Hoekstra RSS Articles

Unemployment Increases to 10.2 Percent

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:00:00 GMT

U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Holland, today issued the following statement upon the Bureau of Labor Statistics announcing that the national unemployment rate has increased to 10.2 percent in October.

"Employers are nervous to hire because of all of the uncertainty about the economy created by Washington, including the expiring tax cuts, cap and trade and health care," Hoekstra said. "It is inconceivable that Congress is considering spending $1.3 trillion on a government take-over of health care as families, especially in Michigan, continue to struggle."

Blue Dog Democrats

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Altmire, Jason (PA-04)
Arcuri, Mike (NY-24)
Baca, Joe (CA-43)
Barrow, John (GA-12)
Berry, Marion (AR-01)
Bishop, Sanford (GA-02)
Boren, Dan (OK-02)
Boswell, Leonard (IA-03)
Boyd, Allen (FL-02)
Bright, Bobby (AL-02)
Cardoza, Dennis (CA-18)
Carney, Christopher (PA-10)
Chandler, Ben (KY-06)
Childers, Travis (MS-01)
Cooper, Jim (TN-05)
Costa, Jim (CA-20)
Cuellar, Henry (TX-28)
Dahlkemper, Kathy (PA-03)
Davis, Lincoln (TN-04)
Donnelly, Joe (IN-02)
Ellsworth, Brad (IN-08)
Giffords, Gabrielle (AZ-08)
Gordon, Bart (TN-06)
Griffith, Parker (AL-05)
Harman, Jane (CA-36)
Herseth Sandlin, Stephanie (SD)
Hill, Baron (IN-09)
Holden, Tim (PA-17)
Kratovil, Jr., Frank (MD-01)
McIntyre, Mike (NC-07)
Marshall, Jim (GA-08)
Matheson, Jim (UT-02)
Melancon, Charlie (LA-03)
Michaud, Mike (ME-02)
Minnick, Walt (ID-01)
Mitchell, Harry (AZ-05)
Moore, Dennis (KS-03)
Murphy, Patrick (PA-08)
Nye, Glenn (VA-02)
Peterson, Collin (MN-07)
Pomeroy, Earl (ND)
Ross, Mike (AR-04)
Salazar, John (CO-03)
Sanchez, Loretta (CA-47)
Schiff, Adam (CA-29)
Scott, David (GA-13)
Shuler, Heath (NC-11)
Space, Zack (OH-18)
Tanner, John (TN-08)
Taylor, Gene (MS-04)
Thompson, Mike (CA-01)
Wilson, Charles (OH-06)

Hoekstra to Participate in Second 'House Call' Event Planned for Tomorrow

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:00:00 GMT

U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Holland, on Saturday, Nov. 7, will participate in a second "House Call" at which he will literally roll out Speaker Pelosi's 2,032-page bill that will enable the government to take over health care in America.

The event is scheduled for 1 p.m. at the U.S. Capitol.

"The American people deserve to see exactly how massive the government take-over of health care is," Hoekstra said. "I encourage anyone and everyone to participate to view for themselves to see the extraordinary length of the bill."

What: Second Health Care "House Call" on Washington

Who: Republican Members of Congress
Americans concerned about our health care future
Other Guests - TBA

When: Saturday, November 7, 2009 at 1:00 p.m.

Where: U.S. Capitol

-30-

Article of Interest: Salary raise counted as saved job

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 05:00:00 GMT

By BRETT J. BLACKLEDGE and MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writers

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama's economic recovery program saved 935 jobs at the Southwest Georgia Community Action Council, an impressive success story for the stimulus plan. Trouble is, only 508 people work there.

The Georgia nonprofit's inflated job count is among persisting errors in the government's latest effort to measure the effect of the $787 billion stimulus plan despite White House promises last week that the new data would undergo an "extensive review" to root out errors discovered in an earlier report.

About two-thirds of the 14,506 jobs claimed to be saved under one federal office, the Administration for Children and Families at Health and Human Services, actually weren't saved at all, according to a review of the latest data by The Associated Press. Instead, that figure includes more than 9,300 existing employees in hundreds of local agencies who received pay raises and benefits and whose jobs weren't saved.

