[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 131 (Wednesday, September 7, 2011)]
[House]
[Pages H5956-H5963]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           MAKE IT IN AMERICA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Austin Scott of Georgia). 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, it's a great privilege to stand here on 
the floor of the House even at this late hour as we prepare to hear, 
tomorrow, the President of the United States come before a joint 
session of Congress to talk about how America can get back on the right 
road, on the road to recovery from this long recession, and how we can 
create jobs here in the United States.
  For many, many months now, my colleagues and I have been here on the 
floor and have submitted legislation time after time and week after 
week talking about specific programs to create jobs. I want to thank my 
colleague on the Republican side of the aisle for his presentation and 
the solution of doing away with regulations as the way of creating 
jobs.
  He mentioned getting government out of the way, and he also mentioned 
the Hoover Dam--which was built with borrowed money. Yes, they borrowed 
money to build the dam, and it did in fact create jobs. Now, whether 
there were regulations or not, the fact was that the United States 
created an enormous infrastructure system in the past, and for the last 
decade, we've done very, very little, even though we borrowed a vast 
amount of money to build infrastructure projects in Iraq and 
Afghanistan but precious few here in the United States. We need to 
bring that money back home. We need to build those infrastructure 
projects here.

  By all expectation, tomorrow, when the President stands here before 
us, he will be talking about infrastructure, as he should. It is the 
foundation upon which we build any economy, and it's certainly the 
foundation upon which the American economy has been built and succeeds 
such as it is today.
  We need an infrastructure bank. We need to take money that we will 
borrow at about a 1 or 2 percent interest rate for a 10-year note, put 
that money into an infrastructure bank, let's say it's $20 billion, 
reach out to the pension funds--in my State of California, CalPERS and 
CalSTRS, the public pension funds--and say, Here, invest in this 
infrastructure bank so we can build projects in California, so that we 
can put in place the levees to protect us from floods, so we can put in 
place the communication systems, the fiberoptic cables, so that we can 
build the sanitation facilities, the water recycling facilities, the 
dams that we need for a growing population in a State that once again 
could be growing if we put in place the infrastructure; nothing modest 
but, rather, a bold program, a bold program to build America's 
infrastructure, to rebuild the bridges, to rebuild those facilities 
that are crumbling as a result of years of inattention. Infrastructure, 
construction jobs, putting people to work.
  As the President said on Labor Day, there are a lot of construction 
men and women out there that are prepared to get dirty on the job once 
again to end their unemployment. That's one project that I am sure the 
President will be putting forth to this Congress, and the question to 
my Republican colleagues: Are they ready to be bold? Are they ready to 
step forward and put America back to work or only talk about 
regulations and doing away with regulations?
  While we're talking about regulations, one of the regulations they 
want

[[Page H5957]]

to do away with is one that would prevent mercury from being in our 
water and air. It's as though somehow they must think that mercury is 
good for children and adults. We don't need more mad hatters around. 
What we really need is a safe, clean environment, and those are the 
regulations that are out there.
  Oh, by the way, if you want to stop our regulations, I suppose you 
would stop the President's effort to roll back those regulations that 
have no good purpose.

