[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 115 (Monday, July 14, 2008)]
[House]
[Pages H6455-H6456]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                OPTIMISM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Solis) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. SOLIS. Mr. Speaker, today on a lighter note, I would like to talk 
about optimism and the wherewithal that our country has, especially 
among our young people. I want to talk about a subject that doesn't 
really get a lot of attention in this whole debate about energy and oil 
and the fact that we are now faced with skyrocketing prices at the gas 
pump.
  I want to talk about investing in our future. I want to talk about 
young people not only from my district but across the country, and I 
want to talk about what we call green jobs, green-collar jobs. Some 
people might think that's a misnomer, you know, but we have actually 
changed. Blue-collar jobs have, as you know, been outsourced to other 
countries.
  What we are attempting to do in the Congress and something that 
President Bush signed into law just last December was an act that was 
part of the energy bill, the energy package, that said we are going to 
make a difference in this country by investing in America's future. We 
will provide 10 million jobs in green technology if our government 
steps up to the plate.
  Now we are asking for that appropriation for $125 million to help 
create, and, I think, minimally, 10 million jobs, that will be reaped 
across this country that will secure our energy security here at home. 
It will also send a steep message to many nonbelievers across the 
country that we mean business, that we are actually going to keep these 
jobs here, that these jobs won't be outsourced, that they won't be 
going to China and India and Indonesia and even to Mexico, because we 
are going to make an investment here.
  It's, very simply, trying to set a precedent here to provide 
opportunities for people to get retrained or to get into new 
technology, into are renewable energy, into biofuels, and into creating 
solar panels. Those manufacturing jobs that we knew as blue-collar 
workers that my father as a teamster and other people in my district 
represented, could be retooled to help provide and incentivize our 
economy by keeping those jobs here at home.
  No more of this minimum-wage jobs, but providing good, sustainable, 
liveable-wage jobs for working men and women and people that could rely 
on this to raise a family, not in the state that we are in right now, 
where you have a single head of household, a woman, in many cases, 
that's working three jobs just to make that rent, just to make that 
electricity bill, just to get that extra gallon of gas to get to her 
job. Those are things that we know are resonating right now with our 
constituents, and they demand a change.
  It isn't just enough to say that we are going to lower the energy 
costs, they have to have a good-paying job to provide for all those 
commodities, luxuries that they need to keep their family going.

                              {time}  2000

  And one best way of doing it is by jump-starting the economy and by 
supporting the Green Jobs Act, something that the Senate and also the 
House passed again that was signed into law in December. We need $125 
million to help jump-start that program.
  I want to illustrate something here, a picture of some youngsters who 
were actually installing on a roof, who had just completed a project in 
Oakland, California, who were trained in a program, who went through an 
apprenticeship program that was done in a private and public 
partnership. It was to help install solar panels and to retrofit them 
in some of our oldest buildings in very dilapidated parts of our 
country.
  What an incentive that would be to help to jump-start our communities 
and to revitalize those communities that have been left behind by the 
manufacturing jobs that went to other countries but also to incentivize 
those places that have high unemployment like in Oakland, like in East 
Los Angeles, like in the Bronx, like in Little Havana in Florida. These 
places need relief, and the government has an obligation to help 
provide an incentive, working closely, hand in hand, with private 
industry.
  The reason I say that is that I know it works, and it's working right 
now in an obscure place in my district in East Los Angeles. The LA 
Unified School District, which doesn't always get honors for many 
things that they do, has invested in a program out of the East LA 
Skills Center to help retrain individuals. The majority of those who 
are participating right now happen to be middle-aged people who are 
saying, ``I need to get retrained into a better paying job, a job 
that's going to help me in the rest of my life and in my retirement.'' 
They're taking that challenge; they're going through training, and 
they're being offered jobs.
  One of the dilemmas that we're facing right now is that we don't have 
an adequate workforce available to fill all of these potential jobs. I 
say: Why? Why should we go outside and bring people in when we need to 
make those investments here in the United States and in Los Angeles?
  So, Mr. Speaker, I would just like to say and would like to urge my 
colleagues to support the Green Jobs Act and to provide that infusion 
of $125 million that will act as a stimulus package for our economy.

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