[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 174 (Tuesday, November 15, 2011)]
[House]
[Pages H7610-H7617]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
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WHEN YOU MAKE IT IN AMERICA, EVERY AMERICAN CAN MAKE IT
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Huizenga of Michigan). 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, we are going to spend the next hour
talking about what's on the minds of most every American: jobs. How do
we get a job? What's it going to take to finally go back to work?
There's a lot of pain out there, and there's a lot of suffering. And
people really wonder what this Congress is going to do to help
alleviate this crisis of unemployment.
I want to just share a couple of stories and then ask my colleague
from New York (Mr. Tonko) to join me. I was at a meeting that was set
up in Berkeley, California, at the Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory, one of the premiere laboratories in the United States. And
the director of the lab was talking about technology transfer; that is,
research, the product of that research coming out of the laboratories,
[[Page H7611]]
and then jobs being created from that, and new businesses, the
entrepreneurial spirit. As he went through his story, I suddenly was so
upset, not by the research, not by the technology transfer, but rather
by the fact that his final statement was, ``And this company is moving
to China to manufacture the product of this research.'' And I thought
to myself, How can that be, that the investment of the American people
in the research, the education of the engineers and scientists, and
then this research coming out of the laboratory and all of the
development work, but finally we find that the whole thing winds up in
China?
So what we want to talk about today, at least in part, is this:
making it in America. What are the governmental policies that will,
once again, create a situation where we will be making it in America,
and the director of the laboratory won't be telling me in a meeting
that, Gee, this great idea is moving offshore so that the manufacturing
will take place in China? The reason he said that the manufacturing was
going overseas is that there was no capital formation, no capital
available. So I'm going to spend just a few moments on this before I
turn it over to my colleagues.
Here is what's important. This is where innovation is, and this is
where innovation fits into our economy. If you take a look, over the
last decade, the enormous growth in the sales of the innovation
companies, it's grown from about $1.5 trillion to $3.1 trillion. And
all of this is in an innovation economy. So this is exceedingly
important in the job growth of this country.
Another thing to keep in mind is this: The innovative companies
create the jobs, and they grow quickly. Just looking at the total GDP--
the innovation companies that I showed in the previous chart, the total
volume, over 21 percent of the American GDP is in these innovation
companies. So why is it that this new company can't find the capital to
build a manufacturing facility in the United States? Well, one of the
reasons is Wall Street and all the games that are going on on Wall
Street. But there's also another one. And this is particularly
important to California. That is venture capital and IPOs, the initial
public offerings.
If you take a look at this, you will notice that a decade ago, we had
a lot of public offerings. And over the last several years, we've seen
a decline in the public offerings. What the public offerings do is to
free up capital by going out to the public, offering stock. That money
then comes back to the venture capital firms, and this whole process
goes round and round and over and over again, creating jobs in
innovation. This is something we're going to have to address, and
legislation is going to be introduced in the weeks ahead to address
this part of making it in America.
So with that as an introduction to one piece of this larger picture
of making it in America, I would like to yield to Mr. John Larson of
the great State of Connecticut, who is our caucus leader.
Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. I thank the gentleman from California. I
thank him for his leadership on this issue, as he has repeatedly taken
to this floor in talking about what I think is thematically something
that America is in tune with, and that's the understanding and the
commitment that we need to return to manufacturing, we need to return
to our industrial base, we need to enhance our innovative skills, we
need to make things here in America. So Make It in America has become
our agenda. Over the last several weeks, there have been more than
1,000-plus town forums and hearings where people have discussed the
concept of creating jobs and making things here in America. We all know
that for every manufacturing job, that creates four other service-
sector jobs. And this is vitally important.
I visited a company with its president, Bing Murphy. The company is
called Industrial Air Flow Dynamics. IAFD is a manufacturer in the
State of Connecticut. They make everything right here in America. They
compete with foreign companies. They're begging to make sure that they
get more skilled workers lined up to do something that is
extraordinarily unique in manufacturing.
And a recent study and survey in the State of Connecticut indicated
that in the State alone, 2,500 manufacturing jobs were going unfilled
because of a lack of skills or the appropriate training, and the need,
oftentimes, for the small entrepreneur and manufacturer, who doesn't
have a huge human resources department, to sort through applicants and
to make sure that there's this opportunity for them to do that. But
we're hoping to pilot and lead the way in making sure that we're
matching skills with manufacturers as we continue to focus on making
things here in America. We all know, as the gentleman from California
has pointed out, that when you make it in America, every American can
make it.
We have an opportunity that is quickly going to disappear, and that
is the supercommittee. We have taken the position within the Democratic
Caucus that there's a very simple equation: that job creation equals
deficit reduction. Let me say that again: Job creation equals deficit
reduction. We know from CBO scoring that just getting unemployment--
which is at an unacceptable level of more than 14 million-plus
Americans and 25 million Americans that are underemployed--that if we
get the figure of 9.1 percent unemployment to below 7 percent, we cut
the deficit by a third. There is no other silver bullet. There is no
other item before us that brings that extraordinary relief that I know
people on both sides of the aisle desire.
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This supercommittee, by embracing jobs has an opportunity,
unprecedented opportunity without a cloture vote that is used to block,
and has been used in the Senate, for over 497 bills that we've passed,
or without poison pill amendments in the House to allow an up-or-down
vote on job creation, the President's proposals, the proposals that
have been put forward by our colleagues on the other side of the aisle.