                              {time}  2040

  Yes, indeed, the current administration is in the process of 
reviewing the regulations and eliminating, rolling back and modifying 
those that no longer serve a good useful purpose in protecting 
Americans.
  So, here tomorrow, we'll have the President speaking here on the 
floor of the Congress, talking about putting men and women back to 
work. We're some 250-plus days into this year and, to date, not one 
Republican bill has been brought to the floor that would create one 
job. A lot of bills have been brought to the floor that would actually 
eliminate tens of thousands, indeed, hundreds of thousands of jobs.
  What we need to do is not to address the deficit with immediate cuts 
that actually constrain and restrict the economy. An austerity budget 
is not called for as we limp along in the current economy, but, rather, 
a growth budget, infrastructure bank being but one example.
  There are numerous other examples; a tax policy, a tax policy that's 
rational.
  Let me just put this all in the context, for a moment, of what we 
talk about on the Democratic side, which is jobs, putting people back 
to work. We can do that. And the Make It in America agenda, which I 
have here, is just that kind of agenda to put Americans back to work.
  We talked already about infrastructure, which is down here. It's not 
at the bottom of this list; it just happens to be at the bottom here. 
It's the Number 1 thing that's on the agenda.
  We also should talk about research. Yesterday I was in Davis, 
California, invited there by a biotech company that uses biotechnology 
to manufacture bio-herbicides and bio-pesticides. These are naturally 
occurring chemical compounds found in plants and animals and bugs that 
actually kill bugs or kill other plants. They formulate this, using 
research that comes out of the universities in California and around 
the nation. That research is extraordinarily important. It's creating a 
whole new industry of safe, biologically derived chemicals that are 
safe in the environment, that actually come from the environment and 
kill bugs in agriculture, or unwanted plants. That's what we need. 
That's the research agenda part of making it in America.
  Now, I notice that joining me on the floor is my colleague and part 
of our east coast/west coast operation, Paul Tonko from the State of 
New York. Earlier today Paul and I were talking here on the floor as we 
were voting, and he was showing me some pictures of the devastation 
that has occurred in his part of New York State. And out of that 
conversation came, once again, the word ``infrastructure.''
  Mr. Tonko, I'm very sorry about what's happened in your district and 
New England and here on the east coast. We've had our disasters in 
California in the past. Not this year, and we're thankful for that. Our 
hearts reach out to you and your constituents as they go about 
rebuilding. I think you were saying even today there may be another 
flood.
  Paul Tonko, Representative from the State of New York, thank you for 
joining us this evening.
  Mr. TONKO. Thank you, Representative Garamendi, for bringing us 
together on what is a very thoughtful discussion about how we create 
jobs, grow jobs in America. And that is such a vital agenda. I thank 
you for bringing us together, and I thank you and our colleagues in the 
caucus for allowing myself and others to share the woes that we have 
faced in our respective districts over the recent district work period.
  It's ironic that in my district, in upstate New York, within days, we 
suffered from an earthquake, from a hurricane, from a tornado in my 
hometown, and now flooding, as we speak. The ravages of the waters of 
Irene have produced tremendous consequences for the great communities 
and the people that I represent. And as I've said at all of my stops in 
the district, I knew, always believed that there was a strength to the 
people that I represent. But they have made a profound statement about 
that resilience and that strength in the last few days.
  I have seen people lose everything they've ever worked for, homes 
totally washed into the river, devastation from the floodwaters, cattle 
that were lost, harvest season almost at hand, all the investment of 
sweat equity and resources and fuel that never will really have the 
fruits of that labor captured in harvest.
  The heritage infrastructure. As I made mention, in my hometown, the 
oldest building dates back to 1766, older than our Nation, a wedding 
gift from Sir William Johnson to his daughter. And watching the 
velocity of waters tear away the stone of that building and now expose 
it to the elements, and it was severely threatened and weakened by the 
storm.
  I mention this because it is so important for us to put together the 
resources that enable us to come back with the skilled labor that can 
rebuild communities, the heritage infrastructure that very much trailed 
through the waterway path in my district--covered bridges, historic 
homes, historic churches, gathering places that have significance, that 
speak to the character of the communities that I represent. That 
character is forever changed, and we need to have the resources to go 
forward and rebuild the infrastructure, the lock system that manages 
the waters, the gauging system, the technology that needs to be 
incorporated.
  Representative Garamendi, my district hosted, hosts the site of the 
Erie Canal Barge Canal. They gave birth to mill towns, a necklace of 
communities we call mill towns that became the epicenters of invention 
and innovation. The progress of which we speak, the agenda that you 
bring forward with such passion, is about now a new era of job 
creation, where we move it up a notch because of our sophisticated 
quality as a society.
  We have perhaps shared manufacturing of traditional types with other 
nations, and now it's our job to bring in issues like the chip 
manufacturing that's done, and all sorts of innovative ideas in clean 
energy that allow for renewables to take hold.
  But I make mention of that because we have a richness of history that 
spoke to job creation, that offered the opportunity to have our 
constituents, or constituents of the past, express their God-given 
talents and express them in ways that strengthens the larger picture, 
that strengthens society and had an impact around the world, coming 
right here from New York State, that gave birth to a westward movement 
that finally reached the west coast of California that you represent. 
So we can do it again.

  We should take to heart our history that showed that, as a people, we 
have that pioneer spirit; as Americans, we have that uniqueness, we 
have that gift, we have those strengths, we have the opportunity to 
turn these situations, these challenges into jobs, jobs that are driven 
by ideas, that are nurtured by research and development, that translate 
into manufacturing, manufacturing of an innovation economy of the 
present moment. And we can make that happen simply by the stewardship 
of sound public policy and advocacy for resources in our budget 
planning.
  I firmly believe, and I know you share this belief, we don't cut our 
way to prosperity. We don't cut our way to opportunity. We invest our 
way to prosperity. We invest our way to innovation, to opportunity. 
That's what it's all about, and the Make It In America agenda embraced 
by the Democratic Caucus in which we have the pleasure of serving has 
adopted that slogan, has adopted the meaning of that passionate 
opportunity for us to take the trades, take tax policy, take the energy 
challenges, take the strength of labor, reinforced by the underpinnings 
of education and higher education and, coupled with research, it all 
happens if we put the plan together.
  Thank you for opening us up to a discussion that is very meaningful 
to the lives of our individual constituents and

[[Page H5958]]

to the fabric of our communities which are really looking for this sort 
of involvement, this sort of implementation of strategy.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Representative Tonko so well explained with great 
passion the problems that his constituents are facing at this very 
moment, as, once again, the floodwaters rise in his district and 
throughout the Northeast. Actually, I guess it's most of the east coast 
as that tropical storm starting on the gulf is now finding its way all 
the way up the east coast.
  Our prayers go out to all the people that have suffered thus far, and 
our hopes that this will not be a repetition of the devastating floods 
of last week.
  You also brought to our attention the need to rebuild. This is part 
of the community of America. We're a community. We're 380 million, but 
we're still a community. We call ourselves Americans. And in these 
times of disaster, we must come together as a community bringing what 
resources are necessary, not what's available, that are necessary to 
rebuild to get people back on the path of living their lives in a safe, 
harmonious community with the necessary resources to carry out their 
goals so they can have a job, so that they can rebuild their 
manufacturing facilities. That fits into the Make It In America agenda.

