[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 63 (Tuesday, May 10, 2011)]
[House]
[Pages H3147-H3150]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
JOBS AND THE MAKE IT IN AMERICA AGENDA
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mrs. Adams). Under the Speaker's announced
policy of January 5, 2011, the gentleman from Rhode Island (Mr.
Cicilline) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority
leader.
Mr. CICILLINE. Madam Speaker, I thank you for the opportunity to
speak this evening about jobs and particularly about the Make It in
America Agenda, but before I begin, I would like to yield to the
gentleman from Michigan to begin this conversation.
Mr. CLARKE of Michigan. Thank you, Representative Cicilline.
I represent the city of Detroit. In fact, the congressional district
that I represent includes metropolitan Detroit. Over the last 10 years,
metropolitan Detroit has lost more jobs than any other metropolitan
area in this country, but it wasn't just Detroit and its metropolitan
area that's lost jobs. Other areas, other cities, other metropolitan
regions in the country have lost millions of jobs over the last 10
years.
Now, during this same timeframe, this country has been investing our
tax dollars to build bridges, to repair roads, to build hospitals,
sewer systems, schools, to build industrial parks that will promote
more business, to actually develop businesses and free enterprise
models that are successful. Now, many of the American people may not
have seen the benefits of this type of investment because all of the
work that I am talking about that was funded by tax dollars was done in
Afghanistan, and the people who directly benefited from these projects
were the people of Afghanistan.
My position is this: we need to create jobs in America. We need to
keep the jobs that we have here so they don't go overseas like they
have in the past. In order to do that, I'm proposing let's take a share
of the money that's intended to go to Afghanistan, redirect it to the
United States to create jobs right here, jobs for the American people,
because we're the ones that actually need it, and it makes sense. The
money that we are investing in Afghanistan comes from U.S. taxpayers.
Let's spend it in a way that benefits the taxpayers and creates jobs
right here in the United States.
Now, I do understand that we've got to stop terrorism from breeding
in other countries, and we certainly don't want other safe havens for
terrorism to develop overseas. But in light of the fact that bin Laden
is now gone, I'm asking this Congress, this administration to reassess
our mission in Afghanistan. Let's take a part of the over half a
trillion dollars--and that's trillion with a ``t''--in military
assistance that we've spent in Afghanistan over the last 10 years,
let's take a share of that and return it home to protect our people
right here in the United States.
Yes, we are at risk of a terrorist attack, but more than likely that
risk is increasingly coming from within the U.S. So let's fully equip
and fund the first line of defense against terrorism in this country,
which is our first responders. It is our local police, our local
firefighters, our local emergency
[[Page H3148]]
medical providers that we call on to help protect the American people.
So I'm proposing let's take a share of that military assistance that's
going to Afghanistan, and let's invest it in our local police, fire,
and emergency medical providers to protect our citizens right here at
home.
Then, finally, over the past 10 years, taxpayers have invested nearly
$30 billion--and that's billion with a ``b'', so we get these figures
clear and the magnitude of our investment--we invested nearly $30
billion in Afghanistan for non-defense spending, much of it going
toward economic development and civilian assistance. Let's take a
portion of that funding and redirect it to the United States to create
jobs right here.
My point is this: it takes money to create jobs, and more accurately,
it takes public funds that can be leveraged effectively to create the
investment that yields jobs. We've been spending that money for over a
decade in another country. Bin Laden is now gone. Let's reevaluate our
role in Afghanistan, and while we're doing that, let's take a share of
our precious tax dollars--people, this is your money and we need it
right now--to create jobs, to fight foreclosures, to invest in
manufacturing. It is our manufacturing capacity that made our country
strong, that created the best products that were sold around the world.
It's our manufacturing strategy and capacity that transformed the city
that I represent, the city of Detroit, from the motor capital of the
world to the arsenal of democracy back in World War II.
Metro Detroit and this country's ability to innovate and create and
manufacture saved this country and saved this world from fascism. If we
invest a portion of the money right now that we're spending overseas in
Afghanistan and winding down in Iraq, and we invest it right here in
cities like Detroit and Elkhart, Indiana, and Louisville, Tennessee--
these are other cities that also have lost a lot of jobs--we can make
America stronger.
