[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 15 (Tuesday, January 31, 2012)]
[House]
[Pages H201-H207]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
MAKE IT IN AMERICA: MANUFACTURING MATTERS
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Harris). 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, I want to join with my colleagues this
evening to take up an extremely important subject. This is about the
heart and soul and the opportunity of the middle class of America. This
is about, once again, rebuilding the great American manufacturing
machine. Through the last century, America came to prominence for many
reasons. But one of the most important was that we knew how to make
things. This was the manufacturing heart of the world.
Just 20 years ago, nearly 20 million American workers were employed
in manufacturing, and that gave rise to the great middle class and the
stability of this Nation, and the opportunity for an individual to get
an education, go into the manufacturing sector as an engineer or as a
line worker and earn enough money to buy a home, take care of their
family, and pay for their education--lead and live that good middle
class life.
But that was yesterday. Today, we have about 11 million people in
manufacturing. We've seen the decline of manufacturing in the United
States keeping pace with the decline of the middle class.
It doesn't have to be that way. Tonight, my colleagues and I are
going to talk about policies that we can put in place here in
Congress--policies that we must put in place--to rebuild the American
manufacturing machine. Joining me is Mr. Blumenauer of Oregon, Ms. Jan
Schakowsky from Illinois, and a couple other of my colleagues who are
coming in a little later.
What this is all about is government policy. We already, on the
Democratic side, have taken steps to begin the process of reversing
this very awesome and dangerous trend. For example, a year ago
December, we introduced and passed a piece of legislation that took
away from American corporations over $12 billion of tax breaks that
they received for off-shoring jobs. I know it's hard to believe, but
they were actually getting a tax break for every job that they off-
shored. Those days are significantly reduced. That's just but one
example of what we have been working on.
I'd like now to just point out to you this logo. Those of us in the
Democratic Party here in the caucus keep this on our desk, and we've
got it on our coffee cups, to remind us that it is our mission in
the Democratic Caucus to push for legislation to create American
manufacturing jobs. And we're going to talk about some of these
tonight.
Mr. Blumenauer from Oregon, I know that you're very interested in an
important piece of this. I see you've got a bicycle on your lapel.
Perhaps that has to do with transportation. And I will note that we do
have a major transportation bill coming up here in the House later this
week, or later, on the new transportation program for the next 6 years.
I know you have some concerns about this, so please share those with
us.
Mr. BLUMENAUER. Thank you. I deeply appreciate your courtesy in
permitting me to speak, and I appreciate your leadership in coming to
the floor this evening and focusing on the importance of our being able
to make goods and services in this country, particularly manufacturing.
There is an element, as you referenced, that is the quickest way to
jump-start the economy, that would be the largest source of family-wage
jobs and which would tie into a whole host of contractors and
subcontractors of people who make equipment operations in this country.
You're right. Our Republican colleagues have offered up a proposal to
reauthorize the Surface Transportation Act. I'm pleased to at least see
something come to the floor, because the act expired 850 days ago.
The notion of our transportation legislation used to be an area of
bipartisan cooperation. It was something that people from both sides of
the aisle worked on and came together to focus on how we strengthen our
communities, how we put people to work and how we improve the
environment, transportation, and mobility. Sadly, one of the casualties
of the hyperpartisan environment was this notion that we worked
together cooperatively in the legislation. My Democratic colleagues did
not see the legislation. At first, I was concerned that they weren't
brought in to be a part of this process that I always enjoyed as a
minority party member back in the day. But now when we see the
legislation, we understand perhaps why it wasn't as open and
transparent.
[[Page H202]]
This is a piece of legislation that for the next 5 years is going to
dramatically underinvest in infrastructure. It is claimed that it's a
$260 billion piece of legislation, but the revenues that they
anticipate from oil and gas drilling in the Arctic are ephemeral. CBO
tells us it may be 50, so it's going to have a $50 billion to $60
billion shortfall.
{time} 1910
It guts environmental protections. It removes the power of local
communities to plan cooperatively on this legislation and to be able to
make sure that it meets their needs.
It is appalling to me, at a time when we are looking for ways to make
things in America, to strengthen the manufacturing base, to move goods
and services and put people to work at family wage jobs, that we are
seeing a piece of legislation come forward that represents a failure of
imagination. It doesn't even comport with what bipartisan commissions
from the Bush administration recommended that it be funded at. It loses
a chance for us to be able to have Americans deal with the steel,
Americans deal with the equipment, Americans putting these pieces
together. And over the course of the evening tonight we may be able to
perhaps return to this, but I think it's important to look at this
failure of vision, failure of will, failure of imagination in a way
that's going to dramatically undercut the proposals to make it in
America and put Americans to work.
Mr. GARAMENDI. Thank you very much, Mr. Blumenauer, and your work on
this has been noted for a long, long time. You've been a leader across
this Nation on providing all types of transportation well beyond just
the bicycle, which you happen to have on your lapel. But this is a very
important moment.
