HANOVER, N.H. – As part of her commitment to creating jobs and growing the economy, Congresswoman Annie Kuster (NH-02) today launched her “Jobs and Opportunity” tour with a stop at Dartmouth College’s Thayer School of Engineering. There, Kuster met with faculty and students of the school’s award-winning Engineering Entrepreneurship program, which integrates business leadership training into the curriculum, and she discussed how the program relates directly to her Middle Class Jobs and Opportunity Agenda.

To mark the beginning of her second year in Congress, Kuster unveiled the Jobs and Opportunity Agenda earlier this month. This blueprint, based on meetings with Granite State residents, families, business owners and others, outlines common sense, bipartisan steps to help grow the economy, foster innovation and create jobs.

“Not only is the Thayer School conducting some of the world’s most innovative engineering research, but through the Engineering Entrepreneurship program, it’s preparing students to lead the 21^st century economy,” Kuster said. “That’s what my Middle Class Jobs and Opportunity Agenda is all about. This plan takes ideas from students and educators, like those at the Thayer School, and it shapes them into a cohesive vision that can help to create jobs and grow the economy, both here in the Granite State and all across the country.”

During her visit to the Thayer School, Kuster discussed the importance of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math education (STEM), as well as the Research and Development Tax Credit Extension Act and other elements of the Jobs and Opportunity plan. The R&D Tax Credit Act would extend and make permanent the research and development tax credit, an essential tool to help maintain the United States’ leadership in the global innovation economy.

The Thayer School is among the oldest professional engineering schools in the country. The school’s Engineering Entrepreneurship program partners with Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business to integrate leadership and entrepreneurship training into the undergraduate and graduate-level curriculum.

From supporting small business to reducing the deficit in a balanced way, the Jobs and Opportunity Agenda touches on a wide range of issues. It includes proposals to increase investments in workforce development; extend lower interest rates on subsidized student loans; and provide tax credits to companies relocating to the United States, among many others.

Kuster plans to highlight the plan and continue the conversation with Granite Staters throughout 2014. She started this week with the launch of her Jobs and Opportunity tour, which includes business visits and roundtables, among other events, in Hanover, Claremont and Plymouth.

The full text of Kuster’s Middle Class Jobs and Opportunity Agenda is available here.

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