We want to fight terrorism. We need to be a strong country, but the
strength of our country comes from within. It comes from protecting the
American people, and the most effective way to do that: invest in
homeland security, support our local police and fire, and invest in
jobs in America so that U.S. citizens can be financially stable and
hopefully prosperous. This is how we built this country in just a
little over 200 years into one of the greatest countries human
civilization has ever known. We've done it by investing the people's
money into the innovation and capacity to create jobs. It's through
investing in the U.S.
I know I've been going on a little bit longer, but my point is this:
I'm asking the American people who are watching tonight, call your
Member of Congress, ask--demand, if you wish--that a share of your
money that's going overseas right now be returned back to you to create
jobs here, to protect our homeland, and also, to reduce our overall
debt and deficit.
{time} 2000
We've been spending the money, over $500 billion alone in the last 10
years in Afghanistan. This administration is slated to wind down that
expenditure. Let's take a portion of that back to help our people, to
make America strong again.
And you know why it's so important for America to be strong and not
some other country? Because we believe in democracy. We, the people,
actually have a voice, through folks like me, who you hired. I have the
constitutional duty to be your voice here, not just for metro
Detroiters, but for all of you who understand the value in
manufacturing. That's the reason why my dad risked everything 80 years
ago in the midst of the Great Depression to leave his homeland in
India, to come here as a dream so that he could live his life as fully
as he chose it and to raise a family. I am his only son, and he was so
honored to see, many decades ago, the first Indian American elected to
Congress. And I am here too as a legacy of an immigrant's courage to
make a difference for himself, his family, and his country.
My point is this, people: It's our money. And you work hard for that
money. And yes, we invested it overseas because we were trying to stop
the people that were determined to wipe us out. And we got the
ringleader. We took him out. Let's take a share of our money back and
return it to our people. Let's create jobs here. Call your Member of
Congress. Do it tonight. Leave them a voicemail message. Tell them, We
need you, as a Member of this body that's constitutionally committed to
represent the people, we need you to use a share of our money to help
American families become financially stable again and to help this
country's economy really endure in a prosperous way to help bring
democracy and freedom throughout the world. I really am just so
committed that we take a share of our funds right now to create jobs
here.
I was born and raised in the city of Detroit, and it's heartbreaking
to see what's happened to Detroit. But also too, there is so much
promise there in Detroit because we still have the greatest talent in
manufacturing. We have great research universities there in Michigan,
including Wayne State University that I'm proud to represent. And we
have the plants and the land to actually build new manufacturing
operations. This country has the superb ability to innovate and outwork
and outhustle and outsmart any of the competition around the world. All
we have to do is this: return some of our money, our tax dollars, back
to the U.S. so that we can prosper again.
Some of us are doing well, but I know overall--and I will close--that
many American families are not feeling that financially secure, and I
understand that. Look, I have been through hard times myself as a young
man. That's why I am stressing the fact, turn a share of our tax
dollars back to our people so we can do what's best, innovate, invest,
and create jobs.
Thank you so much. God bless America.
Mr. CICILLINE. One of the things I know that we all share as new
Members of the Congress, as freshmen, is that we've been here for about
4 months, Madam Speaker; and we've had conversations and debates about
cutting Pell Grants and cutting Head Start. We've endured attacks on
women's health and NPR, attacks on the environment, and most recently,
efforts to end Medicare as we know it. We really haven't had before
this Congress a jobs agenda, at a time when Americans are suffering
from some of the highest unemployment in a generation.
We all recognize that we need to cut spending, we need to be
responsible in our management of the national debt. One of the key ways
that we can do that is to grow our economy and get Americans back to
work. And I believe, Madam Speaker, that one of the key ways that we
can do that is to rebuild the manufacturing base in our country. There
is no way we can maintain our position as a great economic power
without making things in America. Making things in America is really a
key part to rebuilding the economy of this country.
My home State of Rhode Island is one of the States that have been
hardest hit in this economic downturn. Rhode Island was the first New
England State to enter the recession, and it's currently facing the
fifth-highest unemployment in America. But Rhode Island has a strong
tradition of manufacturing. It's the birthplace of the American
industrial revolution. This helped build the middle class and provided
good-paying jobs for working families. In fact, Rhode Island used to
produce one-third of the costume jewelry in the entire United States,
yet our manufacturing sector has been really hard hit, especially in
these particularly difficult economic times. According to the Alliance
for American Manufacturing, there were 71,100 manufacturing jobs in
Rhode Island in 2000; and by the year 2008, that number had dropped to
47,900. Rhode Island lost 15 percent of its manufacturing jobs during
the period of 2008 to 2009 alone. And from 2001 to 2008, Rhode Island
lost 10,500 jobs due to trade with China.