That type of accounting was found in an earlier AP review of stimulus jobs, which the Obama administration said was misleading because most of the government's job-counting errors were being fixed in the new data.

The administration now acknowledges overcounting in the new numbers for the HHS program. Elizabeth Oxhorn, a spokeswoman for the White House recovery office, said the Obama administration was reviewing the Head Start data "to determine how and if it will be counted."

But officials defended the practice of counting raises as saved jobs.

"If I give you a raise, it is going to save a portion of your job," HHS spokesman Luis Rosero said.

The latest stimulus report, released Friday, significantly overstates the number of jobs spared with money from programs serving families and children, mostly the Head Start preschool program. The report shows hundreds of the programs used nearly $323 million to provide pay raises and other benefits to their existing employees.

The raises themselves were appropriate — the stimulus law set aside money for Head Start salary increases — but converting that number into jobs proved difficult. The Obama administration told Head Start officials to consider a fraction of each employee as a job saved.

"That's more than ridiculous," said Antonia Ferrier, a spokeswoman for Republican House Minority Leader John Boehner.

Many Head Start programs around the country went further, counting everyone who received a raise as a job saved.

"It's a glitch in the system," said Ben Allen, the research director at the National Head Start Association. "There was some misunderstanding among some in the Head Start community about completing the reporting requirements."

Allen said a cost-of-living adjustment "may not be viewed traditionally as a job saved, but one could interpret it that, by providing COLA, you're retaining staff."

The Bergen County Community Action Program in Hackensack, N.J., noted the nearly $213,000 it received went to cover raises for existing staff only, but it also reported saving 85 jobs.

At Southwest Georgia Community Action Council in Moultrie, Ga., director Myrtis Mulkey-Ndawula said she followed the guidelines the Obama administration provided. She said she multiplied the 508 employees by 1.84 — the percentage pay raise they received — and came up with 935 jobs saved.

"I would say it's confusing at best," she said. "But we followed the instructions we were given."

Ed DeSeve, who oversees the stimulus at the White House, said the Head Start numbers "represent a few percent of all jobs reported" and said the problems would probably be balanced out by other errors that underreported jobs.

"So we don't expect any corrections to this data to meaningfully impact the total 640,000 direct jobs," DeSeve said.

More than 250 other community agencies in the U.S. similarly reported saving jobs when using the money to give pay raises, to pay for training and continuing education, to extend employee work hours or to buy equipment, according to their spending reports.

Other agencies didn't count the raises as jobs saved, reporting zero jobs.

Last week's stimulus report claimed 640,000 jobs saved or created by the economic recovery plan so far. Those jobs came from 156,614 federal contracts, grants and loans awarded to more than 62,000 recipients, worth a total of $215 billion.

Obama has promised the stimulus would save or create 3.5 million jobs by the end of next year, and the data released Friday represented the first head count toward that goal.

http://www.house.gov/htbin/leave_site?ln_url=http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091104/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_stimulus_jobs

Hoekstra to Participate in Emergency 'House Call' on Thursday

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 05:00:00 GMT

U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Holland, on Thursday, Nov. 5, will participate in an emergency "House Call" at the Capitol to help spread the message that Americans overwhelmingly reject a government takeover of health care.

"House leadership has clearly not heard the message that Americans overwhelmingly object to a government takeover of health care," Hoekstra said. "I encourage anyone and everyone who rejects the overreaching government-run health care bill to join the emergency ‘House Call’ on Thursday."

People can stay up-to-date by signing up for his e-newsletter at http://hoekstra.house.gov/healthcarenewsletter. The event is scheduled for noon on the West Steps of the U.S. Capitol.

"Please make your voices heard," Hoekstra said. "The health care overhaul is moving forward at an incredible rate, and we need to recapture the passion we saw in town halls across America. There are much better alternatives to improving health care than Speaker Pelosi’s bill."

Article of Interest: Some Flu Vaccines Available Locally

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 04:00:00 GMT

By: Peg McNichol
Holland Sentinel

Ottawa County, MI — Vaccines for H1N1 and seasonal flu have been difficult to find after both Ottawa and Allegan counties as well as Holland Hospital and Zeeland Community Hospital halted seasonal flu clinics when most supplies ran out last week.