                              {time}  2050

  As we go about that rebuilding, and we've all seen the pictures of 
the washed-out roads you mentioned, and you showed me the picture of 
the lock. Was that an Erie Canal lock?
  Mr. TONKO. Yes. It was the second stage of the canal when we moved 
from the mule-driven barge canal to the Erie Canal, which was 
engineered with locks. And again, to see the damage, tens of millions 
of dollars worth of damage; infrastructure here, putting the trades to 
work to rebuild these communities.
  You made an interesting observation that the impacts of natural 
disasters and manmade disasters never ask about political persuasion or 
philosophy or geography. We've been impacted from coast to coast.
  And with pride the other day, we in upstate New York, some colleagues 
in government, were talking. When the Midwest needed us, we were there. 
When the West Coast needed us, we were there, as you have been for 
other regions in the country. When the Southeast needed us, the Gulf 
States needed us, we were there. We're the family of America, the 50 
States speaking as one.
  Now it's the turn for us to ask for your help. Thanks to the goodness 
of folks like yourself, we're going to make it happen. We're going to 
be able to rebuild. And I think the greatest commodity that we can 
bring to individuals at times like this where they're enduring, they're 
coping with tragedy, is to deliver hope to their doorstep. That hope 
goes a long way, and the hope to recover, the hope to rebuild, the hope 
to reestablish the character of these communities which is so replete 
with history and heritage expression: covered bridges, historic homes, 
historic churches, lock systems that define not only developments of 
New York State but this Nation and the global impact it had with 
quality of life being enhanced simply by the genius of oftentimes blue 
collar workers.
  Make It In America came to mind for me over this past week. The 
greatness of how we developed jobs and products in this country now 
finds us a century later challenged with new dynamics. How do we draw 
ourselves away? How do we wean down this dependency on fossil-based 
fuels? How can we grow America's energy independence? How do we grow 
high-tech jobs that impact the quality of health care services or 
communications? We've seen it.
  Our whole Sputnik moment drove us to land a person on the moon before 
any other nation. We need that passion again, we need that resolve here 
today, and Make It In America does it.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. You're talking about real patriotism. You're talking 
about real American patriotism, the great strength of this Nation. 
First of all, our compassion for each other that we're willing to 
sacrifice today so that you can rebuild in the Northeast. The Northeast 
has done that or all of America has done that many, many times for 
California because it seems to have more than its share of disasters.
  But across this Nation, this year we've seen natural disaster after 
natural disaster occur with billions of dollars of loss. As Americans, 
it is our patriotic duty, it is our community to reach out to help 
rebuild. As we rebuild, if we keep in mind these seven principles of 
the Make It In America agenda, we'll not only put people back on their 
feet, but we will strengthen the American economy.
  You mentioned that lock that was taken out, the historic nature of 
it. It's been rebuilt. I saw the picture. It's a modern piece of 
equipment. But if that equipment is made in America, it's not only 
going to help the economy and your community once it gets back into 
place and the commerce that results from it is restarted, but it will 
also mean jobs for steelworkers who are making the steel, the 
fabricators who are building the lock, the engineers, and even the 
regulators that are making sure the lock goes in in a safe and 
appropriate way. Those are all American jobs.
  So part of the rebuilding of America is the Make It In America, so 
that Americans can make it once again.
  Mr. TONKO. I think what this tragedy reminds us of is that we come 
together at times of tragedy in a way that really brings out the best 
expression of America's spirit. This is about a sense of urgency. It's 
about a sense of justice. People have been brought down by this 
tragedy, but their resilience, their strength of character is driven by 
the belief that we can work together to rebuild.
  I was so inspired today in caucus to hear so much support for a 
supplemental and to say no, no idea of offsets. We're not going to have 
offsets here. This is tragedy. If this Nation were being attacked by a 
foreign enemy, we wouldn't sit around and play partisan games or have 
political dialogue over what to do, but we'd go right to the table and 
say this is what is needed and let's make it happen. That's what I 
think we need to have here.
  We need the American response to come forward and react in a way that 
really has that American spirit all about it. This is how we built 
America one community at a time, putting together the strengths that 
are all released here in this country enabled to be expressed in 
magnanimous terms. This is what's so important.
  We're going to rebuild America by making it in America. Our workers 
are raring to go, and there are jobs that can invest the power of that 
genius in all sorts of ways, infrastructure needs that are out there in 
the traditional sense or in the more creative or updated sense with 
broadband and a transmission grid system that needs to be upgraded so 
as to speak to what is a vulnerability in our system.
  So there is a lot of work there waiting to happen. We need to invest, 
and we need to do it in a way that doesn't have us groping for offsets.
  There's no more important issue right now than jobs. Jobs, jobs, job 
creation, job retention. Let's make it happen. And as we do it, let's 
make it respond to the tragedies that I've seen in my district over the 
last week and a half and that we heard about today in caucus from other 
colleagues.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Thank you very much.
  You're quite correct about how we pay for all of this. We know that 
we're going to be borrowing money to rebuild these communities, as we 
should and as we must and as it is our purpose in a community. But in 
doing that, we must be very careful not to offset that expenditure in 
some way that harms others, for example, the educational system.
  Now, tomorrow, we have a bill on the floor dealing with charter 
schools and the funding of charter schools, both the physical plant as 
well as the educational programs in charter schools. It seems to me 
that if a charter school is to be built, or any school for that matter, 
it's our tax money, either local or Federal or State tax money, that 
that money ought to be used to buy American-made equipment--American-
made roofing, American-made concrete and steel--so that our tax money 
is used to buy American made.
  If you want to use your own money, and anybody out there that wants 
to go buy a solar cell for their house and they're using their own 
money, fine, buy anything you want to buy. But if

[[Page H5959]]

you want to use our tax money as a subsidy for that solar system, then, 
by golly, it ought to be an American-made solar panel; not one made in 
China but, rather, one made in the United States.
  Now, I have two bills that deal specifically with that. One in the 
energy that says, hey, you want an energy subsidy to put up this big 
energy clean, green solar power plant, good. We need that clean energy. 
But use that tax subsidy to buy American-made equipment. That way, we 
can rebuild our American manufacturing base.
  Similarly with transportation. In transportation, we all pay 18\1/2\ 
cents on every gallon of gas beyond the Federal excise tax. It's 
billions of dollars. It's used to build the roads. It's used to repair 
the bridges. Not enough now to keep us going but, nonetheless, billions 
of dollars a year. Is that tax money used to buy American-made buses 
and American-made trains and American-made steel and concrete? Not 
really. But we need legislation that says our tax money is going to be 
used to buy American-made equipment.

