[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 149 (Tuesday, November 27, 2012)]
[House]
[Pages H6452-H6458]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
THE UNITED STATES ECONOMY AND JOBS
The SPEAKER pro tempore. 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, if the gentleman from Texas would like to
finish his statement, I would be happy to yield him 5 minutes.
Mr. HALL. I thank the gentleman--and you are a gentleman. You are my
friend and I appreciate you.
I just think we need to get together and remember the most important
part of all of us is our children and our children's futures. That's
why we all get together, and that's the reason for us to change some of
the positions we've taken in the past--to try to work something out
that the American people expect us to.
You're a gentleman to offer me that. Maybe I've used part of that 5
minutes. Thank you very much.
Mr. GARAMENDI. You had a lot of people speaking to your extraordinary
career here, and I didn't want to cut it short. Your advice is sound
and, hopefully, taken by all of us.
Mr. HALL. My mother always told me to be silent and be thought a fool
rather than to open my mouth and remove all doubt. So I don't want to
get to talking too much. It's been too good
[[Page H6453]]
tonight. All these people have said things, and I care for them. I care
for this institution. I care for the people on both sides of this
aisle. I'm honored to get to be a part of this.
Thank you. God bless this country.
Mr. GARAMENDI. Thank you, Mr. Hall.
Apparently, a lot of people would agree given your extraordinary
career and the work that you've done here in Congress over these many,
many years and decades.
Part of what you've spent a good deal of your career working on, Mr.
Hall, has been the improvement of the American economy. Tonight, I'd
like to join a couple of my colleagues on the Democratic side to talk
about the economy and to talk specifically about jobs and the things
that we can do here in the waning days of this Congress to create some
job opportunities.
We've got some very heavy lifting here in Congress in the next month
and a half. Everybody wants to talk about the fiscal cliff. Some talk
about an austerity bomb. Others talk about what needs to be done to
lift the debt limit. All of these issues are before us--tax increases
or not. Underlying all of that, foundational to all of that, is putting
Americans back to work, getting Americans back into their jobs. If we
do that, we will clearly increase employment. When you increase
employment, you also increase tax revenue to the Federal Government, to
State governments, and to local governments.
So our principal task, as I see it--and I think I'm joined by many of
my colleagues, both Democrat and Republican--is to get the American
economy going, to put it back in gear, and there are many reasons
beyond just employment and the opportunities that families have to make
it.
One of the critical elements in all of this is to protect Americans.
We recently saw superstorm Sandy smash into New Jersey and New York. It
had devastating results: loss of life, an incredible loss of property--
both public and private--and a very, very big cleanup bill. Joining me
in a little while will be some of our Representatives from the State of
New York, and they'll talk about that in detail. But before Sandy ever
hit the coast, there was a need here in America to protect Americans
from storms and floods. We know what happens when the protection isn't
there--devastating results.
In the news today, in northern California, there was in the headlines
a series of storms coming to northern California--into my district,
where my home is. The word is to get ready for serious flooding. I
mean, this is very early in the season; although, Californians with any
memory at all will know that there are a series of infamous Christmas
floods in northern California. Now, this is really a Thanksgiving flood
potential, but nonetheless, it's there.
I will tell you clearly that the Sacramento region, which is the
second most risky region in the Nation for flooding and flood damage,
is right at the center of this storm. So that's the city of Sacramento.
Perhaps 100,000 or more people are in serious jeopardy. Should a levee
break in that region--and those levees are not up to 200-year
standards--people would have less than 20 minutes to find high ground,
to get out. It's an impossible situation. So we need serious
infrastructure improvement--and that's Sacramento. The rest of my new
district goes further north into Marysville and Yuba City, along the
Sacramento River further north, and along the Feather and Yuba River--
again, communities at high risk. Serious infrastructure needs to be
developed. Levees need to be improved, upgraded, enhanced; otherwise,
citizens are at risk, just as they were on Staten Island.
This is our responsibility. This is not only a local responsibility
and a State responsibility--this is a national responsibility. This is
when we become a national community, looking out for each other--in
providing the basic infrastructure to protect us. We also have
infrastructure that is necessary for commerce: our roads, our highways,
our Internet systems, our rail transportation systems. All of these
infrastructure items are critical to the economic well-being of America
in addition to the human and commerce safety of this Nation. We're
going to talk about that tonight.
Joining me is my colleague from New York. He has been working on this
issue for some time. He has a project and a program that he is
proposing, one that caught my attention. I've asked him to come and
join us.
In being from the State of New York, we are talking about something
that's very, very real for you. Please tell us what this is all about.
Mr. HIGGINS. I want to thank my colleague from California for his
leadership on the infrastructure issue.
