[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 9 (Monday, January 24, 2011)]
[House]
[Pages H420-H427]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           MAKE IT IN AMERICA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 5, 2011, the gentleman from California (Mr. Garamendi) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Speaker, I'm joined this evening by my friend from 
the great State of New Jersey (Mr. Pallone), and tonight we want to 
talk about the economy. We want to talk about what's happened over the 
last 2 years, how the United States economy has pulled itself out of 
the Great Recession and moving towards a much, much brighter future.
  Earlier today, or actually yesterday, it was reported that our 
esteemed majority leader on the opposition side issued a statement 
taking credit that in just 3 weeks, the return of the Republican Party 
to the majority in this House has led to an astounding improvement in 
the economy. Well, that's kind of like--I don't know how exactly to 
describe that as to say that's just an overemphasis of the facts and a 
complete distortion of what actually has happened.
  In the previous 2 years, as the Obama administration and the majority 
then

[[Page H421]]

held by the Democrats, my colleagues, worked to pull the American 
economy out of the Great Recession, the Republican minority voted 
``no'' on every single bill to address the problem of the economy.
  Starting with the American Recovery Act, the stimulus bill, not one 
Republican voted for it, even though that bill clearly, by all economic 
studies, created or allowed to continue well over 2 million jobs in 
this Nation. Infrastructure projects that were in my district and in 
every other district of this Nation were funded by that piece of 
legislation--yet not one Republican vote.
  In the effort to reform Wall Street and to create a stable banking 
system in this Nation, once again, not one Republican vote. On all of 
the jobs bills, not one Republican vote. On every single piece of 
legislation that was passed, not one Republican--or only a handful of 
Republicans voted for those bills that actually stopped the Great 
Recession and began to return America to employment.
  Now, really our subject matter for tonight is Make It In America. But 
before I get there, the comments that were made by the new majority 
leader deserve a complete analysis.
  This is a chart of private sector growth that goes back to December 
of 2007 when the Great Recession began. And you can see here the 
decline of private sector jobs, 2007, 2008, until January of 2009, when 
the new Obama administration came into power.
  At that point in January of 2009, the Recovery Act was passed and 
then followed by other pieces of legislation that turned the American 
economy around. And so the job loss began to taper off so that here we 
are in December of 2009, we began to see private sector job growth. 
These are not government jobs. These are all the private sector job 
growth.
  So that beginning in the fall of 2009, we began to see the private 
sector come back to life and no longer shedding jobs but, rather, 
adding jobs. And every quarter since that time, all of 2010 and again 
now in January of 2011, we are continuing to add private sector jobs.
  So the fact of the matter is--and you can say whatever you want to 
say--but at some point you really need to look at the facts. The facts 
were that every major bill to restart the American economy the 
Republican Party opposed in this House either by a unanimous ``no'' 
vote or by just a handful of Republicans voting for those pieces of 
legislation.

                              {time}  1950

  So that's really where we are today, is the situation where we are 
beginning to see the American economy come back. Job one for all 435 
Members of this House, job one is jobs for Americans. American jobs 
now, not later. Our total emphasis must be on American jobs now.
  And to bring those jobs back, one of the principal issues that the 
President will be talking about tomorrow is jobs and make it in 
America. It's high time that we can go once again to auto dealerships, 
to WalMart or Target and find ``Made in America'' on the products on 
those shelves. America still is a very strong manufacturing Nation, and 
in the strength of manufacturing we find America's economic strength.
  And so we are setting out, as we did last year, on a set of policies 
that will rebuild the American manufacturing sector. And we call it the 
strategy to Make it in America, American jobs now in the manufacturing 
sector because manufacturing matters. This is where the great middle 
class jobs are to be found, in the manufacturing sector.
  And actually back to the original thing I was talking about, General 
Motors, flat on its back, Chrysler, flat on their back, about to go 
bankrupt. The Obama administration, the Democratic Congress stepped 
forward and poured billions of dollars into those companies, 
stabilizing General Motors and tens of thousands of companies that were 
providing parts and services to General Motors. And now we find General 
Motors back healthy, strong, and reentering the private stock market. 
America, our public investment is now being recouped as General Motors 
once again becomes a strong, vibrant part of the American manufacturing 
sector.
  How many Republicans supported that? Nary a vote. Nary a vote. But we 
have General Motors and Chrysler back on their feet, once again 
providing great manufacturing jobs. That's the theme of tonight's 
discussion, How can America make it? By making it in America, 
rebuilding the great manufacturing industries of America.
  Joining me tonight is my colleague from the great State of 
Pennsylvania, and we are going to continue our discussion. So with 
permission of the Speaker, we would like to carry on a colloquy here. 
Frank?
  Mr. PALLONE. Thank you. First of all, I wanted to thank my colleague 
from California for coming down here tonight and many nights and 
talking about the Make it in America agenda and why manufacturing 
matters. And the fact of the matter is that manufacturing, there was a 
recent report out that said that manufacturing, last year for the first 
time more jobs were created in manufacturing than were lost. And I 
think that was the first time in 10 years. And we had, as you know, I 
think you mentioned over a million private sector jobs created in 2010.
  I don't like to talk about how wonderful everything is, because I 
know that it's not. I know that unemployment continues to be high, and 
many of my constituents talk to me all the time about how hard it is to 
find a job and how difficult it is for them to make ends meet; but the 
fact of the matter is that we are improving things. And we are 
beginning to see signs of the recovery; and most importantly, we are 
actually seeing more manufacturing jobs. So anybody says to me, well, 
you can't make things in America anymore, I simply say look at the 
facts. The facts are that manufacturing jobs are on the rise.
  You know, I wanted to say, I was amazed today because I came down to 
the floor, we came in, I guess, we had debate around 5:15 and then we 
voted around 6:30, and I look at the agenda for the week, and we are 
now into the fourth week of the Republican majority in the House, and 
to my knowledge not a single thing has been done or has been proposed 
to be done this week that would actually create jobs or address the 
economy.
  In fact, I was listening to the debate on this budget resolution, and 
one of your colleagues from California, Mr. Dreier, started talking 
about the deficit and health care, the health care repeal again. You 
know, for 3 weeks, or at least for 2 weeks, and 1 week of course we had 
the tragedy with our colleague Gabby Giffords, but for the last 3 weeks 
all the talk has been about repealing health care reform, which of 
course is not going to happen because the Senate's never going to take 
it up and the President is never going to sign it. So it's a complete 
waste of time. And he was talking again about how that's going to 
reduce the deficit, the repeal would reduce the deficit.
  And I got up and I said, well, it's just the opposite. The CBO, which 
at least has provided us with numbers--your budget resolution that's 
coming up tomorrow that the Republican have doesn't have any numbers--
but we know that the CBO told us that the health care reform actually 
reduces the deficit over the next 10 years by $230 and a trillion 
dollars in the second decade. And I said, you know, what is your plan? 
What is the Republican plan to reduce the deficit? What is the 
Republican plan to create jobs? What is the Republican plan to help the 
economy? And I don't see anything.

