[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 4 (Tuesday, January 15, 2013)]
[House]
[Pages H155-H160]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
REBUILDING AMERICA'S INFRASTRUCTURE
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 3, 2013, the gentleman from California (Mr. Garamendi) is
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
Mr. GARAMENDI. I thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's good, it is very, very
good that the new 113th Congress acted today to reach out in sympathy,
compassion, and with real support to the people who were so severely
impacted by Superstorm Sandy.
One of our colleagues, just a moment ago, spoke about this Nation
being at a crossroad. And indeed, we cross paths many, many times and
there are many different crossroads. The people of Pennsylvania, New
Jersey, New York, Connecticut, and other parts of this great Nation
here on the east coast came to a crossroads. That crossroads was 97
days ago when Superstorm Sandy came ashore and whacked and destroyed,
pummeled and, indeed, killed Americans.
[[Page H156]]
Today, the House of Representatives, not unanimously, unfortunately,
but by a strong majority of Democrats and some Republicans, stood tall
and said we are one Nation. We're one Nation, and when one of us is
harmed, we'll stand with that person. When one State is harmed, we'll
stand with that State, and we will come together, just as my colleague
said a moment ago, we will come together to provide what is needed to
rebuild, to sustain, to provide, so that they who have been harmed can
carry on.
There's a lesson here for all of us, and tonight my Democratic
colleagues and I will talk about the lesson that Superstorm Sandy
brought to this Nation. Certainly one of those lessons has been
fulfilled today. As a great Nation, we will provide what is needed for
the rebuilding, for the immediate needs, even though it is 97 days
late. We will provide because we are a compassionate Nation.
But there's also another lesson here, and that lesson is for this
entire Nation to get ahead of the next disaster. It will come. It'll be
another storm up the east coast or into the gulf. It'll be an
earthquake in my State of California or a flood or a fire. But there
will be yet another natural disaster of one sort or another, perhaps
man-made, perhaps Mother Nature.
What we must do as a Nation is to get ahead of that, to prepare
ourselves not only with emergency responses, but more and just as
important, to prepare the infrastructure to protect the lives and the
property of the citizens of this Nation. That's the second lesson of
Superstorm Sandy. Build the infrastructure to prepare for the next
flood, the next hurricane, the next onslaught of Mother Nature. We can
do it. And in so doing, we not only reduce the cost of that next storm,
that next flood, but we also save the lives of Americans, and we put
people to work right now.
This Nation is not yet fully recovered from the recession of 2008.
This Nation has not yet fully brought Americans back to work, and we
can do so taking the lesson of this day's action here on the floor of
the House of Representatives where we, at least most of us, voted to
build for the future, voted to put in place those infrastructure
improvements, not for yesterday, not to rebuild just what was there
that was destroyed, but, rather, to build for the future onslaught of a
storm coming into New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, or other parts of
this Nation.
To be prepared. The Boy Scout motto: Be prepared. Benjamin Franklin:
An ounce of prevention is worth a dollar of cure. These are truisms
that have been with us forever, and today we want to talk about
infrastructure investment, the kind of things that were done here on
the floor, some $33 billion going not only for immediate relief, but to
build the infrastructure necessary to protect and prepare for the next
storm.
Joining me today in this discussion, at least at the outset, is my
colleague from New York, Paul Tonko. We often meet here on the floor.
We sometimes call this the East Coast/West Coast show. I'm from
California. Representative Tonko is from New York.
And you were there, not only for this storm, but for the previous
storm, and that was less than 18 months ago. Let's talk about these
things, Mr. Tonko.
{time} 2010
Mr. TONKO. Sure. Thank you, Representative Garamendi. Thank you for
bringing us together for this hour on the floor, where I think it's
important to pay attention to the needs out there as they relate to the
damages that were brought upon certain areas of the country by Mother
Nature.