I think the problem that we see here in Washington is that the
discussion is focused on the wrong thing. When you have a recession--an
economic contraction--what your objective needs to be in terms of
public policy is growth, growth in the economy. What we are
experiencing now is anemic growth. For example, our growth rate is
about 2 percent or less. That current rate of growth is not enough to
sustain the current level of employment. In other words, if we don't
grow this economy, our unemployment rate will necessarily go up.
We talk about debt and deficit in this Chamber, but if we remember,
less than 12 years ago, we had a budgetary surplus of $258 billion,
meaning that we were taking in $258 billion more in each year than we
were spending. How was that possible?
{time} 2030
It was made possible by having created 22 million private sector jobs
in the previous 8 years. What was the policy then? The policy was to
invest in the American economy, to invest in the American people, in
education, scientific research and infrastructure. So I think the
lessons from our most recent past are very instructive today as to what
we should be doing in Washington to promote growth.
The gentleman from California spoke of a plan that I was working on,
and that is a $1.2 trillion investment in rebuilding the roads and
bridges of America. That plan, advanced by the New America Foundation,
would create 27 million private sector jobs in 5 years. The first year
alone, over 5 million jobs which would reduce the current unemployment
rate from where it is today to 6.4 percent and in the second year, 5.2
percent.
Now, public infrastructure as we know is a public responsibility.
It's never a question as to whether or not we're going to rebuild our
roads and bridges. The question is when does it make most sense to
undertake that responsibility. And I would submit to you, the time to
do it is now. Money is cheaper than it is ever going to be. Equipment
is cheaper because it is idling, and labor is cheap because of the high
unemployment rate.
We need to do nation-building right here at home. And when you
consider we just spent as a nation $89 billion rebuilding the roads and
bridges of Afghanistan, we just spent $67 billion rebuilding the roads
and bridges of Iraq, nations of 30 million and 26 million respectively.
And for this Nation, for America, a population of over 300 million
people, and the American Society of Civil Engineers puts the quality of
our infrastructure at a D, when the World Economic Forum rates us 24th
in overall quality when in 2001 we were number two, we are going to
spend less than $53 billion. That's not only weak; it's pathetically
weak.
Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Higgins, thank you so very, very much for bringing
this issue in very stark terms to our attention. You caught my
attention earlier when we were talking about this; but here on the
floor, this is a $1.2 trillion program that could create 27 million
jobs in the next 5 years, and those are economic analyses that have
been done by the New America Foundation.
Mr. HIGGINS. That's correct.
Mr. GARAMENDI. How do we pay for this again?
Mr. HIGGINS. Well, you pay for it as you pay for transportation
improvements at the local, State, and Federal level. You issue debt to
finance the life of the project.
Mr. GARAMENDI. The same way we build and own our homes. We borrow the
money to build that personal infrastructure, our home.
Mr. HIGGINS. That's right.
Mr. GARAMENDI. Now, the borrowing rate for the Federal Government on
a 10-year note is a little over 1 percent or hovering around 1 percent
now?
[[Page H6454]]
Mr. HIGGINS. A little over 1 percent for a 5-year Treasury note. It's
one-half of 1 percent.
Mr. GARAMENDI. That's virtually free money.
Mr. HIGGINS. It's virtually free money.
Mr. GARAMENDI. Now, it does run up the debt; but we are using that
money to create infrastructure, a necessary investment for the economy
to grow and to protect ourselves.
Mr. HIGGINS. That's right. And according to Transportation for
America, there are 69,000 structurally deficient bridges in the United
States. There are over 2,000 structurally deficient bridges in New York
State. There are 99 structurally deficient bridges in my community of
western New York. Every second of every day, seven cars drive on a
bridge in this Nation that is structurally deficient.
Mr. GARAMENDI. Well, we saw what collapse can do with the Minnesota
bridge and the loss of life. We saw what inadequate infrastructure
protecting New Jersey and New York can do with extraordinary loss of
public investment as well as private investment--and lives.
Joining us for this discussion on jobs and creating jobs is part of
what we like to call the east coast-west coast team. Congressman Paul
Tonko, you and I are often here on the floor to talk about how we can
grow the American economy in a bipartisan way. This infrastructure
notion that Mr. Higgins has brought to us I think has considerable
merit and fits, I think, very easily with what President Obama has
recommended in his American Jobs Act, which was an immediate $50
billion enhancement of the $60 billion that we would otherwise spend,
bringing the total to over $100 billion in the coming year. Again,
enormous infrastructure.
Mr. Tonko, I know you are up on this issue. We have spent time
talking about it in the past. Why don't you share with us your
thoughts.
