WHO: Congressman Bobby Schilling (IL-17)
Congressman Bruce Braley (IA-01)
Congressman Dave Loebsack (IA-02)
Area leaders, Governor's offices, Senator's offices.

WHAT: Congressmen Schilling, Braley, and Loebsack are calling for a bipartisan community task force meeting to mount an all-out effort to preserve and strengthen the Rock Island Arsenal and the Quad Cities' defense manufacturing capabilities.

WHEN: Saturday February 4, 2012 from 8:00 - 9:30 am

WHERE: Black Hawk College - Quad Cities Campus, Building 2 Room 105, located at 6600 34^th Avenue, Moline, Illinois 61265

WHY: Following Defense Secretary Leon Panetta's announcement last week regarding efforts by the Department of Defense in the Pentagon's Fiscal Year 2013 budget to achieve cuts included in America's new defense strategy, Congressmen Schilling, Loebsack, and Braley are urging the entire Quad Cities region to come together in support of the Rock Island Arsenal and the Quad Cities' defense manufacturing capabilities.  The FY2013 budget is the first budget that will begin addressing the $487 billion cut to defense spending over the next decade.  This budget does not reflect potential triggered 'sequestration' cuts, which would add an additional $500 billion cut starting in January 2013. 

The Secretary's announcement included mention of programs vital to the Quad Cities, including industrial base skills.  Per the DOD's Defense Priorities and Choices, the planned budget states that it will "sustain, where possible, these segments of the industrial base."  It takes into account the "key skills in the design and manufacture of military systems that cannot be duplicated elsewhere in the economy or regenerated quickly.

The Congressmen are part of the bi-state, bipartisan delegation that represents the Rock Island Arsenal, and have led the charge to grow workload and jobs at the Rock Island Arsenal.  The Arsenal is a major jobs engine in the Quad Cities and - with approximately 8,600 workers living on both sides of the Mississippi River - its largest employer.  Over 35 private-sector companies have leases at the Arsenal, which also houses approximately 50 Department of Defense organizations. Further, its business supports over 14,000 additional jobs in the surrounding area.  Schilling and Loebsack both serve on the House Armed Services Committee, and successfully inserted language into the FY2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to permanently lift the cap on the number of public-private partnerships that arsenals are able to enter into.  Removing that cap increases the Arsenal's ability to increase its workload, grow their local economies, and strengthen our domestic manufacturing base.   The three Congressmen are now working to form a coalition of local leaders to promote the Arsenal's value to our national defense strategy.

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Unless Congress acts, American Opportunity Tax Credit will expire at the end of 2012

Washington, DC - After hosting a series of campus forums at colleges across eastern Iowa last week, Rep. Bruce Braley (IA-01) returned to Congress today and introduced a bill to extend a $2,500 tax credit for middle class families sending children to college.  Unless Congress acts, the existing tax credit will expire at the end of 2012.

The College Tax Cut Extension Act would extend for four years the American Opportunity Tax Credit, which provides up to $2,500 in tax credits to offset the cost of tuition, fees, and course materials for undergraduate students at two- or four-year colleges and universities.

"In the last 10 years, the cost of tuition at Iowa's public universities has increased by 83 percent," Braley said.  "Our colleges and universities are avenues of economic opportunity.  If America is to compete in a global economy, we need to keep college within reach for everyone who wants to attend.

"This tax credit makes a college education more affordable for thousands of Iowa families.  Congress needs to act now to keep this tax cut from expiring so the dream of college doesn't slip out of reach."

Braley spent Thursday and Friday of last week hosting campus forums at colleges in eastern Iowa.  Braley visited St. Ambrose University, Coe College, the University of Northern Iowa, and Grinnell College to hear about college affordability, student debt, and employability after graduation.

The American Opportunity Tax Credit was first passed into law in 2009 and set to expire at the end of 2012 if Congress fails to act.  Braley's bill is the first legislative effort to extend the tax credit.  For more information on the American Opportunity Tax Credit, click the following link: http://go.usa.gov/nv1

Last week, Braley introduced legislation to indefinitely keep the interest rates for federally subsidized Stafford loans at 3.4 percent, their current, low rate.  Without Congressional action, college loan interest rates are set to double to 6.8 percent in July, a fact that President Obama highlighted in his State of the Union address.

More information about this bill can be found at this link: http://go.usa.gov/nbh

Full text of Braley's bill can be downloaded here: http://go.usa.gov/n7B

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Obama called on Congress to stop looming July spike in student loan rates in State of the Union last night

Washington, DC - After President Obama used his State of the Union address last night to call on Congress to stop the looming spike in student loan interest rates, Rep. Bruce Braley (IA-01) introduced legislation today to indefinitely keep the interest rate for federally subsidized Stafford loans at 3.4 percent, their current, low rate.

Unless Congress takes action, student loan interest rates will double to 6.8 percent on July 1, 2012.  Such an increase would mean a student taking out the maximum Stafford student loan of $23,000 would pay an additional $11,000 of interest over the 20 year repayment period of the loan.

Tomorrow and Friday, Braley is visiting colleges and universities across eastern Iowa to host campus forums on the state of higher education.  The open forums will focus on college affordability, mounting student loan debt, and employability after graduation.

"Iowa college graduates have the 3rd highest student debt load in the nation," Braley said.  "Piling thousands of dollars more in debt on them puts Iowa students even further behind at graduation.

"Congress needs to act immediately to stop the July spike in student loan interest rates.  Our colleges and universities are avenues of economic opportunity.  If America is to succeed in the global economy, we need to keep higher education attainable and affordable for every person who wants to attend."

