[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 172 (Wednesday, October 30, 2019)]
[House]
[Pages H8666-H8668]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   STATE OF OUR MANUFACTURING ECONOMY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Pappas). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 3, 2019, the gentlewoman from Michigan (Ms. Stevens) 
is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Ms. STEVENS. Mr. Speaker, I rise within this Chamber this evening to 
give an address on the state of our manufacturing economy. It is 
certainly very significant to do so this evening in the well of our 
House of Representatives, one of the more sacred and distinct places of 
our democracy, where we deliberate, exchange, and make our Nation's 
laws.
  Certainly, the weight of a great history is also upon us, and some 
profound and oftentimes troubling questions are asked of us. How do we 
make government work for the people we represent? How do we restore 
trust, faith, and accountability in our Federal Government?
  Henry Clay once said that government is a trust, and those elected 
into office, into Federal Government, are its trustees, and they work 
together for the benefit of the people.
  We hear and see the aching headlines of dysfunction, of inability, of 
stagnation, questions around progress and where we seek and look to go. 
Trust in government is at its lowest levels, according to Pew.
  We are waiting for an infrastructure deal. We are waiting for tenets 
of social justice, of economic justice, of equal opportunity for 
education.
  This House of Representatives in this 116th Congress has passed some 
remarkable bills, over 200, in fact, bills that colleagues who preceded 
me worked for years to get to the House floor. Now, the American public 
waits for those bills to become law, to be passed through our Senate, 
to be signed into law. That is why we are here today.
  It is very intentional this evening that I speak from the well of 
this Congress to whoever may be listening.
  The facts are also upon us. Today, the Federal Reserve cut interest 
rates for the third time this year as the U.S. economy continues to 
slow down amid ``ongoing trade disputes and weak global growth.''

                              {time}  2000

  For is it such a fact that 98 percent of the world's consumer base 
exists outside of the United States that we are in a race to sell our 
best-in-class product from our best-in-class workforce to the 
international markets before us.
  We are closing out this decade in just a few short weeks. It feels 
like months. We are entering into a new decade, and we are asking 
ourselves what our competitiveness agenda will be.
  Tariffs, the tariff war that we are in so far has cost U.S. 
businesses $34 billion since January 2018. Individual households are 
now at risk to pay hundreds more for consumer goods as they are 
increasingly impacted by this trade war: individual households, our 
American middle class, bearing the burden of this fallacious trade war.
  Yes, we need to be tough on China. Yes, we need accountability. Yes, 
we need to take on illegal dumping and currency manipulation and 
strong-arming and the taking of our IP, but we need to do so in a way 
that positions us for success, that positions the American middle class 
on a trajectory for growth and reclaims what we have lost since the 
mid-1990s. That income, median income, has not increased since the mid-
1990s. That rests upon us as an economic charge.
  Today, industrial activity is at its lowest point since June 2009--an 
Earth-shattering year, by the way, in the middle of a Great Recession--
today, with productivity inventories and new orders falling.
  I represent these manufacturers in southeastern Michigan. I represent 
a shining, incredible asset, the most robust supply chain of auto 
manufacturers in the country. I have devoted this first year in my 
first term in Congress hand in hand with these small businesses, with 
these midsize companies who employ countless people who live in the 
neighborhoods, who send their children to the schools I represent.
  To the other service businesses who benefit from this strong economy, 
why get in the way of growth?
  So far, Michigan has lost 6,200 factory jobs. And we are not the only 
State with this type of industry as its lifeblood that is showing signs 
of a slowdown: States like Ohio, which has also shed 2,400 
manufacturing jobs; Pennsylvania has 9,100 fewer manufacturing workers.
  I hear from these individuals, these small firms, and they are 
wondering what it is going to take to reignite investment in our 
workforce and investment in them. A trade war that we have now spent 
more in agricultural subsidies than we have on the entire U.S. auto 
rescue.
  The auto rescue was not a man-made crisis. It was part of a larger 
economic conundrum, a set of economic policies that set us on a 
trajectory of near implosion, of implosion of our financial banking, 
insurance, housing.
  And the lifeblood of our industrial base and good, bipartisan 
policymaking, of which I was a part of, came together to save the auto 
industry--200,000 Michigan jobs, millions more across the country--an 
auto industry that is humming on incredible and remarkable innovation 
today. I know this. I see it.
  Some more facts: 2 to 1 patents in autonomous vehicle technology 
coming out of my district; 75 percent of the R&D rampant proliferation 
of electric vehicle technology going into industrial parks and seeing 
what is akin to, and nothing short of, an innovation renaissance.
  We are waiting for the electric vehicle tax credit bill. We are 
waiting for

