[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

[[Page H206]]

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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