Yes, there's been a lot of focus with this on Superstorm Sandy. That
really had its presence felt just to the south of my given
congressional district. However, there was some damages in the northern
reaches of upstate New York, the more northern sections as we traveled
north of the metro area.
But suffice it to say, the need here for assistance by not only New
York, but New Jersey and Connecticut, where the proper of New York, the
metro area of New York City, Long Island, Westchester County, were
impacted severely by this storm. As I said, on the fringe elements in
my area, not as much. But certainly, New Jersey and Connecticut were
hard hit.
But just over a year before that storm, you're absolutely right, we
were impacted by Irene and Lee, a double dose of damage that really
impacted my given congressional district severely. It looked like a
war-torn area, as was the case here with Superstorm Sandy.
And this Nation, whenever impacted by natural or manmade disasters,
found a response from Congress, that the President, whoever that person
might be at the time, working with Congress, expedited the assistance,
wanted to get that aid there with a high degree of urgency.
What we saw here was uncalled-for delays as people languished. I
mean, we have to look at the human element here, the human cost of 88
Americans that were impacted, lives lost because of this tremendous
devastation, the impact that befell so many communities with
infrastructure being damaged severely, if not destroyed totally.
It was also about the impact on the business community, the loss to
commerce, and certainly property damage that people are going to have
to respond to over a long course of comeback that I have witnessed in
my district with the storm, as you indicated, being more than a year
ago.
And so it is important for us, as a Nation, to be responsive and
responsible. That has always been the measure coming forth from this
Nation, understanding, with sensitivity, what needed to be done and
getting aid to people. That's what it's all about.
And so today, when finally a vote was taken, some 70 days after
Superstorm Sandy hit, 70-plus days after the storm hit, finally we get
a response, when so much pain and anguish was allowed to continue,
unnecessarily so.
The infrastructure issues in this country, storms aside, need to be
addressed. The American Society of Civil Engineers has graded many of
our bridges into a D classification, a poor grade, deficiencies that
are out there brought to our attention.
So not only do we need to respond to these tragedies and respond to
our given infrastructure, but I think what happens here is an
opportunity to come forward with job creation, providing for the trades
and skilled tradespeople to be put to work. That is so important for
our economy. It's so important for our public safety; it's so important
for emergency response, as we've witnessed here in the northeast of the
country.
And so while the fight was long and at times unnecessary, at least
the vote was taken today and we moved forward.
Mr. GARAMENDI. Thank you, Mr. Tonko. The bill now is out of this
House. It's over in the Senate. We expect the Senate to pass it
probably tomorrow or the next day, certainly before the inaugural on
Monday, and then the President will undoubtedly sign it shortly
thereafter, bringing that kind of relief.
You mentioned the job issue, and people need to go to work. When we
have these natural disasters, and we come forward with the kind of
support that we have seen today, and will soon be available for New
Jersey, New York, Connecticut and the surrounding areas, people go back
to work. Those people that have received immediate FEMA support for
housing, for clothing, for food, that money's immediately spent into
the economy.
On the infrastructure side, it's crucial. When the subways of Lower
Manhattan flooded, the world's financial institutions took a whack
because it was shut down for several days. People couldn't get to work,
and so the entire world's economy slowed down, costing billions of
dollars beyond just the damage.
Now, part of the infrastructure, part of the bill that was passed
today, the infrastructure improvements are to harden, to prepare
Manhattan and the surrounding areas, the beach communities and others,
for the next storm, to put up the seawalls.
Now, what does that mean?
Well, it means that the ounce of prevention and the pound of cure
have taken place, but it also means people are going to go to work.
Let me refer to this chart here. This is from Mark Zandi, chief
economist at Moody's Analytics, and the former economic adviser to John
McCain. His analysis, and this is generally agreed to by most
economists, is that for every dollar invested in infrastructure, you
get $1.57 back into the American
[[Page H157]]
economy. So you're not just putting a dollar in. You're getting the
American economy going. You're putting people to work.
