Washington, D.C.
Friday, February 5, 2010 -

U.S. Senator Arlen Specter, a senior member of the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, announced today that the Department of Homeland Security has approved funding for fire companies throughout Pennsylvania.

“These fire prevention and safety programs will help protect the citizens of Pennsylvania and the firefighters who risk their lives every day,” Senator Specter said. “I commend the Department of Homeland Security for recognizing this priority and for its continued support of our nation’s fire services.”

The funding is contained in Round 2 of the competitive Fiscal Year 2009 Fire Grants Award announcements. These awards are administered by the Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management in cooperation with the U.S. Fire Administration.

The AFG programs are designed to enhance first responders’ ability to protect the health and safety of the public, as well as that of first-responder personnel. In Fiscal Year 2009, the AFG program awarded approximately $565 million directly to fire departments and EMS organizations for operations and safety programs, as well as vehicle acquisition.


Funding has been approved for the following companies in Central Pennsylvania:

• $128,406 for Dunnstown Volunteer Fire Company in Clinton County
• $110,628 for Lawrenceville Fire Department in Tioga County
• $60,183 for Campbelltown Volunteer Fire Company in Lebanon County
• $32,922 for Hershey Volunteer Fire Company in Dauphin County
• $9,025 for Metal Township Fire and Ambulance Co., INC in Franklin County


Funding has been approved for the following companies in Southwest Pennsylvania:

• $129,675 for North Sewickley Township Fire & Rescue Department in Beaver County
• $100,520 for North Strabane VFD in Washington County
• $66,150 for Blaine Hill Volunteer Fire Company in Allegheny County
• $64,838 for North Franklin Volunteer Fire Company in Washington County
• $47,548 for North Hampton Volunteer Fire Department in Allegheny County
• $43,719 Turkeytown Volunteer Fire Department in Westmoreland County
• $40,660 for Ferndale Volunteer Fire Company in Cambria County
• $39,943 for Bell Township VFD in Westmoreland County
• $38,000 for Penn Volunteer Fire Company in Westmoreland County
• $21,884 for Middle Taylor Township Volunteer Fire Company in Cambria County
• $8,550 for Presto Volunteer Fire Department in Allegheny County


Funding has been approved for the following companies in Southeast Pennsylvania:

• $581,496 for Philadelphia Fire Department in Philadelphia County
• $80,560 for Darby Fire Company #1 in Delaware County
• $46,000 for Plymouth Community Ambulance Association in Montgomery County
• $38,000 for Glen Moore Fire Company No. 1 in Chester County


Funding has been approved for the following companies in Northwest Pennsylvania:

• $86,210 for Hermitage Volunteer Fire Department in Mercer County
• $54,863 for Lander VFD in Warren County
• $52,948 for Scott Township Volunteer Fire Department in Lawrence County
• $39,990 for Scandia Volunteer Fire Department in Warren County
• $8,550 for Bear Lake Volunteer Fire Department in Warren County


Funding has been approved for the following companies in Northeast Pennsylvania:

• $46,645 for Mocanaqua Volunteer Fire Company #1 in Luzerne County
• $28,595 for Diligence Fire Co. No. 1 in Carbon County
• $26,990 for White Haven Fire Co. #1 in Luzerne County
• $26,862 for Orangeville Community Fire Company in Columbia County
• $21,505 for Harding Fire Company in Luzerne County
• $11,400 for Wright Township Volunteer Firemen’s Association in Luzerne County


Funding has been approved for the following companies in the Lehigh Valley:

• $380,000 for Volunteer Fire Company Number One of Grill, PA in Berks County
• $104,190 for Oley Fire Company in Berks County
• $36,618 for Se-Wy-Co Volunteer Fire Company in Northampton County

Congressman Patrick Murphy to Meet with Constituents in Lower Makefield

Congressmen Announce February 8th Termination of Wasteful Satellite Program, Just One of Many Unnecessary Programs Cut in Past Year

Murphy Delivers Much–Needed Funding to Equip and Protect Firefighters, Protect Sellersville Community

Washington, D.C.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010 -

Today, Senator Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) questioned President Barack Obama on the trade imbalance between the U.S. and China. The question came during the President’s address to the Senate Democratic Conference that took place today in Washington.

“I begin by applauding your decision to place the economy at the top of the agenda, to put America back to work, and to provide jobs, jobs, jobs,” Specter started.

