$95 Million Illinois Jobs Now! Project Will Create More Than 620 Jobs; Energy-Efficient Facility Will Help Develop New Technologies

URBANA - October 7, 2011. Governor Pat Quinn today joined University of Illinois President Michael J. Hogan to break ground on the school's new Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Building. The $95 million facility will enhance educational opportunities, support research breakthroughs in computing, communications, nanotechnology and biotechnology, and set a new standard for energy-efficient buildings. The Illinois Jobs Now! project will create approximately 620 construction jobs, building what is projected to be the most energy-efficient engineering structure in the nation.

"The University of Illinois is home to some of the best and brightest minds in our state and we want to make sure they have the most cutting-edge technology available to them," Governor Quinn said. "Updated and energy-efficient higher education resources are vital to the success of our state's innovation and economic development."

The 232,000-square-foot building will include state-of-the-art classrooms, laboratories and equipment. The facility will consolidate programs now spread across the campus, creating an environment for cross-disciplinary innovation and expanding the University's potential for breakthrough discoveries. The advanced energy features are projected to make the facility the most energy-efficient engineering building in the nation. The combined structure is projected to reach zero net energy consumption on an annual basis, and would become the largest such structure in the United States.

"Great minds working together can plant seeds of innovation that may never take root when those same people work alone," President Hogan said. "The ECE department has a rich legacy of achievement - from transistors and medical imaging to LED lighting, communications and computing - and this new facility is an investment that will pave the way for new generations of breakthrough technology."

Design work on the facility is complete, and bids will be opened October 12. Construction is expected to start in November, with completion expected by August 2014. The ECE Building will be built to achieve LEED Platinum certification, the highest designation for a structure's energy efficiency and environmental impact. In addition, a solar energy component is planned from separate funds.

The ECE Building construction will be overseen by the Illinois Capital Development Board, which administers all non-road, state-funded construction projects. The $95 million facility will be built with $47.5 million in state capital funds and $47.5 million in private funds from university donors.

Governor Quinn's Illinois Jobs Now! program includes $1.5 billion for higher education, including $788 million for public universities and $400 million for community colleges. The $31 billion program is expected to create more than 400,000 jobs over six years.

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Amana - A massive snowstorm, a house full of strange guests and an unsolved murder, add up to a night of suspicion and mystery in this classic by Agatha Christie, the undisputed Queen of "who done it." The Mousetrap opens Thursday, Oct. 20 at 3 p.m. on The Old Creamery Theatre's Main Stage in Amana and runs through Nov. 13.

Called one of the most skillfully written murder mysteries ever produced, you won't want to miss The Old Creamery's production even if you think you know "who done it."

The cast of The Mousetrap consists of John Hill of Rockford, Il; Sean McCall of Marengo; Kay Francis of Naples, Florida; James Fleming of New York; Laura Ambrose of Minneapolis, Minn.; Jackie McCall of Marengo; Andrew Bosworth of Holly Springs, North Carolina and Tom Milligan of West Amana.

The Mousetrap runs through Nov. 13 and is rated Theatre PG. Tickets are $27 for adults and $17.50 for students. Show times are Wednesday, Thursdays and Sundays at 3 p.m. and Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. Call the box office at 800-35-AMANA or visit the website at www.oldcreamery.com for more information or to purchase tickets. Group and student rates are available.

The Old Creamery Theatre Company is a not-for-profit professional theatre founded in 1971 in Garrison, Iowa. The company is celebrating 40 years of bringing live, professional theatre to the people of Iowa and the Midwest. We thank KGAN and Fox 28, our 2011 season media sponsor.

WASHINGTON - October 7, 2011 - Senator Chuck Grassley and Congressman Darrell Issa today said that Attorney General Eric Holder received at least five weekly memos beginning in July 2010, including four weeks in a row, describing the ill-advised strategy known as Operation Fast and Furious.  The memos were to Holder from Michael Walther, the director of the National Drug Intelligence Center.

The Attorney General told Issa during a House Judiciary Committee in May 2011 that he had just learned of Fast and Furious a few weeks before.  Yet, on January 31, in a previously scheduled meeting, Grassley personally handed him two letters about Fast and Furious. Grassley and Issa said they find it very troubling that Holder actually knew of Operation Fast and Furious much earlier, and in greater detail than he ever let on.

The memos specifically said that the straw buyers were "responsible for the purchase of 1500 firearms that were then supplied to Mexican drug trafficking cartels."