And while we may disagree in terms of our approach and methods, we all
agree about jobs and so why not embrace this opportunity to create
jobs.
If this should fail, it will fail because we didn't embrace job
creation. We didn't embrace the concept of making things here in
America. We didn't do what Bing Murphy has been doing back in
Connecticut, and other manufacturers, focusing on and refusing to do
anything other than the patriotic thing, which is to invest in your
people, invest in a commitment to America, invest in our manufacturing
base so that we can put this country back to work, grow the economy and
lower the deficit at the same time.
Americans simply want one thing. As they sit across their dinner
tables this evening and have these discussions with their spouses, all
they want is the simple dignity that comes from a job. We have an
agenda. We have an opportunity. Let's not spoil this chance. Let's take
advantage of this opportunity that we have before us to unite the
country, put them back to work by making things here in America.
I commend the gentleman for his ongoing work, and I commend our
colleagues that have come to the floor this evening to express this
deep and abiding concern about jobs, deficit reduction, putting this
country back to work, embracing innovation, embracing education, and
investing in Americans so that we can succeed.
Thank you so much, and I commend the gentleman from California.
Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Larson, thank you so very much. You speak well of
Connecticut and you speak well for Connecticut.
I guess we are going to do our East-West show here. I would just
point out before we go there that America has lost about 40 percent of
its manufacturing jobs in the last 20 years. We can rebuild it. Most of
the economic indicators are that America can be competitive in
manufacturing. We need to have a level playing field, so China currency
is an issue.
Mr. Tonko, you've been involved in this innovation economy for a long
time. As I recall, you ran the State of New York's innovation efforts
before you became a Member of Congress. So please share with us today
your thoughts, and we'll begin once again the East-West show.
Mr. TONKO. Thank you, Representative Garamendi, and thank you for
bringing us together for some very thoughtful dialogue about the
highest
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priority that is held by Americans coast to coast, and that is job
creation, job retention. Make no mistake about it, there is no other
higher priority.
I agree with the previous statements made by the gentleman from
Connecticut. Representative Larson spoke of the absolute simplistic
equation of job creation and retention equals deficit reduction. It
doesn't get plainer, simpler, or more sound than that. It is about
creating jobs, reducing the deficit. The job growth will move forward
in resolving several of our major issues out there.
You know, your focus, Representative Garamendi, on the initial public
offerings, the IPOs as they're referenced, they have dropped
precipitously, and knowing that then is a downward spiral that doesn't
find the sort of investing that is absolutely essential is a very
troubling notion. You know, many will talk about just leaving it to the
capitalist model, let it just work on its own. Well, it's obvious we
need to prime the pump in many areas.
You talked about my role in the State of New York. When I served as
the head of the New York State Energy Research Development Authority,
we found that investing from the public sector sources leveraged
tremendous amounts of private sector capital. We see it in this global
race. This global race on clean energy and innovation is driven by a
robust competition. What we find are the counterparts, the competitors
to our American industries are helped along the way with a co-
investing, if you will, that comes from their native country. There are
those economies out there that are co-investing with their private
sector. Here we are asked to cut dollars for research and development,
cut dollars for partnerships, cut dollars for incentives that will
inspire that sort of robust quality that is essential if Americans are
going to compete and compete effectively well. So our trends are out
there. They are well documented.
We saw that we ignored manufacturing as a sector of the economy. We
ignored agriculture, and we focused primarily on service sector. And
then very narrowly within that service sector with the financial
sector. We know what happened. We turned our back, let the watchdog
leave the cage and allow for freestyle to go amuck. And what happened?
Across this country people who had invested all their life savings into
the trusted hands of portfolio activity were found without any sort of
return. And then America's economy was brought to its knees.
That is not the kind of outcome we want here. So we have said hey,
let's go forward and we have witnessed now the growth of some 2.8
million private sector jobs. That's after a trend with the Bush
recession of 8.2 million jobs lost. Just this past election day, I
think you can see some trends out there that are finding the public
swing to the Democratic message because they know it is about job
creation and job retention. They know it is about investing in the
tools and the tool kits that get us those jobs. We are an ideas
economy, and we need to invest in those ideas, build the prototype,
allow it to move to a manufacturing sector and be robust in our
attempts. Make it in America is the mantra to which we have brought the
conference, the Democratic conference, of this House.
We are talking in straightforward language about revitalizing
America's manufacturing sector. We can do it and we can compete keenly
if we do it smarter. We don't necessarily have to do it cheaper. We
have to do it smarter.
I have talked in my tours with manufacturing throughout the 21st
Congressional District in the capital region of New York State, I have
talked with a number of manufacturers. We have done tours. We have
visited and heard front and center from the leadership squad: there are
thousands of jobs in this country from coast to coast for which skill
sets have to be developed. If we move to an automated phase of
manufacturing, there are qualities, there are skills, the academics,
the analytical skill sets that are required in order for us to move
forward aggressively.