  I mean, all I see is, again, 3 weeks on repealing health care reform, 
now some budget resolution that has no numbers about, you know, what 
the budget's actually going to be, and nothing to indicate how it's 
really going to create jobs or reduce the deficit. And then I saw that 
on Wednesday we are taking up a resolution which will repeal the 
Presidential election public financing system, which again is nothing 
but another corporate giveaway, because what it means is that if we 
don't have public financing of the Presidential elections, then we are 
probably going to rely more and more on these corporate ads, these 
secret corporate ads that were used this last November that we don't 
even know where the money came from. It's all corporate money. And, 
again, I don't see anything being done by our Republican colleagues to 
address the issue of jobs.
  Now, on the other hand we have the President and you, Mr. Garamendi,

[[Page H422]]

talking about this every day. I mean, the President, you know, we sort 
of got a little prelude to what he is going to do in the State of the 
Union tomorrow, but the whole focus is going to be on jobs. And we will 
wait and see, but that's what we are hearing. We are hearing it's going 
to be about innovation; it's going to be about investment in things 
like R&D, in transportation infrastructure, in education, a vision for 
the future that trains Americans for better jobs, that creates the 
infrastructure, the mass transit, the highways so that our goods can 
travel around the country, the R&D to put us ahead.
  You know, in my district a lot of R&D is done in the manufacturing of 
drugs and new products, medical devices. I mean, this is what the 
President's talking about. And I assume that my colleague from New 
York's going to talk about his visit to your district, which was all 
job oriented. And then when the President, or Premier, of China came, 
President Obama's whole message to him was you know, you got to let in 
our exports. You got to lower the barriers so that we can create things 
here and export them to China because you have to open your markets.
  So, you know, the President like a laser beam is focusing on jobs. I 
know the Democrats in the House with the Make it in America agenda are 
focusing on jobs. I don't think you mentioned it, but I have a paper 
here that says that this week, Congressman Garamendi, you are going to 
address two Make it in America bills. Maybe you should talk about that, 
and Mr. Tonko can talk about the President's visit to his district. But 
all our focus is on creating jobs, and I don't hear anything from the 
other side of the aisle, from the Republicans on this issue.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Thank you very much, Mr. Pallone, for pointing out the 
facts. The facts are that 4 weeks into this and not one discussion from 
our Republican colleagues about the central issue of America, which is 
jobs, how are we going to create jobs.
  You are quite correct, our colleague from the great State of New 
York, which was and is and will be an even greater manufacturing 
center, General Electric, Schenectady, New York. You wouldn't know 
where that is, Mr. Tonko, would you? If you do, please join us and tell 
us about it.
  Mr. TONKO. Well, you know, it's great to represent Schenectady, which 
is dubbed The City that Lights and Hauls the World. It was the 
birthplace of an energy revolution over a century ago. And to have the 
President visit just the other day, on Friday, to tout the efforts at 
GE, where he speaks to the vibrancy of American manufacturing. You 
know, we lost a third of manufacturing jobs during the decade that 
preceded this administration. I think it was through neglect.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. That was the George W. Bush administration.