Mr. TONKO. Sure. And, Representative Garamendi, thank you for
bringing us together for an hour of discussion on what is very
important: growing jobs, strengthening our economy and strengthening
the fabric of our communities by addressing public safety via
investment in infrastructure, a very sound investment. It is always a
pleasure to join you. It is an honor to serve in the New York
delegation with Representative Higgins, Brian Higgins, who served with
me, or I with him, perhaps better stated, in the New York State
Assembly where I sat on the Transportation Committee. And I was seated
on that committee right in 1987, in the shadow of the collapse of a New
York State thruway bridge where 10 people perished. We recently
commemorated the 25th anniversary of that event. It was very tragic,
and it was in the heart of my home county, a small county of 50,000
people, Montgomery County, New York. And the impact economically that
that devastating occurrence brought to bear was incalculable.
So when you talk about, and I listened with interest to the exchange
that you and Representative Higgins had about how do you pay for it,
one way you don't want to pay for it is through an impact on the
economy of your local region. The commerce hit that was taken was
severe. The loss of dollars to the community was just incomprehensible,
and of course the loss of lives which surpasses anything in importance.
And interestingly, many of the individuals who were on that victims
list were not from the region. So we're all impacted by weak
infrastructure no matter in which State that might be because you never
know when you're traveling over a situation that is unsafe.
So I think it is a wise investment to go forward and put to work tens
of millions of skilled laborers who can make a difference in public
safety in our communities, making certain that the soundness of
investment and improvement, absolutely essential for our quality of
life, for our public safety, for the strengthening of our commerce. And
we know that infrastructure improvements--you and I have talked in the
past about the infrastructure bank bill. We have talked about ways of
leveraging dollars to weaken the impact on the public sector, on the
taxpayer. There are ways to do that in very strident terms that allow
us to go forward with the commitment and with the investment that is
required.
But certainly with the aged infrastructure in this country, and to
the earlier point made by Representative Higgins, if we can build other
nations, and thank goodness that we have helped people strengthen their
situation for their own people, but, my gosh, we should take advice,
our own advice here, and understand that there is a strong bit of
economic growth that occurs when you strengthen your infrastructure--
from traditional roads and bridges to rail to communications, wiring
our communities, and to the grid.
The grid system has had several tests--designed to run in a monopoly
situation, and now being used to wield electrons from region to region,
State to State, country to country. So there is a huge, vast
involvement of infrastructure there that begs our investment. And I
think for sound reasons, for public safety reasons, and for economic
recovery purposes, it makes sense; and let's put the people to work,
and let's build a stronger community.
Mr. GARAMENDI. It is all about jobs. Thank you very much, Mr. Tonko.
Your personal experience in the New York Legislature and in your own
community brings this issue into focus here on the floor of this House.
{time} 2040
As we build this infrastructure, if we add one additional element to
the creation of the infrastructure, something that, again, we've talked
about here many times, and that is that we use our money, our taxpayer
money, whether it's borrowed or directly paid, that we use that money
to buy American-made equipment, so that the steel that goes into the
bridges is American-made, the cement made in America, manufactured in
America, that we use that American money on American-made equipment.
In other words, make it in America, so we not only are doing the
infrastructure and the jobs that come with it, but we also use that to
revitalize our manufacturing sector. This is a very powerful way in
which we can more rapidly expand the American economy.
I just happen to have two bills that would do that, one for the clean
energy industry. If we're going to use our taxpayer money to subsidize
the clean energy industry, wonderful. We need to do that for all kinds
of reasons, but buy American-made clean energy products, whether it's a
solar system or a wind turbine.
And similarly, with regard to transportation, the trains, the buses,
the steel, let's buy that in America, American manufacturing.
I noticed a lovely lady joining us from the State of Ohio. It would
be Marcy Kaptur. You've talked about these issues many times. Thank you
very much for joining us this evening.
Ms. KAPTUR. Congressman Garamendi, I want to say I'm just so
privileged to join three such dedicated Members whose States have been
wise enough to send them here to Washington. Obviously Congressman
Garamendi from northern California and Congressman Tonko from the State
of New York, the great State of New York, and Congressman Brian
Higgins, also of the State of New York, a little bit upstate.
Mr. GARAMENDI. I thought he was associated with Ohio as much as he is
with New York. Isn't he on the border out there somewhere?
Ms. KAPTUR. Well, you know, there's the St. Lawrence Seaway that kind
of connects it all as it flows into the Atlantic Ocean.
But I wanted say, you know, many of us, all of us have come through
very difficult campaigns in this political year of 2012. But what is
wonderful about serving with the three of you is you keep the focus on
jobs in this country, and the importance of making goods in America,
and where wealth is really created, how we do that as a country, and
what it takes to build a great country.
I look at the St. Lawrence Seaway, and I think about Dwight
Eisenhower, a great general, led our forces in Europe, and came home
and decided that America needed to create the St. Lawrence Seaway so
that we would unlock the potential of the Upper Great Lakes and the
Lower Great Lakes.
And you say to yourself, today, with some of the limited thinking
that some exhibit--of course, no one in this Chamber would ever be
accused of that,
[[Page H6455]]
right?--but could we do the St. Lawrence Seaway again?