Those people will then be able to pay taxes, buy food, support their
families, and build for tomorrow's disaster, putting in place the
infrastructure that is hardened, that is protected, eliminating the
potential, in this specific case, of flooding of the subway systems in
New York City.
I know that you talked about doing this in your area for the storm.
You may want to pick that back up, and then I want to come back and
talk about my own district in California.
Mr. TONKO. Right. You know, I think over and over again people are
measuring with exit polling the sentiments of the electorate out there;
and people have said that there is a need for government. They want
effective government, efficient government.
Well, I think when we look at some of the data that are collected,
Representative Garamendi, it is important for us to acknowledge that as
we rebuild in our areas that have been damaged by Mother Nature, you
don't just replace; you need to improve upon the situation.
For instance, if there are data that are telling us that more and
more water volume is expected in certain watershed areas, as in my
district, it would be foolish to spend tax dollars, the hard-earned
taxpayer dollars and simply replace an infrastructure, a bridge, at the
same height, at the same span, if, in fact, we know that the water and
the force of that water is growing with time.
And so these are the ways to, I think, incorporate the soundness of
academics and analysis that go into how we respond to this. And if much
of it is driven by climate change, global warming, some of the impacts
of Mother Nature that are causing these disruptive scenarios, then
ought we not look at sound policy that then stretches our thinking and
really puts a laser sharp focus on these situations?
So this is a call for a big-picture view. It's a call for effective
replacement and repair so that we're responding to data that are
collected that speak to the demographics that we should expect to have
happen as we go forward and as we rebuild, making certain that there
are those opportunities for waterfront communities to embrace their
sense of geography.
I represent a district that is not only donor area to natural
resources, but also historic resources in those waterways. And people
want to have waterfront opportunities. They want to rebuild their
communities so as to utilize these natural resources as a marketing
agent to draw people to the area.
Well, we can steward those resources so as to tame the Mother Nature
impact in a way that allows us to go forward with this re-marketing
strategy, that allows us to utilize our sense of location, our place
destination, and do it in a way that is possible because of
preventative measures, because of retrofitting that can take hold; and
it's a way to utilize the engineering services out there, civil
engineering, architectural opportunities to build communities and build
them in a way that allows us to have that sense of place only deepened,
rather than denied because we've walked away from what might have been
damage from Mother Nature and have abandoned those opportunities.
{time} 2020
Mr. GARAMENDI. You're speaking of something that is very close I know
to your heart. I've heard you speak on this issue some months ago about
some of the historic buildings that date back to the pre-Revolutionary
War era in New York.
And it's interesting to note that in this Sandy legislation that
passed the House today there are numerous reforms, improvements on the
way in which the Federal Emergency Management System works, so that the
historic resources can be rebuilt and maintained, so that that sense of
history, that sense of our past and who we are as Americans is going to
be there for future generations. Some of the old rules and regulations
made it virtually impossible to do that.
There's also in this legislation other reforms that allow the
projects and homes and businesses to be rebuilt in a way that protects
them from the future storms and the increased storms that you so aptly
described.
Let me just take this home to my district. I represent the Central
Valley of California, the great Sacramento Valley, 200 miles of it,
literally from the beginning of San Francisco Bay 200 miles up the
Sacramento River. And probably, I haven't been able to count all the
levees in my district, but I probably have well over 1,500 miles of
levees that protect large cities, medium size cities, farms and other
critical assets and infrastructure in the State of California. For
example, the intercontinental rail system both north and south,
intercontinental highway systems, universities, international airports.
These critical assets are at risk of flooding.
The Army Corps of Engineers is taking a look at the levees in one
part of my district. The Natomas Basin, which is part of the city of
Sacramento, judges those levees to have a 1 in 30 chance of failure, so
that over a 30-year period of time it's anticipated there will be a
catastrophic failure of those levees. One hundred thousand lives just
in that part of Sacramento at immediate risk because those
floodwaters--should those levees fail, it would be a repeat of what
happened in New Orleans, only the water is deeper and the floodwaters
would rush in, at least as fast, if not faster. A monumental disaster,
international airport gone, highways gone and on and on.
