[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 135 (Tuesday, September 13, 2011)]
[House]
[Pages H6129-H6135]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
JOBS
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 5, 2011, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Tonko) is recognized
for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
Mr. TONKO. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
It's an important topic these days when we refer to jobs--jobs in
America, jobs that we retain, jobs that we create.
The overwhelming issue right now in the minds and hearts of
constituents across this country, I firmly believe, is about the
dignity of work, jobs that need to be strengthened out there in number
so as to provide for the opportunity for people to dream the American
Dream, the American Dream of home ownership, of education for their
children, of higher education pursuits, so as to unleash the skills and
the talents and the passions of the next generations of workers.
Training, retraining programs to enable the human infrastructure
required as an investment in the work zone of America is an important
aspect of the investment that we need to make through policy reforms
and policy strengthening and resource advocacy that we could do here in
the Halls of Congress, on the floor of the House of Representatives to
enable us to fill those coffers with the quality investments that need
to be made from a human infrastructure perspective to a capital
infrastructure, and certainly to a physical infrastructure as we go
forward and allow this country to utilize its intellectual capacity, to
use the brainpower of these United States to enable us to compete and
compete effectively in a way that acknowledges that the jobs market,
the jobs created, the jobs retained through advocacy here in Washington
can speak to the ultimate highest priority that people have established
for all of us who are serving, regardless of political persuasion or
philosophical mindsets.
As we serve this Nation, we can best provide for an outcome of jobs
that are created in our society. There is no stronger need. There
should be no stronger commitment. The President showcased that when he
was hosted here in the House of Representatives with a joint session of
Congress. And the room was filled. The gallery was packed as people
witnessed the very passionate speech from the leader of the free world.
As President Obama laid forth his vision, his plan, his initiatives,
his goals for the American people, the House of Representatives and
Members of the United States Senate got to hear firsthand what that
effort is all about. People listened with intent to move forward with
that blueprint for our future, a blueprint that would strengthen our
economy and have an impact across the world.
We have this opportunity now to work in a multipartisan way in a
bicameral response to what the President has highlighted to be his plan
for jobs here in America.
I was happy to note that amongst his arguments, amongst his
priorities happens to be the creation of an innovation economy, a
response perhaps to an innovation economy that finds us as an ``idea-
ist'' society investing in those ideas, investing in ideas that get
moved along perhaps to a prototype that moves along to a manufacturing
sector.
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I, before entering the Halls of Congress, before being elected to the
House of Representatives, served as president and CEO of NYSERDA, the
New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. It is
nationally recognized for its cutting-edge work being done in the
science and tech aspects of high tech. By the way, in the district that
I represent, the 21st Congressional District in New York State, much
about the Capital Region and Mohawk Valley and Schoharie Valley of
upstate New York have been dubbed recently by Brookings Institute to be
the hottest territory, the strongest hub, the most active region in the
country for green collar job growth. That's a feather in our cap; and
if someone wants to see investment happening, it's there in the Capital
Region of New York.
It took a partnership with academia and State government and Federal
Government, yes; but it also was a partnership with the private sector,
where great investments were made by the private sector in this high-
tech agenda--in the science and tech agenda, nanoscience,
semiconductor, advanced battery manufacturing. Now, that is somewhat
clustering in its concept to draw more and more start-ups and
entrepreneurial efforts and workers who are clustering in this way,
with academia getting invested in the research aspects.
I mention that because the innovation economy is something that
received high focus and an inordinate amount of attention in the speech
made by the President. He understands and he has professed--and I agree
with his assessment--that whoever wins this global race on innovation
will emerge the exporter--the kingpin, if you will--of the global
economy, the exporter of energy intellect and innovation and ideas that
will enable us to, in a way, mimic the success stories of the space
race--a global race that found fewer partners but found the United
States of America being victorious.
That all began, I believe, with a setback. Sometimes failure is a
misunderstood gift. In this case, through the Sputnik moment, America,
in its defeat, had to stand up and dust off its backside and commit
with passion, as experienced with the words of John F. Kennedy, who
said we're going to do this effort of investing in the space race not
because it's easy but because it's hard; and that attitude, that tone,
that passion, that commitment, that resolve produced a winning moment,
a winning moment when we were the first to achieve the daunting task of
landing a person first on the Moon.
As a Nation, we took great pride in that event that happened some 40-
plus years ago. It was more than the magic moment of landing a person
on the Moon and the infamous quote that talked about the giant leap for
mankind. It was the unleashing of technology and untold aspects of our
world, of our society, where technology reached communications and
energy generation and education and health care, to name a few segments
of activity out there.