Now the health departments are offering limited flu vaccine clinics. Some private clinics and retail stores continue to have limited supplies of seasonal flu vaccine.

“We can’t get our hands on enough seasonal flu vaccines. We can’t get our hands on H1N1 vaccine,” said Ottawa County Health Department spokeswoman Shannon Felgner. “We can only control so much and we need to control what we can and practice better prevention. We know the flu is spreading around our community.”

H1N1 and seasonal vaccines are available for priority groups: health care workers, first responders, pregnant women, those who care for children under the age of 6 months; those under age 24 and those who have chronic conditions such as diabetes or asthma.

Those 65 and older are not at as high of risk for H1N1 as younger people. Officials for both counties have urged people to talk to their family doctors to schedule a time to get the vaccines.

Here are some clinics currently scheduled:

•Ottawa County has two seasonal flu clinics set for 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Nov. 3 and Nov. 10 at its Grand Haven site, 16920 Ferris St. No more vaccine is available at its Holland or Hudsonville locations. Vaccinations will cost $30 for injection, $35 for mist, $40 for pneumonia.

•In Allegan County, H1N1 vaccinations are being offered only to high-risk groups. A doctor’s note will be required for those 6 months to 24 years old. This clinic will be 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday and 5 to 8 p.m. Monday, through Nov. 6. Call for an appointment, (269) 673-5411.

Link to Story at the Holland Sentinel

Hoekstra Votes against another Massive Spending Increase

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 04:00:00 GMT

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The House voted today to once again increase spending that will be paid for by future generations.

"Congress needs to focus on balancing the budget and reducing debt, not digging us deeper and deeper into a hole," said U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Holland. "I could not support the interior appropriations bill because of its high level of spending."

The Interior Appropriations bill contains a massive increase in spending over last year, totaling $32.2 billion in funding, which is a $4.7 billion or a 17 percent increase. Under the Democrats’ FY 2010 spending plan, all twelve bills will receive spending increases, with a total spending level of $1.09 trillion—an increase of $77 billion or 7.6 percent compared to last year.

Article of Interest: Political Uncertainty Puts Freeze on Small Businesses

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 04:00:00 GMT

By GARY FIELDS

W. Michael Brown has scaled back hiring plans in his Virginia auto-parts stores. Carl Redman halted an expansion project at his Oregon contracting business. Bill Hammack is preparing layoffs at his road-construction company in Georgia.

The economy remains unsteady 22 months after the recession began, with banks restricting credit and consumers hunkering down. For these small businesses, and many others across the country, there's an additional dark cloud: uncertainty created by Washington's bid to reorganize a wide swath of the U.S. economy.

Carl Redman, vice president of Bear Electric in Donald, Ore., shelved plans to expand his contracting business.

The economic contraction is of course the prime force driving companies to lay off workers. But a health-care overhaul grinding through Congress could bring unknown new obligations to insure employees. Bush-era tax cuts are set to end next year, and their fate is unclear. Legislation aimed at tackling climate change might raise businesses' energy costs. Meanwhile, a bill aimed at increasing transportation spending is stalled.

Many companies say they have responded by freezing hiring, cutting benefits and delaying expansion plans. With at least 60% of job growth historically coming out of the small-business sector, according to the government's Small Business Administration, that kind of inertia could impede an economic recovery.

Already, 7.2 million jobs have been lost during the recession, and forecasts show little or no job growth expected for the rest of the year.

Mr. Brown wants to expand Olympus Imported Auto Parts, his 32-year-old business, by adding two stores to his four in northern Virginia. But instead of staffing his new stores with the same number of employees as the older ones -- which would mean 40 new jobs -- he's expecting to hire only 15 people. He'll likely transfer some current workers to new stores.

His business, selling auto parts, has been fine during the recession, he said. "Historically we've been a recession-proof industry," he said, since people are more likely to repair vehicles than buy new ones in tough economic times.

He cut overtime for many of his 150 employees in anticipation of facing fresh health-care costs. He's worried about getting hit by higher taxes next year, which would cut into income to pay for expansion, raises, bonuses, new product lines and delivery trucks.

Company owners have passionate positions on each of these issues, but mostly they say they want more certainty about future costs.