We need to get ahead of that. We need to build that infrastructure,
those levees, to protect those assets. A penny of prevention, a pound
of savings.
So these are the kind of things that we can do. And there are ways we
can do this. Yes, it may run up the immediate deficit. But once again,
for every dollar that we invest in those levees we not only save lives
and property, but we put people to work and we get the economic engine
going.
Further up in my district, again along the Sacramento and the Feather
Rivers, I have a project that's 44 miles of levee that clearly will
fail. It has failed four times in the last 60 years. Lives have been
lost. One of the most catastrophic failures of a levee happened in this
stretch of river. We need to rebuild that.
The Federal Government's role in the construction projects of these
levees has gone back to the very beginning of this Nation. And it is
Congress' task to allocate the money, to decide the projects that are
going to be built. But unfortunately, we've tied ourselves in knots
here with certain rules that have been put in by our Republican
colleagues that prevent us from taking the necessary action to protect
our communities.
We're not talking about willy-nilly unnecessary projects; we're
talking about saving lives and property. This is how we should be
acting. Rebuilding after a storm to a higher standard, building before
the storm to protect our people, the people that we represent.
These are critical issues, these are infrastructure projects, and we
need to get on top of this and push these projects forward. Yes, it
will cost money, but not nearly as much as the cost of a levee failure
because we failed to act in time.
Mr. TONKO. Well, when you speak, Representative Garamendi, about the
cost of these repairs or improvements we're talking about a design
team, we're talking about a construction team, we're talking about a
maintenance team. And all of that translates into jobs. So these
efforts are, yes, an expenditure, but it's putting people to work and
addressing not only public safety but commerce.
Again, my home county, which is split by a historic river, was the
scene of a devastation just over 25 years ago where a New York State
Thruway bridge collapsed because of the flooding that was occurring
beneath that bridge. A creek that you could walk across, walk through
in the middle of summer, was equal to in CFS, cubic feet per second,
the flow of Niagara Falls. We lost 10 lives in that incidence, and also
saw the impact locally to commerce. It just disrupted the flow of
activity to ship goods to whatever section of our area. It totally
disrupted that situation. That is just a microcosm of impact of what
happens.
But you're very right. With the levees that might be at risk that
could be a challenge to public safety, the poor ratings of our many,
many bridges
[[Page H158]]
across this country, the need to begin aggressively to address these
situations, means that you can bend that cost curve simply by moving
projects forward, because the longer we go in time the more expensive
it will be and the more risky it becomes with these deficient bridges.
So programs like The American Jobs Act or Build America Bonds, all of
these efforts are a progressive bit of policy that then takes us to a
new realm of thinking, a commitment to the safety of the people of this
great country, a commitment to commerce and the doable qualities of
having infrastructure vastly improved that enables us then to talk
serious business about growing our Nation's economy.
So I think that the efforts here by the Democratic Caucus to bring to
the attention of the full House the sort of positive thinking, the sort
of planned opportunities that speak to the very nature of our
infrastructure--and both of us represent States that rely heavily on
well-developed and very well-maintained infrastructure--is indeed
imperative. We need to move forward with a very strong supportive
statement about this Nation's infrastructure.
Mr. GARAMENDI. I would like to move in just a moment to the issue of
how we can actually help other parts of our economy grow as we build
our infrastructure. But before I do I am just thinking about the
previous discussion from our Republican colleagues where they talked
about the deficit and the deficit and we ought to eliminate government
programs.
Certainly there are government programs that are neither efficient,
effective, or necessary, and, yes, those should be cut. But when you
start talking about infrastructure this is something that we really
must do.
It was said that for an expenditure of some $15 billion New York City
could have protected its subway system and the shoreline from the
devastation of two major storms, one that occurred a year ago and
another one that occurred just 97 days or 3 months ago, Superstorm
Sandy.