That was a profound statement made by America and her brain power,
America and her will--her will to invest in her people and in a mission
that brought us together as a Nation, where everyone joined in the
efforts to fine-tune the best way by which to pursue that mission. What
happened really raised America. Her leadership potential, her
leadership recognition in the global community became profoundly
enhanced, and it was not just technology entering these different
segments of our society but of bolstering all these aspects, the
different sectors of our economy, and of course impacting not just for
Americans but for people worldwide the quality of life that we enjoy,
the opportunity to strengthen services, to be able to bring us together
in almost a village capacity as a world simply because of technology.
Today, I would remind my colleagues in the House of Representatives
and our partners down the Hall in the United States Senate that we have
that same moment, that same challenge, that same need to resolve with
passion again, to go forward--to go forward with a mission that allows
us to invest in a clean-energy society, in a clean-energy economy into
an innovation agenda. Think of it. We have so many opportunities here.
We have committed so many times over to public and private aspects of
research and development, of investment of research that leads to ideas
or ideas that are built by that research to a greater capacity and then
shared in a way that builds and develops the prototype that then
creates the manufacturing aspect.
We've seen it with the chips manufacturing in my district. Perhaps
the
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largest such construction of a chips manufacturing facility in all of
America is taking hold in the region, in the area that I call home.
That is enabling us to think beyond usual terms. We're thinking of
chips applied to agriculture, chips applied to health care, chips
applied to the education world. That is a marvel in and of itself, and
it's enabling the best minds to cluster in an area like that which I
represent, which is the 21st Congressional District in upstate New York
in the Capital Region.
That's the investment that I believe America not only requires but
that Americans are demanding of their leaders, leaders that occupy
these seats here in Washington in the Halls of Congress. That's what
they're asking for--that sort of investment, that sort of magical
quality that we have seen throughout her history.
It's replete with sagas of success that began oftentimes with
hyphenated Americans in their first generation of connection to these
soils investing in a way with this brightness of ideas coming from
blue-collar workers, who enabled us to take a region like that which I
represent and allow it to inspire a westward movement and an industrial
revolution because, in the heartlands of the 21st Congressional
District, we were the hosts to an Erie Canal/barge canal history.
What that pathway, that waterway pronounced with its own presence is
the opportunity to build a Port of New York that then gave birth to a
necklace of communities, dubbed ``mill towns,'' that became these
epicenters of invention and innovation. It was perhaps the first high-
tech revolution taking hold in the 21st Congressional District of New
York. It was there that all sorts of product lines were conceived and
then further developed and then realized in the marketplace around the
world, and these product lines inspired continued progress.
That's the sort of ilk that is American and uniquely American. That
is the sort of investment that enabled us to produce these tremendously
powerful chapters in our Nation's history, and it should be the
inspiration.
These moments should be the inspiration for us to do the correct
thing today: for us to understand that we do not cut our way to
prosperity, that we do not cut our way to opportunity, but that
certainly we can invest our way to opportunity and invest our way to a
new economy, a stronger outcome, an investment in our working families,
an opportunity for people to truly dream the American Dream. That's how
we will survive. That's how we will meet the test in the present
moment.
The President has challenged Congress--and rightfully so. This is not
a time for political gamesmanship. This is not a time for simple
negative response or rejection of a political kind.
{time} 1530
This is about working as a team, executive branch with legislative
branch, Republicans with Democrats, Senators with House of
Representatives membership. That's what we can accomplish here if we
set our hearts and our minds and our souls to an agenda that is in
keeping with the tradition, the deeply rooted and powerful tradition of
job creation in our society.
Think of it. Throughout our years, whether it was President Lincoln
in the development of rail or Governor DeWitt Clinton in New York with
the development of an Erie Canal, or President Eisenhower in the
development of an interstate system, or President Roosevelt and the
Corps that went throughout this great country of ours State by State
and built the infrastructure that really was a need for this country at
a time when we were hurting from a grossly high unemployment statistic.
That's America at her best, at her brightest. It's her shining
moment. The President is imploring all of us, as Members, as leadership
in the Houses, to allow for America to have her next shining moment.
Challenges in difficult times can produce the most deep, profound,
uninhibited, unrestricted behavior, and we have that opportunity. We
have that opportunity here to respond with this innovation economy. It
takes investment.
As I indicated, when I served as president and CEO of NYSERDA, and
before as energy chair for some 15 years in the New York State Assembly
with the New York State legislature, it took an appropriate policy and
then an investment that would enable us to respond in nontraditional
terms, to be able to go forward with the kinds of intellectual response
to deeply rooted concerns.
Think about it. We dismantled a monopoly situation for utility
purposes, electric utility purposes, and chose through an
administrative order with then-Governor Pataki to go forward with a
competitive quality in our utility outreaches in New York State, a
system designed for a monopoly setting that has to be adjusted to not
only wheel electrons from region to region within our State, but from
State to State, from State to New York State, and then from country to
New York State.
