[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 85 (Friday, June 18, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H4573-H4577]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            ECONOMIC GROWTH

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 7, 2003, the gentleman from California (Mr. Dreier) is 
recognized for 60 minutes.
  Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, I have some prepared remarks that I would 
like to offer to our colleagues this evening about economic growth and 
how important that is, but before that I would like to join, as my 
colleagues did earlier, in extending condolences and our thoughts and 
prayers to the family of Paul Marshall Johnson, as we have all seen in 
the last couple of hours, who was tragically killed in Riyadh, Saudi 
Arabia, and it clearly has underscored our Nation's resolve and the 
resolve of the civilized world to deal with this issue.
  It is out of this tragedy we have gotten the news that Abdulaziz 
Muqrin, who has links to al Qaeda, was shot in the gunfire that took 
place afterward,

[[Page H4574]]

and he reportedly is responsible for the tragic death of Mr. Johnson, 
and we hope very much that this will play a role in moving us down 
towards victory in this global war on terrorism.
  My remarks, Mr. Speaker, are on the issue of the economy, and there 
is, in fact, a direct correlation because a strong, dynamic, growing 
U.S. economy will do a couple of things.
  First, it will help us ensure that we have the revenues necessary to 
fight the global war on terrorism. A strong, growing U.S. economy 
clearly will have a ripple effect to other parts of the world, 
developing Nations in our quest to deal with this war on terrorism as 
we know many people who have been attracted to terrorist activities 
have been doing so in part seeking economic opportunity. So economic 
growth is something that is very important as we tackle and continue to 
expand on this global war on terrorism.
  Mr. Speaker, the word ``revolution'' gets a lot of talk these days, 
perhaps even some overuse. A Google search comes up with everything 
from the yoga revolution to the low-carb revolution to something called 
a stencil revolution. I had no idea that the art of stenciling even 
could be revolutionized, but tonight, I am going to talk about a 
phenomenon that is truly deserving of the label, and that is the 
productivity revolution.
  Large, sustained bursts of productivity growth have fundamentally 
changed our entire economy in the past, and I believe we are witnessing 
a new wave of productivity growth that is changing the face of our 
economy once again. I would like to note that I believe this discussion 
is particularly timely given the recent onslaught of policy proposals, 
most notably coming from the presumptive Democratic presidential 
nominee Mr. Kerry. Those would actually reduce the productivity of 
American companies.
  Currently, productivity is booming in this country. Last year, U.S. 
nonfinancial businesses increased productivity by 5.7 percent, the 
largest increase since we began collecting data. Again, that increase 
was 5.7 percent, the largest since 1959 when the data was first being 
collected.
  Private sector productivity overall grew nearly as much, at a rate of 
5.5 percent. Manufacturing productivity jumped 5.1 percent last year 
which followed a spike of 7.2 percent in the previous year, but these 
sharp increases over the last several quarters are part of a long-term 
trend of growing productivity throughout our entire economy.
  Nowhere is this revolution more apparent than in manufacturing, where 
productivity has grown an astonishing 72 percent. That is over the last 
20 years, which is nearly double the rate of productivity growth in the 
economy that we have overall, a 72 percent productivity growth in the 
manufacturing sector of our economy, nearly twice the overall rate of 
productivity growth.
  American companies that produce goods have been at the front of the 
line of businesses adopting new technologies and business strategies to 
be more productive. As a result, the American manufacturing sector 
today is stronger than ever before, and it is getting even stronger as 
we speak. They make more from less, and that is vitally good news for 
the overall economy, but in order to get a full understanding of 
exactly what I mean by productivity revolution and the fundamental 
changes to U.S. manufacturing that are taking place as a result, I 
think we need to take a big step back and take a look at much of our 
economic history.
  By looking at an earlier productivity revolution that also brought 
about fundamental change, we can get a sense of how things are changing 
today. We can see what it means for our economy, and even more 
important, what it means to people who work in manufacturing jobs.
  The first major transformation in American economic history was from 
an agrarian economy to the heavy industrial economy. It was such a 
major change that it really meant a change in our entire society, from 
the agrarian society of the late 1700s to the post-World War II America 
that our Nation experienced.
  The American farm did not wither away. American farmers did not 
become unproductive. In fact, the driving force behind the 
transformation was just the opposite. American farms became the most 
productive in the world and are among the most productive today. They 
produce vastly more than they have at any time in our Nation's history, 
but if we just look at the jobs side, the number of Americans working 
on farms, we could think that things went horribly wrong if we just 
looked at jobs.
  In the early years of our country, 95 percent of Americans worked on 
the farm, but at the start of the 20th century, well into transition 
from that agrarian to an industrial economy, farm jobs still accounted 
for 40 percent of all America, going from 95 percent down to 40 
percent.
  Today, the number of farm jobs in the United States of America is 
just 3 percent of our economy. So the question is, did we lose millions 
of farm jobs in America in the 20th century? Think about the fact that 
40 percent of American jobs were agriculture jobs. Today, there are 140 
million working Americans. Based on the 1900 economy, we should have 56 
million farm jobs here in the United States, but instead, as I said, we 
have 4.2 million farm jobs. Have we really lost over 50 million 
American farm jobs?
  The real question we must ask, Mr. Speaker, is the American farm 
economy better off than it was at the start of the 20th century? Is the 
American economy, the farm economy, actually better off than it was 100 
years ago, and the answer is an unquestionable yes. American farms 
produce vastly more than they ever could have produced without modern 
technology, and they are doing it with a tiny fraction of the human 
capital that was necessary before the agricultural productivity 
revolution began, and perhaps most significantly, these productivity 
gains freed up millions of workers to initiate and advance the 
industrial revolution, paving the way for our modern economy.
  So American farms today produce more food, more cheaply, with fewer 
people than ever before. Food is so cheap that our biggest emerging 
health problem is what? Obesity.
  Now, what does this have to do with the American manufacturing 
sector? Just like our agriculture sector over a century ago, 
productivity in American manufacturing industries is on a long-term 
upward path.

