FREMONT, OH – U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Sandusky County leaders met on Friday for a roundtable discussion on economic development, education, infrastructure investments, and the upcoming session of Congress.

The roundtable is the second in a series of county listening sessions Brown will convene across Ohio during his second term in the Senate. In Brown’s first term, he held more than 200 community roundtable meetings, including at least one session in each of Ohio’s 88 counties.

“These roundtables – open conversations with local leaders – are really an opportunity to bring commonsense Ohio-grown ideas to the nation’s Capitol,” Brown said. “On issue after issue, roundtables like this one have helped me craft legislation with real results for hardworking Ohio families.”

Many of Brown’s successful legislative initiatives were the result of ideas generated at Ohio roundtables. For example, the idea for the Strengthening Employment Clusters to Organize Regional Success (SECTORS) Act, a bipartisan jobs bill to train workers for high-growth jobs, was sparked at a roundtable on innovation. Employers in high-growth industries noted that they could not find qualified workers to fill available positions due to a skills gap.

Brown wrote and the Senate passed the Supporting Education for Returning Veterans (SERV) Act – part of the Higher Education Reauthorization Act in 2008 – to establish veteran support programs at institutions of higher learning after meeting with veterans at Cleveland State University. He also included the cost-saving Average Crop Revenue Election (ACRE) program in the 2008 Farm Bill, after it was suggested by a Henry County farmer who attended a roundtable Brown convened.

 

                  

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