This week, this House, in the Transportation Committee, is taking up
a long-term transportation bill. You've described all the shortcomings,
but I do believe there's an alternative. Now, our colleague from
Pennsylvania (Mr. Altmire) would like to talk about an alternative,
which is basically the Democratic alternative.
And so, as we look at this transportation bill, is there some way
that we can write a piece of legislation that would give us the
infrastructure and the ability to move goods and services and people
and, simultaneously, enhance American manufacturing?
Please share with us your thoughts.
Mr. ALTMIRE. I thank the gentleman from California for leading the
hour and for yielding some time.
I come from a region of the country in western Pennsylvania--the
Pittsburgh area and surrounding region--that knows a little bit about
manufacturing. And just as important, we know a little bit about the
policies that have led to the loss of manufacturing, not just in
western Pennsylvania, but in this country; policies that have given a
preferred tax treatment for companies that outsource jobs, that
transfer physical assets overseas and then can claim a tax deduction
for the cost of moving expenses. We understand that those policies have
failed. They do not lead, certainly, to job and economic growth. It's
quite the opposite. But they do not help America become more
competitive in the global economy, which is what this House is debating
right now.
And, yes, I do serve on the Transportation Committee, and we are
talking about a long-overdue reauthorization of the transportation
funding reauthorization.
We also, in western Pennsylvania, we have locks and dams. The roads
and bridges that we have are in serious decay. Our waterways
infrastructure, just as an example, with locks and dams averages 85
years old. Locks and dams that were built to withstand 50 years before
they would need to be replaced are now rated in imminent threat of
failure by the Army Corps of Engineers.
On the transportation side, we in the State of Pennsylvania have over
6,000 structurally deficient bridges. And in western Pennsylvania, my
region, we have 1,000 structurally deficient bridges. Our
infrastructure is literally crumbling around us, and we must do
something about it. And that presents a wonderful opportunity for the
Make It in America agenda, because when these roads and bridges and
locks and dams are rebuilt, we want it to be American workers. And when
the American taxpayer pays their tax dollars to fund infrastructure
improvements, we want it to be done here in America. And we're going to
talk more about that tonight.
I know the gentleman from California understands there's a bridge
project, which is leading the discussion on this, across the country. I
believe it's a $400 million renovation. The gentleman can correct me.
Mr. GARAMENDI. That's billion dollars, $4 billion.
Mr. ALTMIRE. A $4 billion bridge project. And the American taxpayer
is funding the Chinese to give the steel to California to rebuild this
bridge. And the infrastructure improvements that are being made,
certainly we'll see some benefit, but those are American jobs. And
American tax dollars are going overseas for something that could be
done better and more cost efficiently here at home.
So I know the gentleman wants to talk about that, but I appreciate
his leadership.
Mr. GARAMENDI. Well, Mr. Altmire, you're raising the San Francisco
Bay Bridge fiasco, which is one that gets the adrenaline flowing in
California because the State of California decided they would put it
out to bid. And there were two bids that came out by the same
contractor. One was a bid that said the steel would be coming from
China and the other was a bid that the steel would be coming from
America. So that is not just the steel, but the formation of it and the
structure itself.
So the Bridge Authority, in its infinite wisdom, decided to go with
the 10 percent cheaper. Well, be careful if it's too good to believe.
In this case what happened is the steel was manufactured in China. The
bridge sections were welded together there. And it turns out that the
welds were faulty; the inspections were faulty; the steel was not up
to, and the overruns were well more than the 10 percent savings. Not
only that, but you're employing some several thousand Chinese
steelworkers. And mills in China are just revved up to get the steel
going, and the mills in America shut down and American bridge and
ironworkers were out of a job. We cannot let that happen anymore.
And so, as this transportation bill moves forward, one of the key
elements in it--and this is being proposed, I understand, by Mr.
Rahall, and I think you want to talk about this in more detail--is
that, associated with the program, not only is there more revenue and
better in dealing with the issues that Mr. Blumenauer raised, but also
a very, very important policy that the money will be spent on American-
made products.
Please continue.
Mr. ALTMIRE. I thank the gentleman.
And I would just say briefly, I am an original cosponsor of that
bill. I don't know that my colleagues are. I presume they're
cosponsors.
But it's very simple, actually. All it says is we're going to do this
infrastructure. We're going to come up with the resources in this
country to rebuild America, to invest in our infrastructure. It's long
overdue in this country. And it just says, if you're going to do that,
you have to seek out American workers and American products to do that.
You have to use manufacturing from American workers to rebuild our
infrastructure. It just sounds so simple. And our colleagues listening
today and others might be surprised to know that that's not already in
the law, that we would have a preference in this country for American
workers and American steel and American goods to perform our
infrastructure improvements.