I've had the great privilege of traveling out West--I think I've
probably been in every State and almost every congressional district at
one point in my career--and to look at the Hoover Dam. And as I admired
the dam, I thought to myself, America has it in her to land a man on
the moon and to create NASA, but here at home, our public works, do we
have the vision?
Do we have a vision big enough today, in the 21st century, to match
what those who came before us gave to us that put this continent
together?
And as I travel, I see water systems in disrepair. In fact, in my
hometown of Toledo, they're trying to find $45 million to put a roof on
the water treatment plant, which really needs $500 million to fix.
I go to the new parts of the Ninth District, in the city of
Cleveland, and I look at the need for infrastructure repair and, in the
same city, so many unemployed people who could be put to work fixing
the heart and soul of Cleveland.
Or Lorain, Ohio, the number of brownfields that are there where we're
waiting to clear property so that we can clean it up, move the sewage
treatment plant, move other assets that are there and create a much
greater port on Lake Erie. And I say, do we have it in us?
I know I have it in me to want to do this. But I look back at what
our heritage really is, the interstate highway system itself, when,
again, during the 1950s, if we think about what was done, there was a
time when this country, if you moved from--well, you couldn't move from
Ohio to California on roads that intersected. People think that just
happened, but it didn't. It took real vision to do that.
All the statistics show that when we invest in infrastructure, that
is the most job-rich program that this country could ever promote. And
to create efficiencies and intermodal connections--Congressman Tonko
talked about fiber optics and about telecommunications and all of the
new ways of connecting our country.
I've had the privilege in my career of representing many rural areas
that are short, not just on doctors, but on telecommunications
capabilities. It isn't just in the heart of Ukraine where people can't
communicate; it's in rural America as well.
So I just came down here, I heard you speaking, and I thought, I
identify with your cause. Thank you for talking about jobs inside the
Congress of the United States. Thank you, Congressman Garamendi,
Congressman Higgins, Congressman Tonko.
Now you all come from what is regarded as the coast, right? But I'm
from a coast too, the north coast along Lake Erie, and it's actually
quite a long coast when you take a look at it, you unwind it in all the
various lakes. So we're coastal America too, and I identify with your
cause.
And believe me, the people that sent me here identify with the cause
of jobs and economic growth and infrastructure investment in our
country to push us far beyond where perhaps Roosevelt and Eisenhower
and Kennedy dreamed.
Thank you so very much for this Special Order tonight.
Mr. GARAMENDI. How correct you are to look back to those heroes of
the past that laid down the infrastructure. You can actually go back a
little bit further. George Washington, in his first year as President
of the United States, instructed Alexander Hamilton to develop an
industrial policy. One part of that industrial policy was the
development of the infrastructure for America's commerce. And it was
canals and it was ports and it was roads.
Mr. Higgins, so, how are we going to make this happen? You've got
$1.2 trillion you want to put out there.
Mr. HIGGINS. Well, I think you made a very good point, particularly
with your leadership on the Make It in America initiative. Keep in
mind, when you invest in American infrastructure you're buying labor
from American businesses. You're buying supplies and material from
American businesses. You're buying engineering and design services from
American businesses.
And we also forgot a very important element of our economy. It's the
thousands of returning veterans who've been serving our country in Iraq
and Afghanistan. The unemployment rate today for those returning
veterans under the age of 24 is 19 percent.
There was a program started by the Department of Defense, it's now a
not-for-profit called Helmets to Hardhats, and what it basically does,
it identifies 60,000 American businesses and some of the trade unions.
They collaborate to get together to identify veterans who have already
had extraordinary training and discipline and leadership and teamwork,
and it accelerates their apprenticeship program. So these individuals
could be making 60, $70,000 a year, if there was work to be had here.
So it's an investment in America. It's an investment in American
businesses, and it says to our returning veterans in a real sincere and
genuine way, thank you for your service.
Mr. GARAMENDI. You said earlier that the American Society of
Engineers--I think that was the name--said that we have a D rating for
infrastructure, and that we need over $2 trillion.
I don't know anybody in my district, where we may have a serious
flood in the next 3 days, that says the infrastructure is adequate.
They're looking at those levees, and they're watching the water rise,
and they're going, this isn't sufficient to protect us. So in a very
real sense of just safety, infrastructure is needed. But also, it's
needed for employment.
You correctly raised the issue of the veterans coming back, $2
trillion--there's no doubt about the need. America knows there's a
need. As the four of us have discussed here, there is a need, even a
crying need, and a human safety need right now, not tomorrow, not 10
years from now, but immediately.
{time} 2050
The question is: How do we go about making that happen? And here 435
of us and 100 Senators on the other side of this building have the
ability to answer the crying need of Americans to build our
infrastructure, to give us the jobs to provide the foundation for
economic growth, and to protect us. We have that power.
Let's continue our discussion.