                              {time}  1845

  U.S. manufacturing workers are producing more with less. They are 
reducing waste. They are harnessing new technologies and making the 
entire sector more efficient and competitive.
  At the same time, wages have been steadily climbing. Technology is a 
huge part of the equation, with computers and robotics doing what 
tractors and fertilizers did on the farm over the past 200 years and 
steam engines did in an earlier generation of factories.
  The result is that U.S. manufacturing has grown to be so large, the 
sector is now bigger than the entire Chinese economy. Again, the U.S. 
manufacturing sector of our economy is so large that it is larger than 
the entire economy of the People's Republic of China.
  At the same time, employment has fallen for 25 years, while the 
average wages and productivity of the remaining workers have continued 
to go up.
  And just like the productivity revolution that swept our agrarian 
economy, huge advances in our manufacturing sector have led to a 
fundamental transformation of our entire economy, from heavy industry 
to our high-tech 21st century economy.
  As U.S. manufacturers have become increasingly productive and 
efficient over the past 2 decades, more and more Americans have found 
jobs in cutting-edge fields in the services sector. They are working as 
financial advisers and wedding coordinators and software engineers, 
among other areas.
  And just like their counterparts in the manufacturing sector, booming 
productivity is changing the way that they work too. Technology gains 
and better business practices, not to mention the lower costs brought 
about by open trade, have empowered Americans in virtually every part 
of our economy to become more productive. The tech boom of the 1990s 
clearly changed the way Americans do business. The Internet and the 
rapid proliferation of personal computers allowed workers to 
communicate efficiently and quickly.
  Data could be transferred with the click of a mouse. The world became 
a

[[Page H4575]]