Mr. GARAMENDI. Well, that's exactly what we should do.
About 2 months ago, the gentlelady from Illinois spoke on the floor
about a history lesson that I was unaware of. I'm not sure she wants to
go into that today, but it dates back to the Presidency of George
Washington. If she doesn't cover it, I'll remind her and we'll have her
cover that piece of it. But I know she wants to jump in here. Illinois,
a great manufacturing sector of America, as well as finance and
commerce.
Ms. Schakowsky.
Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Well, I thank the gentleman not only for yielding,
[[Page H203]]
but for day after day, week after week coming to the floor and talking
about something that resonates with every American, that in the United
States of America it is time for us to bring jobs home and to have
things that we make here stamped with ``Made in America.''
I also want to thank my colleague. Representative Blumenauer came to
Chicago and convened, oh, it was maybe 100 people from all aspects of
the transportation industry, contractors and actual workers, people who
made the cement and people who were the engineers and would be involved
in his project, Americans who are ready to work.
And, yes, at the very dawn of this country we had an industrial
policy. President George Washington made sure that we thought about and
created a policy for not only importing from England, who we had just
split from, but actually making things. He insisted that the suit that
he wore for his inauguration be made in the United States of America.
And it wasn't that easy to find that suit, but he did so that he would
be wearing something made in America.
Mr. GARAMENDI. If I might interrupt just a second, I'm going to
complete the story you told on the floor here just by my memory. If I'm
wrong, please correct me.
But he told Alexander Hamilton to develop an industrial policy for
America.
Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. That's correct.
Mr. GARAMENDI. So those free traders who say get government out of
the way need to go back to the very history, the very beginning of
history of this where President George Washington told his Treasury
Secretary to develop an industrial policy for America so that we can
make it in America.
{time} 1920
This is not new. We need policies that do it.
Please excuse me for interrupting.
Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Understanding the future of this country, that if we
are going to compete in a global marketplace, we cannot just be a
service economy. We can't just have people working and making beds and
flipping hamburgers and selling in retail stores. All these industries,
all these jobs could be better jobs if they were better paid.
We need to manufacture things. We are the center of innovation. We
can educate our young people to become innovators. In fact, I had a
meeting this week with educators and the founder of the Austin
Polytechnical Academy where they are teaching young people how to work
in advanced manufacturing and the new kinds of steel mills and talking
about ownership of those plants.
I wanted to say just a couple of things about what the President
raised at the State of the Union address:
So we have a huge opportunity, at this moment, to bring
manufacturing back. But we have to seize it. Tonight, my
message to business leaders is simple: Ask yourselves what
you can do to bring jobs back to your country, and your
country will do everything we can to help you succeed. My
message is simple. It is time to stop rewarding businesses
that ship jobs overseas, and start rewarding companies that
create jobs right here in America.
I have a piece of legislation called Patriot Corporations of America
that would reward those patriot companies that hire 90 percent of their
workers as American workers. They would get tax breaks. They would be
able to jump the line for government contracts, and it would be paid
for by taking away those tax cuts.
I want to return to the issue of transportation that you raised, that
my colleagues Mr. Altmire and Mr. Blumenauer were talking about. In
fact, we have done something on transportation. My home State of
Illinois, along with Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, California, and
Washington State, received $782 million, my State did, for the purchase
of 33 quick-acceleration locomotives and 120 bilevel passenger cars
that will run on rail corridors in our States. Those trains will be
designed to travel at more than 110 miles per hour between cities, will
follow high-speed rail standards established by State-led Next
Generation Equipment Committee. The committee will provide
manufacturers with consistent specifications, reducing costs for
manufacturers and customers. It is exactly the kind of coordinated
government effort needed to address our transportation needs.
Mr. GARAMENDI. Excuse me. That is called the Patriot Act?
Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. No. This is high-speed rail, money that has gone to
States.
I want to point out that we hear a lot from the Republicans about how
the President hasn't created jobs, which, of course, he has--3 million
new jobs, 22 consistent months of private sector jobs. But Wisconsin, I
would like to point out, refused to accept the money from the Federal
Government for high-speed rail, $810 million to construct a new high-
speed rail line between Milwaukee and Madison. As a consequence, a
company called Talgo America, which was going to actually build trains
in Milwaukee--and the City of Milwaukee invested over $10 million to
prepare a facility for Talgo. The company hired about 100 union
workers, and 80 percent of those had been out of work for more than 2
years. That factory is going to close down this year because Governor
Walker told the Federal Government that Wisconsin did not want the $110
million in Federal investment. We are hoping that that company is going
to move to Illinois to build those trains where we are more than
willing to move ahead.