When was the last time, Madam Speaker, that you went into a store and
found something made in America? Manufacturing jobs all across this
country have seen a steep decline, from 20 million jobs in 1979 to
about 12 million today, and the middle class has been left behind. And
that's why this past week, when we launched the Make It in America
agenda, I became so hopeful about this Congress' attention on
manufacturing. This agenda is really about reversing manufacturing job
[[Page H3149]]
loss. It's about investing in good-paying jobs, world-class education,
top-notch research, and sound infrastructure. We need to create an
environment that encourages American manufacturers to innovate, grow,
keep, and create good jobs here in the United States. When we Make It
in America, our middle class will succeed. This agenda is based on the
conviction that when more products are made in America, more families
will be able to ``make it'' in America. The agenda is really intended
to create the conditions to help American businesses produce goods
here, to innovate, and create jobs.
It also includes being smart about the investments we make, to out-
educate, to out-innovate, and out-build our international competitors.
The President has already signed six Make It in America bills into law,
many of them which enjoyed bipartisan support because business and
labor leaders alike recognize that the Democratic agenda of making it
in America is good for our country and is central to the future of our
competitiveness, our jobs, and our leadership in the world.
This past week, we outlined a series of bills that represent really a
cross-section of the legislative package, a dynamic agenda that will
continue to evolve during the 112th Congress but is really focused on
how we support the manufacturing sector again. Some of these bills have
already been introduced. Others will be introduced in the coming weeks.
The agenda includes the development of a national manufacturing
strategy, directs the President to work with industry leaders, labor
leaders, other stakeholders to develop a national manufacturing
strategy for our country, to set appropriate benchmarks and
measurements. Every other nation we're competing with that is serious
about manufacturing has a national manufacturing strategy. The agenda
also includes the Build America Bonds, expanding the Build America
Bonds, the creation of a national infrastructure development bank.
If we're going to compete in the 21st century, we need to have an
infrastructure which supports that competition. We need to have roads
and bridges and transit systems and the ability to move information to
compete in the 21st century. It includes making the research and
development tax credit permanent and more generous to encourage job
creation. It includes the creation of small business startup savings
accounts, a reform of the Chinese currency system to give our American
manufacturers a fighting chance to compete in the global marketplace.
And it includes the Make It in America Block Grant, which I have
drafted. This is a block grant which will help American manufacturers
retrofit their factories, retrain their workers, buy new equipment,
increase their exports, and make their facilities more energy efficient
so that they can compete more successfully in the 21st century.
{time} 2010
It's an ambitious agenda, but it's really about recognizing that we
have got to start making things again in this country; that
manufacturing was an important part of the history of America, an
important way we built up the middle class in this country and became a
world economic power.
We can no longer act as if manufacturing is not important. We need to
make things here again so people can go into stores and buy things made
in America. We need to start exporting goods made in America all over
the world because we make the best products, we have the best workers,
and stop exporting jobs.
This is an agenda which I hope will earn bipartisan support, that
will be a key to helping rebuild the economy of our country and
rebuilding our strong manufacturing base.
Madam Speaker, I think the most urgent priority we face is getting
Americans back to work. Americans have been very hard hit in this
recession. Members hear it all the time from constituents back at home.
What are you doing to get people back to work, to get this economy back
on the right track?
This Make It in America agenda, I believe, provides a real
opportunity to again rebuild the manufacturing base of this country so
that we can make things here again, and so that American families can
make it as well.
At the same time, in addition to investing in this agenda, we also
need to invest, as the President said, in education so that we can out-
educate, so that our kids can compete, not just with the kids in the
neighboring town or the next State, but kids in China and India and
Germany and all over the world. That's who they're competing with in
the 21st century. And we need to make sure they have the tools and
skills necessary to compete successfully in the global economy.
In addition, we have to invest in science and research and innovation
so we can continue to make the new discoveries, make the new
inventions, create the new products that will allow us to lead the
world and to again maintain our position as a world economic power. And
that's why we think about the balance that we have to strike in
managing the serious responsibility of reducing spending, eliminating
programs that don't work, cutting waste, and at the same time,
investing in the things that are necessary to keep our country strong--
education, innovation and infrastructure.
And so, Madam Speaker, I hope that this Congress, the 112th Congress,
will be known as the Congress that restarted and reinvested in making
things again in America.