smaller place, and we all were able to accomplish more in less time and 
with fewer resources.
  But the real story of the productivity revolution is not just greater 
efficiency. If we look at the impact on the overall economy, the 
results are even more significant. American consumers now purchase more 
products and better products for less money. That increase in 
purchasing power means that our standard of living has gone up and 
continues to go up, and Americans with the skills and energy to 
contribute to the economy are able to move into other more productive 
work, enlarging the overall economic pie.
  In fact, Mr. Speaker, productivity growth is so fundamental to both 
growth in GDP and a rising standard of living that most economists 
agree it is the single most important economic factor for improving our 
quality of life.
  Now, the economist Paul Krugman, whom I have debated on more than a 
few occasions and has a tendency to look at the world a little 
differently than I, writes in his book ``The Age of Diminished 
Expectations'': ``A country's ability to improve its standard of living 
over time depends almost entirely on productivity growth.''
  Now, Princeton economist William Baumol and Susan Blackman with New 
York University, along with New York University economist Edward Wolff, 
write in their book entitled ``Productivity and American Leadership'': 
``It can be said without exaggeration that in the long run, probably 
nothing is as important for economic welfare as the rate of 
productivity growth.''
  Our Joint Economic Committee's recent productivity primer states that 
``labor productivity is the most important driver of our standard of 
living, and its continued rapid growth is great news for the long-run 
prosperity of the American people.''
  Mr. Speaker, the report goes on to say that high productivity is a 
sign of a healthy, growing economy and points out that if productivity 
had not fallen during the stagflation days of the 1970s and early 
1980s, it says, ``Our standard of living today would be approximately 
50 percent higher, adding an extra $5 trillion to the U.S. economy.''
  We have an $11 trillion economy today; and had we not seen that 
productivity slow down during the stagflation period of the 1970s, the 
economy of the United States would be roughly $16 trillion.
  But there has been a lot of anxiety and stress in the American 
economy caused by this productivity-led long-term transition. This, by 
the way, was also the case during the height of the Industrial 
Revolution, when similar long-term economic trends caused great anxiety 
among the many people impacted by changes in the agrarian society.
  Manufacturing workers, in particular, have had to cope with a great 
deal of anxiety. While productivity growth has steadily reduced 
employment even as the sector becomes bigger and stronger, recent 
short-term cycles have made times even tougher.

  The 2001 recession led to a sharp drop in business investment, which 
left U.S. manufacturers struggling. This weak domestic demand was made 
worse by a worldwide downturn that clearly hurt U.S. exports. This 
temporary, but very painful, loss of customers, both here at home and 
abroad, delivered a tough blow to America's manufacturing workers. We 
all acknowledge that.
  But the past couple of months have brought us very good news, Mr. 
Speaker. Our booming economy has stepped up demand for manufactured 
goods, particularly high-tech goods. Consumer spending is strong, and 
business investment is on the rise, causing manufacturing output to 
increase steadily for a year, and growing markets overseas, like China 
and India, are importing U.S. products at rapidly growing rates. Our 
exports to China alone grew by almost 30 percent in the past year.
  Let me underscore that again as we got the news today of the current 
account deficit. Our exports alone last year to the People's Republic 
of China grew by almost 30 percent.
  These strong economic gains have led the turnaround in manufacturing 
employment. Last month 32,000 manufacturing jobs were created, the 
fourth straight monthly increase and the strongest employment gains in 
manufacturing in 45 months. With demand for U.S. goods steadily rising, 
our manufacturing sector is on track for regaining the jobs that were 
lost due to the short-term downturn.
  But what about the long-term trend of fewer and fewer manufacturing 
workers and the anxiety that comes with it? The productivity revolution 
is improving the quality of life for nearly everyone; but just like 
millions of farm workers, many generations ago, American workers today 
must increasingly find work outside of the manufacturing sector. Where 
will these Americans find work? What are the kinds of jobs that are 
being created? An easy and logical way to find booming job creation is 
to take a look at the booming consumer demand. What are we spending our 
money on? What areas of our economy are witnessing big increases in 
demand?
  Mr. Speaker, one of those areas happens to be health care. We have an 
aging and more health-conscious population. We have had major 
breakthroughs in pharmaceuticals and biotechnology. Many people believe 
we are on the cusp of a new wave of biotechnology advancements and 
investments that will lead to new cures and help Americans live longer, 
healthier lives.
  These factors have led to a greater share of our economy being 
dedicated to health care. This trend is not just being led by the 
elderly. I know there is a sense that as we look at the aging 
population, that all health care costs are focused on the elderly. In 
fact, while health care spending by the 65-and-older set edged up by 
only 2.7 percent last year, spending by the under-25 demographic 
increased by a remarkable 20.8 percent.
  Mr. Speaker, as Americans become more and more health conscious, 
health-related spending across all demographics from the very young to 
the very old will continue to rise. This strong demand for health-
related products and services is driving job creation at the same time. 
In the past year, physicians' offices hired an additional 45,000 
employees, outpatient care centers grew by 9,000 workers, and hospitals 
added 59,000 people. In just 12 months, the health care industry 
created nearly a quarter of a million jobs, 225,000 new jobs to be 
precise.
  But this trend in job creation is more than just a year old. 
Virtually every health-related field has been growing rapidly over the 
past decade. Physical therapists have grown by 90 percent. Medical 
assistants have grown by over 70 percent. Home health aides have grown 
by 138 percent. Rising demand in health care is not just a product, as 
I said, of an aging population. It is also due to the fact that 
Americans, particularly younger Americans, are becoming more health 
conscious. As a result, job creation in more nontraditional forms of 
health services is growing rapidly as well.
  I frequently cite the example of the tremendous increase of massage 
therapists; and my comments when I talk about that are usually greeted 
with snickers, but let us keep in mind that massage therapy is a 
service that more and more Americans are incorporating into their 
health care regimes. Whether it is for treatment of chronic pain or 
ailments or simply to promote general well-being, more and more people 
are relying on massage therapy. And in terms of job quality, this is a 
profession that pays upwards of $35 an hour, often quite a bit more 
than that. Furthermore, massage therapists often have the privilege of 
working independently, which is something that draws a lot of people to 
that sector. Greater demand for this type of health service has again 
resulted in greater job creation.
  In the past 8 years, the number of massage therapists in this country 
has more than doubled, growing from 120,000 back in 1996 to nearly 
300,000 today. The rapid growth of spa centers across the country 
indicates that the pace of job creation in this field is going to 
quicken as well. And with baby boomers set to begin retiring in the 
near future, the dual trends of increasing demand and increasing job 
creation in the health care industry overall show no sign whatsoever of 
slowing down anytime soon.