What I am saying here is that, in a partnership between government at
all levels, Federal and State, and partnerships with private industry,
like a company like Talgo, we can create millions of jobs and billions
of dollars in economic activity in this country. Why we would see a
reluctance, as Mr. Blumenauer pointed out, by the Republicans to fill
this gap that we have between our need for infrastructure development
and the millions of people who want to work, to make our country so
much better and stronger and safer so we don't have the bridges
collapsing--Mr. Altmire mentioned the thousands of bridges in his State
that are not safe. We have thousands of them in Illinois as well. We
can do this. We can do this together. Why the reluctance to partner, I
can't understand. We can make it in America and America can make it in
the world, continuing as a world leader.
I thank you.
Mr. GARAMENDI. Well, don't leave us, because we are going to go
around on this subject again.
Mr. Blumenauer, you were kind of anxious to jump in with some ideas.
Mr. BLUMENAUER. I really appreciate what my colleagues have focused
on.
Mr. Altmire referenced the infrastructure deficit in this country.
The American Society of Civil Engineers does a 5-year assessment. The
latest assessment gave American infrastructure grades of C, C minus, D,
with a total unmet need over the next 5 years of $2.2 trillion just to
bring it up to standard.
They have done another interesting study talking about the cost of
not dealing with the improvements. Hundreds of billions of dollars of
cost are going to be visited upon the American public because we don't
bring our water infrastructure up to standard.
I see from my friend from western Pennsylvania that we leak from our
underwater pipes in this country 6 billion gallons a day, enough to
fill 9,000 olympic-sized swimming pools that would stretch from the
Capitol, where we are standing, to my friend's district in western
Pennsylvania. We can do better.
The notion of talking about the consequences of not investing in
American companies--I appreciate both of you talking about that bridge
segment. The $400 million that was invested for an inferior product was
money that didn't deal with our manufacturing infrastructure here. It
meant not only we were giving money to our competitors, but there were
thousands of American workers who didn't have the work and the
suppliers and subcontractors that would have been part of the
manufacturing chain.
In my district, we are constructing the first American-built
streetcar in 58 years. These streetcars are going to be running in
Portland, Oregon, in their streetcar system. It is going to be in
Tucson, with our dear friend Gabby Giffords in the system she fought
for, and in Washington, DC. It is not just that these streetcars are
manufactured in Portland, Oregon, but there are dozens of
subcontractors' manufacturing operations throughout the Midwest that
get components to build as part of this.
[[Page H204]]
It is part of the virtuous cycle where, when we focus, when we invest
in making it in America, we are rebuilding and renewing our
communities, meeting vast unmet needs that will not just revitalize the
economy but make our communities safer and healthier. Remember, each
billion dollars that is invested in infrastructure creates 30,000 jobs
in America.
We can make it in America. We should start with rebuilding and
renewing America.
Mr. GARAMENDI. And the transportation system goes with it.
Mr. Blumenauer, you are rightfully talking about the glories of
Portland, Oregon; however, I want to bring to your attention that
streetcars are now being manufactured in Sacramento, California, near
my district. I will not let you get away with boosterism without
mentioning my own State and what is happening there.
{time} 1930
Now, the reason that both of these plants are operating goes back to
a very important action that the Democrats took here in January of
2009. Shortly after President Obama came into office, the American
Recovery Act was voted on. I wasn't here at the time, but my colleagues
on the Democratic side did. You voted for the American Recovery Act;
and in the American Recovery Act, there was a provision for streetcars
and rail systems, locomotives, that they be manufactured in America.
The direct result of that--not speaking of Oregon, because I don't
know--but in California the direct result of that is that one of the
largest manufacturing companies in the world, Siemans, came to
Sacramento, built a factory to manufacture streetcars, and now they're
producing eight locomotives for Amtrak as a direct result of a specific
provision built into the American Recovery Act, the stimulus bill, that
said you get the money but you've got to spend it in America on
American-made products. That's what we need to do.
Joining me now, I see my colleague in part of the East-West program
here, my colleague from New York (Mr. Tonko). Welcome.
Mr. TONKO. Thank you, Representative Garamendi. Thank you for
bringing us together for a very thoughtful hour of discussion about the
need to invest in America's infrastructure.
What I like about the comments made here are that we have the tools
within our grasp to make a difference, to invest in the infrastructure,
whether it's safety on the highways, whether it's dealing with
environmental soundness as an outcome, by promoting public
transportation, or by enhancing energy efficiency at our water
treatment facilities, which is something I worked on when I was
president and CEO in NYSERDA, New York State Energy Research and
Development Authority.
But prime in the focus of this investment in infrastructure is an
outcome that speaks to the reigniting of the American Dream. We have
work to do.
This dream should not be beyond the grasp of Americans, certainly not
beyond the grasp of America's middle class. The underpinnings of the
support for reigniting the American Dream, embrace small business,
which is the pulse of American enterprise that speaks to the moms-and-
pops that raised a family based on a business that they developed, and
they can feed this plan to rebuild America's infrastructure.
