CONTRIBUTE

Springfield, PA, July 26 – Representative Bryan Lentz, the Democratic nominee for Congress in Pennsylvania’s 7th Congressional District, announced he will be launching a ten-week, 25-stop economic listening tour on Tuesday to gather proposals and ideas from local business leaders and members of the work force about encouraging job growth in the region.

The tour, which will run throughout the months of August and September, will include stops at local businesses in some of the region’s important industries, like health care, education and manufacturing, as well as town hall forums, and stops at company shift changes to gain input from the area’s work force and residents. It will kick off tomorrow at New Way Air Bearings in Aston, a manufacturer in Delaware County, where Lentz will meet with owners of the company, followed by a guided tour of the facility.

Lentz has already introduced a five-point proposal for generating job growth, including giving companies incentives to invest and expand, and providing educational opportunities to train employees in fields where demand was growing, like math and engineering. He said he would use the ten-week tour of businesses in Delaware, Chester and Montgomery counties to fine tune his proposal to ensure that it was meeting the demands of local businesses and working families.  

"These are the businesses that create jobs and their owners need to have their voice heard as we get our economy growing again,” Lentz said. “That is why I will be seeking input from the entrepreneurs and hard working men and women who drive our local economy.”

Lentz’s first stop on the tour, New Way Air Bearings, is an innovative manufacturer of precision components that are used in machines that make semiconductors and flat-screen televisions. The company recently added 15 new jobs, and continues to invest heavily in research and development to expand into new areas, such as generating electricity through wind power.

“It’s companies like New Way that we should be working with to implement policies that will help them create new products and generate more good-paying jobs,” Lentz said. “The proposals that result from this tour will have a meaningful impact for all businesses across the region.”

Lentz has made saving and creating jobs the cornerstone of his campaign for Congress. He is the only candidate with a published plan to get our economy moving again and the only candidate who supports Wall Street reform and the creation of a consumer financial protection agency to ensure another collapse does not happen.  Lentz has also pledged to end tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas while his opponent Pat Meehan has signed a pledge to continue rewarding companies that outsource American jobs.