So if we get ahead of these disasters and build the necessary
protections, for example in my district if we build those levees, yes,
it will cost money. For the Natomas area it's about $1 billion. Very
expensive, no doubt about it.
But if we do not protect and do not build those levees the
devastation will amount to several times that amount of money. That's
precisely what happened in Manhattan and in the New York City area.
So again, you spend that money up front, yes, you put people to work,
yes, there may be an immediate issue of where and how we fund it, and
that's a legitimate issue, but fail to do it and then the cost is
horrendous. And, yes, if the State, the Federal, the local governments,
the individuals, that will all be an expense that they have to endure.
And Superstorm Sandy, the bill we saw today, is precisely on that.
Now, having said that, let's talk about the broader subject. You
mentioned Build American Bonds just a moment ago. The Build American
Bonds were part of the stimulus program, now almost 4 years old.
{time} 2030
That program created a new mechanism to assist local governments in
providing the funding to build infrastructure--very, very successful in
putting people back to work. We could extend that. In doing so, we will
put people back to work. We will build the infrastructures, whether
those are highways or bridges or whatever.
As we do that, one of our favorite topics that we've talked on this
floor many, many times about is this: We can Make It in America. We use
our taxpayer money to make and to spend that money on American-made
products. So the steel in the bridges, the concrete, the other design
elements are American jobs. And as we do that, we rebuild the American
manufacturing base.
You've talked about this extensively. You go back in history, but go
for it.
Mr. TONKO. Well, absolutely. The manufacturing element in our society
is strong. It still is very much--a bit of statistical evidence that we
rank high in the international economy with manufacturing jobs, but
there was a huge loss in the decade before this administration; 4.6
million jobs lost in that manufacturing element. Well, in order for us
to stop that bleeding, it's important, I believe, to promote advanced
manufacturing. Retrofitting our manufacturing centers in a way that
allows us to be cutting edge and doing it smarter--not necessarily
cheaper, but doing it smarter--allows us to maintain that world leading
status for manufacturing.
Also, as we talk about infrastructure, beyond the bonds effort and
the American Jobs Act, an infrastructure bank bill that will allow us
to utilize that concept to leverage public and private funds that
expand the opportunities to invest in our infrastructure takes us well
beyond the traditional roads and bridges and levees that we talked
about, the waterfront opportunities and dam repair, but it also brings
us into the infrastructure for telecommunications and for electric
utilities so that we then are cutting edge. We can provide for an
upgrade, if you will, in the grid system.
Now, we saw what that collapse was about in the year 2003, when
branches rubbing on some power lines in Ohio put out the lights on
Broadway in New York City. Now, that is unacceptable weakness. If there
was ever a vulnerable, gaping situation that would have those looking
at us for a weakness, it was there, that this grid system was so weak,
designed for a monopoly setting and now being utilized to where
electrons, not only region to region within States, but State to State
if not nation to nation, with Canada wheeling in electrons into the
U.S.
So we need to vastly improve that sense of weakness in our system and
allow us to speak to the needs of manufacturing because many are an
energy-intensive operation. We need to be energy efficient so that
they're utilizing their manufacturing process in a way that reduces
cost, and to build into the equation all sorts of innovation so that
they're doing things in a smarter fashion and able to compete at that
international level for jobs; because as they land those contracts with
improved operations, that means more American manufacturing jobs. That
is that kind of approach, that cutting-edge thinking that enables us to
maintain our sense of productivity, that embraces our intellectual
capacity as a Nation, and that takes the research that we should invest
into and allows us to translate that research opportunity into jobs.
So there are these dynamics of change and reform that can be brought
into the discussions here as we go forward. That will speak, I think,
to the vitality, the economic vitality of this Nation and the growth of
jobs in a way that is significant, that is long lasting and that brings
us into a sophisticated thinking, which this American society is very
capable of doing.