Now there is a sophistication in our society, a sophistication that
finds us creating product lines not yet on the radar screen. People
will suggest, they will lament that the glory days of manufacturing
have passed us by. No, we need to move forward aggressively and
proactively in creating the agenda that will develop the products of
the future. If someone is to suggest that every idea out there, every
concept of a product has been conceived, designed, engineered,
manufactured, produced, we are kidding ourselves. And so this is an
investment in the future. This is a visionary attempt to pull us along
into an area that was ignored and ignored, that found that ignoring of
the manufacturing sector found us falling into the woes of a recession.
And so it's time now for us to do it smart, to do it in a way that
invests in our manufacturing base, celebrates the empowerment that
small business brings to the fabric of our economy, the small
businesses, the economic engine that provides the jump start to our
economy. They need the assistance, and that has been our effort here:
talk about revitalizing manufacturing, supporting small business,
moving forward with education, higher education, and research and
development to move the ideas economy along. That's America at her
best. That's her pioneer spirit, and let's continue to move in that
direction.
Again, thank you for bringing this dialogue to the floor.
Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Tonko, thank you very much. The view from New York
is very similar to the view from California. We've lost 40 percent of
our manufacturing jobs. We can get them back. We need a level playing
field. China currency issues are very much on the mind of the
Democrats. We want to make sure that China currency is no longer used
to the advantage.
But there is also something here, and I will take just a couple of
seconds before I turn to my friend from Texas, American manufacturing
does exist. It's the great middle class. I want to give you one example
where public policy makes all the difference. Near Sacramento, there is
a very large and very new heavy manufacturing facility in place. It
stretches about a quarter mile, maybe almost a half mile. It is
thousands of square feet of buildings, and in those buildings they're
manufacturing trolley cars, streetcars, light rail, and they're also
manufacturing locomotives. The company is a German company. In fact,
it's one of the largest manufacturers in the world--it's Siemens--and
they have moved to Sacramento to manufacture these pieces of equipment,
transportation equipment, because Federal law said that the money from
the Federal Government must be used to buy American made equipment--buy
American-made equipment so that we will, once again, make it in
America.
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Now I happen to have two bills that do that, that extend that
stimulus bill law into the future not only for transportation but also
for solar systems, wind, and renewed green energy system. Our tax money
supports it. Let's use our tax money to rebuild the manufacturing base
by buying it in America.
I know the view from Texas is also similar. I've heard Sheila Jackson
Lee, the honorable Representative from the area of Houston, speak on
this issue. She's joining us here today on the floor.
Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas. I thank the gentleman from California and
my colleagues from Ohio, Alabama, Minnesota, and New York. I think that
is a sufficiently far reach to know that this is a national issue. Mr.
Garamendi, we thank you from your perch as an insurer, meaning your
experience in insurance, which is also a source of funding sometimes.
As the insurance industry invests, you know that America is not broke
and that America can, in fact, create jobs and do it by manufacturing.
So I'm delighted to see the Make It In America theme continue over
and over again. And let me just share some statistics, because as the
supercommittee works, one of the challenges is whether or not they are
focusing on creating jobs or just cutting taxes for those who do not
need tax relief.
Eighty-two percent of Americans say it is important for Congress to
produce legislation this year to reduce the Federal deficit through a
balanced plan combining spending cuts and also ensuring that all
Americans pay their fair share. In a couple of days, will that occur or
will we have the same old same old, which is protecting the rich
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and not allowing a fair, equal assessment of one's responsibility?
Eighty-four percent of Americans say it's important for Congress to
reach a new Federal spending agreement to create jobs rehabilitating
schools, improving needs and public transit and preventing layoffs. And
60 percent of those surveyed think the Federal Government should pursue
policies to reduce the gap between the wealthiest few and the less
well-off Americans. Well, that is what we're talking about today.
I notice that Mr. Garamendi had a poster on IPOs are down,
particularly small IPOs, and that is a source of cash for investing
back into small businesses and manufacturing. We did a survey of the
manufacturing companies in our district. My friends, you can turn the
corner in your neighborhood and find a building that is making
something. We do not have to look for the large conglomerates. I'm
delighted that we bailed out the auto industry. They are doing well.
But you know them. You know they'll go to Detroit. You know they make
big things and not little things. But we actually found that our
manufacturers were embedded--by the way, our zoning is nonexistent, so
we have a little bit more flexibility. But we found these companies
embedded in neighborhoods, down the street and around the corner from
different neighborhoods. They are right there amongst us.
And the question is are we going to go into the 46th week when our
friends on the other side of the aisle do not focus on how to enhance
Make It In America? What I would suggest is that the payroll tax relief
would help that is in the--pass the jobs bill, and access to credit,
making sure that banks give access to credit so that the startups can
have the equal playing field.
But also, my friend, these companies want to expand. When I visited
small businesses, happened not to be manufacturers, they all said: Can
we have money to expand, to create new offices, new services in the
doctors' office, new ways of exploring resources for a small energy
company?
So I'm here today to challenge the friends on the other side of the
aisle, the Speaker, ready to challenge him to say: You come from Ohio,
a working family. You get it, Mr. Speaker. Work with our leader, Nancy
Pelosi. Work with our leadership, from the chairman of the caucus who
has been so eloquent, John Larson, on jobs to the whip that talks about
Make It In America, Mr. Hoyer, and, of course, our vice chair and, of
course, our assistant leader, Mr. Clyburn, and our vice chair, Mr.