  Mr. Speaker, the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics 
estimates that the health care industry will be one of the largest job 
creators over the next decade. Home health care services, offices of 
physicians, outpatient care centers, and hospitals will

[[Page H4576]]

all increase employment over the next 4 years by over 16 percent. Over 
the next 8 to 10 years, the BLS, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 
predicts that they will grow nearly 50 percent.
  Rising consumer spending on health care is obviously spurring a 
vigorous debate in Congress over how we will ultimately pay for health 
services and products. It is an important debate and will no doubt be 
ongoing as the industry continues to evolve. But there is no question 
that this rapidly increasing demand is fueling robust job growth and 
will continue to do so for many years to come.
  Another broad area of consumer spending that continues on the rise is 
housing. Today, the homeownership rate is nearly 70 percent, the 
highest ever in this country. Nearly 70 percent of the American people 
own homes. Last year, more houses were bought and sold than ever before 
in our Nation's history and new-home sales increased by 22 percent.
  The rate of spending on real estate in 2004 is still very strong. 
While new-home sales have tapered slightly over the past 2 months, they 
are still up nearly 13 percent over the past 12 months, an almost 
unprecedented increase. In addition, second homeownership is growing 
rapidly as well. Fueled by baby boomers with empty nests, spending on 
second homes now exceeds $19 billion a year. That is nearly double what 
it was 10 years ago.
  Of course the housing boom spurs growth in sectors like real estate 
and construction, but a number of related sectors benefit as well, 
marketing, finance, home improvement and insurance among others. The 
housing sector directly accounts for about 13 percent of total gross 
domestic product in any given year. But this figure is expanded by 
another 6 percent when you include the indirect boost in spending on 
items like utilities, furniture, and other housing-related expenses. 
The multiplier effect is 1.4 to 1.6 in real estate, or, in other words, 
for every $1 spent on housing, GDP increases by $1.40 to $1.60. Because 
of this, a dramatic increase in homeownership is very good news for our 
economy.
  The increased spending on housing has also had a direct impact on 
employment in related sectors. In the past year, real estate 
employment, including brokers and agents, grew by 24,000 jobs. 
Architectural and engineering services grew by 7,000 jobs, and the BLS 
predicts 18 percent growth over the next 4 years.
  An interesting twist to this homeownership trend is that while more 
Americans own homes than ever before, people are spending less and less 
time at home. One effect this is having on consumer spending and in 
turn job creation is greater reliance on services than goods. For 
example, homeowners are increasingly likely to hire a lawn specialist 
rather than purchase new lawn mowers. This, of course, mirrors the 
overall trend in our labor force in which more and more workers are 
finding jobs that provide skilled and often individualized services.
  Another growing area of our consumer spending can actually be found 
in the increasingly significant spending habits of teenagers and 
college students. Spending in these age groups has grown extremely 
quickly in recent years. While this category generally doubled every 10 
years for most of the second half of the 20th century, it tripled 
during the 1990s.
  So what are these consumers spending their money on? One trend among 
members of Generation X and Generation Y, particularly males, is that 
they are watching less and less TV and are turning to other forms of 
entertainment, particularly the Internet, computer gaming and DVDs. 
While spending on TVs increased by 5 percent last year, spending on 
other forms of electronic entertainment like video gaming jumped by 
almost 11 percent. The result has been growing employment in high-tech 
entertainment industries. For example, companies that create Web 
content like eBay and Yahoo have created several thousand new jobs in 
just the last few months.
  Growing Internet use has also spurred growth in online advertising 
and e-commerce. Large employers in these sectors like Amazon.com and 
