Amid highly publicized sequester cuts, growing the economy has been the focus of Congressman Steve Stivers, R-OH-15, since he was re-elected in November.
College affordability, job creation and balancing the budget are Stivers’ goals, and he has Southeast Ohioans and students in mind.
“The thing I’ve noticed is that a lot of college students who have graduated end up moving back in with their parents because there aren’t enough jobs out there or businesses are slower to expand,” Stivers said. “And I think government plays a role in creating a business environment where there are more jobs out there.”
Stivers said he is looking to review the Higher Education Act of 1965, which he said contains many burdensome rules that need to be simplified and strengthened, such as those involving the federal aid program.
“We have to empower students with the information on how to get the most bang for their buck but make informed choices as well,” Stivers said. “I think all of those things will be good for students at OU both today and in the future.”
One of the things Stivers said is an opportunity in Southeast Ohio is the Utica shale drilling, which he added must be done in a safe, environmentally friendly way.
“If we don’t continue to take advantage of that natural resource, we will find ourselves continuing to buy more and more oil from the Middle East, and our young college students might have to go overseas in the military,” he said.
Stivers co-sponsored the REINS Act, which ensures all regulation is science-based, he said.
“Again, I was a Boy Scout, an Eagle Scout,” Stivers said. “I want to make sure we don’t leave this camp site torn up. Most people in Congress support the Utica shale. We just want to make sure it’s done right too.”
Support for drilling isn’t growing locally, Athens County Commissioner Lenny Eliason said.
“There are some people that are interested in drilling and some who are against it, so it’s certainly a mixed bag,” he said. “That’s going to depend on what’s here as far as exploratory wells. I don’t know if there is a particular resolution that is going to happen anytime soon.”
Equally important to job creation is having a balanced budget, or a government that lives within its means, as Stivers said.
State Sen. Lou Gentile, D-30th of Steubenville, said his main concern involving the sequester has been the inability of Congress to work with President Barack Obama.
While dealing with a project that required federal regulators to make a swift decision, Gentile felt the immediate effects of the cuts.
“Those regulators were indicating to this company that their ability to render them a quick decision was going to be delayed because they were anticipating layoffs that would hurt their ability to have adequate staffing,” Gentile said.
While he had voted to replace the sequester cuts twice with other cuts Stivers thought would have been better, he said the only thing that might be worse than the sequester is doing nothing at all.
“I don’t love the way the sequester just indiscriminately cut spending, but we have to figure out how to move towards balance and that includes growing our economy,” Stivers said. “We’ve got to grow our economy, get people off unemployment, working and paying taxes.”
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