Becerra. All of these folks, if I have not left out anyone, have been
talking time after time of Make It In America. But more importantly, we
are not broke. If we can insist on letting our small businesses and our
manufacturers get a leg up and we stop giving giveaways to those who
are the beneficiaries of the Bush tax cuts and begin some new concepts
in funding, I think we can make it.
I want to close by simply saying to my friends in the private sector,
you complain when we talk about pass the jobs bill. Frankly, I think
it's a commonsense approach--payroll tax relief, hiring the chronically
unemployed, putting to work teachers so that class sizes can go down,
educating your next workforce, firefighters, police, et cetera. It is
well documented that our large companies have a very flush cash flow.
It is well documented that our major banks, our multinational banks,
are well endowed with resources. My plea is that all of us become
patriots, not party belongers, not card-carrying sign wavers as it
relates to what party you're in, and begin to invest in America.
Frankly, our President has stabilized--stabilized--the economy. It's
not where we want it to be. It's not bleeding. It's not where we want
to go, but it's on the surge up. The numbers will show that it can do
that.
We need the kind of partnership with the private sector that is long
overdue, and we need the support by our government of supporting our
manufacturing. We can come back. Before you know it, we will be
percolating along and being the leader, if you will, of manufacturing,
businesses, job creation, and investment as not arrogantly so but the
model for the world in how do you invest in your people. And I'm
looking forward to that starting with supporting a number of
initiatives that are already suggested and certainly some that I'm
introducing.
But I am just delighted that we have the thinkers that realize that
investing in America is not the end but the beginning of a greater and
greater America.
Mr. TONKO. Thank you, Representative Jackson Lee, for your
outstanding leadership on behalf of the Texas district that you
represent with your outstanding leadership on this floor. You're so
right. Everywhere we turn, you can see job creation and what it means
to the local regional economy.
I have a touring concept that we do in our district, and we have a
roundtable discussion routinely held with the small business community.
And it is just profound to go around and see how many people are
investing in manufacturing out there; and their product delivery is
powerful, and the fact that they're exporting is an encouraging and
enthusiastic thought. So it's all about showcasing what can happen.
And just think of it on a grander scale when we provide the
underpinnings of support, when we invest in that concept of
manufacturing and move forward with the incubator networks and all of
the activities that nourish this sort of comeback story that is so
essential right now after this economy was brought to its knees by an
approach that was hard-hearted to manufacturing. It ignored what was
happening. The same is true in agriculture, and we will maybe talk
about that in a few minutes.
Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas. You're absolutely right.
Just one point about Make It In America and the idea of companies
such as Siemens, our colleague from California, indicated, that they
are in California, rightly so. And we should be very, very strong in
making sure that our Federal dollars--this is not selfish. We are
probably more expansive and liberal than many other countries around
the world to ensure that if you're using our Federal tax dollars, you
build it and make it in America, and you spread it.
There's a company called Caf, and I know that they're located in New
York. We want them to spread some of that construction and building
work down in Houston, Texas, because they're building a light rail with
$900 million, potentially, of Federal dollars.
So we can do this together, make everybody happy, create jobs, and
insist upon putting our families, our young people, and America first
in job creation, building buildup and making it in America.
I thank the gentleman.
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Mr. TONKO. Absolutely. And I think it is about investing, the key
word; investing our way to a stronger tomorrow, investing our way to
opportunity, investing our way to prosperity. I see it all the time.
The dollars that were invested from State sources, public sources, and
some Federal dollars into the capital region of New York that I
represent leveraged tremendous private sector dollars with an
investment in the bottom-line calculation in nanotechnology, in
semiconductor science, in chip manufacturing, and in green collar
workforce development. These dynamics are so powerful that they have
lifted that region to the first of all hubs in America for job growth
of the green collar variety, and in the top five as a hub for high-tech
growth. So it happens. When you invest, it happens.
Now, speaking about sound voices for a resurgence in our private
sector job growth, in our public sector support networks, for those
employees, a tremendously dynamic voice from our new freshman class,
Representative Terri Sewell from the great State of Alabama.
Representative, thank you for joining us this afternoon. And I know
that you've been a very powerful voice for job creation, job retention
in our economy.
Ms. SEWELL. Thank you very much. I am indeed delighted to join my
colleagues in discussing making it in America.
I think you will all agree that any playbook about job creation must
have as its cornerstone the creation of jobs in our small businesses.
And so today I rise in support of small businesses and entrepreneurs
across the Seventh Congressional District of Alabama, and indeed this
Nation.
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As America recovers from our economic recession, we must continue to
make strategic policy decisions that benefit our economy and encourage
job creation. Small businesses play a critical role in our economy.
They provide jobs, they spur innovation, they indeed strengthen our
economy.
Small businesses are the backbone of our economy and are responsible
for generating half of the Nation's gross national product as well as
employing over half of its workforce. In fact, over the past decade and
a half, America's small businesses and entrepreneurs have created 65
percent of all new jobs in this country. That is why I introduced H.R.
1730, the Small Business Start-Up Savings Account Act. More
entrepreneurs will benefit if they are provided better incentives that
will allow them to save and start a new business.
On average, an entrepreneur who wants to launch a new business spends
on average $80,000 in their first year in startup costs. Entrepreneurs
often go into debt to start their own businesses. Many even use their
savings from their retirement accounts to build the capital they need
to run those small businesses. This bill will allow entrepreneurs to
save up to $10,000 per year tax free so they can start their own small
businesses. Once an individual starts their small business, funds from
a savings account can be used for their operating expenses.