Senator Specter then noted that the U.S. trade deficit with China has caused 2.3 million U.S. jobs to be lost or displaced between 2001 and 2007 according to a report by the Economic Policy Institute in 2008.

Citing that China has not lived up to its obligation to open their markets to the U.S. as required by the World Trade Organization, Specter asked, “Would you support an effort to revise, perhaps even revoke, that bilateral treaty which gives China such an unfair trade advantage?”

President Obama agreed with Senator Specter that international trade must be bilateral: “The approach that we’re taking is trying to get much tougher about enforcement of existing rules and putting constant pressure on China and other countries to open up their markets in reciprocal ways. If we are able to compete on an even playing field, nobody can beat us.”

Obama also noted his administration’s efforts to export more U.S. goods. During the State of the Union address, Obama announced the National Export Initiative, a project aimed at doubling our exports over the next five years. This initiative, projected to support two million jobs in America, will help farmers and small businesses increase their exports and reform export controls consistent with national security.

Senator Specter has a long record of advocating for stronger enforcement of U.S. trade laws for domestic industries. He has testified in front of the International Trade Commission (ITC) on 14 separate occasions on behalf steel and labor, arguing that unfair trade has negatively impacted the entire steel industry - which employs over 20,000 workers in Pennsylvania - and sent thousands of jobs overseas. Most recently, Senator Specter told the panel in December that China’s anticompetitive practices and a surge of Chinese imports have led to lost jobs, reduced hours, and idled plants in Pennsylvania.

A full transcript of the exchange follows. A link to the video is here:

Sen. Specter:
Mr. President, I begin by applauding your decision to place the economy at the top of the agenda, to put America back to work, and to provide jobs, jobs, jobs.

I have a two part question and just a brief statement of the issue. We have lost 2.3 million jobs as a result of the trade imbalance with China between 2001 and 2007. The remedies to save those jobs are very ineffective: long delays, proceedings before the International Trade Commission subject to being overruled by the president. We have China violating international law with subsidies and dumping. It’s really a form of international banditry. They take our money and then they lend it back to us and own now a big part of the United States.

The first part of my question is, would you support more effective remedies to allow injured parties - unions which lose jobs, companies which lose profits - by endorsing a judicial remedy, if not in U.S. courts perhaps in an international court? And eliminate the aspect of having the ITC decisions overruled by the president, as was done four times in 2003 to 2005, at a cost of a tremendous number of jobs on the basis of the national interest? If we have an issue on the national interest, let the nation pay for it as opposed to the steel industry or the United Steel Workers.

The second part of the question, related, is when China got into the World Trade Organization - a matter that 15 of us in this body opposed - there were bilateral treaties and China has not lived up to its obligations to have its markets open to us, but they take our markets and take our jobs. Would you support an effort to revise, perhaps even revoke, that bilateral treaty which gives China such an unfair trade advantage?

Thank you.

President Obama:
Arlen, I would not be in favor of revoking the trade relationships that we’ve established with China.

I have shown myself during the course of this year more than willing to enforce our trade agreements in a much more serious way. And at times I’ve been criticized for it. There was a case involving foreign tires that were being sent in here and I said this was an example of where we have got to put our foot down and show that we’re serious about enforcement. And it caused the usual fuss at the international level, but it was the right thing to do.

Having said that, I also believe that our future is going to be tied up with our ability to sell products all around the world, and China is going to be one of our biggest markets, and Asia is going to be one of our biggest markets. For us to close ourselves off from that market would be a mistake.

Now the point you’re making, Arlen, which is the right one, is it’s got to be reciprocal. So, if we have established agreements in which both sides are supposed to open up their markets, we do so and then the other side is imposing a whole set of non-tariff barriers in place, that’s a problem and it has to be squarely confronted. So the approach that we’re taking is trying to get much tougher about enforcement of existing rules, putting constant pressure on China and other countries to open up their markets in reciprocal ways.

One of the challenges that we’ve got to address internationally is currency rates and how they match up to make sure that our goods are not artificially inflated in price and their goods are artificially deflated in price. That puts us at a huge competitive disadvantage. But what I don’t want to do is for us as a country, or as a party to shy away from the prospects of international competition. Because I think we’ve got the best workers, we’ve got the most innovative products on earth, and if we are able to compete on an even playing field, nobody can beat us. And by the way, that will create jobs here in the United States.

