[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 137 (Thursday, September 15, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Page S5653]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. I was listening to the Senator from California 
describe how the American taxpayers pay for all kinds of public 
facilities from utilities to schools to water systems to energy 
production in other countries around the world, and according to 
Senator Boxer there is never objection to that from the other side of 
the aisle. But when the President of the United States wants to do that 
same kind of construction in the United States of America, there seems 
to be objection. I was taken by that, one, because it is true; second, 
because it is pretty unbelievable that when the President decides that 
working with the Congress--causing the Congress to pass legislation so 
we can build schools and renovate schools in Michigan or California or 
Cleveland or Toledo--that some conservative Members of Congress in both 
Houses say, well, we can't do that even though we want to pay for it by 
closing the Wall Street tax loopholes, by taking away oil company 
subsidies, by closing the tax incentives that are in Federal law now 
that encourage companies to leave Hamtramck or leave Youngstown and go 
to Wuhan or Shanghai.
  I was on a conference call yesterday with some school principals in 
Ohio, a principal from Zanesville, a moderate-sized community in 
eastern Ohio, who had been a principal in a nearby rural school 
district some years before, who was talking to me about how important 
school renovation is. The average school building in the United States 
is 40 years old. We would put so much effort in infrastructure in the 
1940s, 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, from Dwight Eisenhower with the 
interstate system to school superintendents and local taxpayers 
building schools and new water and sewer systems--including all the 
infrastructure we built in this country after World War II--in a 
bipartisan way to help our country grow. We put people to work doing 
the construction. We put people to work doing the manufacturing for 
materials used in the construction, and putting people to work because 
we built this infrastructure that the Kroger Company in Cincinnati 
needs to move its produce and other things for their stores all over 
the Midwest. It is the kind of infrastructure rebuilding that helps us 
with economic development.
  The President was in Columbus 2 days ago talking at Fort Hayes High 
School about school construction and how important that is. I was 
talking to the school principal, who used to work in Maineville, and he 
told me how several years ago his school building was old and decrepit 
and needed fixing. He also said the test scores were not very good for 
these students. He said after they built a new school building and put 
these students in a place that they could learn better, it sent a 
message to these students that, yes, we care about education. He said 
the test scores went up markedly. I said, because of the new building? 
He said, yes. Uncategorically, he said yes.
  We tell our young people in this country that education is most 
important, and then we send them to schools that don't look good. I 
wonder what students think when we put this premium on education, but 
then we don't act on it. He and the other principals talked about 
leaking roofs and mold on the walls. They talked about dark and dank 
hallways in auditoriums. They talked about the lack of technology.
  What the President is trying to do--and what Senator Boxer was 
talking about, more with aviation and highways, but schools also--when 
he talks about investing in school renovation, one, it means jobs 
immediately for carpenters and electricians and plumbers and laborers 
and all kinds of people. It also means jobs immediately for the people 
producing the steel, the manufacturers, the cement, and the insulation. 
The biggest insulation plant in the United States of America is in 
Newark, OH. It creates jobs right now but it also means better schools 
for our kids, and it means long-range economic growth, long-range 
prosperity, and a better environment for us as a country.
  What troubles me so much, as Senator Boxer said, is we are putting 
money into schools and water facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan--and I 
am okay with that if it serves our national interest. I am not okay 
when there are no objections to that from conservative politicians, but 
they object to doing that at home with schools in Chillicothe and 
Mansfield and Springfield and Lima and Youngstown and Akron.
  It is so important to move forward on the school construction and 
jobs bill. Mr. President, $1 billion in investment in school 
construction and renovation creates about 10,000 jobs. Those 10,000 
jobs are mostly middle-class jobs in manufacturing and the trades 
actually doing the construction and the building. It makes so much 
sense, and I am hopeful as the President goes around the country 
explaining it--he was in Columbus 2 days ago--that my colleagues on the 
other side of the aisle decide, yes, maybe we ought to actually focus 
on jobs and do the right thing.
  I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The Presiding Officer (Mr. Levin). The clerk will call the roll.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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