So that took improvement that needed to be made in policy and in
resource advocacy. I saw from my positioning in NYSERDA the benefits
that came when we invested in research and development. Now, granted,
all the stories, all the situations, all the scenarios within the
research and development opportunities are not necessarily success
stories. But without the dive into that opportunity, we will never feel
the splash of success.
So many of those situations become a winning outcome. And when we
have such an outcome, we are able to move forward and allow for us to
even dream of the notion of enhancing our energy independence.
We cannot remain so gluttonously dependent upon fossil-based fuels to
be our solution for our energy crisis. We simply cannot. We cannot. We
need to make certain that we commit to an innovation cycle that enables
us to dream outside the ordinary, to think beyond the barrel, think
outside the barrel in the case of energy reform.
And those formats, those transformations need to again encourage the
investment in higher education, in education, because we need, as early
as the pre-K setting, to encourage the development of our students,
especially with the shortfall of engineers that we are producing in our
society, and scientists.
Education in itself has the need for many reforms, but one of the
areas of targeted concentration needs to be the increased numbers of
individuals, especially in atypical formats with young women and
students of color who need to be encouraged to pursue along the
pathways of engineering and science. So we begin that investment but
then we go forward with that cultivation of ideas that begins with the
investment of the intellect of America, and what I witnessed were
wonderful opportunities. We had witnessed all sorts of improvements to
renewables, that was part of the NYSERDA agenda.
We saw all sorts of opportunities like kinetic hydropower where we
would actually be able to do turbine-type settings in an ordinary wind
turbine activity, but beneath the turbulence of water, to use the
turbulence of water to crank out the energy supplies that we required.
In a State like New York it holds vast potential. It holds tremendous
potential.
The R&D commitment was there, the refinements came through the
Department of Energy lab where they reviewed the product, saw where
some of the weaknesses might be, engineered the assembly, the design of
the turbine itself and the assembly of that turbine, designed it,
redesigned it, and now we grow more and more committed to the
opportunity for some of this use of turbulence of water to respond to
our energy needs.
That's just one small sampling in one agency and one State of how we
can grow the opportunities. Investing in battery manufacturing that
enables us to respond to that linchpin that is our connector to
investment into the future that enables us to, again, draw this energy
independence agenda together in a way that not only grows our economy
and protects our consumers and strengthens American job opportunities,
but really creates a cutting-edge sort of job opportunity where, for
the first time, these jobs appear on the radar so that we can begin to
provide hope to individuals who may have that genius within them and
will pursue that as a career path. But it begins with individual
voices, individual voices in the House speaking to those issues of jobs
and creation of jobs and investing in an innovation economy, investing
in workers.
Certainly no one has been stronger in that attempt than my colleague,
my
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friend from Kentucky's Third District. Representative John Yarmuth has
been a champion on the floor. He has been a champion at home speaking
to the need for jobs in America, Make It in America, which is a mantra
which he and I and our colleagues in the Democratic Caucus have
adopted.
Representative Yarmuth, it is great to have you join us for this
hour. Welcome, and I know you have been such a strong voice for jobs
not only for Kentucky but for Americans coast-to-coast.
Mr. YARMUTH. I thank my friend from New York.
It's a great pleasure to talk about the subject that's on every
American's mind, and that is, how do we rebuild America, how do we put
Americans back to work, and how do we recreate the kind of America that
we all once admired and will admire again?
You've talked about a very incredibly important element of the job
creation agenda, and that is research and development. It's clear that
the jobs that we look forward to in the next generation, and the
generation after that, are jobs that probably don't exist today. We're
going to find them. We're going to discover them. And if we don't do
it, they will be invented somewhere else, and that's why the
initiatives that you have been talking about in the energy field are so
critical.
But I would like to talk today about a job opportunity that exists
right now. The President referenced this in his speech last Thursday
night, and I thought he was incredibly powerful and articulate in doing
that. Because what he did was connect the dots. And when he talks about
infrastructure and jobs, that's something that most Americans can
understand.
When we built the interstate highway system, that created an awful
lot of jobs, and it also established an infrastructure that has
enhanced our commercial activity throughout this country for more than
a half a century. And now today we have a gap in that interstate
highway system, and it happens to be in my community.
Just last Friday, the bridge called the Sherman Minton Bridge which
spans the Ohio River between Louisville, Kentucky, and New Albany,
Indiana, was shut down because of structural deficiencies. So when the
President speaks of infrastructure deterioration throughout the country
and the thousands and thousands of bridges that need to be repaired, he
didn't know at that time, the next day, one would become more than an
abstract theory; it would become a reality.
{time} 1540
We saw this, unfortunately, in Minnesota. We hopefully have averted a
similar disaster in my community. But in the meantime, this bridge
which was built 50 years ago which was examined just 2 years ago and
judged to be structurally fine, because of advances in analysis of
certain steel products, they did a different kind of analysis this year
and found cracks in the support system and had to shut the bridge down.