If we just increased our exports to Asia by a percentage point, by a fraction, it would mean hundreds of thousands maybe millions of jobs here in the United States. And it’s easily doable and that’s why we are going to be putting a much bigger emphasis on export promotion over the next several years. And that includes, by the way, export promotion not only for large companies but also for medium-sized and small companies, because one of the challenges… You know, I was up in New Hampshire yesterday. And you saw this terrific new company that had just been started up. It’s only got 13, 14 employees at this point. But it has a new manufacturing technique for the component parts in LED light bulbs. Potentially could lower the price of LED light bulbs, cut it in half. These folks, they potentially can market not just here in the United States, but this is a technology that could end up being sent all around the world. But they don’t have the money to set up their own foreign office in Beijing to navigate through the bureaucracy; they’ve got to have some help being over there.

So that’s one of the things we really want to focus on in this coming year is making sure that our export/import banks, our trade offices, that we are assisting not just the big guys - although we do want to help them - but also the medium-sized and small businesses that have innovative products that could be marketed if they just got a little bit of help and a little bit of push from the United States government.

Washington, D.C.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010 -

U.S. Senators Arlen Specter and Bob Casey invite all persons interested in being considered for appointment to the position of Federal District Court Judge of Pennsylvania to obtain and submit an application that can be found on each Senator’s website.

This questionnaire must be completed and returned to both Senators in Microsoft Word format to the emails listed below no later than March 2, 2010. Applicants will be contacted to arrange for interviews. Senators Specter and Casey will be advised and assisted in this process by several leading members of the bar and other Pennsylvania citizens.

Email adresses for Senator Specter:
For the Western District Judge.App_WDPA@specter.senate.gov 
For the Middle District Judge.App_MDPA@specter.senate.gov 
For the Eastern District Judge.App_EDPA@specter.senate.gov 

Email address for Senator Casey: Judicial_Nominations@casey.senate.gov 

Washington, D.C.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010 -

The Senate on Tuesday evening unanimously passed a bipartisan resolution condemning recent cyber attacks launched against Google in China and reaffirming strong support for freedom of expression and press freedom around the world. In the case of the Google attack – where at least 34 other major companies were also reportedly targeted – evidence suggests the attackers’ primary goal was to access Gmail accounts of journalists, human rights activists and dissidents.

The resolution, introduced by Senators Ted Kaufman (D-DE), Sam Brownback (R-KS), Bob Casey (D-PA), Jon Kyl (R-AZ), Russ Feingold (D-WI), Joseph Lieberman (I-CT), Jim Webb (D-VA), Arlen Specter (D-PA) and John McCain (R-AZ), calls on the Chinese government to conduct a thorough review of these cyber attacks, and to make the results of the investigation transparent. It also voices support for a recent initiative announced by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to encourage Internet freedom by promoting technology to circumvent electronic censorship and monitoring worldwide. Finally, it highlights the range of efforts within China to restrict press freedom and freedom of expression, especially on the Internet.

“Last night, the Senate spoke in one voice, calling on the Chinese government to investigate and explain the recent cyber attacks and expressing serious concern about ongoing attempts by China and other countries to restrict press and Internet freedom,” said Senator Kaufman. “This resolution reaffirms freedom of expression and the press as cornerstones of U.S. foreign policy, and we will continue to take measures to promote these fundamental freedoms and rights globally. Governments who use technology to silence their citizens or restrict the free flow of information should consider themselves on notice.”
“It is important that the U.S. not stand idly as China infringes on the free flow of information. Tearing down Internet cyberwalls and condemning illegal cyber attacks are vital actions the US must take to enable freedom of thought, expression and the unimpeded flow of ideas and information,” said Senator Specter.

“The United States government should do everything it can to promote Internet freedom around the world; the Internet can be a valuable tool to spread ideas for people who live in an oppressed society. Unfortunately, the Chinese government is systematically censoring the online activities of its citizens. The current on-going situations in countries like Iran and China illustrate how the growth of Internet freedom could encourage peaceful political progress and strengthen our national security,” said Senator Brownback.

"Press and Internet freedom is more under pressure around the world – the treatment of Google in China is only the latest example of an increasingly closed environment for the Internet, bloggers and journalists," said Senator Casey. "This incident should serve as a wakeup call to the international community. I am glad that the U.S. has taken a renewed interest in Internet freedom and I look forward to working with the Administration on these issues."

"For decades, the United States has embraced, encouraged, and welcomed China's integration into the global economy, including online," said Senator Lieberman. "Unfortunately, recent reports about the behavior of the Chinese government in cyberspace are raising global doubts about its willingness to be a responsible stakeholder in our international system."