                              {time}  2100

  Mr. TONKO. Representative Garamendi, thank you again for bringing us 
together.
  I noticed in the listing of dynamics that you have research indicated 
there, and education and, I'd say, slash higher education, but I 
witnessed testimony of those investments yesterday in my district with 
a group called Ener-G-Rotors. And they're actually taking the waste 
heat market in this country and retrofitting it so that they capture 
that as a byproduct in different industries, and they make certain that 
it's utilized to add to the energy supplies that that industry might 
need.
  Now, what happens there? Well, the genesis of that story is that 
ideas, again, were thought up because of the investment in higher 
education. This brain was ignited to come forward with this idea that 
would capture heat and that waste heat market is a precious commodity 
now. So instead of it just going up into waste, it is captured, 
recaptured, brought into the energy grid for that particular industry. 
We're addressing greenhouse gas emissions to the positive. We're 
reducing those. And we are reducing the energy supply that this 
industry needs, and we're creating jobs in this incubator startup. They 
came up with this idea. This took investment in research dollars. It 
took tax credits from the Federal Government to buy in the commitment 
from the private sector. It produced the equity that they needed simply 
with the tax credits that were provided. And all lived happily ever 
after. There is a win-win-win scenario here that was produced, and 
that's grounded here in America, and we can export this intellect, this 
concept, to people around the world, and we begin to be the agents that 
deal with the waste heat market. What a wonderful concept. And that's 
how you grow jobs. And they're projecting within a few years 120 jobs 
in this concept. This is wonderful. This is what we're talking about at 
the Democratic Caucus, investing in the intellectual capacity of this 
Nation in a way that responds to challenges that confront us this very 
day and where we can grow our energy independence, grow jobs through 
investing in ideas, moving ideas along.
  Research equals jobs. Research equals jobs. You can't say it over 
enough and often enough.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. You're absolutely correct on that.
  I want to give just a couple of very quick examples of the way in 
which that policy finds its way into legislation, and then I want to 
turn to our colleague who just arrived from the great State of Texas. 
Sheila, thank you so very much.
  But let me just give a couple of examples. Tax policy. You're talking 
about a system to capture waste heat and to use it in a productive way, 
to generate it for electricity or for some other purpose. That's a 
capital investment.
  When the Democrats controlled this floor, we passed legislation that 
allowed a business such as you've described to put that equipment into 
place and to write off the total investment in 1 year, in the very 
first year, an immediate writeoff, giving an enormous incentive to 
businesses to make a capital investment. Now, that's very wise tax 
policy put forth by the Democrats, signed by President Obama, and it's 
one of the kinds of tax policies and tax breaks that we think needs to 
be in place to grow the economy.
  There are many other examples, and I can go on for several hours, but 
I would rather yield to my colleague from the great State of Texas.
  Please tell us what's going on in Texas besides fires here and there 
and, once again, another disaster area in which, as America, we need to 
reach out and support Texas.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas. Let me thank my good friend from California 
for carrying on, if you will, the clarion cry that all of us heard 
throughout our districts and around the country.
  To my good friend from New York, let me just turn and say to you what 
deep concern the American people have. Do not listen to the jangled 
noises of cuts and not having the potential to assist our fellow 
Americans. We were all pained to see Prattsville and to see what had 
happened to unsuspecting people. That's Mother Nature. To see what 
happened to Vermont and all up and down the coast as we listened to our 
colleagues.
  And as I was driving in Texas, I want you to know that I saw the 
smoke. This is not something that is distant and far away. We've seen 
the pain of Congressman Doggett's district, and I want to thank him for 
his leadership there, as I mentioned the leadership that the Members 
have given; that you go to a place where 500 homes are gone and more 
and, as he indicated, maybe even a thousand.
  So I happen to be proud to be an American. And when I listened to my 
friend from California with the list of assets and credentials that you 
bring to the table, your leadership in the State of California, the 
leadership of Mr. Tonko in New York, I know that we are all wearing 
that brand of proud to be an American. That's why Democrats proudly 
wear the insignia dealing with Make It In America. Frankly, I can't 
project what the President might say, but I would hope that a good 
portion--and I want the American people to hear me because when we 
traveled across the country with the Congressional Black Caucus and the 
Congressional Progressive Caucus--Minnesota, Oakland, Miami, Detroit, 
Cleveland, Los Angeles, Atlanta--thousands were in line from all walks 
of life, and what they said was they wanted a job. And I want the 
President to hear that as he passionately speaks to the Nation 
tomorrow, and I want the President to lift his pen. Make It In America 
could be part of an Executive order. Make It In America could be part 
of instructions.
  So as I listened to you, I wanted to come and frame it in this way: 
The American people are looking for work now, and I would like the 
President to listen to our dialogue, as he finishes the finishing 
touches, to show the American people what can be done now by an 
agreeable Congress, maybe, but by the President with the support of 
those of us who believe we owe an obligation to those who are suffering 
in this disaster, to declare it an emergency and that this funding is 
an emergency. I don't want to hear the chatter that talks about deficit 
spending. Everyone knows that when you declare an emergency, it is off 
the account, if you will. It's off the balance sheet. So that's one 
thing.