Mr. Tonko.
Mr. TONKO. Representative Kaptur made an interesting point that there
was a sense of vision when they pursued the efforts with the St.
Lawrence Seaway. There was a sense of vision in my district as a donor
area and in Representative Higgins' when Governor DeWitt Clinton
perceived this Erie Canal as a way to transport goods and to open up
the westward movement to spark an industrial revolution. That gave
birth not only to a port called New York City, but birth to a necklace
of communities called mill towns that became the epicenters of
invention and innovation.
So it's that spark of vision that is the first step. And we're going
to denounce any of these creative opportunities to invest in nation-
building by denouncing it as socialism? Was President Eisenhower a
Socialist? Were all those who preceded him or followed him that came up
with these great visions--a space program that gave us an unleashing of
technology? No, they were thinkers. They were visionaries. They were
leaders. That's the first step. And then we develop policy from that
vision. We tether it into real terms, and then we invest in the
implementation of that policy. That's America at her finest.
If we look back at the Erie Canal history, when they did that, it
wasn't easy times. They were tough times. They were tough economic
times. And so they stepped up to the plate and said, We're going to do
this. It's not easy to launch, but we're going to do it because it's
the way through the tough times.
We have tough times now, chronically high unemployment that, for
many, preceded the recession. They need opportunity. Our economy grows
when we invest in those workers of whom Representative Higgins spoke,
in those materials and goods that allow for our Nation's businesses to
prosper, add jobs, become part of a recovery. So that is all very
critical.
I talked earlier about the bridge collapse that spans the Schoharie
Creek in upstate New York that you can walk across in the summertime.
It was flowing equal to the efforts, the CFS, of Niagara Falls. So
there are some economic impacts coming from Mother Nature that are
driven by global warming and climate change. So when we do some of
these visionary things, incorporate all of the policies so that
environmental concerns as policy formats
[[Page H6456]]
with economic recovery terms, with energy terms, with transportation
can all be woven together and you solve some of our ills where we're
being impacted by Mother Nature with natural disasters that are
draining our infrastructure, as we witnessed with Sandy all along the
east coast, where now tens of billions of dollars of recovery are
required.
Let's add the policy dimensions that allow us to reduce the threats
from Mother Nature, build our economy by adding jobs and providing for
public safety, and creating a state-of-the-art economy driven by
transportation, communication, energy transformation with renewables
and the like that will cut down on the emission of particles and
dangerous substances that are toxic on the ozone layer. That's America
at her finest.
And if we do that simple thing of providing vision, followed with
policy, followed with resource advocacy, we will have achieved, and
brightest, best days lie ahead, not denouncing that thinking as
Socialist.
Mr. GARAMENDI. There's a critical moment now. Right now. That moment
is seen in the deliberations that are going on here in this Hall, in
the Capitol, about the fiscal cliff, about the deficit. And there are
those who would suggest that the only way to deal with it is with an
austerity program, reduce government expenditures at every level.
There's some evidence cited by Mr. Higgins earlier that there's
another way of dealing with this, and that is to put people to work, to
use the power of government to put people to work, even if that means
borrowing money at 1 percent. Putting it into an infrastructure bank to
finance projects that have a cash flow, such as your sanitation
facility in Toledo, Ohio, or a toll road or the St. Lawrence Seaway,
all of which have a cash flow. You could maybe charge a percent and a
half. You borrow at 1 percent, you charge a percent and a half, and we
build. We put people to work.
Ms. Kaptur, why don't you pick this up, and then Mr. Higgins, and
we'll carry on our conversation
Ms. KAPTUR. I thank you, Congressman Garamendi. I am really listening
carefully to what Congressman Tonko and Congressman Higgins have been
saying this evening and thinking about what's going on in Ohio, the
northern band of Ohio, from Toledo through Cleveland, and the
importance of manufacturing and thinking about how hard our businesses
and our workers have to compete in a very unlevel global playing field.
And I've seen this directly in the automotive industry, where to this
day one of the reasons that our automotive industry had difficulty and
why it required the Nation to not let it fail and to pay back what was
borrowed was because we are in competition with state-managed
economies.
For example, I'm a member of the China Commission. And several
economists testified before our committee a few years ago that what you
really have in operation is market Leninism. I said, Describe to me
what you're seeing. Because I've had companies in my district that have
business deals in China that have lost billions of dollars. They have
paid for goods that have never been received. Now, in a transparent
legal system like our own, that could never happen. You have a court
system. You have a way of getting your money back. But when you're
dealing with a state-managed economy under a market Leninist approach,
you have powerful political people pulling the strings that isn't truly
a free market.