Google are also hiring at a rapid rate for the first time in several 
years. Employment in Internet publishing and broadcasting is on the 
rise, growing 7 percent in the past year. This trend appears to have 
staying power, with the BLS predicting growth in these sectors of over 
21 percent in the next 4 years. But demand for Internet content and 
computer gaming and the jobs they help create are obviously just a 
narrow slice of the much bigger high-tech picture, and demand for high-
tech products overall is just a narrow slice of the total impact that 
the industry has on our economy at large.
  As I discussed earlier, the high-tech boom has been the key factor in 
the emergence of our 21st century economy and the productivity 
revolution that ushered it in. Experts and analysts agree that our 
1990s tech boom was to a great extent made possible by the falling 
prices of IT hardware. As demand met supply, companies across America 
incorporated high-tech products and services in their business plans 
and the results were nothing less than revolutionary. This process 
resulted in job creation in fields like systems administration and IT 
product manufacturing.
  But looking at the impact of the high-tech boom in terms of job 
creation in directly related fields is like saying the significance of 
the invention of the wheel was that it created wheel-producing jobs. 
The real significance of the information technology revolution is that 
it went hand in hand with our productivity revolution. It fundamentally 
changed how business does business and made American workers 
tremendously more productive. And it unleashed a powerful new wave of 
innovation and entrepreneurship.
  Online advertising and computer gaming are just the very tip of the 
iceberg. The high-tech boom has, for example, enabled 430,000 
Americans, nearly half a million Americans, to make their entire living 
by selling and buying on eBay. As I said, that is nearly half a million 
Americans who run their own business by using a service that was not in 
existence just 10 years ago. Our IT and productivity revolutions are 
giving more and more Americans the ability to work independently.

                              {time}  1900

  And this is incredibly good news. A recent FedEx survey found that 
while 10 percent of Americans own their own business, two-thirds said 
they dreamed of owning their own business some day, and an astonishing 
55 percent said that they would leave their current job and start a 
business if they had a chance to do so. Almost half of the respondents, 
according to that survey, said that the primary reason they would start 
a business was that they wanted to do something that they loved or 
enjoyed.
  By making opportunities for entrepreneurship cheaper and more 
accessible, the Internet and our high tech economy are helping millions 
of Americans realize their dream of being their own boss and doing 
something that they love. This powerful American drive to innovate and 
create and work independently is at the crux of our productivity 
revolution. American innovation led to the creation of new information 
technologies, but it did not just stop there. IT products do not 
integrate themselves into the economy. Hard working and creative 
Americans harnessed technology, incorporated it into nearly every 
aspect of our lives, and brought about a wave of productivity that is 
transforming our entire economy.
  This productivity revolution about which I have been speaking has 
been sustained as Americans continue to find new ways of harnessing 
these technologies. The Internet, for example, instantly changed how we 
viewed communications. But it takes time for new advancements to be 
fully implemented. Even today with PCs and millions of businesses, 
schools, and homes across America, we are only just beginning to 
understand the ways that technology can facilitate the things we do 
every day. As with any technological advancement, there are always lag 
times between invention, marketing, mass production, and full 
implementation. As creative Americans learn more and more about the 
technologies they are using, they will continue to drive our 
productivity revolution.
  As I discussed earlier, productivity growth is the single greatest 
factor in improving our quality of life and economists across the board 
and observers have come to that same conclusion. The average 
productivity growth