It's also driven by the dynamic of entrepreneurs, the doers, the
believers, the dreamers. Those pioneers that made things happen in this
country are out there ready to respond to a present-day, modern-day,
cutting-edge retrofit of infrastructure in this country.
It speaks to empowering the middle class.
Those three legs of the stool are what reigniting the American Dream
is all about. We have work to do. Unfortunately, it's not being done in
this Chamber. We need a progressive agenda, embraced aggressively, to
bring about an outcome that grows jobs driven by reigniting the
American Dream.
I represent a district in the upstate reaches of New York that was
impacted in 1987 by the collapse of the interstate highway bridge,
brought down by the flood waters of April of '87, equal to the flow of
Niagara Falls. We lost, I believe, 10 lives in that incident. We saw
what economic crippling occurred in that given region. You could not
transport your products, the area lost volumes of visitors, and there
was an economic consequence to that failed infrastructure caused by
Mother Nature. There are samplings of that around this Nation.
That incident and the data that are assembled based on similar
experiences should motivate us, inspire us to invest in our
infrastructure. Water, an essential for industry, for residents, water
efficiency, energy efficiency as you're dealing with water treatment
facilities, can be upgraded in a way that addresses the bigger picture
of energy policy inextricably linked to the economic comeback, linked
to the grasping of the American Dream.
When you look at a number of our communication and energy retrofits
that are required to provide for energy self-sufficiency for enabling
cottage industries to be developed in remote places, if you broadband
out to those areas, great things can happen.
So, Representative Garamendi, my statement is let's reignite the
American Dream. We have work to do; and we can do it through small
business, entrepreneurs, and a thriving middle class. The thriving
middle class is the pulse of the Nation. If the middle class is doing
well, America does well.
Any democracy around the world is most effective, most strong if it
has a thriving middle class. Let's go forward with the agenda. It's
possible. We have the intellect. Let's embrace America's intellect as
the intellectual capacity, and let's get it done.
Mr. GARAMENDI. You've used some very, very challenging words for us,
reigniting the American Dream.
We have an opportunity. It's this week. This House is going to take
up in the Transportation Committee an extraordinarily important bill
that speaks to the transportation infrastructure. The way that bill is
currently structured, A, it's underfunded--it can only add to the
deficit or not fulfill its mission and its purpose--and, B, has nowhere
in it requirements that will cause jobs to be in America.
For example, here's what we presently do. We presently use our tax
dollars. We send them overseas to buy buses and rail cars and ferry
boats and the like. When this bill leaves that committee, and certainly
if it were to leave this floor, it must have a make-it-in-America
provision so that our tax dollars are spent on American-made equipment,
buses, trains, steel, bridges, whatever. Why in the world we would
export our money and our jobs is beyond my understanding.
But the bill as presently composed has no make-it-in-America
provisions. It can be done. Those ideas have been presented.
I'm going to take just one more second and put up one more of my
favorite charts, which happens to be my legislation, H.R. 613. It
simply says: ``If you're going to use American taxpayer money to do a
high-speed rail or build a bridge or a bus, then it's going to be made
in America.''
Mr. Altmire, you were talking about this earlier. Let's reignite the
American Dream and build the middle class by making things in America.
Mr. ALTIMRE. I thank the gentleman.
The gentleman leads me directly into what I was going to talk about.
I wanted to make a couple of points.
One is we talked about the transportation bill, which we're going to
be debating in the Transportation Committee, later on the floor of this
House, maybe as soon as next week. Funding is a key issue. We've all
referenced funding--where is the money going to come from--and that's a
discussion that we're going to have as a country. Justifiably, we've
had hours, days, months of discussion and intense debate in this
Chamber and in both sides of this Capitol and around the country about
spending, about what are our national priorities. Have we been spending
money inefficiently? Are there things that we can redirect spending
towards or away from, whatever the case may be?
But with regard to infrastructure, when I'm back home and I talk
about spending, I talk about setting priorities, and I use the example
that any family in America is going to understand, any business in
America: if you have a leak in the roof that you discover, that leak is
not going to fix itself.
[[Page H205]]
Mr. GARAMENDI. How did you know my problem?
Mr. ALTMIRE. Right. You have to find a way to pay for it because it's
only going to get worse if you ignore the problem.
Now, you might say as a family, you know what, we can't take the kids
out for that steak dinner. We can't go out to see the movies this month
like we were talking about. But we have to find a way to fix this leak
because it's only going to get more expensive, it's only going to get
worse, and it's only going to create more damage if we ignore that
problem.
I talked earlier about the state of our roads and bridges, the state
of our locks and dams; and the gentleman's chart shows the first word
on that chart is ``airports.'' Our aviation infrastructure in this
country is as out of date as any other developed nation on the planet.
{time} 1940
Our air traffic control system literally operates with 1950s
technology.