And so whether you have a closed market in Japan that's still largely
closed to automotive products or you have a state-managed economy as in
China, then you ask our automotive producers or any company to compete
in that kind of environment, you end up harming our domestic
production. And one of the reasons we are so elated that our automotive
industry is recovering, you see it all over our region, the power of
industry to lift people into the middle class and beyond. You can see
it everywhere: in suppliers, in restaurants, in theaters, and places
where people are going. Even grocery stores, frankly, where people are
able to buy more because of the recovery of this powerful, powerful
industry.
And I just want to end with one image, which is really hard to
capture in words, but one of our companies in Cleveland has the only
50,000-ton press in the United States of America--Alcoa. It is seven
stories in magnitude. I feel very privileged as a Representative to
have been invited into the company to see this literally mammoth,
magnificent machine be able to take parts and form them for industry as
well as our defense systems. And it's seven stories high. Three layers
on three stories at the bottom just dealing with the hydraulics.
The engineering and the brain power it takes to manufacture high-end
goods is incredible. We are so proud of that company and other
companies that are able to make it in America, despite all of the
unfair global playing fields on which they are asked to play. And we
see the components going into the automotive industry, into our defense
systems. And we thank the corporate leadership and the workers, those
who work very, very hard jobs that help us build the strongest country
in the world.
So I just had to say that tonight because you get as excited as I do
about actually making things and seeing this genius that takes ideas
and engineers them into products that affect all of us and allows
America to be the strongest Republic in the world. So I wanted to place
that on the record. And thank you for giving me the time to do it.
{time} 2100
Mr. GARAMENDI. As you were talking so enthusiastically, I was
thinking of some of Carl Sandburg's incredible poetry on the power of
America and all that was done there.
Mr. Higgins, you brought this to how we can finance our
infrastructure, how we can Make It in America, create jobs. Why don't
you carry on with that discussion--or take that anywhere that you would
like to.
Mr. HIGGINS. Well, I would just say, back to the power of America,
you hear in this Chamber a lot of tough talk about China. The best way
to respond to China is to stand up to them, to compete with them. They
cheat on their currency, they treat their workers poorly, they destroy
their environment. But whining about China is not going to resolve this
problem; investing in America and the American people will.
You also mentioned the issue of austerity, and I think it's important
to bring up. Historically in this Nation, the economy went into
recession. We had the Great Depression in the early thirties. The
American economy was starting to show signs of anemic growth right
after the Great Depression in late 1936. Congress and the President
pulled back with austerity measures; the economy went into recession
again.
In Japan, in the 1990s, they were experiencing financial problems.
They imposed comprehensive austerity measures. That economy remains in
a recessionary mode and has been for the last decade. You see what's
going on in Europe today; austerity doesn't work. Again, I go back to
our recent history. The year 2000, budgetary surplus in this Nation of
$258 billion made possible by having created 22 million private sector
jobs by investing in infrastructure, scientific research, and
education.
The best tax policy is not right or left; it's bringing lost
taxpayers back to productivity. That's the best, quickest way to do it,
and you're helping American businesses in the process.
Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Tonko.
Mr. TONKO. Representative Garamendi, again, thank you for bringing us
together again.
You talked about that austerity budget that some would advance. I
have to tell you another disaster last year, Irene and Lee, that hit as
a hurricane and tropical storm, impacted the several counties I
represent, from Schoharie in upstate New York, to Montgomery,
Schenectady, Rensselaer, Albany. These counties were severely impacted.
To talk to the people directly devastated--I mean devastated, lost
their homes, everything for which they ever worked--and to tell them
we're going to change the rules in the middle of the game on disaster
aid, it took fights galore to win that argument on this floor. That
austerity approach didn't cut it with folks who might have believed it
before the disaster, but certainly not in the midst of.
So we need to be there for situations, not only disastrous
situations, but the investment that occurs so that we can
[[Page H6457]]
effectively compete. We know in our heart, we know in our minds that
there are ways to do this.
I know, just listening to the magnanimous description of the
situation in the auto industry that Representative Kaptur defined for
us, on a much smaller scale, but equally significant, I watched some of
the businesses in my district retrofit and do that through research in
incubator programs and providing for our advanced manufacturing which
allows them to add that competitive muscle that enables them to compete
in that global marketplace. That made a total difference.
Folks like Kintz Plastics in Schoharie County, New York, where they
were engaged in an incubator program with Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute. Some very smart science and tech minds came up with ways to
automate what they were doing and trained through the community college
their workers to pick up on this new phase of activity within their
assembly line process. Today they are successful, but it took
investment, investment of capital infrastructure, physical
infrastructure, and human structure, training the worker and providing
for those relationships to prosper. Everyone wins in that situation.
So we know we have it within us to make this all possible. It talks
to investment. It speaks to investment. It speaks to the opportunity
that we can provide so that people can have that American Dream
tethered in reality, so that it can be within their grasp, so that they
can continue to build upon this Nation's significance.
