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EPW Committee Approves Bipartisan Jobs Bill

Washington, DC - Today the Environment and Public Works Committee approved by voice vote bipartisan legislation to reauthorize the Economic Development Administration (EDA), which provides investments in infrastructure and job creation efforts to economically distressed communities. S. 782, the Economic Development Revitalization Act of 2011, would authorize EDA from 2011 through 2015 at $500 million per year.

Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Committee Chairman, Senator James Inhofe (R-OK), Ranking Member, and Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) are original co-sponsors of S. 782.

Senator Boxer said: "For the past four decades, EDA has successfully helped create employment opportunities, maintain existing jobs, and stimulate growth in economically distressed communities across the country. EDA can assist some of America's hardest hit areas by leveraging investment, and that is a life line for many regions struggling to recover in these tough economic times. I will continue to work with Senator Inhofe and other colleagues from both sides of the aisle as we move this bill through the Senate."

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EPA Improves Clean-Air Permit Process in Indian Country

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today finalized rules to ensure that Clean Air Act permitting requirements are applied consistently to facilities in Indian country to better protect the health of people living near them. This action will provide tribes with the tools they need to ensure that newly built or expanding facilities meet these requirements, while giving industries the flexibility to choose the most practical and cost effective way to do so. These sensible steps were developed after considering public input from key stakeholders including tribes, industry, and states. Pollutants covered under these permits, such as sulfur dioxide and particles, can cause a number of serious health problems including aggravated asthma, increased emergency room visits, heart attacks and premature death.

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MBA students - make a profit by "doing good"

U.S. News & World Report recently reported on MBA programs that invest in social good. It pointed to Cornell University’s Graduate School of Management and the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, which hosted the first International Impact Investing Challenge this year.

The challenge awarded more than $40,000 in prizes for innovative impact investment vehicles. Students pitched their ideas to institutional investors, including endowments, pension funds, and family foundations. (The winner was a real estate investment trust called The Grain Fund Depot, which rented storage space to small farmers in India.)

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Obama Cuts Waste: Federal government to delete half its websites

The U.S. government will start cleaning up its online house this summer by getting rid of half of its 2,000 websites, saving millions of dollars a year.

The Office of Management and Budget said the government would begin the yearlong process of shutting and consolidating websites so the nation's residents could find government information more easily.

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Leavenworth prison farm trains inmates, feeds needy

By JAMES A. FUSSELL - The Kansas City Star
Prison food has never enjoyed a great reputation. But the quarter million pounds of produce grown annually by inmates at the United States Penitentiary at Leavenworth just might change that. It’s fresh, free, feeds the less fortunate and even has helped inmates get good jobs after being released — all without costing taxpayers a nickel.

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