                              {time}  2000

  Mr. TONKO. Right, and I think it was through neglect on 
manufacturing. They focused on the service sector, primarily the 
financial services. They ignored agriculture, they ignored 
manufacturing, and now we are paying the price. Even though we lost a 
third of the manufacturing jobs in this country, we are still perched 
as number one in the global race. However, if we are to allow that 
neglect to continue, we would eventually fall out of the number one 
position.
  So the 4.6 million jobs lost, manufacturing jobs lost due to that 
neglect, that trend has to be turned around, and I was so delighted to 
hear the President speak to a progressive agenda, a proactive quality, 
to the tone he was establishing at that center with his speech. He 
talked about the strength of America's manufacturing and how we can 
impose a strong uplift for the middle class of this country.
  You know, 66 percent of the wealth that was generated, of the 
recovery during 2001 and 2007, went to 1 percent, of the top 1 percent 
of wealth in this country. So they accumulated all that wealth, and 
it's middle class America that needs to get that clout now. We can do 
that because the investment in R&D, the investment in basic research 
that transforms into jobs that allows us to be more productive in our 
starter-up small businesses and in our big industries like GE.
  If we introduce a soundness of basic research in R&D that then 
equates into jobs that translates into an empowerment of the middle 
class. I think that's an important message that was shared by this 
President, and the Nation accepted that speech. It was shared across 
this country, and it was emanating from GE, from the floor, from the 
factory floor where innovation and invention were coming from the 
working class on the assembly line.
  It was their ideas, their creative genius that allowed us to have all 
the mills in that Erie Canal corridor that I so proudly represent 
become the epicenters of innovation and invention in their heyday. That 
is still within our DNA. That is our pioneer spirit that is uniquely 
American. The President wants to tap into that spirit, and he wants us 
to be that innovation economy.
  You know, the other day, many of us on this floor here shared in the 
fiftieth anniversary celebration of JFK, that remarkably strong and 
powerful and inspirational inaugural address. And so many people 
highlighted many of the challenges that President Kennedy issued in 
that address, amongst them, exploring the heavens, exploring the 
heavens.
  And what it did was empower us, just the tone he established, enabled 
us as a nation to embrace with a great degree of passion a resolve to 
win that race. And we entered that global race in space to win it. And 
we won it, and we unleashed untold, untold amounts of technology, 
science and technology that has strengthened every dynamic of life.
  Here, fast forward some 40 years later, some 40-plus years later, a 
rather youthful President is challenging a nation to enter a global 
race, this time on the clean energy economy, the innovation economy. We 
should have within us the fortitude to go forward and invest in a way 
that allows us to empower our working families, the middle class of 
this country, through investment, in soundness of manufacturing that 
enables us to build it in America, make it in America again and be 
proud of that.
  So, Representative Garamendi, thank you for bringing us together this 
evening to voice our support for the President's vision, for the vision 
that we share as a caucus in this House, I think it's the empowering 
vision that enables us to go forward with a Make It in America mantra 
that enables us to promote the correct policy and the resources 
associated with that policy to truly make a difference.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Well, Representative Tonko, I think you were at the 
President's speech there in your district.
  Mr. TONKO. We flew up from Washington on Air Force One and then 
returned with the President because we had our jobs conference in 
Maryland.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. You and I had this colloquy on the floor where we 
discussed American manufacturing in making it in America. But I can see 
you came back charged up from that visit.
  Mr. TONKO. We are charged up. We are fired up.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. General Electric and the great Erie Canal 
manufacturing sector is about to rise up, but I am not going to take 
second fiddle to your place because I represent the great innovation 
part of California, and we, too, know that we have the potential to 
really drive the American economy forward, the innovation economy.
  One thing you said when you harkened back to the space race and 
President Kennedy calling upon us to explore the heavens; his next 
statement, not in the inaugural address but shortly thereafter was, we 
will put a man on the Moon within a decade. And the Federal Government 
collected the resources of this Nation and met that challenge, and 
within a decade, we, Americans, were on the Moon.

  The lesson here is the focused attention of America on a goal, and in 
that case and in this case the investment that America must make to 
succeed. It was an American investment. A lot of tax dollars went into 
that.
  But not only did we put a man on the Moon, but we created an enormous 
industry that gives us everything from, I don't know, the ability of 
this iPhone to work, satellite, all of the great technologies that we 
have, many of the great technologies we have today on communications 
and travel and defense

[[Page H423]]

