Reaching Our Potential

Dear Friends,

The first month of 2012 has provided an uplifting start to the New Year. While we have a long way to go to rebuild Rhode Island’s economy to its full potential, I want to share some recent experiences that show our state’s promise when we emphasize the right priorities.

Despite a recent finding that Rhode Island has one of the country’s highest increases in farms, one of our most overlooked sectors is agriculture. I recently hosted the USDA’s top Northeast official in Warwick and North Kingstown to address ways to improve and expand our Farm to School program, which provides healthy and cost-effective meals to students using local produce. This initiative can give our agriculture community a more consistent and higher demand for their products.

In his State of the Union address, President Obama highlighted our country’s growing skills gap, which has caused jobs to go unfilled, particularly in Rhode Island. In response to the President’s challenge to create partnerships that will train two million workers with skills that lead directly to a job, I joined leaders from two companies and New England Institute of Technology to announce that they would work together to train workers in Rhode Island to contribute to that goal. Our state can be a leader in this effort and remove a key obstacle to economic growth in emerging, high-skill industries.

Meanwhile, we must specifically push for development of a cybersecurity workforce that makes Rhode Island a premier destination for businesses in this burgeoning field. With an onslaught of data breaches costing companies in direct financial losses, harmed reputations, and intellectual property theft, the increasing need for network security services offers tremendous job creation opportunities. Last month I hosted the awards ceremony for the high school cyber skills contest I brought to Rhode Island. We have an impressive amount of young talent to draw from, but we need to introduce them to the field and offer training.

We still have a lot of work to do increasing economic opportunities for Rhode Islanders, but I am confident that if we take advantage of industries ripe for growth in our state, we have a bright future.

As your representative, I enjoy hearing your thoughts, whether in person or in writing. Please stay in touch via email, Facebook and Twitter to keep the conversation going, and check out my YouTube and Flickr pages.

Sincerely,

Jim Langevin

Maintaining a Free and Open Internet

Thanks to a tremendous display of grassroots activism, irresponsible legislation that threatens the security and openness of the Internet has been put on hold. I came out strongly against the SOPA and PIPA bills, in the House and Senate respectively, which took an overreaching approach to deal with illegal distribution of copyrighted materials online. They would have allowed government and content producers to filter the Internet, while placing difficult burdens on the infrastructure of cyberspace. We can and should deal with intellectual property theft in a more sensible way.
Read about an alternative bill I have co-sponsored: the OPEN Act ››

Save the date

FIRST ROBOTICS TECH CHALLENGE
Statewide High School Competition
February 4, 2012
9:30AM - 4:30PM
New England Tech Automotive Campus
101 Access Road
Warwick, RI 02886

Did You Know...?

INTERNSHIPS
Rep. Langevin’s office offers an internship program for service-minded students interested in learning about the legislative process and the inner workings of a congressional office ››

FAST FACT
By 2018, the U.S. will need 22 million new workers with college degrees – and will fall short of that number by at least 3 million. ››

In Other News

DISCUSSING JOBS, SOPA AND MORE AS LAST WEEK’S NEWSMAKER
Rep. Langevin appeared on WPRI Newsmakers to react to the President’s State of the Union Address and discuss his priorities in Congress. ››

IMPROVING STUDENT HEALTH & RI’S ECONOMY
Rep. Langevin visited two schools with the US Department of Agriculture’s top Northeast region official to boost RI’s Farm to School Program. ››

SUPPORTING EARLY EDUCATION
Noting that taxpayers see a $7 return on every dollar invested in early education, Rep. Langevin visited a Providence preschool for low-income families to discuss ways to provide further support. ››

REMEMBERING GOVERNOR GARRAHY (1930-2012)
Rep. Langevin honored one of Rhode Island’s most beloved public servants and a personal mentor. ››

APPLAUDING OBAMA’S FOCUS ON WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT
Responding to the State of the Union Address, Rep. Langevin lauded the emphasis on closing the skills gap, which has been a drag on job creation, particularly in Rhode Island. ››

RECOGNIZING SERVICE ACADEMY NOMINEES
Following the recommendations of a committee he assembled of military veterans and educators, Rep. Langevin announced his nominations to West Point, Annapolis and Colorado Springs. ››

TAKING INSPIRATION FROM GABBY GIFFORDS
Rep. Langevin reacted to the announcement that Congresswoman Giffords would resign from Congress to focus on her recovery, expressing admiration for her courage and perseverance. ››