The government can't guarantee a company's success--I think all of us
would agree with that--but the government can knock down barriers that
prevent hardworking Americans from starting their own businesses.
Innovation is the key to keeping America number one, and small
businesses have always been at the forefront of American innovation. We
can't expect to start and continue to be competitive in a global
economy without making small businesses and the creation of small
businesses the centerpiece of our playbook.
As we continue to build our economy, we must give entrepreneurs
incentives and the tools they need to prosper right here in America.
When American small businesses are given the opportunity to grow and
thrive, they help rebuild our country, our country's middle class, and
strengthen our economy. We must recommit ourselves to helping create
businesses right here in America.
My colleagues have been talking about rebuilding in America and
investing in what's good in America. Our small businesses are where
it's at. They create the bright and prosperous future that we as
Americans want to ensure. Small businesses will help to out-innovate
and out-build our other competitors globally. I urge my colleagues to
join with me in standing up for small businesses and entrepreneurs
across this great Nation and support H.R. 1730, the Small Business
Start-Up Savings Act. Now is the time to blend bold, new initiatives
with commonsense solutions so that we can strengthen our economy and
create jobs right here in America.
I thank my colleagues for letting me join them in this hour in
promoting all that is good in America, and in promoting innovation and
entrepreneurship right here in America by supporting our small
businesses.
Thank you very much.
Mr. TONKO. You are most welcome, Representative Sewell.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 5, 2011, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Tonko) will control
the remainder of the hour.
Mr. TONKO. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.
Representative Sewell, absolutely right on in your focus as to the
strengthening and the value added of small business.
H.R. 1730 is a powerful response to the needs of small business,
making certain that the savings opportunities, especially in those
early startup years, are made more valid and more available to small
business as a network. Certainly the small business community is a
tremendous corporate citizen in the fabric of our communities, and they
get tethered into our communities in a way that enables them to grow
and prosper, all while adding jobs and providing the intellect and
innovative sort of spirit, which is important.
Speaking of colleagues who have been outstanding voices on job
creation, job retention, we know that Ohio has been in the news lately.
And we have one of those voices from Ohio serving in the Democratic
Caucus, one whom I am very proud to know and work with. Representative
Tim Ryan, representing communities like Youngstown and Akron, has been
a very powerful force in acknowledging that it's investing in job
creation that is our number one concern right now.
We've seen what's been happening in Ohio. There is an outburst of
pride coming from that State about the activism that is really speaking
to and empowering the middle class. And we empower the middle class by
providing jobs.
Representative Ryan, thank you so very much for being that
outstanding voice.
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I thank the gentleman.
He hit the nail right on the head when he was articulating the kind
of things, whether in New York or Ohio or anywhere in the country,
really what the essence is, and that's resuscitating manufacturing back
in the United States. And that needs to be a goal throughout the
country because of what it does for the local economy and what it does
for the States, what it does for tax revenue, what it does for the
creation of intellectual property, because there are many people on the
factory floor actually thinking about how this product can maybe be
made differently, manufactured differently, how value could be added to
it. It is very important. But what it's going to take, in part, and
what's been happening in Ohio is a coalition, I believe, of working
class people, of small business people who recognize that we have to
make investments into our States and into our country.
And what happened in Ohio last week with the referendum that was
trying to dismantle the bargaining rights of public employees, police,
fire, teachers--the very people that we need to protect our communities
so that we can have good, strong, vibrant small businesses, the very
people who are educating our kids and our students who are eventually
going to go into these businesses--were under attack.
The upside to this whole thing is that a coalition formed in Ohio, a
coalition of working class people who get educated, get trained, have
master's degrees, protect us, go into burning buildings, we call them
when we get in trouble, they deal with all of the societal problems
that go into their classroom, but they are committed to educating our
young people. Eighty-two out of 88 counties in Ohio helped beat back
this attack, and with over 61 percent of the vote in Ohio, beat back
this attack. And the real upside to this whole thing is that a lot of
people who are in this coalition of police, fire, teachers, public
employees, as well as the private sector unions--the autoworkers, the
steelworkers, the plumbers, the pipefitters, the piledrivers and
millwrights and the ironworkers and sheet metal workers, there were a
lot of these people who used to watch Fox News. They used to listen to
Rush Limbaugh. They used to listen to Glenn Beck. And they said, in
story after story, after campaigning for this for months, that they
realized what's been happening here. They've realized this assault
that's been coming in and funded campaigns across the country, big
money coming in to try to divide the middle class and try to dismantle
the agenda. And I believe that this coalition, Mr. Speaker, is an
opportunity for us to have the political coalition needed to recognize
what investments we have to make back into our country. That's what
happened in Ohio.
{time} 1540
People are recognizing that they've been trying to get us divided,
who's in a union, who's not in a union, who's in a public sector union,
who's in a private sector union, who's black, who's white, who's gay,
who's straight; just divide the middle class, divide the working class.
And this coalition came together.
And I believe that if we're going to have the kind of investment, if
we're going to resuscitate manufacturing in the United States, if we're
going to realize that the government certainly can't do everything, but
it has to do something, it has to make these investments into engineers
and good, solid
[[Page H7615]]
public schools, and community colleges, and colleges and Pell Grants,
so that you can have the work force available to ignite this kind of
economic development that's needed around our country.