"With the fairly detailed information that the Attorney General read, it seems the logical question for the Attorney General after reading in the memo would be "why haven't we stopped them?" Grassley said.  "And if he didn't ask the questions, why didn't he or somebody in his office?"

"Attorney General Holder has failed to give Congress and the American people an honest account of what he and other senior Justice Department officials knew about gunwalking and Operation Fast and Furious. The lack of candor and honesty from our nation's chief law enforcement officials in this matter is deeply disturbing," Issa said.

Grassley and Issa have been leading the investigation into who approved the strategy to allow guns to be purchased by known straw buyers who then often transferred the firearms to Mexican Drug Cartels.

The memos can be found here.

Prepared Statement of Ranking Member Chuck Grassley

Senate Committee on the Judiciary

Executive Business Meeting

Thursday, October 6, 2011

 

Mr. Chairman,

With regard to the judicial nominations, we are prepared to vote on the following nominations today:  Wallach, Christensen, Bencivengo, Groh, and Brodie.   We have a request on our side for a roll call vote on Wallach.  There are requests on our side to hold over the following nominees, who are appearing for the first time on our agenda:  Jordán, Gerrard, Phillips, Rice, Nuffer, Frank, Pane, and Webb.

 

We have a number of bills on the agenda today that appear for the first time.  We have a request on our side to hold over all of them for consideration next week.

On the legislation, I would like to say a few words about S.1301, the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act.  We held a hearing on this legislation just three weeks ago that focused on the administration of programs designed to help victims of trafficking.

It is my hope that that the administration will get back to us with the questions we submitted for the record so we can consider those as part of our discussion on the bill next week.

I am pleased to report that my staff and the Chairman's have been working together for the last few weeks to find common ground on this issue.  However, there are changes needed in the draft to ensure that we recognize the changing times and the current fiscal crisis.  We need to ensure that our resources are carefully spent and are only provided to programs that are working.

At the hearing, I raised my concerns with the Department of Justice about a number of audits that have been conducted showing shocking examples of waste and abuse of grants.  I highlighted how the Inspector General had pulled nine specific grants and reviewed them for compliance.  All nine of those audits found hundreds of thousands of dollars in questioned costs, unauthorized expenditures, failed matching requirements, questioned salaries and fringe benefits, and many other problems.

I raised these audits with the witness from the Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs who admitted that one audit that questioned over $1.3 million of a $1.7 million grant, showed that the grant was a failure.  This is unacceptable and the American taxpayers deserve better.  These audits demand our attention and that is why we "reauthorize" these programs?to make sure the money isn't being wasted.

Yet, here, we have audits showing that money is being wasted.  So we have the opportunity and responsibility to fix this.  Our efforts to reauthorize this legislation need to fix this problem and ensure that grantees that commit violations like this never see another federal dollar.  We need transparency, accountability, and performance from grantees that are trusted with federal dollars.  Absent any of these three things, they should not receive any money.

Further, we need to hold accountable the Justice Department, State Department, and other federal agencies that award trafficking grants under the TVPA.  These bureaucracies often turn a blind eye to the waste, abuse, and mismanagement of these grants, leading up to these audits.

Too often, the agencies simply fail to conduct the oversight required of the grants and then plead ignorant when the Inspector General finds problems.  This too has to stop.  Both the grant managers and the grantees should be held accountable.  It starts at the top with the head of the agency and we need those in power at these agencies to question spending, not just push taxpayer dollars out the door.

Unfortunately, as the recent report on conference expenditures at the Justice Department points out, it's clear this Justice Department doesn't understand that.  We all heard about the infamous $16 muffins and all the hay the hotels and the Justice Department have raised to refute the finding.  Well, what they can't hide from is the fact that since President Obama took office, conference spending at the Justice Department has nearly doubled from the Bush administration.

In fiscal 2008, the Justice Department spent $47.8 million on conferences.  In President Obama's first year, Fiscal Year 2009, that increased to $73.3 million.  Last year, it increased further to $91.5 million.  That is not fiscal responsibility, that's excess and waste.

The point is, we are well past the time when we can reauthorize programs without giving them the scrutiny needed.  We have a Justice Department that is addicted to spending without control and we need to rein that in.  We need to use this opportunity to ensure that hard earned taxpayer dollars are going to the people we are trying to help, here that's the victims of trafficking.  If we continue to allow grants to be mismanaged, a victim who could have been helped goes without.

I hope the Chairman and I can continue our work and reach an agreement on this bill for next week.  Thank you.

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