A great nation stays great if it continues to stretch itself. It's
about the churning and the turning and becoming more mighty through
investment of research, development, retrofitting our manufacturing
base. We can win this by doing it smarter. We don't necessarily have to
do it cheaper. Do it smarter and you win those contracts that then
equate to jobs. Research equals jobs. I see it all the time. It gives
birth to new ideas, new product lines, better efficiencies. It drives
an economy.
You can't walk away from this tough moment and talk about austere
responses. You need creative responses--not just throwing money at a
situation, but thinking it through, thoughtful, analytical, economic
approaches that then provide for the best policy formats.
The President has offered several ideas that were not taken up in
this House. We could grow that economic recovery, which has been slow
and steady with 32 consecutive months of private sector job growth. We
can expand upon that, and we can create much stronger numbers if we do
it wisely.
So I think the American people have spoken. They've spoken to an
investment in the middle class, the investment in the American Dream,
the investment in ideas and research. We know--we've all talked about
it on this floor--where research occurs, that's where manufacturing
will network. It will migrate toward that research element. So we are
wise to invest in research and to invest in the human infrastructure,
the worker. The important significant part of the equation: having that
trained, skilled, educated workforce that can make it all happen.
Mr. GARAMENDI. Earlier today I was asked by a reporter from San
Francisco about the effect of sequestration and the austerity budget
proposals on research in that area. The San Francisco Bay area is one
of the great research centers in the world, with the University of
California, the laboratory at Berkeley and Lawrence Livermore, Stanford
and other institutions in the area. The austerity program that is being
proposed will devastate the research.
Years ago--actually, in the mid-eighties, when I was in the
California Legislature, we were talking about how to keep the
California economy going, and I developed a plan, a program. There were
five pieces to it. We've talked about all of those five today. Every
one of those five were critical investments that the economy, the
society would make.
The first was the best education system in the world. Now, America
has an enormous challenge here and we're not measuring up as we should,
and that should be a discussion we should have here on the floor
perhaps at another day.
The second was the best research. The austerity budget that's out
there, the sequestration and other proposals that have been put
forward, slash the research budgets of the United States in health
care, in energy, in transportation, in manufacturing, in those areas
and in those areas that create opportunity.
The third is manufacturing, making things that come from that
research and enhancing the current manufacturing technologies using, as
you suggested a moment ago, Mr. Tonko, the advanced manufacturing
technologies which come from research, and the engineering that goes
with it that Ms. Kaptur discussed a few moments ago.
The fourth was infrastructure. You have to have the foundation for
economic growth. Mr. Higgins brought to our attention the potential for
26-27 million jobs within the next 5 years by really going full on into
building the American infrastructure, repairing what we have and
building for the next generations.
The fifth was change. You have to accept change. That means that we
have to learn from past experiences here in Congress. Mr. Higgins very
correctly pointed out the economic history when a recession was about
to recede because of government policies but austerity was implanted
and a new recession commenced. We ought to take cognizance of that.
{time} 2110
So we have to change and grow and learn. Those are the five things I
often talk about.
Let's carry on this discussion. We have about another 10 minutes. And
maybe if each one of us takes 2\1/2\ or so minutes, we can wrap up in
time. I think I started with Mr. Higgins and then Ms. Kaptur, Mr.
Tonko, and then I will say good night to all.
Mr. Higgins.
Mr. HIGGINS. Again, I want to thank you for your leadership on these
issues and for bringing us together tonight to discuss this important
issue. Hopefully it will be the first of many or a continuation of this
discussion.
But even groups like the United States Chamber of Commerce, they put
out a report stating that we will lose $336 billion over the next 5
years because of bottlenecks, because of inefficiency in our
infrastructure. You can't identify the problem without supporting a
solution.
My point is that Democrats and Republicans in this Nation should come
together to support a robust nation-building program right here in
America. It benefits American small businesses; it benefits returning
veterans; and it has a measurable influence on improving this economy.
The New America Foundation, as I mentioned previously, has a report,
``The Way Forward.'' It's not a right or a left group. It's a centrist
group that is very prestigious and basically says, a $1.2 trillion
investment in infrastructure--roads and bridges, sewer systems, water
systems, the electricity grid--will create 27 million jobs in a 5-year
period. It will create 5.2 million in the first year alone. That's
433,000 jobs every month for the first year.
Can you imagine what the stock market would do if the jobs report
came out next month and said that we created 433,000 jobs? Our economy
is consumer confidence. We are all economic actors. When we're
confident, we move; when we're not, we don't.
So I just think it's very clear that what's worked in the past is
what will work in creating the kind of economy that everybody in this
Nation wants very desperately.
Mr. GARAMENDI. Ms. Kaptur.
Ms. KAPTUR. Thank you.
I wanted to tie together Congressman Higgins' ideas on the Helmets to
Hardhats, a program that I have supported, and commend him for his
leadership on that, and also Congressman Tonko for the efforts that
he's made in suggesting to us that we have to be visionary, and we have
to promote new research, new research and development.