These are about investment. And to have 2 to $3 trillion in
transportation and infrastructure investments that need to get made, we
now need a political coalition to say, hey, let's make these
investments. Akron, Ohio does not have $1 billion to finance their
combined sewer problem, so let's put these building trades workers back
to work, which is going to generate revenue for the City of Akron and
Youngstown and Cleveland and Pittsburgh and all these others, which is
going to increase their coffers, that they will have money to spend on
police and fire and teachers and investments back into the community,
and then partner with the private sector.
Ultimately, at the end of the day, the private sector has got to come
in and drive this revolution, without a doubt. But it is time for us to
make the investments necessary that are going to allow the private
sector to come in here and make the private investments that will lead
to job creation. So the bills that we have and that we're offering are
an alternative vision.
I'll tell one quick story. We were having a conversation one day, a
Member of Congress and I, one from the other party, talking about
investments into the semiconductor industry. And they were down here
lobbying, the semiconductor industry was down here lobbying on
investments that need to be made.
And one of our colleagues said well, that's why we're giving you tax
cuts, so that you guys in your business can make these investments. And
the four or five CEOs said, you don't understand. We're talking about
billions of dollars that need to get invested in order for the
semiconductor industry to go in and partner and use the technology and
the research that has been developed.
So it's the government's job to plant the garden, to till the soil,
the sunlight, the water, to grow the plant, and then let the private
sector come in and pick the fruits and the vegetables that they may
need. That's what we've always done in this country, whether it was
military research, NASA, NIH, that's what we did, and that's been a
recipe for success for us.
So I'm excited about what's going on in Ohio because I think we
finally have the political coalition that is needed to give politicians
and leaders in the State and country the backing that they need to push
this kind of agenda.
Mr. TONKO. Representative Ryan, what a great coalescing going on in
Ohio, and what a statement by the middle class, of people of all
backgrounds coming together speaking with one voice, based on a common
thread of jobs, the dignity of work, powerful statement. And we should
all be motivated and inspired by that outcome.
You talked about government's role to plant the garden. Let me just
talk about another sector just to associate with that element of
agriculture just for a bit here this afternoon.
Why such a struggle on this House floor to get the dollars for
farmers who were impacted by natural disaster?
I saw record flooding in my district. We had wonderfully productive
soils in the upstate regions of New York State. You would think that it
wasn't part of some industrial sector, that there wasn't an ag sector
in our economy. All they were asking for was to have debris removal
dollars, to have farm land restoration, crop land restoration dollars
at a time when we were impacted by the ravages of Hurricane Irene and
Tropical Storm Lee. Was that too much to ask?
Well, I'm happy to see that the push here in this House coming from
those of us who have visited those districts and really pushed the
agenda are able to account for $338.6 million being added so that we
can take programs like the Emergency Conservation Program, the
Emergency Water Protection Program, and allow for restoration of farm
land, debris removal and all the activities that will drive
productivity back to the farm.
All they were asking for was a chance to recover from the forces of
Mother Nature. And if you can't assist in a situation like that, if it
took this tug of war, if it took advocacy, if it took putting a bill in
the House to really push everyone to move on behalf of our farmers--you
know, I voted against that original package because they said zero
additional aid for the ag community. Unacceptable.
So you talk about government planting the garden. That's just a
sampling of investing that was critical so you could keep those ag
forces going, those ag related jobs. Absolutely critical, not only to
our economic recovery, but to the nutritional impact that it bears for
all of America's families.
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. If the gentleman will yield, I think there's really
something to this idea that there's a lot of things that happen that
support our economy that we take for granted, that we don't see all the
time. And I think what you're talking about, with farmers, you know,
food just arrives at the grocery store. You know, a lot of us don't pay
enough attention to all the intricacies that go into that getting
there.
The same with the police, same with the fire, same with the teachers.
You take it for granted that this is always going to be there. But
these people who are sanitation workers in your city or town are
essential to the functioning of our commerce, and so we've got to
pay attention to this stuff and reinvest back into it.
Mr. TONKO. And it took putting the flood lights on to the situation,
where in the middle of tragedy we're looking to change the rules; we
are looking for offsets in order to provide assistance to our national
farmers' impacted farms under water, valuable farm land being eroded
away. And we changed rules? I mean, it was unacceptable.
And just speaking to that hardheartedness was an exercise for me that
was a learning curve because it took every bit of providing evidence,
from pictorial evidence to documentation of loss that finally moved
this House to respond to the needs of our farmers.
So, that being said, it's about, I think, investing, as has been said
here in this special order hour. It's about investing and believing in
America. The middle class needs that empowerment. They deserve and
require it.
Think of it. None of the strata can survive without a powerful middle
class. Someone needs to build the product, someone needs to purchase
the product. Enhancing the purchasing power, growing consumer demand
will drive private sector jobs growth. More expectation, more desire to
buy products, you put more people on, you develop product line.
It works. It's a simplistic thing to follow. It's a pattern that's
sensible. And so what we want to do is make certain that we empower
that middle class. We've seen a lot of outbursts about the social and
economic injustice out there, and it's about providing a reasonable
approach so that our middle class can be vibrant again.