came directly from that initial investment that was made by the 
American people to put a man on the Moon.
  And when the President talks about the innovation economy, he is 
talking about the same kind of let's do it, let's build this thing for 
the future. And from that leadership, we will find the opportunity to 
really grow our economy and enter a whole new industry. You talked 
about the electrical industry that was generated a century ago, and now 
you talked about the great space industry, and we are going to enter a 
new industry.
  It will be the solar technologies, it will be the wind, the energy 
technologies, it will be transportation. When one talks about 
transportation, you have got to figure out some way to get to and out 
of the cold of the middle America.
  Joining us today in the warm 20-degree temperature of Washington, 
D.C., is Representative Ellison from the upper Midwest, where it is 
somewhere below zero.
  Mr. ELLISON. Somewhere. But you know what, Congressman, although the 
weather is cold, our spirits are warm. Every time we hear about Making 
it in America.
  This campaign that we are on----
  Mr. GARAMENDI. I thought you were going to talk about Green Bay and 
the Packers and all of that.
  Mr. ELLISON. You know what, if the Vikings aren't in it, I don't 
know.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. That's right. You are from Minnesota and the Minnesota 
Vikings. Okay, we will get past that.
  Mr. ELLISON. I think the Vikings for the NFC north, hey, hope springs 
eternal next year, right? But we are happy to see the Green Bay Packers 
and the Bears fight it out, definitely. We are known as the black and 
blue division, and they definitely played hard.
  But the truth is we are used to making things in the Midwest, whether 
you are talking about from Pittsburgh to Detroit, to Cleveland, to 
Milwaukee, to Minneapolis, we make stuff in the Midwest as you do in 
the West in California, and as they do in the East in Congressman 
Tonko's district, Congressman from upstate New York. The fact is that 
manufacturing and making things is an American value.
  But, Congressman, the thing I want to say is that this campaign of 
Making it in America, before we make anything, we have to believe that 
we can make things in America again.
  We have to believe that we can compete on quality, we can compete on 
efficiency, and that the goods manufactured by American workers are 
among the best in this world and can be better. It is a matter of 
belief, it is a matter of commitment, and it is a matter of vision.
  So we set forth a vision, Congressman, and we say that, you know 
what, in this great Nation we can forge these, we can make this steel, 
we can build the roads.
  We can have a vision that this country can build things that the 
whole world needs and wants. And if we have that desire, that innate 
desire at the cellular level, we will begin to see the innovative 
capacity of this country making the windmills, making the 
semiconductors, making the cars, making anything and everything. But 
it's matter of vision, it's a matter of will, it's a matter of 
commitment. And that vision and will has to be backed up by sound 
policy, hard work, and the spirit of entrepreneurship. And if these 
things come together we can certainly do it.
  But I believe on this House floor, and in shops across America, 
unions and in management, people are saying, You know what? We can make 
stuff in America. America is still the world's leading manufacturer. 
That's important to bear in mind. We can't forget that we are still the 
world's leading manufacturer, and we have the highest quality steel, 
the best technology, the strongest workers.
  But you know what, when people want to be penny-wise and pound-
foolish, they might want to offshore jobs because they say, well, maybe 
we can get somebody to do it for less.

                              {time}  2010

  But can you get somebody to do it better? And the world wants 
something that's quality. The world wants something that's made well, 
that's made right. And that's what Make it in America is all about.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Let me pick up on a couple of those themes before I 
turn back to Mr. Pallone.
  A lot of this has to do with the will, the desire, and the 
determination to do a task. It also has a lot to do with policy, which 
you just said, policy. For example, before last year, there was a 
policy in America that American corporations would get a tax break when 
they shipped a job offshore. Hello?
  Mr. ELLISON. Bad policy.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. What did you say, Congressman?
  Mr. ELLISON. Bad policy.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. American corporations received a tax reduction when 
they shipped a job offshore. In this House, a bill was introduced. It 
eliminated that tax deduction, bringing back $12 billion annually to 
the Treasury, helping the deficit. Our Republican colleagues voted 
``no.'' They wanted to continue that tax break. We need to understand 
that we make decisions here. Policies are important. One example of a 
policy to use our tax system to help or to hurt American workers, just 
one. No support from our Republican colleagues to end that tax break. 
This is about policies that will drive the American economy.
  We are going to spend the next 30, 40 minutes here focusing on some 
of those policies and investment. Mr. Tonko talked about space. That 
was an investment the American people made, and it paid off big-time, 
whole new industries, millions of jobs were created.
  Mr. Pallone, you come from an area where manufacturing matters, where 
it's important, where people do make things, also where they have a 
little bit of fun on the New Jersey beaches, but we'll let that go 
tonight.
  Mr. Pallone.
  Mr. PALLONE. I'm glad you talked about my district. I want to talk 
about my district, and I also want to talk about Mr. Tonko and his 
district and what the President did last weekend because, as you know, 
it was a GE plant that he visited in Schenectady. But in addition to 
that, the president of GE is the guy that President Obama has now 
tapped to be the head of the Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. And 
he wrote an opinion piece in The Washington Post talking about what he 
wants to do, which I wanted to reference because it harks back.
  I wanted to mention my district first and just say briefly that we in 
my district pride ourselves on being the invention center of the 
country, or the world, because the heart of my district is Edison, New 
Jersey, named after Thomas Edison. And Menlo Park where he invented the 
light bulb and so many other things, is located in Edison. That's why 
it was named after him after he passed away. And Edison, of course, is 
the epitome of someone who used invention and research to practically 
come up with solutions that made a difference for people's lives and 
created a tremendous amount of jobs.
  What the President is saying, let's just talk about the R&D, because 
I know he's going to talk about that tomorrow. And of course it's going 
to involve some money that's going to have to be spent by the Federal 
Government, but it is a wise use of funds. Maybe we're going to have to 
cut somewhere else in the budget in order to fund things that create 
jobs; but we are going to, as I said, with a laser beam look at things 
that create jobs.
  Now, let you me just give you an example, big manufacturing, and also 
I should say big research, in my district is with the pharmaceutical 
industry. J&J is headquartered in New Brunswick. Johnson & Johnson is 
in my district. And one of the things that I read about, that I was 
told about actually, the other day was that the President has decided 
to create a new R&D function, if you will, within the FDA because he 
has realized that a lot of the drug companies have lagged a little bit 
in doing a lot of new innovation to create new drugs because of the 
recession. They don't have the money, whatever reason.
  And so now the Federal Government is going to concentrate on that and 
do more research themselves, applied research in the Edison-type of 
applied research arena, to sort of jump-start these drug companies so 
that they can create and do more research to create more innovative 
drugs. Now there's a good example. We've always been a leader in the 
world with drug or pharmaceutical innovation. Now we're starting to lag 
a little bit. So the government is going to step in and help to

[[Page H424]]

give us some money and more resources, if you will, into that R&D 
function, which will create more jobs and boost up the existing 
pharmaceutical industry.
  The same is true, I understand when he went to GE these are turbines 
or something that are being used for a project in India. So these are 
going to be shipped overseas. And my understanding is you talked about 
1,200 American manufacturing jobs and more than 400 American 
engineering jobs just with that GE plant.