  The second thing is, let me just give four points of what I would 
like to see. You mentioned, Mr. Garamendi, about buying. What a 
brilliant idea. I want to go further or to complement that legislation. 
Let's get together. And that is even though we think America buys 
America, if the Federal Government needs a paper clip, it should be the 
paper clip company in Illinois, in California, in New York, in 
Mississippi, in Texas, because if the government buys something for 
you--you've got a business with 20 or 30 employees. Let the Federal 
Government lead. Let the President announce tomorrow that he is asking 
his agency, barring any legalities or contracts, to buy America. You 
mentioned buses and all others, I assume, with Federal funding. 
Excellent because that is not happening now.
  The second thing is the criticism that there are workers not trained 
to the work. It's a new day now. It's technology, it's medicine, it's 
various new jobs, it's simple logistics, et cetera. Allow someone to 
train to a new job and have a stipend while they're training that 
allows them to be like they're

[[Page H5960]]

working and to get paid. Then I would like to see our private sector 
stand up--I'm proud to be an American, born in the USA--step up and 
stand up. I want them to provide the President within a period of time 
a 6-month to 12-month plan--it's called the I'm An American Plan--of 
how their industry can hire the qualified unemployed.
  I come from energy territory. I know we've had a lot of discussion 
about that. But they exist and they hire. Somebody else might be coming 
from technology. Somebody else is in health care. Somebody else is in 
industries that we're not even aware of. Of course we've talked about 
the whole renewable energy. But there are a lot of energy industries 
that can be asked to come to the table. You need hires; I understand 
that you have not, but I need you to be an American, proud to be an 
American, the private sector.
  Finally, let me just say that I have a man in my area who is making 
solar flashlights. Not solar panels. He doesn't have to worry about the 
panel issue. What a brilliant idea. He can't get a bank to lend him 
money. He wants to build his company in and around my area and hire 
people. He can't get a bank loan. Well, I want the President, within 
reason, to be Mr. De-reg, take the challenge of the banks and ask them, 
So what is the reg that keeps you from lending to a credible, 
legitimate businessman who has a proven product?
  Let me just say this: He's making it in China. He wants to bring it 
home. So I want the President, through an Executive order, to insist, 
put a criterion in, that our banks have been given a gift, and they 
need to turn that gift back as proud Americans and lend to small 
businesses.
  So I wanted to come today to answer the question of Americans who 
say, I need a job now. And even though there will be some legislative 
initiatives, and I want to applaud the President for his leadership in 
coming forward and putting it to us, but we know that the Democrats are 
ready to travel down the job road and to give the American people their 
jobs now.
  Mr. President, if you're going to run into obstacles--not the 
Democrats--then you stand up and use that executive power.

                              {time}  2110

  I know that the Members on this floor, I'm going to speak for 
California and New York, will stand alongside of you and behind you, 
that you will provide jobs for the American people.
  So I am delighted to have the opportunity. I want to offer again any 
help that we can give. I'm a member of the Homeland Security Committee. 
We've done this for Hurricane Ike and Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane 
Rita. We are helping the tragedy in Joplin, Missouri. I went to Alabama 
to see what a tornado can do. There was damage with the earthquake that 
went on right before on the east coast.
  I ask, what are we than the Federal Government to be the rainy-day 
umbrella when you are in need? There is no excuse to block any funding 
for those that are in need, and we are going to be behind you and we 
are going to create jobs.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, you are a true 
leader. Your State of Texas is under a fiery assault and will also need 
direct Federal assistance, not only in fighting the fires but also in 
the eventual recovery, and that's certainly going to be the case in New 
York.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas. I mentioned Congressman Doggett, but what I 
wanted to say on this point that I think is so important, and I will 
state, it is documented that our Governor has cut the volunteer 
firefighters. Those are great heroes. We even lost a firefighter just a 
few months ago when our wildfire started in the spring. Of course, it 
sort of--I won't even say the term died down--but it has now risen 
again and attacked a whole new area.
  We are going to have to ask for Federal aid and we have just, as I 
understand the facts, through Congressman Doggett, the Governor has 
just indicated, Governor Perry, that the Federal Government has a role. 
He has just asked that Texas be declared a national disaster.
  My question to my fellow colleagues is, then, what will be our 
response? Prattsville was washed away. There is nothing but ashes. They 
can't even find a picture book.
  So are we going to tell them it's off budget, that we're not able to 
fund it, that it's deficit spending? I think not. I thank you for 
reminding the American people that Texas is facing its own mount of 
decline, and those fires, by the way, have not yet been extinguished. 
They are visible to all of us.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. We understand. There are many different kinds of 
disasters. There are natural disasters that we have discussed for 
several minutes here on the floor. There is also the disaster of not 
having a job, of losing your home, not being able to care for your 
family and seeing all of your dreams just basically disappear for lack 
of a job.
  As we reach out, as we think about these natural disasters and our 
human desire to be helpful, we would also think about those millions of 
Americans, and we are probably talking well over 20 million, maybe 25 
million Americans that do not have a job, and they are facing their own 
personal disaster. They need help. They need help from many different 
places, certainly their communities, wherever it may be, but also the 
Federal Government.
  I know that those of us on the Democratic side of this aisle have for 
the last 3 years attempted and succeeded in developing programs that 
actually have created millions of jobs. A lot of people talk about the 
American Recovery Act not working. In fact, it did work. Some 3 million 
jobs were created. Those are not my estimates, those are estimates by 
the Congressional Budget Office and others. Give or take 100,000, we 
are talking about thousands and tens or hundreds of thousands, millions 
of jobs that were actually created.
  We cannot go through an austerity period at this point, because 
people are hurting. They need help, they need jobs, and we can do it 
and simultaneously build the American economy by the infrastructure, 
putting in place the foundation, by educating, a great example. Just 
yesterday, I talked earlier about this biotech company that's creating 
bioherbicides and biopesticides. They need to hire technicians in their 
laboratories and in the manufacturing. They can't find them.
  The education bills that we put forth that have been stopped and 
actually reduced by our Republican colleagues are necessary for the 
community colleges and other educational institutions to provide the 
skills needed for those people that have lost their jobs to become 
technicians, high-paid technicians in that new biotechnology field.
  So there is where these things come together. We need to always keep 
in mind the millions of personal disasters that are out there as people 
have lost their jobs and struggled.
  Representative Tonko, I know you're facing natural disasters, but 
when we were here in August, in early August and July, you were talking 
about jobs and the need for jobs in your area. Please come back and 
let's just pick this up again and carry it.
  Mr. TONKO. Sure. I want to pick up on the importance of education as 
a role for our comeback, but before I do that, I want to thank two very 
good friends and two very sensitive hearts for the empathy that you 
have expressed on behalf of the people of my district and neighboring 
districts in the northeast.
  So Representative Garamendi from California and Representative 
Jackson Lee from Texas, thank you for bringing out the neighborliness 
in all of us. That is our best expression as an American people, and we 
do it through the auspices of our Federal Government when one amongst 
us hurts. We respond in a way that enables us to come back and 
strengthen the fabric of our entire Nation.
  But to the point of education, recently the district I represent, the 
region that I represent, was dubbed the fastest-growing hub in America 
for green collar jobs and the third-fastest growing jobs for high-tech 
jobs by two independent surveys. The reason that happened was because 
we invested through Federal Government, State government, and private 
sector and academia in an agenda that speaks to cutting-edge 
technology, and it happened because there are three basic formats of 
infrastructure that need to be reinforced and responded to, that being