One of the debates that we are having with infrastructure and
aviation is this NextGen system, which is where we would utilize what
has become commonplace everywhere else in the country: the system of
satellites and GPS. It just makes common sense. The reason we have such
bottlenecks at the major hub airports in the country, which affect
everybody in this country, is that even if you don't live in that city,
you're affected by it because that plane is going to be coming to your
city; and if it's delayed, it affects you. We have those delays worse
than anywhere else on the planet because of the state of our
infrastructure with aviation and with airports.
It touches every type of transportation infrastructure you can think
of--waterways, rail, roads, bridges. It is critically important.
This is a tremendous opportunity for America. In using American
workers, in using American resources, we're all going to win from this;
and that's why I support the gentleman's plan.
Mr. GARAMENDI. I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania very much.
It's about jobs, isn't it?
Mr. ALTMIRE. Yes.
Mr. GARAMENDI. At the end of the day, it's about jobs.
Those jobs, if they're in the manufacturing sector, will be middle-
American jobs, and it will reignite the American Dream. Men and women
can see the opportunity. They can see the opportunity to buy a house,
to educate their kids, to take care of their families, to put food on
the table. That's the American Dream, and we intend to reignite it.
Ms. Schakowsky, if you would carry on here, you have more things, and
I know you were talking earlier about some of them. So, please.
Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. I wanted to go back to this theme of a robust middle
class. It's really in the manufacturing sector. It's really making it
in America that built the middle class in our country. Yet there are
people--and you hear it all the time--who say, you know what, these
jobs are never going to come back. Just forget about it. We're not
going to do this kind of manufacturing in America anymore.
Why would that be?
That is a myth that we have to bust. Of course, we can make it in
America. We're not going to necessarily see factories where people are
doing those kinds of repetitive jobs, and we don't want to see those
dirty smokestacks come back. It's the vast manufacturing, the
manufacturing for the 21st century and beyond, of clean jobs and of
creating energy-storing batteries that we need and that we can export
all around the world--the wind turbines that need to be built all over
the world. Those innovators are here. Instead of turning it over to
some other country--to China or some other country--to then make the
stuff or create the supply chain, we should make it right here. With
transportation costs going up as they have been, it's actually becoming
economically advantageous to make it in America. That's why
manufacturers are actually coming back, and we want to encourage that
at every step.
So the idea that somehow making it in America--factory work--is passe
is absolutely wrong. That's what the Democrats have been saying, and
that's what our Make It in America agenda is all about, that we are
going to be the creators, the thinkers, the engineers, the factory
owners.
And do you know what? We actually have a succession problem in the
factories that we have right now. Instead of thinking, in order to make
it, you have to go into the financial sector, where absolutely nothing
is made, we have to encourage our young people: go into business, the
business of making things. Start figuring out how you can be a leader
in a manufacturing plant, in the manufacturing process, which is going
to lead this country in the 21st century.
It is all there, waiting for us, if government will be a partner, not
just creating the jobs but partnering with the private sector to make
it all happen.
Mr. GARAMENDI. That history of partnership goes back to the very
first President of this Nation. George Washington set up an industrial
policy: Mr. Hamilton, Go out and develop an industrial policy because
we're going to make things in America.
So at the very earliest day of this Nation, government and the
private sector became partners to make things in America and to make a
great manufacturing sector.
Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. President George Washington knew if we didn't do
that, that we would not see the United States of America becoming a
world leader or even putting its own people to work and being able to
grow.
Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Tonko, a few moments ago, you talked about
reigniting the American Dream. So how are you going to do that?
Mr. TONKO. I think there are a great number of things that we need to
invest in in order to make it happen; but let me preface that response
with a description, if you will, of the 21st Congressional District.
As I stated earlier, we are a chain of mill towns given birth to by
the Erie Canal. The waterways of the 21st Congressional District can
easily be defined as the ink that wrote the history of the Industrial
Revolution. They were the gateway to the Westward Movement. What you
had there were ideas from people working in factories, oftentimes the
immigrant patterns entering this Nation, the very first stages of
immigrants. So that American Dream was ignited there in a scenario that
was very much deemed rags to riches. People came here with nothing but
an idea and the hope to build for their families. They provided the
fuel that created the Industrial Revolution, and so America became this
promised land.
Our best days lie ahead of us. We, as a sophisticated society, based
on our humble roots, developed some of the primary products that are
now manufactured in other nations; but we need, as a sophisticated
society, to step up to the plate and do those product deliveries now
that are not yet on the radar screen. We have it within our intellect
to be able to do that; but when it comes to the infrastructure, we need
capital; we need physical infrastructure; and we need human
infrastructure. That's what we're looking to do with our Make It in
America agenda, produced by the Democratic Caucus in this House, and we
need action on these legislative items in order to make things happen.
Let me just close with this statement for now.
My district was ravaged by storms this past August. In late August,
we were hit with Irene and Lee, and the infrastructure was devastated.
People lost homes, homes that were entirely swept into the waters.
