From The Waterville Morning Sentinel, “Sen. Collins receives awards at New Balance factory“:

NORRIDGEWOCK — When New Balance factory employees looked up from stitching, stamping and assembling hundreds of athletic shoes on Monday, they saw an uncommon sight: Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins walking between the rows of industrial sewing machines with a trail of staff.

Wearing her brown-and-tan New Balance sneakers, Collins shook hands, asked questions, posed for photographs and learned about new projects at the only athletic shoe company that still produces footwear in the United States. 

She was at the 353-employee facility on Depot Street not just to learn about the two-week-old option for customers to personalize their shoes with specific colors, laces and logos, or to learn about a developing project to make water-friendly shoes for the Navy SEALs, a special operations force.

Collins was at the New Balance plant to receive the Award for Manufacturing Legislative Excellence from the National Association of Manufacturers honoring the Senator’s support for manufacturing in the 111th Congress. Specifically, a member must be in line with NAM identified “Key Votes” 70 percent or higher to qualify for the award. (See our 111th Congress Voting Record Guide for the full rundown.)

The NAM’s Public Affairs shop has had an extraordinarily busy winter and spring organizing the award events, traditionally hosted in local communities by NAM member manufacturing companies. The awards are important, but so is the opportunity for elected officials to see a manufacturer in operation and talk to employees.

On Wednesday, NAM President Jay Timmons and NAM Board Chairman Mary Andringa will be at the Vermeer plant in Pella, Iowa, to present the NAM’s award to Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA). On Friday, the NAM honors Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ) at an event hosted by Sanofi Aventis in Bridgewater, N.J.

By the way, those New Balance shoes are pretty cool. Design your own New Balance custom US574 shoe here.

Representatives Tim Murphy (R-PA) and Gene Green (D-TX) have introduced H.R. 908, a bipartisan bill to extend the Chemical Facilities Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) at the Department of Homeland Security to September 30, 2018. (They are now set to expire on March 18.) This is a sensible approach that allows the effective implementation of the CFATS standards, ensuring the safety of chemical plants while avoiding the unnecessary costs, complications and litigation of bills last session that sought more to restrict chemical usage than to achieve facility security goals.

Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, issued a statement endorsing the bill:

First authorized in 2006, the program ensures chemical facilities throughout the U.S. have the information and technical guidance they need to safeguard their facilities from terrorists and to comply with the CFATS standards.

“Protecting our chemical plants from terrorist threats is a key national security priority, and I welcome the bipartisan sponsorship of Congressmen Murphy and Green,” said Upton. “Together with Chairman John Shimkus and the Environment and the Economy Subcommittee, and our colleagues in the House, I look forward to helping advance this legislation to the President’s desk to ensure chemical plant security is maintained.”

On the Senate side, Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) has introduced S. 473, with bipartisan cosponsors Sens. Mark Pryor (D-AR), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), and Rob Portman (R-OH). In her statement introducing the bill, Collins contended that the program currently works and should be extended. From Page S1223 of The Congressional Record:

Changing this successful law, as was proposed last year by the House of Representatives in partisan legislation, would discard what is working for an unproven and burdensome plan.

We must not undermine the substantial investments of time and resources already made in CFATS implementation by both DHS and the private sector. Worse would be requiring additional expenditures with no demonstrable increase to the overall security of our Nation.

In the 111th Congress, the Senate and the House of Representatives debated a provision that would alter the fundamental nature of CFATS. The provision would have required the Department to completely rework the program. It would have mandated the use of so-called “inherently safer technology,” or IST.

What is IST? It is an approach to process engineering. It is not, however, a security measure. An IST mandate may actually increase or unacceptably transfer risk to other points in the chemical process or elsewhere in the supply chain. (continue reading…)

President Obama’s nominee to serve as director of the Office of Management and Budget, Jacob Lew, went before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee for a confirmation hearing today, and the discussions turned to federal contracting. The committee’s ranking Republican, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, raised several questions and objections to an Obama Administration’s initiative that goes by the misleading name, “High Road Contracting Policy.”

As legislative prospects for union leaders’ agenda on Capitol Hill wane, the Obama Administration looks to enact organized labor’s agenda through executive actions. This so-called “High Road” contracting policy is a good example, because it could give unionized businesses an advantage over non-union businesses even if their bids came in as more expensive.