I think it's what people were stating a week ago at the polls. They
were saying, we're listening to the Democrats' message; we're embracing
it and we're shifting our loyalties. We're now choosing to side with
those who are talking about a wise approach, investing in job creation,
which equals deficit reduction. Basic, simple, sound.
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. And I don't think anybody's of the illusion that
somehow a coalition like this is going to agree on every issue. But
what happened in Ohio was that there was a prioritization of what
really matters, of what are the fundamental issues that it means to be
an American, and what's the recipe that America always had that led to
our success.
It wasn't an accident that we jumped the Soviet Union in the race to
space. It was a concerted effort on behalf of the government, private
industry and the people in the country. And we had this recipe that was
investments and infrastructure and research and education and making
sure we had good regulations in the financial industry. And we were the
world power for a long, long time, and we still are.
But we've seen the decrease in wages or stagnant wages for 30 years,
and attacking the workers now to say, as they were in Ohio, that it's
your fault. You're making too much.
There was a great placard at one of the rallies. The guy said, I make
$30,000 a year, I have a Master's Degree and I'm the problem. So this
is the kind of coalition I think we need.
I think it gets to, hopefully, a new alternative vision for the
country and for
[[Page H7616]]
our government which, to me, is it's not about government being too big
or too small. It's about the government working.
And if the people, the working class people see that the government
is working, that it is regulating its markets, making wise investments,
recognizing the value of education and the investments we need to make,
then they're going to vote in who's ever doing that.
But this shrink it and drown it in the bathtub and don't make the
kind of investments that we made for so many different years is not a
recipe for success. It's a recipe for disaster.
{time} 1550
Mr. TONKO. I think the people feel at risk when they believe that
those who have this highest concentration of wealth have just so much
influence on the outcome in Washington that it's unacceptable. And they
now know who's paid the price.
You know, the middle class, when given the opportunity, remains
silent, or at least mildly content. When you take that away and you
then involve this unjust outcome to impact them, then they get angry.
So the outburst here is we need the investing. We want our children
to have the opportunity to reach for the American Dream. It has always
been the passion that drives this country. And when you talked about
the global race on space during the JFK years, President Kennedy
acknowledged up front we're going to do this, not because it's easy,
but because it's hard.
People know that these are tough decisions, but they also want to
hear the commitment. They want to hear conviction. Are we going to
support, are we going to be the underpinnings of human infrastructure,
the development of a workforce, training, retraining, education, higher
education; incentives that provide for research so you can be a land of
discovery, a land of creating product line, of traveling into new
spheres of influence that can just express the magnanimous quality of
America and all she offers?
When you suffocate those areas of potential, you're denying the
middle class its chance at the American Dream. And that's what this is
about. People see undue influence coming from a very few and denying
the vast majority their chance at the American Dream. And that's what
this Nation has always been about. It's been there as an ideal. It's
been a beacon of hope. It's seen as a garden of opportunity, and we
need to culture, move that culture forward in a way that is driven by
sound programs, sound projects, sound policy. It's about the programs,
projects, and policies.
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. And a respect for the workers who are ultimately
going to elevate this. And we see that within manufacturing, how the
ideas and the intellectual property that come from the factory floor
are driven by those workers who are sitting there every day thinking
about how this can be done better.
We have so much potential within the workforce that is undeveloped,
untapped, and not utilized properly that could lift us up and help us
create this whole new economy that is going to get created somewhere by
somebody somehow, and it might as well be us. And if we make the proper
investments, we have the talent and the creativity in the country to
make it happen. But I think it gets back to having a general respect
for the workers.
We had firefighters that I met make 30 runs in one day on a rig and
get paid 40-some thousand dollars a year. And the runs aren't like me
and you running over to vote. They're runs into burning buildings.
Mr. TONKO. With a lot of weight on your back.
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Carrying oxygen tanks and everything else. And
there just has been a disrespect for that kind of work--the sanitation
worker, the custodian, the teacher--pushing the blame of all society's
problems onto these public workers in that instance.
Then, now in Ohio, for example, they're coming in and they want to
make it a right-to-work State. So those building trade folks who we're
going to try to get back to work, there's 20 percent unemployment in
the trade. We're trying to get them back to work with the
infrastructure investments that we need to make. To say to them,
``You're not going to be allowed to have a fundamental right of
collectively bargaining and to be able to negotiate contracts, and it's
going to diminish the wages and everything else,'' similar to what
happened or what they wanted to do in Ohio--it's about respecting these
people. And when you respect them, they'll come to perform, but it
takes those investments and that general appreciation.
Mr. TONKO. And essential services that are performed.
You talked about water and sewer opportunities, the construction
projects that we require. It's about human infrastructure, capital
infrastructure, physical infrastructure. If we feed that with soundness
of investment--not just spending and throwing money at something, but
with an accountable plan, one with a vision, one with goals, one that
embraces a soundness of future--we are ahead of the race of anyone else
out there. We can maintain the soundness of leadership in this global
economy if we believe in ourselves, if we believe in the American
Dream, if we invest.
We've been joined by Representative John Garamendi from the great
State of California. He kicked us off. The hour came into my hands, and
now you're back to revisit. So we thank you Representative Garamendi,
again, for serving as inspiration to really get the thought process
moving and verbalize where we are as a powerful conference in this
House and where I think we've attached to the great thinking out there,
the overwhelming thinking of Americans.
Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Tonko, thank you very much for carrying on; and,
Mr. Ryan, thank you for your insight into what is so obvious. The
American people do not want their rights taken away from them. They
have the right of collective bargaining; you're quite correct about
that.
Excuse me for having to step out. My constituents from California
were here in town, and interestingly enough, they were talking about
one of the jobs programs that we really need to do.
I represent the central valley of California, the great California
Delta, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the largest estuary on the
west coast of the Western Hemisphere, and there's always been severe
flooding problems in that area. So they were asking about how are we
going to fund the necessary flood projects.
It's been a long, long history of the Federal Government through the
Corps of Engineers supporting the construction of levees and other
flood protection devices. But all of that seems to be ramping down as
this mania of cut, slash, and burn the budget occurs around here.
Now, the President offered the American Jobs Act; and in the American
Jobs Act, there's $50 billion for infrastructure, part of which is
water systems, sanitation systems, road transportation systems, but
also flood control systems--desperately needed in our area. We could
probably employ a couple hundred thousand construction workers
immediately if somehow this House were to pass the American Jobs Act.
So I'm just thinking about the relationship of what we're talking
about here on the floor and what my constituents were talking about,
the necessity of developing water projects as well as flood control. We
really ought to do that, because we can take these unemployed
construction workers, several hundred thousand of them who are now
receiving unemployment checks--they're tax takers. We can put them to
work building the infrastructure, the foundation for tomorrow's
economy, and they become taxpayers.
You started off this conversation with something that is so very,
very true--I guess Mr. Larson did--and that is the best way to deal
with the deficit is put Americans back to work. It was an interesting
side bar to our work here on the floor; but it fits so well with what
we're talking about here, which is jobs, putting people back to work,
using our collective powers of citizens of this great country to employ
people by building the foundation for future economic growth. And you
mentioned education as one of those pieces. There's so much to do.
If you would kind of wrap us up. I think we've got 3 or 4 minutes,
and we can go from there.
It's been a good afternoon sharing our thoughts about how we can
create
[[Page H7617]]
jobs, get Americans back to work, get our economy back to work. And the
President's laid out a good, bold program.
Incidentally, it's paid for. We're not going to borrow money to put
these construction workers back to work. It's paid for. The way it's
paid for is that those 1 percent of Americans, the superwealthy who've
had an income of more than a million dollars a year after all of the
deductions--that's after adjusted gross income, a million dollars or
more--they have enjoyed enormous tax reductions over the last 11 years,
what we would ask is some basic fairness, that they contribute to
putting Americans back to work with a small increase in their taxes
over and above a million dollars. No increase below.
Mr. TONKO. Well, I think to just match some words to what your most
recent statement was, we have to think back, too, and look at recent
history to have it speak to us. We borrowed totally for the
millionaire-billionaire tax cuts and for two wars that were being
fought, and now we wonder why we have a problem, a deficit situation,
and why we want to blame the worker.
Now, look. We say it's about investing in the human fabric, in the
core individual, making certain that the skills that can be unleashed
by that investment are put into a work situation that can enable us to
be a nation of discovery, a nation of innovation, of design, of
invention. That's America in her greatest moments, and I think those
moments lie ahead of us.
I'm optimistic that if we do this plan of investment, we will see
tremendous growth in our economy. We will see our competitive edge in
the global market get all the sharper and more keen. However, it takes
that investment. It takes that vision, laser sharp, and it takes the
commitment to stand up against this tide to just slash and burn, as you
indicated, after so many were witnessing that the very few were given a
gift for which we borrowed.
{time} 1600
Now we're asking for someone else to have their turn--America's
middle class.
Pursuing the American Dream deserves that sort of attention. It
deserves the dignity of work. It deserves the respect of those who lead
this Nation, and for them to do it in a fashion that is going to
respond in fullest measure.
Representative Garamendi, it has been a pleasure to join with you on
the floor.
Mr. GARAMENDI. The gentleman from New York says it so eloquently.
Long ago, I did a study of the California economy. We decided there
were basically five things that needed to be done, and now, from the
Federal level, I'd add a sixth. They are the things that you've been
talking about:
Education, the best education in the world, so that our workers are
capable of carrying on the new tasks.
Research, as I discussed earlier, from our laboratories and our
universities of the new products.
We need to make sure the research is there and then take the research
out of the laboratories and create the new products--making it in
America because manufacturing matters.
The fourth thing is the infrastructure, which I was discussing and
that I know you discussed while I was gone here, and laying the
foundation upon which the economy will grow--transportation,
communication, sanitation, water-flood protection--all of those
infrastructure items.
Then we need to always think in this context about our Nation's
security and use our money wisely to provide the kind of defense and
security that we need. That's also an energy issue, which we didn't
bring up today but that we will the next time we talk.
Finally, the sixth thing is one that I think is so very, very
important, which is the willingness to change. What we did yesterday
will probably not work today or tomorrow, so we must always be willing
to change and not be stuck back in the 1790s, but rather deal with the
reality of the world in which we live today and change our systems and
be willing to adapt and change.
Mr. TONKO. This has been a Special Order hour that I've enjoyed. I
thank the gentleman from California.
Mr. GARAMENDI. And I thank you.
Mr. TONKO. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
____________________