People are still repairing homes that we hope will be recoverable. The
infrastructure needs of taking a navigation channel like the Erie Canal
and retrofitting it for flood design purposes so that it can be there
as flood control infrastructure is an enormous mission. It's not just
the engineers and the teams of construction workers who will put this
together. You will need hydrogeologists to determine what the best
patterns are. If we're going to simply build bridges at the same height
and at the same span as currently exists when all the forecasts are
that you're going to have greater amounts of water flowing, based on
historic data now that are available, then that is foolish government.
We need smart government. People want thoughtful government.
There is a way to embrace a recovery for these flood-torn areas and
to rebuild their infrastructure by reaching
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to all elements of manufacturing and intellect that can build an
agenda, that builds this Nation--and that is going back to our pioneer
roots, to a rags-to-riches scenario that is driven by the initial
American Dream. We need to reignite that American Dream. We need to do
it with innovation, education, higher education, and research, research
into how best to do things so that we are ahead of the curve, not
constantly reacting to issues with a Band-Aid approach.
Mr. GARAMENDI. We have work to do.
Mr. TONKO. We have work to do.
Mr. GARAMENDI. We need to put these things in place.
Let's see, we've had the Northeast, New York. We've had the Midwest.
We've had western Pennsylvania. How about Texas? Let's go to Texas.
Sheila Jackson Lee, thank you for joining us tonight.
Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas. It's a pleasure to join the gentleman from
California and my colleagues from the great State of Oregon, the great
State of Illinois, and the great State of New York. I heard earlier
this evening that it's okay to say happy new year up until the end of
January, which happens to be today; and I certainly wanted to start the
year off right by joining you again and really pleading with our
colleagues.
I just want to briefly talk about what my good friend from New York
mentioned with regard to reigniting the American Dream, which I am
zealously advocating, really, across my State and across the Nation;
and I am adding to that: building ladders and removing obstacles.
I also see the work of the gentleman from California as really
focusing in on an age-old problem. I want to call up a dear friend who
is the former chairman of the Transportation Committee, Chairman
Oberstar.
{time} 1950
Just a few years ago he watched his own community have a horrific
incident that many of us in America continue to be shocked at, the
collapsing of a bridge, the literal collapsing of a bridge and, of
course, there was loss of life, devastation and fear, and an economic
loss for people who could not be connected. That's not the America we
know and love.
So why this is so important--and let me just suggest that there are
so many variables--there are thousands of soldiers coming home from
Iraq who are willing to sacrifice their lives for us, and those who
have come back are now seeking opportunity. That's another component of
individuals who want to work, although this administration, this
Congress has been excellent in veterans preferences and seeking to
employ them.
Every one of them will say they don't want a handout. They have been
able to do massive work overseas that gives them the skills so they
could be engaged in the reconstruction, the infrastructure work of
airports, highways, high-speed rail, trains and transit, and we can
give them the opportunity of reigniting the American Dream.
We know that what we must do is build on the working class and middle
class. We must build on opportunities for young people who may choose a
4-year college, but as the President said last Tuesday, may choose a
community college that gets them into job skills. So most economists
will say that this is not a time to be, in essence, Scrooge.
When times are hard, you invest in human capital. And as someone who
represents one of the largest airports in the country, George Bush
Intercontinental Airport, and is also in a community that has Ellington
Airfield and Hobby Airport, it is truly key to be able to work on the
infrastructure. As someone who comes from the coastal areas--and I want
to present to the gentleman my legislation that talks about deficit
reduction and restoration of coastal areas using the energy industry--
but looking at it from a positive sense, all dealing with
manufacturing, because manufacturing does matter.
Let me just say this in conclusion: Our friends or those who want to
speak negatively are absolutely wrong that we don't have the genius of
manufacturing. In fact, I can document that factories are coming back
to America, that the high cost of labor for our friend and sometimes
challenging ally, China, is going up, that the cost of having factories
there is difficult, and there are obstacles such that now our American
companies who are even thinking of going are looking at the agility of
the skills of American workers.
You cannot underestimate the genius of American workers, the
enthusiasm of American workers, the willingness to go into factories,
the ability to build them, and I take on anyone who has suggested that
our logistical or supply chain does not work. Frankly, let some of our
military personnel who are now coming back, who are going into civilian
life, let them show you how to do a logistical supply chain.
So I believe that manufacturing is here to stay. Just a news clip
today talked about an individual who, with tears in his eyes, was
talking about bringing back manufacturing of furniture in the
Carolinas. I think in this instance it was North Carolina. He was
excited. He was emotional about the fact that his father had left him
this legacy. He was bringing it back.