What has this done? I-64, which begins in Virginia and runs through
Lexington, Kentucky, and Louisville and on to St. Louis, it's a major,
major east-west artery of this country, and for this country's both
civilian and commercial traffic. About 90,000 vehicles every day go
across this bridge. Most of them in the morning come into Louisville;
most of them in the afternoon go out of Louisville into Indiana.
Right now, all of that traffic is being diverted onto I-65. We have a
great, centrally located community in Louisville. Three interstates
converge there--I-71, I-65 and I-64--and they all converge in a pretty
similar spot except now all that traffic that can no longer go on I-64
across the Sherman-Minton has to go across the I-65 bridge. That bridge
is already taxed to its extreme. It is operating at 25 percent more
than it was envisioned to hold. Now 90,000 more vehicles are going to
be coming across that bridge every day.
So we don't know yet what's going to transpire with that Sherman-
Minton bridge, whether it can be repaired, whether it is going to have
to be condemned and rebuilt; but we do know if we had been making the
kinds of investments in keeping our infrastructure current and modern
and in making those investments over time, we would have had many, many
thousands more people at work, and we probably would have avoided this
situation.
So now this is both a very serious commercial and personal
inconvenience, and I don't want to go quite so far as saying it's a
disaster, but it is a very serious problem in my community. But it also
could be something where we put many Americans back to work as we
either fix it or replace it.
Again, we are at a time now where we have example after example,
thousands of these around the country. We are at a juncture where we
can borrow money to do this at historically low levels, and we can put
tens of thousands of Americans back to work.
So as a theory as espoused in the President's speech Thursday night
has become the reality in my community, it can become a reality of
rebuilding America for all of us.
Mr. TONKO. Representative Yarmuth, let me add to your reality with my
reality, one scenario being a couple of decades old now. In 1987, a
bridge collapsed along the New York State Thruway system because of
flooding. It came across a creek that you could walk across some years
during the month of August. It had the CFS, the flow, equal to Niagara
Falls with the flooding, and it wiped out a bridge. And I believe just
about all of the tragedies, all of the loss of life, which was some 10
or 11 people, were not from the area. So we are all at risk with these
deficiencies to which you alluded. So it is important for us to keep up
the investments.
As we saw this year, some 500-year records broken with hurricanes
from the ravages of the waters of Irene and floods from the Tropical
Storm Lee, wiped out infrastructure galore. And so now there is a need,
a demand to have these bits of infrastructure restored and rebuilt;
otherwise the economy suffers.
I saw what rail meant to jobs in my district through the course of
time. I saw what the canal meant not only for jobs in my district, but
in the western movement, the industrial revolution. So infrastructure
is important. I dwelled on innovation to economy, but you are so right
to bring up the need for infrastructure and those improvements. I thank
you, Representative Yarmuth, for your thoughts and hang with us because
this is an order where we want to talk about job creation.
We are joined by yet another outspoken voice from Maryland's Third
Congressional District. Representative John Sarbanes is an outspoken
advocate for job creation in our society. He knows from the Maryland
experience that we need jobs. By the New York experience, by which I
measure it all, we need jobs. Representative Sarbanes, thank you for
being a leader in the House and advocating for not only Make It in
America but job creation of all types.
I yield to the gentleman.
Mr. SARBANES. I want to thank the gentleman for assembling us here
today to talk about this critical issue of jobs. If you talk to the
average American, the issue that they put at the top of the list and,
frankly, it is the issue they have had at the top of their list for
months now is the issue of jobs and creating jobs to get the economy
moving again.
You were just talking about the infrastructure issue. It would be one
thing if our infrastructure was in terrific shape, if we were sort of
100 percent repaired right now and everything was new and shiny, and
then we had this economic crisis and we were looking around for ways to
create good jobs to get ourselves back on our feet and there wasn't
these infrastructure projects out there to provide those jobs. But
that's not the case.
As you point out, as Congressman Yarmuth just pointed out, you can
look out your window and you can see evidence of the crumbling
infrastructure across the country. So do we call that fortuitous? I
don't know how you would view it, but at a time when we are trying to
create jobs in this country, the fact that our infrastructure needs to
be rebuilt is a tremendous opportunity for the country.
I commend the President because in his address the other night, he
put rebuilding the infrastructure front and center, not again just
because it is a job-creation effort, although that is the number one
premium that I think people are focused on, but because it
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has to be done. The amount of productivity this country is losing
because of the waste and inefficiency of having this crumbling
infrastructure is mind boggling. So at the same time you are rebuilding
a country and creating jobs that way, you are also strengthening the
country so that going forward we can be more efficient and we can be
more productive.