The policy would accomplish that goal by awarding federal contracts on the basis of factors unrelated to the best value proposition of bids. The way it’s being developed suggests the Administration wants to circumvent Congress by issuing an Executive Order that builds on the Clinton-era government contracting “blacklisting” effort. Indications are that the “High Road Contracting Policy” may establish a new system of mandatory employment standards for companies to compete for federal contracts, prohibit companies from seeking federal contracts if they face allegations of employment law violations – an allegation would be enough – and to create additional barriers to small businesses that seek government contracts.

Responding to Sen. Collins, Lew said he was unaware of any such policy. The Senator said she had serious concerns with any proposal that would put small business at a disadvantage in seeking federal contracts. More importantly, the Senator warned Lew that such a policy should not be implemented through executive fiat, but would require Congressional approval. In response, Mr. Lew reaffirmed his commitment to fair competition and federal contracting opportunities for small business.

We hope that the Obama Administration heed Senator Collins’ warning, recognize the flaws in such a policy and abandon any effort to develop such a misguided proposal.

The Senate Homeland Security Committee demonstrated concern for the economy, jobs and domestic security this week when it unanimously approved H.R. 2868, the Chemical Facilities Anti-Terrorism Act, with an amendment by Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) that allows the current federal security efforts to become fully effective. Rather than disrupting the ongoing implementation of effective security measures as the House-passed bill would, the Senate measure extends the current anti-terrorism security program for three years.

The bill now reflects Collins’ S. 2996, the Continuing Chemical Facilities Antiterrorism Security Act. The Senator’s office issued a news release, “Homeland Security Committee Unanimously Approves Senator Collins’ Bill to Extend Chemical Facility Security Law“:

“Chemical facilities are tempting targets for terrorists,” said Senator Collins. “The Department of Homeland Security has done a remarkable job developing a comprehensive chemical security program, creating the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program. Although it is not even four years old, it has yielded a successful collaborative, risk-based security framework – providing a model for other security-related programs.

“While the Department has strong authority under the law to shut down non-compliant facilities, the key to this risk-based approach is that it makes the owners and operators of chemical plants partners with the government. The roles under the law are clear: the federal government sets requirements but recognizes that owners and operators of facilities are in the best position to design appropriate security measures to meet those requirements for their facilities.”

Her news release includes statements from Sens. George Voinovich (R-OH), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), and Mark Pryor (D-AR) endorsing the approach. (continue reading…)

The dastardly misnamed Employee Free Choice Act was a major issue in the U.S. Senate race in Maine, as U.S. Rep. Tom Allen (D-ME) drew on strong union support motivated by the card check issue (see this column) to give incumbent Republican Susan Collins a serious challenge. Change to Win, for example, identified Collins as a target because of card check and the flailing economy.

But Collins began to pull away in the final weeks, and the networks have now declared her the winner. In terms of Senate races where card check ranked as an issue, Maine was probably second, Minnesota first. A harbinger for Coleman-Franken?

The Coalition for a Democratic Workplace, to which the NAM belongs, has begun running TV spots in Maine distinguishing the positions of the two U.S. Senate candidates on the Employee Free Choice Act, i.e., card check. Incumbent Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican, is running against Rep. Tom Allen, a Democrat.

From the CDW’s release:

Union special interests have made support for the EFCA, or “card check” bill, a top priority for candidate support this election year. Under the EFCA, workers would effectively lose their right to a private ballot when deciding whether to be represented by a union. The private ballot would be replaced with a “card-check” scheme where a union is organized if a majority of workers simply sign a card; the workers’ signatures are made public to their employer, the union organizers and their co-workers. The bill passed the U.S. House of Representatives but was blocked in the Senate in June 2007. Labor union leaders have promised to re-introduce the legislation next year.

“The people of Maine need to know that workers could effectively lose their right to cast a private ballot in a union election. The next U.S. Senate will have to make a decision about the anti-worker Employee Free Choice Act,” said Brian Worth with the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace. “We will continue to provide information to Maine citizens about where the candidates stand on private ballots,” added Worth. In addition to informing Maine citizens, the ad will ask candidates to support the right to private ballots. Candidates in Maine do not need to give in to union pressure.

Once the legislation’s effect — the destruction of secret-ballot elections -is known, the public overwhelmingly rejects the anti-democratic card check. Indeed, the CDW’s polling in Maine found that more than three in four voters say that a federally supervised election featuring secret ballots is the best way to ensure an employee’s rights.

There’s a separate website for the Maine CWD campaign, right here: http://maine.myprivateballot.com.