Dear friend,

If there's one word you can associate my career with it would be jobs. As a former Secretary of Labor for Delaware, Head of State Personnel, and CEO of the Metropolitan Wilmington Urban League, I've seen personally the importance of a job - and the impact it can have on our communities, our economy, and our competitiveness. 

That's why, this week, I proudly introduced what I'm calling my JOBS Agenda, a comprehensive package of bills that are representative of what I've been working on my entire career - connecting people to jobs and jobs to people. The JOBS Agenda includes legislation designed to strengthen Delaware’s workforce, address workforce shortages, fix our broken supply chains, spur American manufacturing, and create more available and affordable housing.

Throughout the past few weeks, I visited a local union training facility site to talk with organized labor about the future of construction work and job training programs for in-demand skills as well as Christiana Care to experience state-of-the-art Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) as it relates to our health, well-being, and innovation. 

I'm so proud of this Agenda, and I am looking forward to working with my colleagues to get it to President Biden's desk.

Below is a list of the bills included, and it's important to note that a majority of them are bipartisan and bicameral. If you want to know more about the bills that make up the #JOBSAgenda, please click here.

Library of Congress Surplus Books Program

Did you know that my office can help eligible Delaware organizations acquire books from the Library of Congress through its Surplus Books Program? That's exactly what we were able to do for Read Aloud Delaware, a nonprofit that focuses on childhood literacy in the First State. My office was able to secure children's books in both English and Spanish to be used by Read Aloud's volunteers in classrooms as well as childcare, Head Start, and kindergarten centers across Delaware. If you would like to learn more about the Surplus Books Program or see if your organization is eligible, please contact my office.

Talking Workforce Development with The Teen Warehouse

I was excited to join the The Teen Warehouse for a ribbon cutting of its new RISE Innovation Center on Tuesday. The Warehouse is a member of the WRK Group - a partnership of three organizations including the Warehouse, Kingswood Community Center, and REACH Riverside - which is focused on the revitalization of Wilmington's Riverside neighborhood. The Center will be a hub for the Warehouse's Reaching and Investing in Youth for Sustainable Employment, or RISE, Program, a workforce development program that teaches teens critical skills such as financial literacy and resume building. This Center is an excellent addition to the Warehouse and will help propel its mission to empower Delaware's young people.

While in Kent County

In Kent County this week, I met with the Delaware Volunteer Firefighters Association (DVFA) to talk about its challenges and discuss opportunities for the DVFA. It's important that we continue to do all we can to support the DVFA's brave volunteers.

I also toured the Elizabeth Murphey School in Dover and had the opportunity to meet with its Executive Director Michael Kopp as well as the Hope Youth Advisory Council President Raven Mendenhall to discuss how their programs are supporting young people in foster care.

Energy Community Tax Credit Bonus

This week, the IRS released guidance on energy tax credits that are now available through the Energy Community Tax Credit Bonus made possible by the Inflation Reduction Act. This means that eligible projects, facilities, and technologies located in energy communities can receive a bonus of up to 10% (for production tax credits) or 10 percentage points (for investment tax credits). Fore more information on the tax credit, please click here. For more information on eligibility, please click here. 

LAST WEEKEND TO FILE: TAX FILING DEADLINE IS TUESDAY, APRIL 18

The tax filing deadline is upon us! As a reminder, this year’s tax filing deadline falls on Tuesday, April 18, 2023, for most people. To speed up the process, the IRS recommends you file online and opt for direct deposit.

Last month, my office held another tax filing information session with the IRS and the Delaware Taxpayer Advocate Service to answer Delawareans' questions about filing their 2022 taxes. To watch that session, please click below.

GRANT RESOURCES FOR DELAWAREANS

As a member of the Regional Leadership Council, where I am helping lead the implementation and communication of the historic pieces of legislation passed last Congress, I want to make sure Delawareans are informed about grant opportunities for organizations, state and local governments, nonprofits, and others. Please see a few that are now available:

• NEW:
  • URBAN FORESTRY: U.S. Department of Agriculture's Urban and Community Forestry Program, expanded through the Inflation Reduction Act
• REMINDER:
  • SAFER ROADS: U.S. Department of Transportation's Safe Streets and Roads for All Program, established by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law
  • COMBATTING POLLUTION: U.S. Department of Energy's Industrial Demonstrations Program, funded through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act
  • EV CHARGING: U.S. Department of Transportation's new Charging and Fueling Infrastructure (CFI) Discretionary Grant Program, established by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law

April 11 through April 17 is recognized as Black Maternal Health Week. We must reconcile with the fact that there is a maternal mortality crisis impacting Black women in America. Black women are three times as likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than white women. It's why I joined the Black Maternal Health Caucus in Congress so that I can advocate at the national level to save the lives of Black moms in Delaware and across the country.

For this week's Constituent Corner, I want to highlight one of the many champions who are working on the ground in Delaware to combat this issue - State Representative Melissa "Mimi" Minor-Brown. Rep. Minor-Brown was a participant of the nursing roundtable I held last year on the nursing workforce shortage where she brought her own experiences and expertise as a nurse to the conversation. In the General Assembly, she's been a strong advocate for legislation to expand access to maternal health care services and doulas. I applaud Rep. Minor-Brown's work and know I speak for so many when I say thank you for all you do for Delaware's moms. 

Left to right: Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, Founder of Black Mothers In Power and Wilmington City Councilwoman Shané Darby, and Rep. Melissa Minor-Brown.

Yours in service,

Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester

Member of Congress

Sign up for my newsletter to get updates on this issue and others!

Contact Me