  I will yield to you, but I want to come back to what the president of 
GE is saying about this council.
  Mr. TONKO. Absolutely. Thank you, Representative Pallone. The 
importance I think of hosting an event like that which the President 
joined is that we can showcase that there are great things happening. I 
for one am not going to submit to this notion that manufacturing is 
dead in America. I cannot, with a pioneer spirit that I detect all the 
time, for one, for any moment submit to that logic or that thinking. As 
the President was hosted by GE, specifically by its CEO, Jeff Immelt, 
he and so many others believe in the workforce and in the creative 
genius, leaders, labor leaders like the late Joe Battaglino who was a 
union voice for GE workers, Helen Corinne in the past, all of whom 
fought for the dignity of the worker because that worker was providing 
the intellect to take us to the next plateau.
  And so what they talked about here was the fact that not only are 
American workers producing a high-quality turbine, but were also 
exporting to places like India.
  And as the President said in his speech, we have bought many a 
Chinese good in this country. It is time for China to buy our products. 
And I think he is setting a good tone so that there is this fairness 
that is associated with the trade out there and that we as a Nation not 
only need to make it in America, but we have to put an emphasis on 
exporting. And when those emphases are put into play, we will then 
prosper as a Nation.
  You talk about the turbine and the manufacturing going on at GE, but 
the President was also updated with right next door and the activity 
right next door which is an advanced battery manufacturing center. And 
it's not the traditional lithium ion of which many people speak as the 
cutting-edge battery.
  This one that GE is creating can deal with heavy fleets, specifically 
helping that niche of battery application. It can be used for energy 
generation. And then perhaps one of its greatest functions, it can be 
used to store intermittent power. So if we reach to the sun, the soil, 
and the wind to produce our energy needs, and it has an intermittent 
nature to it, we then put value added into that supply of energy 
because of the storage potential of this new battery.
  And then they also have, across the street from this plant, GE's 
global renewable energy center. And what they're doing there is doing 
this global strategy on renewables. And so the turbine blades that are 
manufactured there, all of this is that cutting-edge technology that 
enables us not only to create jobs, made in America, exporting around 
the world, but also growing our own energy independence and our energy 
self-sufficiency, which to me is a strategic bit of policy.
  So this should not be about Republicans fighting Democrats or 
Democrats competing with Republicans. This should be America moving 
forward with a progressive plan, with a laser-sharp focus joined with 
the message of the President to make certain that we compete not with 
each other but with other nations. Is it robust? Probably. Is it very 
hard-fought? Most likely. But we've got to be in it, and we have to 
have the passionate resolve to make a difference by investing in those 
key functions like education, higher education, basic research, R&D and 
modernization of our manufacturing centers.
  People will tell me when they hear this manufacturing thing, they 
said we can't compete. Other nations will do it cheaper. We don't have 
to do it cheapest. We need to do it smartest--smartest. And when we do 
it smartest, we win. We sharpen our competitiveness, and we can win on 
the global scale.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. I think Mr. Pallone would like to come back and pick 
up this investment strategy that you talked about.