[[Page H5961]]

your physical infrastructure; your fiscal infrastructure, your capital 
infrastructure; and human infrastructure.

  Representative Garamendi and Representative Jackson Lee, you both 
referenced the education issues. They are very important to the 
comeback of this Nation, to growing jobs and retaining jobs. What I 
witnessed through the efforts in our region, we have a clustering 
happening as you have this strength.
  We have the largest ship manufacturing plant construction going on 
right now in all of America in the region that we call Capital Region, 
New York. I know that as other industries come in, other businesses 
come in, there is a demand for workers. Now, it's great to grow jobs, 
that's our first step in the process, but we have to make certain that 
jobs are responded to with the skill sets required, and those skill 
sets need to be brought to and enhanced for all neighborhoods, all 
communities.
  It has to be the coalition of a mosaic of workers brought to the 
table. And how do we do it? It's an investment in education beginning 
as early as pre-K and right through the college setting.
  Now, I witnessed what happens at our community colleges. We have 
grown programs for clean-room science. We have those investing in solar 
application to construction majors, those who are going to be building 
residences and businesses in our region. They are going to have State 
of the art know-how to retrofit those buildings with renewable 
concepts, from solar to wind to geothermal, whatever. So that cutting 
edge is being offered.
  We have an incubator in the region, several incubators. But we have 
one that incorporates a business that has produced automation in their 
manufacturing. At Kintz Plastics in Schoharie County, New York--which, 
by the way, absorbed some of the greatest blows from Mother Nature this 
past week--but right there in rural Schoharie County, New York, just 
absolutely replete with heritage and history, in that county, in a 
rural county, they are providing for automation and advanced 
manufacturing. That took place because we invested in the CAT concept, 
an incubator, a Center for Advanced Technology. And there we are 
getting ideas again that are then put into prototypes that are then 
further developed into a manufacturing concept that enables us to be 
competitive with this automation.
  But then you need now the skill set to operate these automated 
networks that are now part of the assembly process. So it's that 
investment again in the worker, in the brain power. This country will 
be competitive if we put the tools together, if we provide the tool 
kit.
  And how does it happen? It happens by doing it smarter, and that 
enables us to cut costs and be competitive in the global market. It's 
as simple as that. And Make It in America is a pronouncement of a 
commitment by the Democratic Caucus in the House of Representatives 
that says let's do the tax packaging, let's do the resource advocacy, 
let's see the research development incentives that bring together the 
strongest force of manufacturing.
  Manufacturing as a sector was ignored in the last decade and a half. 
Now this President has said we are going to be about an innovation 
economy, we are going to be about a clean energy agenda. We are going 
to be about bolstering our manufacturing sector.
  I know there is growing expectation. We are going to hear about Make 
It In America. We are going to hear about an infrastructure bank. I am 
convinced that's what we will hear tomorrow, and that will produce for 
us a far stronger outcome for America's workers and America's 
potential.

