Hearing Aid Assistance Tax Credit Act

Mr. President, today I join with Senator Portman to introduce the bipartisan Second Chance Reauthorization Act, a bill that builds on recent successes and takes important new steps to ensure that people coming out of prison have the opportunity to turn their lives around, rather than returning to a life of crime. Investing in community-based reentry programs prevents crime, reduces prison costs, improves public safety, and saves taxpayer dollars. It is also the right thing to do.

This important legislation improves Federal reentry policy and funds collaborations between State and local corrections agencies, nonprofits, educational institutions, service providers, and families to ensure that former offenders have the resources and support they need to become contributing members of the community. Our bill also seeks to expand upon the successes of the original Second Chance Act by continuing, improving, and consolidating its programs, while reauthorizing these important grant programs at reduced levels in recognition of current fiscal constraints.

In 2008, I joined with Senators Biden, Specter, and Brownback as an original cosponsor of the Second Chance Act, and helped to shepherd that legislation through the Senate. I was proud when the Senate recognized the value

of the Second Chance Act and, after a great deal of work and compromise, passed the bill unanimously.

The bipartisan spirit of this legislation also continues in the House, where today Representatives Sensenbrenner and Davis will introduce an identical version of the Senate bill authored by myself and Senator Portman. Together, we have been working hard for the past several months to reach an agreement that is fair, fiscally responsible, and meets the needs of key stakeholders. As a result, we have the support of faith groups, law enforcement, and community groups who provide services to the mentally ill and those struggling with addiction. This broad coalition has one thing in common--we all want to see our justice system work better.

In the past few decades, Congress and the states have passed new criminal laws creating longer sentences for more and more crimes. As a result, our country currently incarcerates more than two million people, and more than 13 million people spend some time in jail or prison each year. This has resulted in severely stretched budgets and we have fewer resources for programs that actually prevent crime in the first place. We cannot afford to stay on our current path, and I am working on separate legislation to address the exploding costs of our Federal prisons. The Second Chance Reauthorization Act helps support innovative reentry programs at the state and local level which have brought down costs and reduced recidivism, and the federal system should replicate these efforts.

More than 650,000 ex-offenders are released from prison each year. The experience inmates have in prison, how we prepare them to rejoin society, and how we integrate them into the broader community when they are released are issues that profoundly affect the communities in which we live.

The Second Chance Act funds grants for key reentry programs and requires that these programs demonstrate measurable positive results, including a reduction in recidivism.

The Second Chance Act of 2008 authorized research into educational methods used in prisons and jails. Today's reauthorization bill directs the Attorney General to review that research, identify best practices, and implement them in our prisons and jails.

The bill also makes nonprofit organizations eligible for grants promoting family-based substance abuse treatment and training in technology careers. It gives priority consideration to applicants that conduct individualized post-release employment planning, demonstrate connections to employers within the local community, or track and monitor employment outcomes.

This legislation also makes improvements to federal reentry policy that have the added benefit of reducing Bureau of Prison costs. It continues the successful Elderly and Family Reunification for Certain Non-Violent Offenders Pilot Program and expands the pool of inmates eligible to apply for the program.

Finally, the Second Chance Reauthorization Act promotes accountability by requiring periodic audits of grantees to ensure that federal dollars are spent responsibly. Grantees who have unresolved audit problems will not be eligible for funding in future years.

As a former prosecutor, I believe strongly in securing tough and appropriate prison sentences for people who break our laws. But it is also important that we do everything we can to ensure that when people get out of prison, they enter our communities as productive members of society, so we can start to reverse the dangerous cycle of recidivism and violence. The Second Chance Reauthorization Act helps break this cycle.

I thank Senator Portman, Representative Sensenbrenner, and Representative Davis for their hard work and cooperation in leading these efforts. We have come together in a truly exceptional way in this bipartisan, bicameral effort. I am proud of the work we have done so far and I look forward to joining with Democrats and Republicans to get this bill passed and signed into law.

Mr. President, President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, today I am introducing the Consortia-Led Energy and Advanced Manufacturing Networks Act.

For more than a century, America's innovation community has been the foundation of our high-tech economy and generated broad-based growth to support a strong middle class. While our innovators remain the best in the world, we have seen a disturbing trend in recent years. When it comes to moving innovations out of the lab and into the factory, we are getting beat. Breakthroughs achieved in U.S. research universities and laboratories are all too often being commercialized and manufactured overseas. As recent research by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and others has demonstrated, innovation and production are closely related. When manufacturing facilities move overseas, we lose more than just those manufacturing jobs. We can lose our ability to continue to innovate in that industry and lose our hold on those jobs forever.

At the same time, we have some industries in the United States dominated by deeply entrenched companies that are resistant to innovation or adaptation of century-old business models. In those sectors, we need to look at ways of partnering with our innovators on proof-of-concept and demonstration projects so that more breakthroughs can bridge the so-called ``Valley of Death'' between the lab bench and commercialization of a new technology. That will ensure that innovative and potentially disruptive technologies can actually reach the market, and provide badly needed competition in industries where incumbents may be failing to innovate. This is what my legislation is intended to address.

In order to reach their full market potential, scientific breakthroughs must be translated into commercial applications, demonstrated, connected to appropriate markets, and scaled up. The bill I am introducing today would fertilize America's innovation ecosystems by making available $100 million to 6 or more consortia to support these types of activities and help shepherd innovations through the commercialization process. Consortia could include a mix of research universities, large and small companies, national laboratories, venture capital, and state and nonprofit entities with expertise in technology commercialization. The bill includes rigorous cost-share requirements to ensure that taxpayers are only partnering on the best ideas in which the private sector also has significant capital committed.

We have seen the benefits of regional innovation ecosystems in places like Silicon Valley; Boston, Cambridge and the Route 128 Corridor; the Research Triangle in North Carolina; Austin, TX; and elsewhere. The geographic proximity of institutions in these areas improves the flow of information between scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs, and it facilitates the sharing of skilled human resources and facilities. Most critically when it comes to commercializing innovations, these regions have demonstrated a unique ability to pull investor capital off the sidelines and channel it into new production. We need to bolster these existing ecosystems and help nurture new ones.

America's universities and research institutions are truly national treasures. Our venture capitalists and entrepreneurs are the sharpest in the world. When we sprinkle the right mix of scientific brain power and capitalist drive, we get something uniquely American and extremely potent.

This legislation will help link inventors with investors, professors with producers, and get technologies out of laboratories and into factories. It provides the type of responsible and forward-looking partnership that we need with the private sector right now. This legislation builds on provisions I included in both the Waxman-Markey bill and the America COMPETES reauthorization, bills that passed the U.S. House of Representatives in 2009 and 2010, respectively.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.