|
Dear Friend,
I hope you had a great Thanksgiving, and have had some time to rest, relax, or catch up with friends and family.
I’m grateful every day for the chance to represent eastern Connecticut, and this week I caught up with volunteers who were working to make sure other families had access to good Thanksgiving meals. I also helped celebrate a huge milestone for our U.S. Navy and for SUBASE New London, and caught up with officials from New London and Mitchell College on new funding we helped secure to expand career training opportunities here in eastern CT. Thanks for starting your weekend here with me.
Thanking Volunteers Across Eastern Connecticut
This week, I caught up with a few folks who were donating their time and energy to help feed families across our region. Our first stop was to St. Vincent de Paul Place to meet up with the tireless Executive Director Jillian Corbin and her team of awesome volunteers. People in eastern CT have really supported their cause this year, and when I visited on Monday, they were hard at work packaging up hundreds of classic Thanksgiving meals for families in need in our region.
 |
| On Monday, Rep. Courtney visited Jillian Corbin and the team of volunteers at St. Vincent de Paul Place |
Jill and her team are always busy around the holidays, but they’re also volunteering year-round to help connect people who need assistance in our region with life’s essentials—nutritious food and hot meals, hygiene products, help with housing, and more. These people do amazing work, and I’m very grateful to have them here in our community. Thank you to Jill, and to all the volunteers at SVDPP!
 |
| The team at St. Vincent de Paul Place work year-round to help local people and families in need—here's just a glimpse of their great service to our region. |
On Wednesday, I stopped by the Enfield Food Shelf to help out with the annual Turkey Drive. It was great to see so many people in Enfield and throughout eastern CT looking for opportunities to help those in need this holiday season. Kathleen Souvigney, Executive Director at the Food Shelf, her husband Benjamin, and their team of volunteers do an outstanding job and they deserve huge thanks—there’s no doubt that their work made a big difference for lots of local families this Thanksgiving.
 |
| Rep. Courtney stopped by the Enfield Food Shelf on Wednesday to meet with Executive Director Kathleen Souvigney, participate in the annual Thanksgiving Turkey Drive |
Kathleen has done a great job of engaging community support at the Enfield Food Shelf, including volunteers from the Enfield Wireless Zone, and they set a great example. While I was there, Bay Path College students who are in the school’s Physician Assistant Program came by to help, and to learn about the need to stop food insecurity.
Thank you Kathleen, and thanks to all the volunteers at the Enfield Food Shelf! Their work is representative of food banks and soup kitchens all across the region who do this work 365 days a year.
A Major Milestone for SUBASE New London and Our U.S. Navy
Increased submarine production and capability has been a huge benefit for eastern CT, and there’s a lot of work that goes into making it happen—from securing funding in Congress to build them, expanding the shipyard workforce, and modernizing SUBASE New London to accommodate the sub fleet of the future.
 |
| On Monday, After working with the Navy to secure $70 million in federal funding for the project, Rep. Courtney helped celebrate the completion of SUBASE New London's new Pier 32 |
On Monday this week, we marked a big milestone for the U.S. Navy and for our region. After years of pressing this project forward, I got together with Capt. Kenneth Curtain, Commanding Officer of SUBASE New London, and other U.S. Navy leaders to celebrate the long-awaited completion of the new Pier 32 at SUBASE New London! This project represents a total replacement of last generation’s pier—the new Pier 32 is longer, wider, and allows adequate space to fully support today’s highly advanced VA-class submarines.
 |
| The new Pier 32 is longer, wider, and allows adequate space to fully support today's advanced VA-class submarines |
My office worked with the Navy to secure funding for this $70 million project back in the FY2020 budget, and it’s exciting to see our combined efforts paying off for our Navy and for our region.
Supporting New Career Education Opportunities in New London
Education and skills training are the cornerstone of growing eastern CT's workforce and generating great career opportunities. That’s a huge focus for me and my team, and I was happy to work with the City of New London and Mitchell College to secure direct, targeted federal funding to help kick-start the college’s new Digital Innovation and STEM Hub as part of the 2022 budget, which was passed and signed into law earlier this year.
 |
| Rep. Courtney officially presented Mitchell College President Tracy Espy (center) with the federal funding he helped secure to kick-start the new Digital Innovation and STEM Hub |
This week, I got together with Mitchell College President Dr. Tracy Espy, New London Mayor Mike Passero, and State Rep. Anthony Nolan to present them with the federal funding we secured now that it’s official—$550,000 specifically to purchase equipment for the new program, and to help hire new staff that will partner with employers and other organizations to develop new programming. Dr. Espy and her team are focused on ensuring Mitchell College remains part of training-up the next generation of qualified medical professionals, engineers, programmers, and other in demand professions, and that’s exactly what the new Digital Innovation and STEM Hub will be focused on. Growing our workforce means providing eastern CT students with opportunities to develop skills for in-demand field, and I’m excited to help deliver this opportunity for our region!
 |
| Courtney visited Mitchell College in May to discuss the new career training program, and his effort to secure funding to kick-start it. Watch more here. |
How to Meet the USN’s Demand for Subs? It’s the Defense Industrial Base
America’s submarine fleet still holds an advantage over a numerically larger Chinese Navy, but the edge we hold is at risk if our industrial base isn’t sized-up to take on higher production levels. In my dual role as Chairman of the House Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee (which oversees all U.S. Navy shipbuilding) and a senior member of the House Education and Labor Committee (which has jurisdiction over federally funded apprenticeship and skills-training programs), this is something my team and I have always been laser-focused on.
It’s no secret that the U.S. Navy is increasingly reliant on the capabilities of submarines and undersea technology, and that the demand signal for sub construction has ticked up rapidly over the years. Our shipbuilders and suppliers here in eastern CT are already seeing this result in more work opportunities as we continue building two VA-class subs each year, and as the new Columbia-class program has finally come online. There’s a lot more demand on the horizon, however, and on Wednesday, The Hill newspaper published my op-ed on how Congress can best support the U.S. Navy’s need for increased submarine and shipbuilding construction—namely, by re-investing in the federally funded Registered Apprenticeship and skills-training programs that have already proven to be successful going all the way back to WWII. Click here to read my op-ed: It’s the Defense Industrial Base, Stupid.
Thanks as always for reading my update. If we can be of any assistance, don’t hesitate to give my Norwich office a call at (860) 886-0139. Have a great weekend!
Sincerely,
Joe Courtney
Member of Congress
|