                              {time}  2120

  Mr. GARAMENDI. Representative Tonko, as you were talking, I reached 
back and I found this display that we sometimes use. These are critical 
investments. Yes, infrastructure, the dams and the roads, those are 
critical investments. But here is the most critical investment of all. 
These are American workers being educated, getting prepared for the new 
technology jobs, carrying on the jobs of the future. This is where we 
need to make a critical investment in America, and this is a key part 
of the Make It In America agenda--that is, the education, labor and 
education, making sure our labor force is well educated and well 
prepared for the jobs of the future.
  Sheila Jackson Lee, you were looking like you wanted to get in the 
middle of this.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas. I thank the gentleman for being so prepared 
with such important statements. This statement, a better deal for 
America, invest in America, make it in America.
  I want to acknowledge the whip of our caucus, Mr. Hoyer, who has been 
persistent. We have joined him like a choir because it is important. 
But let me make this economic point. I want to hold this up.
  When we had the helm in the 1990s, since I am talking patriotic and 
saying I'm proud to be an American, we understood one economic factor, 
and even politically, I think, some of us suffered. But under the 
Clinton administration, if I might say, it was an investment and 
revenue, and we turned the economy around. And we weren't down in the 
soup. We knew we had to tighten our belt. We even did a budget reform 
in 1997, if I can bring back ancient history. But 20 million jobs were 
created.
  I know there are a lot of pundits and economists who want to say that 
we are on our last legs. Don't tell that to the American people. We're 
not on our last leg. Your area is going to be resilient because we are 
going to help you. You might have thought, as we come to this very 
somber weekend, that New York and Manhattan were on their last leg in 
2001. That might have been our assumption, our conclusion when we were 
so overwhelmed with grief. Look at them now. Why? Because we've put 
public--the Federal Government--and private partnership together, and 
they are restored in terms of their infrastructure. This is what we're 
talking about.
  Another economic point that I want to make very quickly: I have no 
angst against China and India, but I am disappointed that, again, a 
number of economic talking heads want to compare economies. Understand 
what is happening. What they are saying is that the growth in those 
areas is surpassing us. Do you understand that we have been growing now 
for almost two centuries? We started the Industrial Revolution in the 
1900s, and no one could catch us.
  We're now--I don't want to say we are coasting, but we have our 
economic challenges because that is almost what economics is about. The 
growth that they're talking about is the fact that there is something 
to grow. They didn't have anything. And so if they are growing, they 
are growing because they are developing this new, if you will, level of 
income in their citizens, their middle class. But at the same time, 
they have this huge economic pit hole which is the number of poor and 
impoverished. No one comments on that.
  What I am suggesting is that America is still the greatest economy in 
the world. We have challenges, but I am tired of hearing: Deficit, 
deficit. We have to cut spending--because it means we have no vision. 
And if you really want to understand what we need to do, we need to do 
this: We need to build the inventors who are out there. When I say 
``build them,'' build them up.
  The President is going to talk about patent bills, and we have to do 
what you have so eloquently dictated. But I just want everybody to know 
that America is not broke, nor are we broke of ideas. I believe that 
Make It In America, with investing in America, with building revenue 
and deficit reduction, we are the nation that many will still look to 
for its greatness.
  I thank the gentleman for his leadership on this particular Special 
Order, and I just say this: Jobs, jobs, jobs.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. It is jobs, jobs, jobs, Ms. Jackson Lee. Thank you so 
very much.
  This is America. This is America, the strongest country in the world 
today. There are others that are growing, and thankfully they are. But 
this is America. We talk about patriotism. Some people say we are 
broke. We're not broke. We have troubles, to be sure, but we have an 
extraordinary strength in America, and that is the American worker, and 
they need a chance. They need a governmental system that is supporting 
them with education, with programs such as infrastructure, with using 
our tax money to buy the products that they make.

[[Page H5962]]

  This is America. We're Americans. We are the people who get things 
done. Nobody has been at it longer than upstate New York. The 
Industrial Revolution started in your territory, Mr. Tonko, and I see 
the strength that you have and I see the strength your people have to 
rebuild after this devastating week.
  Mr. TONKO. Right. Their strength, their resilience is infectious. 
They motivate me. They fill my voice with passion.
  Again, I thank you for the wonderful support you have expressed today 
in caucus to do a stand-alone supplemental bill for the people of this 
recent tragedy. My district was in the midst of that, as were many 
others. Forty-seven, I believe, districts were impacted by it. But, 
Representative Garamendi, I couldn't help but think, as Representative 
Jackson Lee spoke with such eloquence, that America's most shining 
moments are when we invested in America, invested in a canal system, 
invested in an infrastructure program with rail. We invested in a rail 
system and an interstate system and invested in a race to the moon that 
unleashed untold amounts of technology. That investment had a 
bipartisan spirit to it under Republican and Democratic 
administrations. We were at our shining best when we invested in 
America.
  What do we hear now? Let the free market rule. Well, go tell it to 
companies whose countries are co-investing with them. We hear it all 
the time. They are co-investing in these other countries. In fact, the 
private sector investment in renewables used to be placing America 
number one. We slipped to number two to China, and recently slipped to 
number three after China and Germany. The America I love, the America 
we all love is not about being number three; we are about being number 
one, and that's the investment we are talking about.