One area we have not focused on during these discussions tonight as
much as I would hope is housing. Every recovery America has had since
World War II has been led by housing, and housing has been in the
dumpster for several years now. And one of the ways we do that is think
about ways in
[[Page H6458]]
which programs like Helmets to Hardhats could identify sectors in
communities that were depleted by the Wall Street crisis. And think
about how to modernize the manner in which energy is provided to them,
for example. So we're not just rebuilding to the past but building the
future.
In my home community, we have something called Advanced Energy
Utility that the Port Authority has established where they can loan
funds that are then paid back through the bond offerings they do. And
right now it's in its early stages. But one could see where a
neighborhood could be identified and new technologies in the building
sector brought to bear to create the new neighborhoods of tomorrow.
One company--Owens Corning--in our region has established a new
manufacturing plant near Milan, Ohio, building a seven-layer roofing
and the most incredible equipment. I defy any Member of Congress to
build what they have built there and to bring off these big roles and
be able to apply this roofing that I think is going to lead the
industry. They could build four new factories depending on sales in the
northern environments of the United States and Canada. And I see this
and I think, all we have to do is put the parts together to build the
residential neighborhoods of a 21st century America.
So I am just proud to join my colleagues tonight. And thank you,
Congressman Garamendi, for bringing us together, as you so often do, to
keep the focus here in the Congress on jobs and economic growth, which
is what the American people sent us here to do.
Mr. TONKO. Again, thank you, Representative Garamendi. It's great to
join with our colleagues here this evening to share thoughts about how
we move from a very trying, difficult time into perhaps America's glory
days.
I think it's important for us to first acknowledge that every Member
elected to serve in this wonderful Chamber of the House of
Representatives and those down the road here at the United States
Senate, each of us is challenged, required, and responsible to polish
that American Dream and make it within the grasp, provide it to be
within the grasp of America's working families and those who will grow
into the middle class and those who are being further empowered by
work, the dignity of work, and stronger outcomes with correct policy
formats.
I think that this journey that we've asked to embark upon, by putting
our names on the ballot, begins with us: being a people of vision,
being a House that provides a vision for America. That tells me we only
need to look to our history--recent and some not so recent. But that
will instruct us. Our history will instruct us.
We have built a strong Nation. We have provided for growth around the
world. We know the secret to the success. We know how we built a
Nation. And it took a vision, a New Deal that provided for housing, for
manufacturing, for a strong defense, for the opportunity for us, as a
Nation, to respect its labor force and insert a value-added connotation
for that workforce. That was us in our glory days. And we're going to
be even more gloried because of investments that we can make by sound
thinking.
The research that we need to provide will enable us to compete. We
will create products not yet on the radar screen. And if we think all
the products ever needed by society have been conceived and designed
and manufactured, then the story's over. But we know better than that.
Product lines are coming up as we speak that allow us to use our
resources much more wisely.
We are a Nation of abundance. But that means we can't be wasteful. We
need to be resourceful. That challenge is out there to us. And as we
become resourceful, we become more efficient, and we become more
profitable by sound policy. We can do it. We have ways to invest in our
infrastructure, invest in research, invest in workforce development,
invest in housing, invest in communities. And that investment will earn
lucrative dividends. It's not spending. It's investing with the
expectation--the rightful expectation, mind you--that we will get that
just return.
And so tonight I feel hope for our Nation, driven by a sense of
ideals carved by the richness of our history.
Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Tonko, thank you very much. Ms. Kaptur, Mr.
Higgins, thank you very much.
As I was listening to the three of you and thinking my own thoughts,
I'm excited. I'm excited for the prospect of America. I can see the
opportunities that are there. I can see the policies coming together.
And each of the three of you described specific policies that we could
put in place.
I don't know if we can get 27 million jobs from infrastructure. But I
do know that we can get millions of jobs from an infrastructure program
and, in so doing, lay the foundation for safety, from floods, fires,
from other catastrophes that could occur. I know that in doing so, we
can rebuild our manufacturing sector by using American-made products in
that infrastructure program. I know that we can provide the jobs that
Americans desperately want today--not just cheap jobs but real middle
class jobs, as all three of you have described.
I am excited. I am excited about the prospect of building America,
coming home from the wars and building America, as happened when my
father came back from World War II. America went after building. Ms.
Kaptur, you talked about the St. Lawrence Seaway. You talked about the
interstate highway, that system that President Eisenhower talked about.
We are on the cusp of a new building in America. We have the
wherewithal. We can finance it with really cheap money now. And we can
use these projects to repay that money. It's a very exciting time. And
it's our responsibility, as Representatives of the 300-plus million
Americans, to enunciate that vision, to put in place those programs.
And when we do, we'll make it in America. And Americans will make it.
Thank you so very, very much for joining us.
I yield back the balance of my time.
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