But I want to extend this notion of rebuilding the country beyond
just the physical infrastructure, because I think it also applies to
the idea of strengthening our country in terms of human capital. We
know we have to invest in human capital. I think some of us are
embarrassed when we look at these comparisons with other countries
around the world in terms of how our students do in terms of math or
science, or other important subject areas where the United States
really should be at the forefront, we should be on the cutting edge so
we can be competitive, but we're not there.
So what do you do about that? Well, you rebuild the country in terms
of investing in human infrastructure, in human capital and making the
next generation as competitive and skilled as it can possibly be.
Yesterday, I was in Baltimore. We were celebrating Adult Education
and Literacy Week. There are 90 million people, according to the
research, there are 90 million Americans who would benefit from
literacy, and in particular adult education opportunities. When you are
in an economy where things are moving fast, where some opportunities
disappear and other ones appear, you need to be able to go back to our
community college system and other resources to get your skills ready
to meet the new challenge. We ought to be investing in that.
I commend the President because when he came here the other night,
not only did he talk about strengthening the physical infrastructure of
the country, but he talked about the importance of investing in the
human capital of this Nation, and I think every single American out
there understands the imperative of rebuilding America. That can be our
mantra. And when you rebuild America, you restore the American Dream.
The greatest frustration that people are feeling these days is they
say, I worked hard, I played by the rules, but I'm not getting the
opportunities to move ahead; and when you rebuild this country, you
restore that American Dream. You get us back to where we need to be as
a Nation, and that's what the American Jobs Act is intended to do. I
think that's the agenda that the Democratic Party here in Congress is
putting forward with the President. I am glad to support that. So I
thank you for pulling us together today to focus on this very, very
important issue of job creation.
Mr. TONKO. Representative Sarbanes, I couldn't agree with you more. I
have witnessed what happens when we invest in training, retraining, and
apprenticeship programs in pre-K through 12, in graduate school, in
undergrad campuses and research centers. I witnessed the inspiration
that a cleanroom science course provided for a young man 30, 35 years
old, unemployed ready to leave our area. When he saw the cleanroom
science at the local community college, which was an investment from
the Federal Government, he did a U-turn in his stated plans.
{time} 1550
This was something that was exciting. This was something that spoke
to his heart and soul. This was something he wanted to engage in. And
that's the opportunity that we can give people here.
The story line of America is basic. As you say, give me that American
Dream. Let me unleash my skills, my talents. Let me raise a family,
build a home, and dream that American Dream. We owe it to America.
And people have placed their faith in this jobs agenda. I can't tell
you how many times that I know we've talked. We've heard it from our
colleagues. People believe in that Make It In America opportunity. They
believe in tethering that dream, that American Dream, so that
households, middle class--let's rebuild that middle class. Let's take
those values of the middle class and make it happen.
We're happy you joined us. Another partner of ours, a colleague who
has led us oftentimes during Special Order on making it in America, on
jobs, none other than California's 10th District Representative, John
Garamendi.
Representative Garamendi, we often talk about the east coast-west
coast. The message is unique. It's commonplace across this country.
Thank you again for your leadership on the floor on job creation.
Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Tonko and Mr. Sarbanes, thank you for being here.
I'm delighted to be able to join you today talking about
infrastructure.
Earlier today, just a couple of hours ago, my office had
representatives from the City of Davis, near Sacramento, and another
community, Woodland, both of them in Yolo County. They're talking about
an infrastructure project. The water systems in those communities have,
for 150 years, depended on groundwater, but the groundwater is going
bad. They need to develop a new water system--about $300 million, $400
million. They cannot continue with the present system. They need help.
But they also, in doing that, are going to be able to employ a vast
number of people and put in place the infrastructure those communities
need. We're talking about the University of California, Davis campus,
with about 27,000 students at that campus, bad water. They need to
rebuild their water system.
Right now, across America we're looking at more than 2 million
construction workers, men and women that could build that water system
for those communities. They're out of work. Two million are out of
work.
The President came here last week and said Americans want to go back
to work, they want a job, and he put forward to this body--to the
Senate, the House--a proposal, the American Jobs Act. The American Jobs
Act, putting Americans back to work.
You want to deal with the deficit? Take tax-takers, people that are
unemployed, and make them taxpayers. We can do this and simultaneously
solve the long-term deficit problem of this Nation by growing the
American economy once again with, as you were saying so well, Mr.
Sarbanes, infrastructure projects.
You were talking about east coast-west coast, Mr. Tonko. Twenty-seven
hundred miles of American roads almost unfit for travel. This is the
kind of project that the President wants: $50 million to rebuild the
American transportation system so we can travel.
Mr. TONKO. That measurement, I'm assuming, was made before some of
the ravages of floods in portions of our country or the tragedies in
Texas with the many fires. As the President proposes this
infrastructure improvement, there are those who are hurting right now
who have been severely impacted by the ravages of the waters of
Hurricane Irene that went so far northeast and inland that they broke
centuries worth of recordkeeping.
Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Tonko, you and I were right here in the back of
this House Chamber earlier today and you were sharing with me the
stories. The reality in your district is these are your constituents
who have been harmed. And we had our colleague, Peter Welch from
Vermont, who was also talking about the extraordinary damage done to
the infrastructure in Vermont. As we rebuild those communities as part
of this American Jobs Act, people go to work in those communities and
are able to once again stand on their own.
Share with us some of the things that you've seen from your own
district and the needs for infrastructure replacement in your
communities.
Mr. TONKO. Well, it's amazing because there are situations--I'll
first go to Representative Welch's district in Vermont--where Route 4
has been wiped out. It's just about removed from the map.
What was just a couple of miles worth of activity for some people to
travel to work now becomes this tremendous circuitous route that may
even take you down into Massachusetts and back into eastern Vermont to
get to the locations. It has made life nearly impossible. I have seen
numbers of bridges wiped out in upstate New York, a tremendous amount
of bridges, locks that have been compromised in the area that I
represent.
I talked about hosting the Erie Canal barge canal activity. The locks
that
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came in the second phase of that canal development are now tremendously
devastated by the powerful force of water, homes that have been knocked
out, but the infrastructure and landslides of roads that are
disappearing and different opportunities now that are really demanding
of an investment like this in order for us to go forward.
As Representative Sarbanes made mention, this is a part of the
equation for success for jobs--not just jobs in the immediate zone to
improve and repair and construct some of this infrastructure, but jobs
in general. It is part of the equation of success. You have got to move
that product line. You have got to deal with the freight issues.
So it is incumbent upon us to respond. If politics gets in the way
here, it is grossly regrettable. It's unacceptable to hold back this
Nation simply because you choose to do a knee-jerk political response
to a plan outlined by a President who has shown a vision here that is
laser sharp about what needs to be done.
Mr. GARAMENDI. You're absolutely correct. The President's American
Jobs Act, which I'm embracing and I believe the Democratic Party has
embraced, is one that is focused like a laser on the immediate
challenge that America has--and that is: Employ Americans. Put
Americans back to work.
Another thing that's in the bill--this is about schools. Forty-four
percent of the principals across this Nation and all the schools across
the Nation have reported that their school in one way or another is not
satisfactory for students: the bathrooms are not working, the
playgrounds are falling apart, the roofs are leaking.
We need to make American schools physically strong and pleasant for
the students to be in. So this is a major piece of it. This also is
improving the science laboratories. And the President has lined out
about, I think, $30 billion to rebuild the American schools. It's not
just the schools that are going to benefit from that and the children
that are in those classrooms and on the playgrounds, but it's the
Americans that need jobs, and they'll get those jobs rehabbing and
rebuilding the schools.
Mr. TONKO. Earlier, Representative Sarbanes talked, Representative
Garamendi, about human infrastructure. It begins with sound schools
that are not crumbling over the students' heads but also an investment
in education. Just recently, during our August district work period, I
did a tour, a number of tours in my district with manufacturing. But
one story pops into mind where a manufacturer in Schoharie County, a
very rural county in my district, has utilized the efforts of its CAT
Center--the Center for Advanced Technology--to come up with an idea
that created automation so that he can remain competitive in the global
sweepstakes. But he needs people who are specifically trained and
educated to run this automation aspect within his assembly process, and
so it becomes very important that this human infrastructure is
critical.
I'm reminded all the time about a centuries-old saga and decades-old
stories of what we used to manufacture in America. After doing it
someplace else, the daunting challenge to America, to a sophisticated
society, is build the products not yet on the radar screen. And that
takes intellect. That takes genius that's cultivated in our schools and
in our colleges and our universities and research centers, and then we
create that product line that is brand new. But that's a sophisticated
society responding to a manufacturing challenge. And it begins with the
human intellect; it begins with human infrastructure.
Representative Sarbanes, you're so on target with that investment of
capital infrastructure, physical infrastructure, and, indeed, human
infrastructure, so thank you for bringing that into the discussion.
{time} 1600
Mr. SARBANES. Will the gentleman yield?
Mr. TONKO. I yield to the gentleman from Maryland.
Mr. SARBANES. I just want to echo this idea of investing in
manufacturing in this country.
The economists will tell you that a manufacturing job has a greater
multiplier effect on the economy than any other kind of job that you
can produce. So when you're investing in manufacturing, when you're
creating manufacturing jobs, when you're making it possible for
Americans to make things in America, you're having the maximum impact
possible on the broader economy. So it makes sense to do this.
Congressman Garamendi referred to the repair and investment in our
public schools across the country that the President wants to do.