                              {time}  2020

  Mr. PALLONE. Well, I wanted to just mention briefly, because Mr. 
Tonko has been talking about GE and the president of GE who is now the 
head of this new Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, I just thought it 
was interesting. In last Friday's Washington Post, he wrote an opinion 
piece about how to keep America competitive. The gist of it was not 
only can we manufacture things here and do things better here, but we 
have to. In other words, we cannot grow our economy unless we spend a 
significant amount of resources, primarily in the private sector, but 
some government as well, in creating and improving the manufacturing 
sector. It is crucial to the economy. It is not something that we can 
just ignore.
  He talked about, and one of the things I try to do is dispel the idea 
that we can't manufacture things here or that we can't be competitive 
because it is almost like a defeatist attitude. As a Member of 
Congress, you have to dispel this myth that it can't be done.
  He says, and I will read his last section: ``It is possible to become 
a competitive global enterprise and still care about your home. In 
fact, it is not just possible; it's imperative. There is no easy 
solution to fix the American economy with persistent and high 
unemployment, but the pessimism it breeds should not be accepted. We 
must work together to construct an economy that creates more 
opportunity.''
  That is what I want to stress. It pains me when I come here, and I 
don't want to be negative, but it pains me when I come here and I see 
the Republicans talk about repeal health care, repeal Wall Street 
reform, a budget resolution that has no numbers, get rid of 
Presidential election public financing, all these things, and it is 
almost as if they don't believe that we can have a vision for the 
future and don't want to act on it.
  And the beautiful thing about the President in the last few weeks, 
and from what apparently he is going to say tomorrow in the State of 
the Union, is that he has a vision of America of opportunity. That is 
what the president of GE is talking about when he talks about creating 
opportunity for people. We have to have a vision that says that this is 
the land of opportunity and that we can be better and we can continue 
to be the manufacturing leader and the greatest power in the world.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. We can do those things, but we have to have wise 
public policy accompanying the spirit of America. The desire for 
opportunity and the desire to better ourselves has to be accompanied by 
wise public policy. For example, right now many of our tax dollars are 
being used to buy buses and solar and wind turbines that are 
manufactured overseas. Our tax dollars are going overseas to support 
the foreign industries. Those tax dollars ought to be brought back home 
to support American-made equipment, whether it is a bus or a train or a 
photovoltaic system or the like. That is one of the bills that I have 
introduced. It is very simple. If it is our tax money, use it to buy 
American-made equipment. If you want to spend your own money, buy 
whatever you want to buy, but not our tax money, whether it is solar 
buses or the like. Just some little policy tweaks that will support the 
innovation that comes from General Electric or from Joe Schmidt's new 
photovoltaic system that is invented out in the Silicon Valley.
  I notice that our esteemed leader has joined us, Mr. Steny Hoyer, who 
is now whip of the Democratic caucus.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  I want to call to the attention of my colleagues, as the four of you 
have done so well tonight and in nights past, we just had a very 
significant conference on the eastern shore of Maryland. In that 
conference, we discussed the agenda that we call Make It In America. 
Make It In America, as I am sure you explained earlier in the evening, 
I heard much of what you had to say, not all, but Make It In America is 
about succeeding in America, making it. There are a lot of Americans 
who are not sure that they, or at least their children, are going to 
make it.

[[Page H425]]

  In addition, Americans overwhelmingly respond, and we hear a lot of 
talk about listening to the American public, I think that is something 
we ought to do, but they overwhelmingly respond that their belief is in 
order for us to continue to be the great economic engine for 
opportunity in this country, it will be necessary for us to continue to 
make things in this country. To make it in America, whatever ``it'' is. 
In addition to that, to grow things in America, as we do so well, and 
sell them not only domestically but around the world. That's the 
President's focus on doubling our exports. He knows, as we know, that 
if we are not making things, the possibility of doubling our exports is 
zero.
  I believe that people around the world respect and want to buy 
American products. Unfortunately, we are not making as many products as 
we used to. The President has asked Jeffrey Immelt of GE to head up a 
task force which looks, in effect, to enhance our ability to make it 
in America, to grow jobs in America, to grow good paying jobs with good 
benefits in America.

  The American people understand that if we don't do that, 20 years 
from now the United States of America will not be, as it is today, the 
economic engine of the world. It is true our competitor in some sense 
in China is growing, but they still have a far way to go before they 
match the United States' ability to produce goods and services.
  The founder of Intel, Mr. Grove, has written an article about how we 
need to make it in America; his point being that we are the center of 
innovation, inventiveness, and development in the world. But his point 
is then made that in too many instances we are inventing products, 
innovating how they can be used, developing them, but then bringing 
them to scale--that is, manufacturing them for consumption on a broad 
basis--overseas. His premise is, and I agree with him on this 
conclusion, that if we continue to do that, that our inventors and 
innovators will migrate to where the product is being taken to scale 
or, in other words, manufactured for large-scale consumption.
  I am hopeful that Republicans and Democrats can join together in this 
Make It In America agenda. We passed a number of pieces of legislation 
in the last Congress that were supported on a bipartisan basis, some of 
which have already been signed by the President, because on both sides 
of the aisle there is an understanding and I think a commitment to 
create an environment in which it is possible to make it in America and 
profit by doing so.
  I think we are all harkened by the fact that Ford has brought plants 
back from Mexico and China, that Whirlpool has brought plants back, 
that GE has brought plants back, as well as others, and decided to 
manufacture things here in America and do so profitably; that they can 
make a quality product here with skilled labor, well-educated labor 
that will produce a quality product, higher productivity, and therefore 
result in profits.
  I want to congratulate particularly the gentleman from California, a 
former State leader in California, still a great leader from 
California, but he has come to this body just a few years ago to 
succeed Ellen Tauscher, who became Assistant Secretary of State. He has 
done an extraordinary job in a very short period of time, and his focus 
on this Make It In America is unsurpassed, unequaled in this Congress. 
I want to thank him for his leadership and focus. And I want to thank 
Mr. Ellison and Mr. Pallone and Mr. Tonko for their focus, because I 
think we are on the right track on this.
  I think our Republican colleagues hopefully will join us as partners 
not to take partisan credit for this but, that America will be 
advantaged, America's people will be advantaged. The reduction of our 
deficit as we grow the economy will be advantaged, and we will see an 
America that is on the rise in terms of growing our economy, creating 
jobs, good paying jobs, and opportunities and future for our people.
  So I congratulate and thank the gentleman from California, the 
gentleman from New York, the gentleman from New Jersey, and the 
gentleman from Minnesota for their leadership and communication to the 
American people of what this Make It In America agenda is all about.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. I thank the gentleman from Maryland. You have been a 
long, long time leader in this House and on the subject of jobs and 
economic opportunity. I thank you very much for your kind comments.