"There's so much trepidation out there," said Mr. Brown. "The thing I'm struggling with is how the potential government takeover of health care coupled with impending taxes will impact my company."

One likely health-care proposal suggests imposing a per-employee fee on companies that have more than 50 workers and don't provide coverage. Mr. Brown currently provides Blue Cross coverage for his employees. He pays 75% of the premium for single employees and 50% for family coverage. With a fight expected over the bill that just passed the Senate Finance Committee, it is unclear how he will be affected.

Employment data released this month showed worse-than-expected job losses. According to a National Federation of Independent Business survey, 16% of small business owners said they plan to cut staff or not fill vacancies, a three-percentage-point increase over August. Only 7% said they planned to create new jobs.

The survey concludes that more business owners are planning to contract than expand. In August, businesses were split equally.

There is little reliable data explaining why companies are retrenching despite signs of life in the economy, including recent increases in production in some industries and rises in housing prices and new home sales. However, a variety of organizations that monitor business behavior, including the NFIB, the Associated General Contractors of America and the National Small Business Association, say political uncertainty is a substantial factor, alongside other more typical problems, such as availability of credit.

"No question, this is a tough issue for a lot of these companies," said David Wyss, chief economist at ratings firm Standard & Poor's. "It's all anecdotal, and it affects everybody differently, but the one common factor is people postpone decisions, and I'm afraid that's going to slow us down coming out of the recession."

Mr. Wyss said the resulting lack of hiring is one reason he's forecasting just 1.5% growth in the economy for 2010. "It's better than going down but it's not going to be fun."

Academic economists have long noted a link between economic growth and the political environment. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, in his 1979 Ph.D. thesis, wrote that "increased uncertainty provides an incentive to defer...investments in order to wait for new information."

Wharton School of Business Professor Raffi Amit cites the Obama administration's pending overhaul of banking regulations as another drag. He said it will likely require banks to hold more money in reserve, potentially reducing the pool of funds available to make loans.

That combines with uncertainty about other issues, he said. "Obviously people are worried about what health-care costs are going to be. Nobody knows. Taxes, who knows?"

Rep. Mike Coffman (R., Colo.), a member of the House Small Business Committee, said he hears most often from small-business owners about the financial obligations they will face because of taxes and health care. The transportation appropriations bill is another issue, he said.

"I think there is a lot of cash on the sidelines that isn't going to come until Washington" makes some decisions, he said.

Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D. N.Y.), chairwoman of the House Small Business Committee, said Congress has endeavored to take into account small businesses as it works on health care, climate change and financial regulation. She acknowledged the need for certainty in a recent hearing about the pending expiration of a tax break for first-time homeowners.

"Small firms want to see these matters addressed so they know what the rules are, can make informed decisions and plan for the future," she said in a written statement.

Mr. Brown has cut back on hiring plans and overtime for many employees.

The White House referred calls to the Small Business Administration. SBA spokesman Jonathan Swain said officials there "haven't heard the specific concern" over uncertainty out of Washington. "Of course, we do know it's not been an easy year for small business." He said the agency has been working to help small businesses, which are key to the economic recovery, since they employ more than half of the workers in the U.S. Last week, the Obama administration said it would try to shift its bailout funds towards local banks that would in turn provide financing for small businesses.

Small businesses are generally defined as companies with fewer than 500 employees. However, the designation varies in different sectors and industries, with the number of employees and revenue factored in.

Mr. Redman, vice president of Bear Electric Inc. of Donald, Ore., said he'd rather be expanding his operation during a recession, with prices for things such as land, equipment and construction likely more affordable. He's also thought about adding to his 90-person staff.

"We'd love to step out on the limb and hire more people just to get more folks working, but things are so frightening, and number one on that list is health care," he said. "Second is taxes."

In past downturns, Mr. Redman said, he tried to expand his electrical-contracting business. This time, his company had plans drawn up by a local architect for a 10,000-square-foot addition to the warehouse where it maintains its inventory. Having more inventory on hand means he could handle more jobs quickly without waiting for supplies to come in.

The design had been approved by the city. A contract and construction were next.

"We pulled the plug," he said. "I made the decision based on all the unknowns. I didn't think it would be wise to make the expenditure because I don't know if I will need the money to pay for something else."