Mr. GARAMENDI. Last year, you and I talked--or last Congress, which
was last year, you and I talked about this Make It in America, this
manufacturing. We spent a lot of time talking about it. I had
introduced in that session of Congress legislation that would require
that our tax money--at least 85 percent of it--be spent on American-
made products and equipment.
Let's take the Superstorm Sandy situation. We know that, for example,
Amtrak is receiving, I think, a little over $150 million to repair its
tracks that were damaged by Superstorm Sandy. Those are jobs--men and
women will be working--but it's also steel, it's electrical wires, it's
consultants, and it will undoubtedly be various kinds of electrical
systems that will be used by Amtrak in rebuilding, similarly with
regard to the subways in New York.
Now, if we were able to write into the Superstorm Sandy legislation
that 85 percent of that money that's used on rebuilding the
infrastructure came from American-made products--in other words, Buy
America--then that would not only put people back to work, but it would
stimulate the steel industry, the electrical industry, and certainly
the consultants, engineers, and architects. So I'm going to reintroduce
that legislation--too late now for Superstorm Sandy, but there will be
other legislation.
For example, we know that we're going to have to rewrite a new
transportation bill in this session. There's a 2-year bill that's now
in place. It will expire at the end of the 213th Congress, so we're
going to need to redo that. We should write into that transportation
legislation--where we will spend $50
[[Page H159]]
billion, $60 billion a year to build transportation systems--a clause
like my bill that says that's taxpayer money; let's use that taxpayer
money to buy American-made equipment and supplies, putting Americans
back to work and using that to rebuild the American manufacturing
sector along the lines that you describe, not with yesterday's
technology, but with advanced manufacturing.
Mr. TONKO. Right. The efforts that we have with so much of
manufacturing, with the incubator programs that enable us to provide
for an innovation of sorts in any of these assembly operations is key,
I think it's key to our future.
I think of those situations in my district, or even in my former
district, where they worked with a local college that was very
technically sophisticated. In this case, RPI, in the Greater Capital
Region of New York, worked through its incubator program to develop
these new opportunities within the plastics manufacturing that Kintz
Plastics in Schoharie County utilized.
I think it's worth mentioning on this floor that that really brought
about a new phase of activity for this company. By innovation, by
readjusting its procedure, its process, they were able to compete more
effectively. That required, however, that they move to training their
workforce because it required a new skill set. As they did that, they
reached out to a local community college, in this case, Hudson Valley
Community College in the Capital Region of New York.
That partnership created the human infrastructure, the incubator
provided the innovation, and they lived happily thereafter, because
what they did was secure contracts in that international competitive
sweepstakes because they provided for innovation. The improvements that
they made to their assembly operation enabled them to maintain that
sense of competitiveness.
It's that sort of thinking that takes us to a new level of job
creation and job retention. Compounding that, or creating in the
complement the Buy American concept, then inspires reaching to those
local firms. It can all be done in that holistic sort of format, with a
big picture sort of view that enables us to go forward and build upon
sound policy, sound investment, with guarantees of much better outcomes
for America's working families.
The middle class is taking it on the chin. The working families have
paid the price, and it's time for us now to be high geared in terms of
making certain that the American worker comes first in our thinking.
Mr. GARAMENDI. You couldn't be more correct. You used the word
``holistic,'' meaning whole and in total, a total package. For years
I've said that to have a growing economy and a just social environment,
we needed to make, as Americans, critical investments. You hit three of
those critical investments.
You talked about research--absolutely critical investment in the
future growth of the economy and to solve today and tomorrow's
problems. That's research, most of which, interestingly, is funded
either directly by the Federal Government through the National
Institutes of Health or Defense Research Agency, DARPA, or one of the
other Federal agencies, or indirectly through the research tax credit
that we provide for businesses to engage in research.