                              {time}  2030

  Mr. GARAMENDI. For me, my work on this actually began in the mid-
1980s, in California, where we developed a strategy of how to keep 
California competitive in this century. Well, this century is now here. 
We are 10-plus years into this century, and we have a big task.
  We said back then in the work that we did that we needed to do six 
things:
  You have to have the best education. That's a public investment that 
pays off over and over and over again.
  Then you have to have the best research and development. That's the 
innovation economy that our President is talking about. So the research 
and the innovation go together.
  From that, you create the opportunity to make the new things--to 
manufacture the new electric cars. General Motors was flat on its back, 
about to disappear, when the Obama administration and Congress stepped 
forward and brought General Motors back. Now the innovation of an 
electric car--the Volt--is in place. It's going to happen, and we're 
going to capture the next round of automobile manufacturing.
  Infrastructure is another great and absolutely necessary investment. 
If you take that infrastructure and if you apply the Make It In America 
theme--the steel, the trains, the buses, the bridges--American made for 
America's future, it's possible. You also have to change. You can't do 
what you did yesterday.
  Those are the strategies that pay off.
  We need to add to that an energy strategy that frees America from the 
grips of the petrol dictators.
  This is all of our future. This is what we want to do, and this 
creates the opportunity for Americans, for all Americans, to make it. 
Making it in America, that's what we all want.
  I notice that my colleagues have stood up here.
  Mr. Ellison, you were grabbing that microphone with an intensity that 
requires attention.
  Mr. ELLISON. Congressman Garamendi, I don't want to go long because I 
do want to hear from all of our colleagues, but I just want to mention 
two quick points. I was inspired by Minority Whip Hoyer as he spoke.
  Two points:
  One is that manufacturing has historically been the high-wage sector 
for American workers. The middle class was essentially built because we 
were making things. The higher wages associated with manufacturing 
employment have been proven to be much higher than your average service 
jobs. So manufacturing is definitely in the interest of American 
working and middle class people, and it is something that I think we 
should get a lot of support for from around the country.
  The other thing is that, in order to really bolster a strong 
manufacturing sector, we need a strong infrastructure. There are over 
$1 trillion in infrastructure needs around our country just to keep 
pace with maintenance. I'm talking about making sure the gusset plates 
on these bridges are working, that there's not the rust and the 
crumbling of concrete, and making sure that the bridges and the roads 
are safe. I'm talking about basic infrastructure.
  Now, if we really want to go beyond that by building the transmission 
lines so that we can move power around and all the new innovative 
infrastructure--that smart grid--then there is a lot more to do.
  The point is that I just want folks to know, before I leave it to our 
colleagues, that manufacturing is good for the middle class and also 
the attendant and connected jobs that you need to support 
manufacturing, like infrastructure development. There are also high-
wage jobs that we need to invest in so that we can put America back to 
work.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Well, tomorrow night on this floor, the President of 
the United States will be here for his State of the Union Address. He 
has already signaled that he is going to talk about the innovation 
economy--that's education and research. He is going to talk about 
infrastructure, and he is going to talk about creating jobs--making it 
in America.

[[Page H426]]

  So, as we prepare for that, I noticed our colleague from the great 
State of Texas has joined us.
  Please.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas. I want to thank the gentleman from 
California very much.
  I want to add my words of appreciation for having the opportunity to 
join you tonight and to join the minority whip, still my majority 
leader, Mr. Hoyer, who coined the phrase, as we were beginning to speak 
to the American people, of how important it is for us to go back to our 
roots.
  I am also delighted to be able to be here with the gentleman from 
Minnesota, the gentleman from New Jersey, and the gentleman from New 
York.
  But I want to spin it in a different way.
  I want us to reclaim America's genius. I could go back, of course, to 
the Model T or maybe even to Thomas Edison, with the light bulb. There 
is an excitement about being able to build, create, and invent--
frankly, when I came to Congress, I wondered why we were not making 
submarines anymore. As you well know, we had a shipbuilding industry in 
Virginia and, of course, in Mississippi--because genius also is part of 
building. You must have the kind of technology, the kind of expertise 
to make it the best equipment you possibly can have. That's what I 
sense that we have lost, and there is an excitement when young people 
can be part of the genius of America.