[[Page H4577]]

throughout most of the latter half of the 20th century meant that the 
American standard of living would double every 40 years. But the 1990's 
productivity revolution has accelerated that rate so much that we are 
now on track to double our standard of living every 25 years, a 
generation faster than it was increased before.
  This is hugely significant to any working family. For any parent 
working hard to ensure that their kids have the best education and the 
best opportunities possible, doubling the standard of living a 
generation faster makes all the difference in the world. And this is 
why any economic debate, whether it centers on trade or taxes or 
regulation, should come down to productivity. As policymakers, the 
question we should always be asking ourselves is, are we empowering 
Americans to be more productive or are we hindering them?
  Today I believe that we are on the right path. Productivity growth 
continues to strengthen our economy and the effects can be seen in 
virtually every economic indicator. Growth in GDP, gross domestic 
product, as we all know, is very strong, running at over 4 percent for 
2004. Consumer confidence, industrial production, and home ownership, 
as I said, are all on the upward trend, and job creation is booming. 
The Bureau of Labor Statistics' Household Survey shows the creation of 
1.5 million jobs since last August, 1.5 million jobs created since last 
August. Even the Payroll Survey, which does not count for any of the 
self-employed workers about whom I have been speaking, workers and 
independent contractors, that we know are rapidly increasing in number, 
that survey, the Payroll Survey, shows 1.1 million new jobs created 
since August and over 800,000 jobs created in the first 4 months of 
this year alone.
  But as Will Rogers once said, ``Even if you are on the right track, 
you will get run over if you just sit there.'' Today we have a number 
of opportunities to tear down remaining barriers to innovation and 
entrepreneurship, our chief engines of the productivity revolution.
  American companies face a number of factors that restrain 
productivity. Factors like frivolous litigation and excessive 
regulation diminish the ability of U.S. companies to boost their 
productivity the way they would like, thereby hindering job creation. 
The National Association of Manufacturers estimates that these barriers 
from frivolous litigation raise the cost of doing business in this 
country by as much as 25 percent. Those extra costs can be formidable 
to any company, especially small businesses, and they are holding 
Americans back from their full productivity potential. Our pro-growth 
productivity agenda must focus on our efforts to break down these 
barriers, and I am very happy that this week out of the House we were 
able to pass the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004, which is 
specifically designed to decrease the tax burden for job creators so 
that we can again have an even greater incentive for job growth.
  Unfortunately, there are many politicians, led by our colleague Mr. 
Kerry, who is, as I said, the presumptive Democratic presidential 
nominee, they are advocating just the opposite, just the opposite to 
the things that we have been pushing and, frankly, the policies that 
have led to the very positive growth about which I have been speaking. 
They are proposing policies that would actually reduce our 
productivity, a proposition that should be unthinkable in today's 
economy.
  Remarkably, the Senator from Massachusetts claimed in a recent speech 
to the Teamsters members in Las Vegas that his policies ``will make 
American businesses more competitive'' and give Americans ``a chance to 
get ahead.'' And yet Senator Kerry has actually proposed raising taxes 
on companies that have boosted their productivity and competitiveness 
by investing in growing overseas markets. He wants to renegotiate trade 
agreements that have made companies more productive by opening up new 
markets for American exports and reducing costs through inexpensive 
high-quality imports.
  But we know that the key to strengths being our economy and improving 
the standard of living for Americans is through productivity growth. We 
also know that tearing down barriers to innovation, not erecting new 
ones, is the key to increasing our Nation's productivity.
  Today we are at an economic crossroads, Mr. Speaker. Our decisions 
will have far-reaching effects that could impact our ability to grow 
and create new opportunities for many years to come. The choice is 
quite simple: Do we allow our productivity revolution to progress and 
continue to raise the American standard of living more quickly than 
ever before, or do we change course and adopt policies that slow 
productivity, stifle innovation, and diminish our ability to improve 
our quality of life?
  Mr. Speaker, I believe the latter choice is really no choice at all, 
and I have confidence that this Congress will instead choose to 
continue down the path toward a brighter future for all Americans.

                          ____________________