{time} 2040
So research is one of the key investments that lead to economic
growth. You mentioned the second one, very interesting, and that's
education. A well educated workforce will be competitive across the
world. That's a critical, perhaps the most critical, investment. Again,
a role for the Federal Government, certainly a role for States and
local governments, but a role for the American society that cannot be
ignored--research, education.
You drew it very, very correctly, and that is the manufacturing that
comes from that. Manufacturing matters. How do you do that? You need to
be in front of it; and when you talked about the research and the
manufacturing technology, you were spot on. That's the third critical
investment. The fourth one we also talked about here is infrastructure.
So these are four of the critical investments that we need to make as a
society.
Some of that falls on individual companies, encouraged by a research
tax credit or encouraged by Buy America. In different ways, we can
encourage the manufacturing tax policy, which is critically important.
We did that. Actually, it was a Democratic proposal. We did it 3 years
ago. We've continued it. We've continued it in the recent fiscal cliff
legislation where we provided 100 percent write-off for capital
investment.
That was from the Democrats. We care about business, and so we said,
grow your business. We will provide you with a 100 percent write-off in
the first year of capital equipment that you put in place. Not
depreciation over 3, 4, 7, 15 years, but rather immediate, an enormous
benefit to business. So we want the businesses to invest so that they
can Make It in America.
There are two more critical elements. I'll go through them very, very
quickly. Provide for the national defense wisely. I think the public
knows by now that we're spending $100 billion in Afghanistan this
year--$100 billion. We need to bring it back home. We need to end that
war. Thankfully, the President has set us off on a course where we will
end American offensive action and move to supporting the Afghan
Government in the spring of this year.
Mr. President, we're thankful that you put that policy. Now let's
bring the rest of it home, $100 billion. We need that money here. So we
need national defense, but we need to be really wise about how we spend
our money.
Finally, the fifth thing is this: we need to change. We need to be
willing to change. Thank you for bringing up the first three of those.
But this is how we invest in the future, and these are policies that we
need to put forward. They're the critical foundation for economic and
social growth.
Mr. TONKO. You speak to the innovation, you speak to research, and to
me that speaks to the DNA of our Nation, which has always been this
pioneer spirit. It's what's paid tribute to on this floor when policies
such as that which you just describe are promoted. It's embracing that
pioneer spirit, knowing that there are better ways, better
opportunities out there and better avenues to travel. Let's pursue that
with this utmost bit of pioneer spirit.
I represent a district that was the donor area to the Erie Canal--
you've heard me talk about this--that provided for the Westward
Movement and the Industrial Revolution. It was America at her best,
believing in herself, listening to the needs of workers, listening to
the ideas of workers and moving forward, embracing that sort of pioneer
spirit and building the research opportunities. I'm thinking of line-
loss along our electric grid system. Think about what we can save in
terms of energy supplies and in dollars if we moved forward with the
superconductive cable research project.
Mr. GARAMENDI. If I might interrupt you for just a moment. This had
to be 6 or 7 years ago, I was Lieutenant Governor of California, and
3M, the manufacturing company, came in to talk about exactly that
issue; and they had researched and developed a new conductor that was
30 percent more efficient in passing those electrons down the line.
Think about what we could do in America to improve our energy
capability by putting that in place; and if that were made in America,
we could not only improve the energy efficiency. We would increase the
capacity of our electrical system by 30 percent simply by rewiring
those conductors across this Nation. That's American manufacturing,
research and manufacturing. Put it in the infrastructure and build our
strong economy. Great example.
Mr. TONKO. There are so many of us that are fans of education, higher
education investment. Think about it, we cultivate all of this talent,
we draw forth the abilities of people through education, and we allow
them to discover who they are. What are the gifts that I bear that can
be utilized to strengthen society? Well, we make that investment and
then don't gain on it. We don't stretch those opportunities to the max.
It's so important, I believe, to continually think beyond the status
quo. And when we're dealing with the energy arena, it's a line-loss for
one that allows for huge savings, and great opportunities for jobs to
research that potential; but it's also issues like waste heat which can
be recaptured and make our energy system more efficient. So as we
create and generate
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these energy supplies, if there's waste there, and we can captivate, or
capture, that waste and stretch the amount of energy supply that we can
create, here yet is another opportunity.