Mr. Redman also shelved trying to use the federal "cash for clunkers" program to buy new vehicles, in part because the health-care debate was at full boil. "In a recession, you want to spend cash to get out of the recession. But with this sword hanging over my head, I'm afraid to use my resources to buy more equipment or hire more people."

Often lost in the furor over health care is a transportation-appropriations law that was set to expire last month, leaving in limbo a six-year, $450 billion spending plan for highway construction, mass transit and other projects, as well as an additional $50 billion for high-speed rail. At the last minute, Congress extended the bill for one more month.

But without a reauthorization bill to replace the existing law, transportation funding remains at current levels for an indefinite period. That has made states and companies reluctant to start new, long-term projects until they know how much the future funding will be.

Mr. Hammack, president of C.W. Matthews Contracting Co., one of the largest road-construction companies in Georgia, said the ripple effect of the delay has already reached firms like his. His company had already laid off 700 of its 2,000 employees since 2007 because of the recession.

Now the delay in passage of the transportation-bill reauthorization and the dearth of state contracts means he's planning to lay off as many as 200 more employees by the end of the year.

"You can't proceed under business as normal when there's no clear direction out there," he said. "It's too dangerous to bet on the future and put your company in financial jeopardy."

He said the Obama administration's $787 billion stimulus package, while a positive shot, hasn't provided long-term help for heavy-construction companies such as his. "The stimulus package, at least as it relates to Georgia, isn't putting the heavy equipment to work that moves dirt," he said. "It's been asphalt work. It's not a sustainable cure for what ails the transportation industry."

Paul Campbell, executive vice president of Wheeler Machinery Co., a Caterpillar dealer in Salt Lake City, said Utah's contract work has ground to a standstill as well. "There's a trickledown when you mess with infrastructure," he said. "It has a freezing effect on everything." At his firm, this has meant 221 layoffs. He is considering more among the 629 employees left.

"There's very little private money going into any kind of construction," Mr. Campbell said. "You take the federal contracts out of that and it gets a whole lot worse really quick."

Sandy Abalos, of Abalos & Associates PLLC in Phoenix, is cutting benefits at her certified public accountant firm. She still pays 100% of health-care coverage for her 16 employees, but stopped making 401k contributions. She also stopped profit-sharing, a recent step to hold some cash in reserve in case health-care costs and taxes rise. She is trying to maintain staffing levels and leave salaries alone.

"These are people who have worked with me for 15 years. They're like family," she said. "I've told everybody there will not be bonuses, so they can plan their own financial life. Everybody has had to pull back."

http://www.house.gov/htbin/leave_site?ln_url=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125659324579108943.html#printMode

Article of Interest: Intelligence Review Needed

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 04:00:00 GMT

Intelligence Review Needed

By Paula A. DeSutter

Few intelligence assessments have proved more controversial than the November 2007 National Intelligence Estimate "Iran: Nuclear Intentions and Capabilities," which stated that Iran's nuclear weapons program had been halted in 2003.

Mostly because of this conclusion, the NIE was received with incredulity and suspicion. Those on the right viewed the NIE as an effort by Bush administration opponents within the intelligence community to undermine the administration's credibility and policy efforts. Having finally succeeded at getting the Iran nuclear issue referred to the United Nations Security Council from the International Atomic Energy Agency after a five-year effort, the Bush administration was trying to bring additional pressure on Iran, including the possible threat of force under U.N. auspices.

Those on the left also saw the NIE as part of a political plot. They suspected that Bush administration political appointees had manipulated the intelligence so the assessment would promote the administration's feckless efforts to rein in the Iranian nuclear program. These Bush detractors believed the NIE was an effort to turn the failure of Bush policies on Iran and nonproliferation into a success.

My view on the NIE was that it reflected not political motivations in either direction, but arrogance that allowed the U.S. intelligence community to be victim to a likely Iranian denial and deception program.

On Sept. 25, in both a statement by President Obama and a background briefing by senior administration officials, the public was first informed about a covert Iranian nuclear facility. Senior administration officials said the U.S. intelligence community had "been aware of this facility for several years; we've been watching the construction, we've been building up a case so that we were sure that we had very strong evidence, irrefutable evidence, that the intent of this facility was as an enrichment plant." We learned that Mr. Obama, as president-elect, was briefed on the matter during the transition but that the intelligence oversight committees were not briefed on the facility until Sept. 23. The Obama administration asserted that the Sept. 23 briefings met the requirement that the intelligence community keep Congress "currently and fully informed."

