Tagged: congress

A new bill in Congress would incentivize businesses to hire more interns.

The Workforce-Ready Educate America Act would deliver a $1,000 tax credit for each student given an internship. Congresswoman Kathy Hochul (D-NY) says she’s expecting to introduce the measure within a few weeks.

Internships are now required in many degree programs in higher education. But since 2008’s financial downturn, certain businesses, especially manufacturers, stopped their internship programs, says Hilbert College President Cynthia Zane.

These incentives will inspire businesses to change their behavior, she says.

Maurice Hinchey's office announced Wednesday that the Congressman will not seek reelection this year.

The 73-year-old Democrat represented New York's 22nd District, which includes Binghamton, Ithaca and Monticello. First elected in 1992, Hinchey is a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee and a member of the Banking Committee.

He consistently voted with fellow Democrats in the Republican-controlled House, one notable exception was his vote against extension of Bush-era tax cuts, which was supported by a majority of both Democrats and Republicans.

After yesterday's budget deficit talks in Washington, D.C. broke down, Governor Andrew Cuomo tried to do damage control here in New York.

The governor held a conference call with his Council of Economic and Fiscal Advisors, to talk about what the failure of Congress' "supercommittee" would mean for the state.

After a political stalemate last summer in Washington pushed the country to the brink of defaulting on its debts and caused the U.S. to lose its Triple-A credit rating, a group of 12 lawmakers was charged with finding a bipartisan solution to reducing the national deficit by $1.2 trillion.

After weeks of more political bickering, the supercommittee admitted failure yesterday.

The president’s State of the Union address was big on promoting innovation and ingenuity as a means of boosting the U.S. economy.

“We have to out-innovate, out-educate and out-build the rest of the world,” said President Obama.

In past speeches, presidents have made mention of mitigating global climate change to promote renewable energy. In last night’s speech, President Obama didn’t even bring it up. Instead, he touted renewable energy as America’s path to economic prosperity. 

On the eve of Congress's return to Washington, two central New York congressman, from opposing parties, say they expect challenges to federal spending in the coming session.

Republican Congressman Tom Reed was swept into Eric Massa’s empty 29th District seat in November.  Reed wasn't an "official" tea party candidate, but he did have support from the tea party movement.

Speaking by phone from Washington on Tuesday, Reed said he expected to see a new emphasis on cutting spending in the 112th Congress - and that new members like him should play a significant role.

"Right now all signs are positive that we are talking as a group, meeting as a group, and we are standing firm, together as a group," said Reed.

Reed doesn’t discount the possibility of a federal shutdown to balance the budget. His fellow House Republicans have committed to cutting $100 billion from domestic spending (or perhaps a little less), but have said the military will be spared.

That's important in the Southern Tier, where lots of industry centers around contractors and manufacturing.  And the possibility that the military won't be cut has given some cause for hope to nine-term Democratic Congressman Maurice Hinchey.  

Hinchey spoke with Lockheed Martin employees in Owego Tuesday, at the formal announcement of two new Navy helicopter contracts worth $249 million. He says he's still hopeful that federal dollars will be heading to the region for important projects.

"That may be an element of my personality, I don’t know, but nevertheless, I’ve feeling optimistic about it," Hinchey said.

Both sides also report being optimistic about working together. We'll see how that holds up next week as Congress takes up health care.