Thirty-five thousand public schools would benefit that have projects
waiting to move forward. In other words, think about this; this is not
a situation where you decide first that you're going to go out and
build infrastructure, and then you've got to go first do the design and
the plans and everything else.
I worked in Maryland for 8 years with the Baltimore City public
school system, which at that time needed about $1.5 billion worth of
repairs just to get back to sort of what would be an acceptable
standard in terms of the physical plan of the Baltimore city school
system. They know what they have to do. Those plans are complete, all
the design specs are done, all they need is the resources to make it
happen. They can start on those projects tomorrow. Are there workers
out there to do it? You bet. There are millions of unemployed
construction workers out there and others who are ready to step up and
fill that void. So this is something you can do right away. That's the
beauty of it. That's the beauty of what has been presented to us.
Mr. GARAMENDI. They could start tomorrow if Congress acts today to
pass the American Jobs Act. Because the resources--that is, the money--
would be there tomorrow. The day the President signs this bill, those
men and women could go to work rebuilding those schools.
There is one other thing that's in the President's bill that I am
really excited about because we've been talking about this forever and
a day around here, and that is, Make it in America. There is a buy-
America provision in this legislation. So when they go out and buy the
paint, redo the heating and air conditioning system, those are going to
be American-made paint, American-made air conditioners and heaters.
That's the kind of thing we can do. We can use the American taxpayer
money to rebuild the American manufacturing industry, just as you said.
We can do it. It's billions of dollars of American money in
transportation, bridges, roads, buses, and trains used for American-
made equipment, making it once again in America. This is exciting. This
is really rebuilding the manufacturing base.
Mr. TONKO. To Representative Sarbanes' point, every year that's
wasted, that is allowed to pass by, youngsters in the third, fourth,
fifth grade, whatever, will never have the experience they ought to. So
we're letting down the workers of tomorrow by this delay, by this
resistance, this recalcitrance of a political order that is
unacceptable.
I will just make the point that Wynn Kintz, who is the owner of the
facility that I toured in Schoharie County, said that he reaches the
community colleges routinely because he needs that upgraded skill set.
There are manufacturing jobs across this country for which they need
skilled labor, and if we walk away from that investment in human
infrastructure, we've denied progress for this country.
We've been joined by an outspoken advocate for jobs--I mean a very
loud voice because we've heard the volume cranked up--as the chair of
our Democratic Caucus and the Representative of Connecticut's First
Congressional District, and that is none other than Representative John
Larson.
Representative Larson, thank you for joining us in this Special
Order.
Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. I am honored to join the gentleman from
New York, the gentleman from California, and the gentleman from
Maryland.
Martin Luther King once described the need to act as the ``fierce
urgency of now.'' Nothing is more important to the American people,
nothing is more important to anyone listening to this broadcast than
seeing this country go back to work.
Representative Garamendi talked very eloquently about Make It in
America. People want to see jobs created in this country and want to
see Americans back to work because we all know that when we put America
back
[[Page H6134]]
to work by making things here in America, that it provides the
opportunity for every American to succeed.
The President has called upon Congress to act. He did so in a speech
last week. We need to respond now. He did so in bipartisan fashion,
citing bills that have come from both sides of the aisle. Congress as
an institution should be about the vitality of ideas that you heard
expressed here this evening but then turned into a plan of action that
sees us lowering our unemployment rate.
It is simply unacceptable that Congress would dawdle while 14 million
Americans are unemployed and a sum total of 25 million Americans are
underemployed. The time schedule that Congress has here should be
expanded so that we're working every day to see that Americans are put
back to work. Fourteen million Americans are crying out for the
President's proposal to be enacted, to see this body take action. They
are tired of the endless bickering between both sides and want to see
action taking place in this body. My colleagues have outlined very
specific proposals that will achieve those goals.
We've just witnessed one of our colleagues who spoke so eloquently--
and I'm referring to Mr. Tonko from New York State--about what has
happened to his community, his district, the very character of which
was changed because of a calamity, more than a 500-year level storm
that ravaged the States of Connecticut, New York, and Vermont and left
people not only destitute in terms of their very homes and their
livelihood, but again, seeking what is fundamental to this country, a
certain sense of fairness and shared sacrifice and commitment to
helping out fellow Americans. What better way than rebuilding our
country and starting with those communities that have been ravaged. The
youth that could be employed immediately in our urban and rural areas.
The rebuilding, as Mr. Garamendi has said, of roads and bridges and
sewage systems. And fire departments and public schools with broadband
to light up the desktops of our children and the blackboards and white
boards, if you will, of our teachers so that we can once again assume
our rightful position as the preeminent economic leader in this global
economy.
We had Professor Dr. Joseph Stiglitz speak before the caucus today.
And he said it very clearly--that job creation equals deficit
reduction. We are not talking across the aisle here; we need to come
together as Americans.
