3364), legislation Blumenthal co-sponsored that encourages American companies that have shipped jobs overseas to bring jobs back home.

In the last ten years, Sen Blumenthal said 2.4 million jobs were shipped overseas — mostly manufacturing jobs, including some in the steel industry — and American taxpayers helped foot the bill. In Connecticut, the manufacturing industry employs 165,000 people and accounts for approximately 10.5 percent of the state’s total economic output.

A few days earlier, on July 12, Sen Blumenthal  delivered a speech on the floor of the Senate, urging Congress to pass the Small Business Jobs and Tax Relief Act (S. 2237). This legislation provides a tax credit to small businesses that increase their payroll by hiring new workers or increasing existing wages, and extends 100 percent bonus depreciation for an additional year.

The Small Business Jobs and Tax Relief Act is expected to provide financial relief to approximately two million small businesses across the country, and would help 13,000 unemployed people in Connecticut find a job.

The Bring Jobs Home Act grants business taxpayers a tax credit for up to 20 percent of insourcing expenses when relocating offshore jobs to the United States and eliminates a tax deduction for expenses incurred in relocating a US business unit offshore.

“We must not reward companies for moving jobs out of the United States in the name of improving their bottom line,” the senator said in a release. “On the contrary, we must do everything possible to encourage businesses to create jobs in the United States and provide a business friendly environment for foreign companies to invest in the American workforce.”

In other job creation news, on July 10, members of Connecticut’s Congressional delegation announced $1,027,489 for Rocky Hill’s CONNSTEP, Inc — an organization that provides technical expertise and assistance to help small and mid-sized Connecticut manufacturers grow their businesses and hire workers.

“Manufacturing has long been part of our DNA in Connecticut. With key federal support, programs like CONNSTEP are working to help small manufacturers compete and succeed,” the members said in a joint statement. “At this critical moment in our economic recovery, programs like this serve as a model for the creative and effective solutions required to put Americans back to work.”

The funds, which will be allocated over the next year, were awarded to CONNSTEP by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), an agency within the US Department of Commerce.

NIST awarded the funds through its Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) — a nationwide network providing a variety of services, such as process improvements and innovation strategies, to small and medium-sized manufacturers throughout the country. MEP, with a field staff of technical experts in each state, helps manufacturers solve manufacturing challenges, identify new opportunities for growth, create new products, and reach new customers.

The Small Business Jobs and Tax Relief Act would provide a ten percent income tax credit on new payroll — through either hiring or increased wages — added in 2012. With a maximum increase in eligible wages of $5 million per employer and the amount of the credit capped at $500,000, the benefits of this tax credit will be targeted on America’s small businesses. This bill would create up to 13,000 jobs for Connecticut and nearly one million jobs for the nation as a whole.

“If you are an executive at a manufacturing company in Connecticut, take a few minutes to participate in a manufacturing survey put together jointly by Congressman Chris Murphy and myself,” Sen Blumenthal said. “This survey will help promote pro-manufacturing policy so critical to job creation in Connecticut. Last year’s survey showed the critical need for skills training to match people with job openings that exist right now or will be created, and it helped to shape my policy stances on economic growth and job creation.”

Visit www.blumenthal.senate.gov/2012survey to take the survey.