  I come from Houston, Texas. We are one of the new starts in light 
rail, and we have been trying to get there for about 30 years. We are 
just about there when we would be on the precipice of funding for light 
rail. Yet at the same time, as we talk about putting tracks down, there 
is a technology of the new light rail cars. We need to, in fact, build 
those cars here in the United States. Many people view Houston as the 
energy capital of the world. You don't know that we have wind and solar 
businesses that are headquartered in my congressional district. The 
point is, of course, that the turbines, unfortunately, are not built 
here.
  My point is, when the President so appropriately makes the point 
about investing in America and also of building infrastructure, he is 
speaking the language of capturing the genius of America.
  I would just hold this up because I think this is an example of where 
we are going. We are going onward and upward. The red is the past 
administration, which is when no jobs were created or maybe a minimum 
of a million. We can see we have had some hard times. We don't ignore 
the fact that we have been in a hard, hard recession. But look where 
we're going. How can we go backwards? How can we not create more jobs?
  We in Houston would really like to be part of not sending our tax 
dollars overseas. We want to be able to build buses, railcars, 
ferryboats, submarines, and large-sized ships, if you will, because 
that is capturing the genius of America.
  So let me thank the gentleman for yielding. I am hoping the President 
will indicate to us, Mr. Hoyer and to all who are here on the floor, 
that he is going to go forward on his investment in infrastructure and 
in recapturing the genius of America.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Thank you very much. Indeed, if it's our tax dollars, 
they ought to be used to buy things that are made in America.
  We're going to do a lightning round here. We've got about 6 minutes, 
and we've got about five of us.
  So, Mr. Hoyer, our whip.
  Mr. HOYER. I'll try to take a minute.
  Let me say what I think is so good about this agenda Make It In 
America.
  It is an agenda that, unlike some, brings us together and doesn't 
divide us. From left to right--Republican, Democrat--people all over 
this country understand that, if we are going to be a great country, as 
we are today, and if we are going to remain so in the future, it will 
be because we continue to be a manufacturing country, a country that 
makes it in America.
  I have talked to the National Association of Manufacturers, the 
Chamber of Commerce, and organized labor. This is an agenda item that 
will bring labor and management, business and workers together to 
cooperate so that America will continue, not only to make it in 
America, but to do so in an expanding way rather than in a shrinking 
way. We've been doing some growth in the last few months, in the last 
year, in the last 2 years, in the last 3 years, but not enough. We can 
do more.
  Make It In America is the agenda for the future.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Thank you very much.
  Our colleague from the great State of New York and Schenectady.
  Mr. TONKO. I again thank the gentleman from California.
  Look, I am ecstatic about the President's choice of Jeff Immelt, the 
CEO of GE, to be the chair of the Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. 
We can probably remove a lot of the struggle that occurs on this House 
floor by listening to the business minds out there, who will advise us 
about the strength we can provide to create jobs through invention and 
innovation.

                              {time}  2040

  Here is a voice that's highly respected; he is tremendously strong in 
his beliefs in American manufacturing again. And so we must let those 
voices speak and resonate in this discussion, in this dialogue on where 
we go and how we build our economy.
  The President made it very clear: he spent his first couple of years 
stopping the bleeding of the recession. We were losing 750,000 to 
800,000 jobs a month, 8.2 million jobs lost to this economy. Now our 
assignment is to plan strategically the growth of jobs, what is 
sustainable.
  What is sustainable? Manufacturing, because it incorporates from the 
trades people over to the Ph.Ds. Everyone has a shot at that economy. 
It's the muscle we need, it's the American know-how, it's the American 
intellect. And I thank you again for bringing us together this evening.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. I thank the gentleman from New York. Let's hear what 
New Jersey has to say.
  Mr. PALLONE. I'm really excited about the President's speech tomorrow 
because I know he's going to stress the whole idea of investment and 
innovation.
  He talks about the fact that right now many of the corporations in 
this country are actually sitting on a lot of profit. I mean, in the 
last year or so many of them have actually made quite a bit of money, 
And we want them to reinvest that money in creating private sector jobs 
here. But one of the points he makes, and I talked a little bit about 
it tonight, is that the Federal Government has to incentivize all of 
this. In other words, I used an example with the drug companies that 
the Federal Government, by doing some research on new drugs, can 
incentivize the drug companies in my district to do more and create 
more jobs. But there is also an educational component to it as well. We 
need to do more in terms of education.
  It's no surprise that in the middle of this pharmaceutical industry 
in my district sits Rutgers University. There is a lot of money through 
the stimulus act, for example, that went to Rutgers to do R&D that is 
then taken up by the drug industry. So it's part of a whole package, 
and I am very excited about it. And I just wanted to thank the 
gentleman again for all that he has done on this.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Thank you very much for joining us.
  Ms. Jackson Lee, why don't you take 1 minute and I will take 1 minute 
and we will wrap this thing up.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas. Thank you so very much.
  I just thought of something that I did want to add to the discussion. 
First of all, GE is an inherently American company, so I applaud the 
selection that allows a creator to move forward to create jobs for all 
of America. But I want to keep in mind that manufacturing is the 
employer of all people--women, persons with college educations, those 
that are in the trades, men, and young people. So families can be hired 
by manufacturing. And it is particularly important to me that women 
have the equal opportunity, particularly since we passed the pay equity 
bill in the last Congress.
  But, finally, I also look forward to small and medium minority women-
owned businesses partnering with large businesses to create jobs 
because small

[[Page H427]]

businesses and minority-owned businesses can create jobs and are part 
of the infrastructure of jobs.
  So if the President speaks tomorrow, I hope he speaks for all of 
America, that all will have an opportunity to retrieve the dream by the 
opportunity to make it in America.
  I thank the gentleman for having us this evening.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. We have always thought of America as being the land of 
opportunity; and it has to be the land of opportunity for everyone in 
this country, wherever they may be, whatever their status may be. And 
we know that if we are able to rebuild the manufacturing base in 
America, small companies, large companies, entrepreneurs and inventors 
will all participate in it.
  So the Make it in America effort will be a bipartisan effort. And if 
we put our minds to it, it will be a successful effort, and America 
once again will be in the leadership place.
  Mr. Speaker, we yield back our time, and we thank you.

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