Despite some of our friends who are talking about they can't make
certain iPhones here in the United States, I frankly believe that our
technology sector is alive and well, and that we're going to be
building more, and certainly the infrastructure begs out, in tribute to
our dear friend, Chairman Oberstar, and many others who have talked for
years, as I joined him, and as I join my colleagues, to say that I
believe we live in the greatest country in the world. I believe that
there is nothing better than reigniting that American Dream, and I
believe that once we move the obstacles and build the ladders, we'll be
building airports. We'll be talking about high-speed rail.
Thank you to this administration for not abandoning it. We'll be
doing the trains, we'll be doing the infrastructure, and we'll be
putting people back to work. I can't imagine a better way to start off
the new year.
I must leave this in tribute to a pastor's words I heard on Sunday:
2012 will be the year of uncommon favor. That's because we are not
going to give up on the American worker and this great Nation.
I thank the gentleman for coming to the floor and allowing me to
share with him.
Mr. GARAMENDI. Ms. Sheila Jackson Lee, thank you very much for once
again joining us in these dialogues and how America can make it.
Certainly if we make it in America, we'll be well on our way.
Manufacturing does matter.
Just this last weekend I was in one of the small communities of
California, the town of Colusa, very small, 6,000 people. There was a
General Motors-Chevy-GMC truck dealer that came up to me--it was a crab
feed--and we were chatting, and he came up and he said, I just want you
to know that I'm still in business.
I thought about that, well, that's a strange way to start a
conversation. I'm still in business. And I said, it was President Obama
that made a very courageous decision to bail out General Motors, and in
doing so, not only does General Motors survive, but maybe tens of
thousands of the supply chain manufacturers survived. And way off in
California, a little town, up in the Sacramento Valley, an auto dealer
said, I'm still in business.
He would have been gone, along with tens of thousands of other
manufacturers and hundreds of thousands of jobs, if President Obama,
together with this House, with the American Recovery Act providing the
money, President Obama had not stood forward and said, I will not allow
General Motors and Chrysler to die, not on my watch. Those two
companies are now in business and profitable.
There is a partnership that needs to exist through time, beginning
with George Washington and carried through, as you described the Erie
Canal which was, what, 30 years after that, a partnership of business
and private sector working together to create opportunity, to create
the American Dream. Our task is to reunite it.
Mr. Tonko, why don't you pick it up.
Mr. TONKO. Representative Garamendi, thank you again for bringing us
together.
But when you speak to the history of the Erie Canal, it was devised
because of economic tough times. This Nation was struggling at the
moment, and we responded by building. We didn't walk away and cut our
way through; we
[[Page H207]]
built our way to opportunity and prosperity.
And so as we look at the present moment, reigniting the American
Dream begins with those underpinnings of support, investing in capital
infrastructure so that there are the dollars available for research and
retrofitting America's business community, its manufacturing base,
which was for far too long ignored. It also requires the investment in
human infrastructure. It is totally unacceptable to develop jobs in our
Nation that will grow as we develop automation with advanced
manufacturing, to not invest in the nurturing of skill sets within the
American worker, totally unacceptable to not do that.
So I tell people now, as we tour with our roundtables on
manufacturing, that there are thousands of jobs across this country
waiting to be filled because there is an automated process that has
been engaged in for manufacturing. And I have, at my community college
base, training that is done for automated manufacturing.
I have within my technical 4-year college base and grad school base
in the region--RPI and Hudson Valley Community College come to mind.
But they allow, through incubator programs, to develop automated
response to a particular manufacturer that we visited, Kintz Plastics.
And Win Kintz reminded us that he has now been able to compete
internationally by not necessarily doing it cheaper but smarter, and
that's what the tools we require here are all about.
It's putting the capital, human, physical infrastructure demands into
working order so that we're realistic about providing hope to America's
working families, all by reigniting the American Dream. And yes,
Representative Garamendi, we have work to do. Let's do it in this
Chamber.
Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Tonko, thank you very much for your leadership and
your steadfastness on this issue of rebuilding the American middle
class. The President spoke here less than 2 weeks ago on the issue of
manufacturing, on the issue of jobs and making it in America. We need
to follow up with that.
We have an opportunity this week, and I would ask my Republican
colleagues to pay attention to what we're saying here, in the
transportation bill that should be marked up, put together in the
Transportation Committee, there is an enormous opportunity to put in
place policies that allow the American manufacturing sector to thrive
as we spend our tax money on infrastructure issues, on buses, on
trains, highways, and bridges. All of those essential transportation
needs we ought to couple that with the notion that that money must be
spent on American-made equipment.
{time} 2000
It's a simple concept, but it is so powerful and it will create jobs,
and that is our task, to reignite the American Dream, to put in place
all of the ladders so that the middle class can once again succeed,
eliminate the barriers that exist and get on with building America.
Make it in America so that America can make it.
With that, Mr. Speaker, I believe my hour is nearly up. I thank my
colleagues for joining us, and I turn this over to our Republican
colleagues and hope that they will be responsive to our plea that we
use the transportation bill to make it in America.
I yield back the balance of my time.
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