The senior administration briefers, moreover, refused to answer several questions regarding how the newly revealed information could be reconciled with the 2007 Iran NIE. To revisit the salience of those questions, recall that the NIE stated: "We judge with high-confidence that in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program." Though a now infamous footnote defined the Iranian nuclear weapons program to exclude the once covert but by then publicly exposed elements of the Iranian program, even the 2007 NIE defined "nuclear weapons program" to include "covert uranium conversion-related and uranium enrichment-related work."

By any reasonable standard, construction of a covert uranium enrichment facility such as the one near Qom constitutes "uranium enrichment-related work." Yet the NIE states that "we assess with moderate confidence Tehran had not restarted its nuclear weapons program as of mid-2007."

According to the definition the intelligence community used in the 2007 NIE, only covert enrichment facilities can be part of a nuclear weapons program. This has lent support to false assertions by Iran and others that once a facility is known and visited by the International Atomic Energy Agency, it can be considered part of a "peaceful" program even if Iran tried to keep it covert, as it did with Natanz and the facility it destroyed and bulldozed to keep the IAEA from taking samples.

Now the Qom facility has been "outed." The 2007 NIE definition may now be used to support acceding to Iran's request that we agree to Russia or France providing assistance to Iran's "peaceful program," which could include that nuclear facility at Qom as well as Natanz. This is dangerous business.

The ranking Republican on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI), Rep. Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, has proposed an excellent way to sort out this mess. He has called for bipartisan support for the establishment of an Independent Red Team of outside experts to examine the recent revelations about Iran's nuclear weapons program.

Given that the 2007 NIE was completed during the Bush administration, Democrats should be able to put aside concerns regarding an independent outside review. Since the Democrats control both the Senate and House, they certainly could ensure that the Democratic perspective gets a majority voice in any outside panel.

This call for support and assistance for congressional oversight is both timely and essential. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, California Democrat, Sen. Christopher S. Bond, Missouri Republican, and Rep. Silvestre Reyes, Texas Democrat and chairman of the House Select Committee on Intelligence, should urgently support the call for the Independent Red Team.

Paula A. DeSutter is former assistant secretary of state for verification, compliance and implementation and is a former professional staff member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

USDA, Hoekstra Announce Business Loan Guarantee Workshops

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 04:00:00 GMT

The U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Holland, have announced a series of seminars to educate the business community about the Business & Industry Guarantee Loan Program offered through Rural Development.

The recent release of funds through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) has brought an unprecedented opportunity to Michigan.

“In the current difficult economic environment, it is more imperative than ever to leverage opportunities to create jobs and economic growth,” Hoekstra said. “I encourage community leaders in West Michigan to attend the USDA seminars to learn how they can benefit from the program.”

Target Audience:
· Commercial Lenders
· Banking Leaders
· Community Leaders
· Economic Development Officials
· Business Owners

Discussion Topics:
· State Funding Goal -- $57 million of Guarantee ARRA Funds
· Eligible Areas
· Eligible Projects
· ARRA Enhancements
· Application Process
· Underwriting Criteria

The dates and locations are as follows:

Thursday, Nov. 5
10 a.m. – The Starting Block, 1535 Industrial Park Drive, Hart
1 p.m. – Fremont Public Library, 104 E. Main St., Fremont

Thursday, Nov. 12
9 a.m. – JSJ Corporate Offices (Sherwood Room), 700 Robbins Road, Grand Haven

Tuesday, Nov. 17
11 a.m. – Michigan Alternative and Renewable Energy Center, 200 Meridian Drive, Muskegon

Tuesday, Dec. 1
9:30 a.m. – Herrick District Library, 300 S. River Ave., Holland

“The seminars are an exciting opportunity to help the West Michigan economy,” said Lisa Epple of the USDA. “Please mark your calendar for the workshop nearest to you. We hope to see you there.”

All of the events are free and open to the public.

-30-

This institution is an equal opportunity provider, and employer.