I know that my colleague the distinguished gentleman from
Massachusetts (Mr. Keating) has focused as well on creating jobs,
bringing some balance to our Federal budget, and understands the
urgency, particularly in coming from one of our great New England
States, of rebuilding and manufacturing.
I'd like to yield to the gentleman from Massachusetts.
Mr. KEATING. Thank you for yielding.
I just came here to advance statements by our fellow freshmen and my
neighbor from Rhode Island because here we are in a virtually empty
Chamber, sitting here talking about jobs.
Before I became a Member of Congress, just a few months ago, my job,
and I was fortunate to have one, was the job of a district attorney.
Now, the intricacies of that job are not well known, but one of the
responsibilities we have in our State is, when there is an unattended
death, a death that, for instance, did not occur in a hospital, it's
important that that be investigated for any indications of foul play
from a criminal standpoint. So, as a result, the troopers attached to
my unit and my prosecutors reviewed the deaths of people.
I must say, just to put this in context in a very personal sense to
me, one of the most tragic and heart-wrenching parts of that job was
coming upon the scenes of suicides. And in the course of that, over the
last couple of years, we actually saw situations where people,
depressed, hopeless, took their own lives. And they left indications
that I won't get into as to the reason they did that.
So many of those people were out of work, chronically out of work.
Their homes were falling apart. Their families were falling apart, and
hope had been extinguished. There were notes. There were indications.
There was the way you go back and talk to a family and say what brought
the person to this to make sure you knew just what happened.
That is the most powerful way, I think, that you can understand why
we are here in this Congress trying to put people back to work. We have
to do everything we can do in our power to do this. To be out of work
is human misery, and it's a misery that extends to spouses, sons and
daughters; conversations where one of these instances where the person
that took their life was told that they would never be able to afford
to go to the college they were accepted to.
So when we have this discussion here in this Congress, I hope we
don't continue to have this discussion about jobs in empty Chambers. I
hope it becomes the focal point of our open sessions because, frankly,
there hasn't been enough of that discussion.
I came here imbued with a sense of challenge and responsibility, that
I would do everything that I could to try and stop this human misery
from occurring in families and individuals. So I hope as we go forward
and we look at Make It in America, we look at other platforms and
policies to try and put people back to work, we don't forget
[[Page H3150]]
these aren't people just called our constituents. These are real
people, people suffering more than they ever should.
In my own district, as people are ready to go through the tourist
system and the wealthier people come to celebrate their vacations,
they're doing it in a region where the unemployment is 16 percent, and
too many people are out of work.
I hope, as we go forward, that as freshmen, we come forward and
remember what we said in the campaign just a few months ago, focus on
what we said we would do. And I hope that kind of freshman enthusiasm
is contagious, and I hope we're having robust discussions about putting
people back to work, not here in an empty Chamber but in a full Chamber
with ideas teeming so that we can accomplish that very important
mission.
Mr. CICILLINE. I thank the distinguished gentleman and my good friend
from Massachusetts, and I think it is a really important point that he
makes tonight.
We talk about the urgency of job creation and about the enormity of
the challenges facing our country. But behind all of these numbers and
the unemployment rate, these statistics, are real families and real
people who we see every single day in our districts all across this
country, who are anguished and worried.
People often describe the American people are angry. I don't see
anger. What I see in the American people is anxiety. People are worried
about the future. They're worried about whether or not this economy is
ever going to get on the right track, whether or not we are going to
really be successful in growing jobs and getting people back to work.
And they look at the proceedings of this Congress and they say, Where's
the conversation about creating jobs? Where's the emphasis on putting
Americans back to work? And they grow more anxious.
I thank the gentleman from Massachusetts for reminding all of us that
we're here fighting for real people who are counting on us to do the
right things to get them back to work, to get this economy back on
track and to put our country's fiscal house in order. These are big
challenges, but they're challenges we have to meet.
I will end by, again, reminding everyone that this agenda--and I want
to really acknowledge the leadership of our minority whip, Steny Hoyer,
who really has led the charge on Make It in America and the legislation
that's contained in that agenda, specific bills which I hope will earn
bipartisan support, that really get at this issue of how we grow the
manufacturing base in this country, which provided such strong support
to the middle class and a real opportunity to fulfill the American
Dream and to ensure that America can compete internationally and sell
our goods all over the world.
I hope we can come together in this Congress and work quickly to pass
the legislation that is part of the Make It in America agenda so that
we can be sure American families can make it.
With that, I yield back the balance of my time.
____________________