We witnessed this past weekend what can happen when America decides
to be unified in common cause, as we did and as we responded after the
events of September the 11th. We need to respond to the crisis at hand,
which is 14 million Americans that are unemployed, the devastation that
it has wreaked on our economy, what it's meant to our housing, what
it's meant to our education system, what it's meant to our
manufacturing base that Mr. Garamendi has talked about time and again
on this floor. That's what we have to do--reinvest in Americans. And in
doing so, as Dr. Stiglitz, the preeminent economist in this country,
has indicated, we can both reduce our deficit by more than 25 percent
and put America to work. What we need is action from this Congress,
from this House of Representatives.
{time} 1610
Bring the President's bill to the floor. If you won't bring the
President's bill to the floor, then engage the select committee that
has a very specific timeframe with deadlines and dates and no cloture
votes in the Senate, no poison pill amendments in the House, an up-or-
down vote on jobs. That's what the American people are demanding.
That's what you gentleman have so eloquently put forward here.
Mr. TONKO. Chairman Larson, we have precious few minutes left. I'll
make a few comments and then yield to my gentlemen colleagues as we
close this Special Order hour.
To me, you've identified it well. This country has had, throughout
its history, its shining moments. This is our opportunity to invest in
America's next shining moment. It will take commitment by the
legislators here on the Hill in Washington, and encouraging and
inspiring and building a tone that brings us together to think as one
as a Nation, generation to generation to generation, region of the
country to region of the country, political persuasion to opposite
political persuasion, philosophy of difference to the philosophy of
another kind, moving together, coming together, understanding this is
our defining moment. It's our moment to create our next shining example
of America at her best.
Representative Sarbanes, thank you for joining us.
Mr. SARBANES. Thank you again, Congressman Tonko, for pulling us
together this afternoon. I just want to make a couple of points.
Echoing what Congressman Larson said, if you look at just what
happened over the last couple of weeks in terms of the disaster that
hit the Eastern Seaboard, and you can look over the last few months
across this country and see those sorts of disastrous effects happening
to people, nobody would question that the Federal Government has an
important role to play in coming to the assistance of people that are
in that dire situation.
Whatever your larger philosophy is about whether government should be
large or small and so forth, everyone agrees the government should be
on the side of people that are facing such a desperate situation and
should act quickly. So if we accept that proposition, we also ought to
think about the 14 million people, John, that you referred to, who
basically are facing an economic hurricane every single day.
And it is the role, the appropriate role, the necessary role of the
Federal Government taking those taxpayer dollars and saying, we're
going to turn and help our fellow citizens in need, and we're going to
do it quickly, and we're going to do it in a way that not only helps
them, but is also good for the broader economy and will put people back
to work.
Let me just finish with this last thought. I hope people watch this
discussion, and I hope people keep track of who's going to be
supportive of the American Jobs Act and who's not because there are
going to be people in this Chamber who vote against it and drag their
feet. And the reason I want people to pay attention is because people
are getting cynical out there. And I hope that it will cure some of
their cynicism to see that there are folks, yes, here in Washington who
are absolutely determined to try to come to the assistance of people
that are looking for good job opportunities out there.
So pay attention because there are people here who want to do the
right thing, and hopefully that'll stop you from becoming so cynical.
Mr. TONKO. Thank you very much. To Chairman Larson and then
Representative Garamendi to close.
I yield to Chairman Larson.
Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. Thank you again, Paul, for organizing this
Special Order. And I think John Sarbanes said it well. The gentleman
from Maryland spoke eloquently about the need for us to act and the
need for us to act now.
It has been a storm. It has been a hurricane for the 14 million
people that are unemployed, and for their families; and all Americans
are asking is the simple dignity that comes from being able to look
across the table at your spouse and your family and let them know that
they are safe and secure because you have a job and you are providing
for them.
Mr. TONKO. I yield to Representative Garamendi to close.
Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Tonko, thank you for bringing us together.
Yesterday, the President delivered to this Chamber a comprehensive
American Jobs Act, employment for perhaps 2, maybe more than 2, million
Americans immediately available as soon as this Congress acts. And it
is fully paid for. It will not add to the deficit. It is fully paid for
through a series of tax increases on the superwealthy, and the oil
companies finally having to give up our tax money that they've enjoyed
for more than a century as a subsidy.
We can do this. We must do this. We must put America back to work.
And in doing so, we will be able to deal with the deficit because
Americans have come, once again, taxpayers, and we have created the
critical investments in individuals, in education, in infrastructure
and in small businesses, all of whom will benefit from the American
Jobs Act.
It's our responsibility, it is our opportunity, it is America's
opportunity to go back to work.
[[Page H6135]]
Mr. Tonko, thank you for bringing us together.
Mr. TONKO. It's been my pleasure and honor to work with you
gentlemen.
With that, Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
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