So it's endless. And for us to just continue to do the same old kind
of responses to everyday issues isn't the sort of challenging outcome
that I think allows us to best function as an American society.
So there are policies and there are tax reforms that encourage and
inspire this sort of investment, research tax credits, opportunities
within the renewable energy area with production tax credits. All of
this, being promoted in advance, we need to expand upon those
opportunities. Because you're right, Representative Garamendi, it is an
investment, it requires dollars, but those investments provide for
lucrative dividends. And there are many more dollars earned than those
invested into the progress that we need to strike.
Mr. GARAMENDI. Well, we have a little bit more time. I think it's
about time for us to wrap all of this into one piece. And I will take
the first shot at it, and then if you would be so kind as to finish it
up.
I'm thinking of Chicago. It's not my territory. It's a long way from
California. It's a beautiful city, a very dynamic city. At the turn of
the previous century, in the late 1800s, they had an architect, a city
architect, Burnham, and he wrote: Think no small thought for it stirs
not the heart of man. Very interesting. We ought to add women to that
equation now. But what he said is that when we rebuild this city, we
need to build big. We need to think bold thoughts. We need to think
about the greatness that could exist if we step forward.
Earlier in the previous hour we heard about the exact opposite. We
heard about inward, thinking small, we are not going to reach out and
fulfill the great potential of this Nation. Instead, we're going to
retreat. We're not going to allow government to be part of the
greatness of our future; but, instead, we're going to make it smaller
and less viable. And those five things that I talked about, education,
that's a public investment. Infrastructure is both public and private.
But the public side is critical.
You look at manufacturing, manufacturing has always been private; but
it has also relied upon the public sector. And if we use our tax
dollars to buy American-made products, we are causing the manufacturing
sector to grow, to blossom and to innovate and to be even greater than
it is today. In developing the research, that's both public and
private, but it is largely a public sector investment. So we can deal
with this by investing, by thinking boldly about what it is we can do
and, in doing so, make certain that everything we invest in publicly is
necessary, that it is run efficiently, and that its outcome is
effective, and that it fulfills the goal for which it was designed.
{time} 2050
Those should be our watchwords: efficient, effective, necessary, and
bold. Think no small thought. This is America. This is the world's
greatest country perhaps ever, and it was created by bold thinking,
both public and private working together in a synergy that created this
incredible Nation.
I'm excited. I'm excited here in the very early days of the 113th
Congress. I know we're going to have some big battles over debt limits
and the like. But as we go through those fights, I want us to be bold.
I want us to be big in our thinking. I want us to fulfill the great
potential of this Nation. And I know we can do it. I know we can do it.
Mr. TONKO. Representative Garamendi, what I hear you say is probably
a definition of the American Dream.
The American Dream was designed and brought to us by the boldness of
generation upon generation of immigrants who added to the peoplescape
of this great Nation, added to the native American population by stages
of journeys that traveled to these shores. We as a compilation of those
journeys are a stronger people. The foundation upon which we stand and
function and dream was developed by people who dared to dream nobly,
dared to invest in their community, in their people. That, I think, is
the challenge to us in this very moment in time.
Will history see us as a people that dreamt beyond the ordinary, or
will we be those who were frightened by the thoughts of the challenges
of our times? I think that our greatest days lie ahead of us. The
American Dream that burns boldly and nobly in our hearts speaks to us
as that beacon of inspiration. Move forward, invest in America's
people, invest in ingenuity, innovation, in the intellectual capacity
of this Nation, and tread boldly into the future. And know that you
will leave that next generation with an even stronger foundation that
was granted us for our time in this Nation.
It has been an honor to join you this evening.
Mr. GARAMENDI. It's always a pleasure to work with you, Mr. Tonko.
With that, Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
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