  Mr. GARAMENDI. You mentioned something that just caught me like that. 
Public policy, public laws make a difference. I want to give you an 
example. You mentioned Germany and the advances that they've made in 
green technology.
  I had the opportunity over the recess to go to a manufacturing plant 
owned by Siemens, a German company, one of the biggest manufacturing 
companies in the world, in Sacramento, California, and they are 
manufacturing in Sacramento, starting with just pieces of steel, and 
building light railcars and heavy-duty locomotives for Amtrak. I mean, 
this is the heaviest manufacturing that occurs in any country. It's a 
German company located in Sacramento, manufacturing from start to 
finish for American transportation systems.
  Why are they doing that? Why is that German company investing 
millions upon millions of dollars in California to manufacture trains 
and locomotives? They are doing it because the American Recovery Act, 
the stimulus bill, said that the money must be used on American-made 
equipment. The laws we make on this floor, the work done here in this 
Capitol, will determine the future of America's manufacturing.
  If we ignore the necessity of putting in place laws that say make it 
in America, use American taxpayer dollars to buy American-made 
equipment, if we ignore that, then we will see those jobs go offshore 
and we will see that equipment come onshore. That's not what I want. 
That's not what the Make It In America agenda is all about. It's about 
a set of policies, trade policies. Free trade, no; fair trade, yes.
  China, you're manipulating your currency. There is a bill that's 
being held up in committee by our Republican colleagues that would 
force China to deal with its currency manipulation. They have a 25 to 
30 percent advantage in cost simply through an unfair trade practice 
that China is foisting upon this Nation and others.
  Taxes. We haven't talked about tax policy much, but there are tax 
policies that are critically important.

                              {time}  2130

  Energy we touched on. We'll come back to energy in the days ahead, 
because this is about national security. Labor, education, research, 
infrastructure. We've touched on that today.
  We've got about 5 to 7 minutes. Let's do our lightning rounds here 
and we'll go round and round. That Invest in America, I like that one.
  Sheila Jackson Lee, Texas, tell us about it.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas. Let me say to my friend from California, 
because I know California has itself faced some of those travails when 
it had a natural disaster, and let me say to my friend from New York, 
you are absolutely right, we are committed for that supplemental to 
those in New England, to those along the east coast, and to my fellow 
Texans. I know there's a time and a place for America to stand with 
you.
  I want to see the President with those of good faith. There's a 
little comment here: Congress, the Autumn of its Discontent. I want the 
gentleman from California to know that I have no discontent. I have 
excitement. I have enthusiasm. I just ask my friends on the other side 
of the aisle to join me and walk down the aisle and celebrate the idea 
that we are the Congress of action. Take the Democrats' ideas about job 
creation, about investment, about infrastructure, about educating our 
people, about research; take my ideas about getting people trained to 
jobs, paying them while they're training. They have an income. Take the 
idea of buying a paper clip from a small company that's here in 
America, and take the idea, if you will, to ask our fellow Americans--
corporations, I heard they were people--to stand up and give us their 
6-month plan to put people to work. If they've got openings, let's ask 
them to join us as patriots and put Americans to work however they want 
to frame it, but Americans will then be back to work and then we are 
then healing that economy. Because everybody says: People working, 
people buy. That means they're buying furniture, that means their 
buying paper clips, that means they're buying cars. That's what I would 
like to see.
  I will finally say this. Mr. President, if you've got a pen and you 
want to sign it into law or into action as an executive order, we are 
standing with you and the American people. We want jobs.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Thank you, Sheila Jackson Lee.
  Mr. Tonko.
  Mr. TONKO. Representative Garamendi, I'll try to do this in lightning 
speed. I think of two things here. People that were impacted by the 
storms in my district that need to rebuild are also impacted with the 
loss of jobs. Small businesses that have shut are losing jobs for the 
community. So it makes sense to bring back those jobs. The dignity of 
work is what should drive us, what should motivate us. And oftentimes 
in this equation, as has usually been the tradition, people of most 
modest means--neighborhoods, communities, people, businesses of modest 
means, farms of modest means have been impacted here. So we need to 
respond, and we need to respond with that dignity of work, for the 
young college grad who has college loans to pay off and is told to come 
back when you have experience; for the middle-aged person who lost a 
job through no fault of her own who now needs to continue to work and 
maybe at the age of 55 is having a tough time landing that work; or 
seniors who need to supplement their income. Across the age spectrum, 
we need to be there to provide the dignity of work.
  Again, let's give America it's newest shining moment. Let's invest in 
jobs. Let's make it in America. Let's invest in manufacturing as a 
sector. We are still perched at the top of the list with manufacturing 
jobs. We lost too many because the manufacturing sector was ignored. 
Let's shine that moment again for America.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Thank you, Mr. Tonko and Ms. Sheila Jackson Lee. Your 
representation of your constituents and for America is unparalleled. 
You are fighters. You are fighters for those people that have faced the 
personal disaster of losing their job, losing their home, and many of 
their dreams.
  Tomorrow, here on the floor of this Congress, the Senate and the 
House will meet and we'll be listening to our President talk to us and 
to the American people at a moment in time that is of critical 
importance to the very future of this country; a moment in which we 
will choose a path, an aggressive path, to deal with the disaster of 
unemployed Americans. He will come to us with a plan. I believe it will 
be a

[[Page H5963]]

bold plan. It will be comprehensive. It will cover probably many of the 
issues that are here on our Make it in America agenda. But I want all 
of us, Democrat and Republican, to take those ideas and to put them 
into law so that Americans can have a job so that once again they can 
become taxpayers, and in doing so, bring to America's Treasury the 
money that we need to deal with our deficit. It's a very, very 
important moment.
  We're going to need to reach across the aisle, right down this middle 
aisle, reach across it, and say, okay, our colleagues here were talking 
earlier about regulation. There's some good that needs to come from 
that. There are regulations that impede progress. And on our side, we 
want to put people to work.
  With that, we await the President tomorrow, and we'll stand with him 
and with all Americans to put us back to work. Thank you so very, very 
much.

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