In 2007, Congress passed the College Cost Reduction and Access Act which lowered federally subsidized Stafford student loan rates from 6.8 percent to 3.4 percent.  Because this act expires on July 1st, 2012, federally subsidized student loan interest rates will return to 6.8 percent without Congressional action.

Text of the bill Rep. Braley introduced today can be found at the following link: http://go.usa.gov/nTH

In case you missed it...

Into this stew dives Iowa Democrat Rep. Bruce Braley, who unveiled his Plain Regulations Act on Wednesday, saying, "Gobbledygook dominates the regulations issued by government agencies, making it almost impossible for small businesses to understand the rules of the road." Forcing the government to write in plain English is a great idea. So good, in fact, that it's enough to make you wonder why it hasn't happened already.

Government by Gobbledygook

Federal regulations are wordy, jargon-filled and incomprehensible. Will a new bill remedy that?

Slate.com

1/20/12

When businesspeople complain about regulations, you should generally be skeptical. The regulations, after all, are there precisely because some businesses can make more money by despoiling the environment, endangering public health and safety, and threatening the financial system. A regulation that's not annoying someone by wrecking his money-making scheme would be completely pointless.

But there is one category of complaints about regulations that should earn your sympathy: the complaints that too many government regulations are unreadable. Incomprehensible rules undermine, rather than enhance, the goal of preventing misconduct. They create unique burdens on smaller organizations or new entrants into a line of work. Hard-to-understand rules are a lawyer's best friend, and the need for companies to lawyer up is a huge advantage to large or established entities.

Consider, for example, the relevant federal rules about renovating an old building suspected of containing lead paint. I hesitate to even quote examples of confusing regulatory language lest my column itself become unreadable, but surely the U.S. government can do better than: "On or after July 6, 2010, all renovations must be performed in accordance with the work practice standards in §745.85 and the associated recordkeeping requirements in §745.86(b)(1) and (b)(6) in target housing or child-occupied facilities, unless the renovation qualifies for the exception identified in §745.82(a)." You'll be glad to know, however, that §745.82(a) does, among other things, offer an exemption for "emergency renovations" (which has a word salad definition of its own)?with the sub-exception that "emergency renovations are not exempt from the cleaning requirements of §745.85(a)(5), which must be performed by certified renovators or individuals trained in accordance with §745.90(b)(2), the cleaning verification requirements of §745.85(b), which must be performed by certified renovators, and the recordkeeping requirements of §745.86(b)(6) and (b)(7)." Got it? Me neither.

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Into this stew dives Iowa Democrat Rep. Bruce Braley, who unveiled his Plain Regulations Act on Wednesday, saying, "Gobbledygook dominates the regulations issued by government agencies, making it almost impossible for small businesses to understand the rules of the road." Forcing the government to write in plain English is a great idea. So good, in fact, that it's enough to make you wonder why it hasn't happened already.

The answer turns out to be that it has. Many times.

Braley himself authored the Plain Writing Act of 2010, which passed in the fall of that year and was signed into law by President Obama. The act requires the federal government to present newly written forms and other documents in a "clear, concise, well-organized" manner. This, too, was a good idea, and has produced some genuine progress: Check out the before and after versions of this Medicare fraud letter. At the same time, clarity is perhaps in the eye of the beholder. I'm not sure I would consider this new NOAA draft statement of priorities to be model English, despite having been written in the post-Plain Writing Act era.

Braley's new bill proposes extending the plain-English requirement to new regulations. Legal demands for clearer writing date back at least to the 1970s, when Jimmy Carter issued executive orders requiring regulations to be "cost-effective and easy-to-understand by those who were required to comply with them." The Reagan administration decided to rescind those orders, but they made a comeback in the Clinton years. Executive Order 12866 demands that regulations be "simple and easy to understand, with the goal of minimizing uncertainty and litigation," and Executive Order 12988 contains eight separate references to "clear language." Vice President Al Gore presented regular No Gobbledygook Awards as part of his reinventing-government initiative.

And yet after all these executive borders, we still need Rep. Braley and his bills.

Perhaps the beginning of wisdom here would be to admit that writing well is hard. It's even harder when a regulation serves both as an instruction for citizens and businesses and as a potential object of litigation. Making text easy to understand and minimizing the possibility of lawsuits are two different jobs. "Legalese" is a term of disparagement, but lawyers write that way for a reason. And it's not as if government is the only place where bad writing afflicts us. We've all been baffled by instruction manuals, annoyed by consultant jargon, and confused by health insurance forms. Some of us are full-time professional writers and still wrestle with the question of how to explain complicated subjects in a way that's accessible, informative, and accurate. If getting the job done were as simple as editors handing out a memo ordering everyone to write better, the media would be a very different place.

What's really needed is more resources and more support. The PlainLanguage.gov website maintained by an informal group of federal employees who call themselves the Plain Language Action and Information Network, is a useful tool, but it's a bit threadbare. The government could use an active and feisty core of dedicated writers, editors, and graphic designers to punch up key documents. The EPA lead rule, for example, probably needs to stay wordy and unreadable for legal purposes but could be easily punched up by a flowchart that would help you figure out which category you belong in.

The Internet should be a godsend for clarity, enabling agencies to bury wordy definitions beneath links or helping you find the relevant rule by asking questions the way TurboTax does. But to do that stuff, someone would have to roll up her sleeves and do the work. That would require some money and some new personnel, which are in short supply. Also, that hard and boring work lacks the populist common sense appeal of simply mandating clearer writing and making fun of gobbledygook.