[[Page H8667]]

an economic policy not of resistance, not of fighting, but of 
positioning us for success.
  The statistics and the facts and the headlines are real, and they 
mean something in Michigan's 11th District to the manufacturer in 
Livonia, to the small business in Novi, to the hub of automobile 
manufacturing taking place in Auburn Hills, that I-75 corridor. And yet 
we want to compete; we want to sell; we want the investment in our 
American workforce.
  Who and how are we paying for it? This is a referendum on our 
economic policy that is coming from agencies and administrators whom 
the body that I serve in has oversight appropriating and authorizing 
authority over.
  Our Federal deficit has swelled to nearly $1 trillion. It is 
basically at $1 trillion in this year. It happened quietly. It was 
maybe a peep of a headline. We can't even fathom what a $1 trillion 
deficit in this country means.
  This isn't to shame any individual about their spending habits, 
because, I guarantee you, any of my colleagues engaging in such 
personal egregious behavior would be declared bankrupt and unfit for 
office.
  Our Nation cannot function with a $1 trillion deficit for the long-
term. It comes at the expense of every American, and particularly an 
undue and saddled burden to the next generation, to those under the age 
of 18 who cannot even place a vote yet and are counting on us to enact 
policies.
  So when the headlines start to rumble, of which they have, about a 
manufacturing slowdown, about an acute manufacturing recession, how can 
that be when we have such incredible innovations proliferating? It is 
because we have not reconciled our economic policy. It is because we 
have not embraced an economic policy for the middle class as a whole of 
government.
  Our Democratic Caucus has, our Democratic Caucus reverberating the 
mantra of ``for the people.'' That mantra has a value for the people 
because, you see, this tax cut that we passed last Congress, that was 
passed last Congress without a Democratic vote, 80 percent of it going 
to the largest corporations, not doing anything for our middle class, 
not doing anything for our small and midsize manufacturers.
  Remember that headline, ``Cuts to Research Funding,'' sending us a 
generation back on scientific research. It is one of the reasons, as a 
subcommittee chair for the Research and Technology Subcommittee, we 
have had over a dozen hearings around how to manifest our country's 
research and technology agenda for inclusive growth.
  Productivity. Erik Brynjolfsson, MIT professor and author of a great 
book on the future of work in the digital age of manufacturing, 
recently testified in front of my committee, declaring several things 
which are of note to this body. He declared, his research, the 
research, the primary facts that drive these headlines, our research 
tells us that we face two urgent economic challenges: a lack of 
productivity growth and too much inequality.

  What do we do next? How do we reclaim this agenda of economic rights, 
of economic growth for everybody?
  As Mr. Brynjolfsson went on to say in his testimony, for two 
centuries since 1776, since ``The Wealth of Nations'' was written, 
Americans benefited as we created an economic system that generated 
shared prosperity. But, over the past several decades, the benefits of 
economic growth have been much more unequal.
  Not only has median income barely grown since the 1990s, as I 
previously stated, but other social indicators, have worsened. Deaths 
from despair, namely, suicide, drug addiction are skyrocketing. We also 
know that life expectancy has declined in this country for the third 
year in a row.
  He goes on to say that these challenges, this schism of inequality 
and lack of productivity can be solved.
  I have taken up that challenge and believe that a middle-class 
economic agenda can reverse course for us, reinvesting in public 
education, making higher education affordable, on-ramps and pathways to 
opportunities for the skilled workforce, tax credits for companies that 
want to do on-the-job training.
  For is it not the case that our workforce spectrum, our future, those 
students being educated for the jobs that they are in demand to fill 
and those in the existing workplace who are swinging through the jungle 
gym of opportunities, making their way at their place of employment, 
they represent who we should be investing in.
  They represent a phenomenal opportunity for us to support not the 
household name businesses, but the businesses that want to train those 
workers and deserve credit for doing so, the businesses that want to 
sell--I have a lot of them in Michigan who want to sell their products 
internationally--giving them the opportunity to do so through good 
policy that invests in global citizenry, invests in global outlook, and 
allows us to bring American innovation to the world.
  The plight of American greatness in the post-9/11 era has been the 
plight of innovation that we, as Americans, proliferated the internet, 
the use of information technology that is captured on the internet. It 
started in the late nineties with less than 10 percent of information 
technology on the internet. By the year 2007, 98 percent, and then 
today, an entirely different internet.

                              {time}  2015

  We now talk about the Internet of Things, the interconnectedness of 
devices through the technology and the wireless networks, which have a 
great and profound benefit to our manufacturers in Michigan. We are 
leaders in this industrial Internet of Things space. We are designing, 
producing, making, and shipping in ways that we never have before, and 
it needs to be shared, the prosperity. That is, what we know, we all 
want.
  So we look to revive some of the successful economic policies of 10 
years ago, of pieces of legislation like the States' small business 
JOBS Act that spurred investment of American products into 
international markets.
  We also raised the question of supply-chain security. This is 
particularly important to those of us in Michigan, in Metro Detroit, 
recognizing how important that supply chain was in World War II. We 
manufactured our way to a new world order, to the ringing notions of 
freedom that we helped to usher in throughout the West, creating a 
system of government that was admired and bestowed and that grew our 
middle class.
  We recognize the troubling dilemma that we have with our rare earth 
minerals. In May, China, frustrated, threatened to cut off supply to 
the U.S. as part of the U.S. trade war, supply of these rare earth 
minerals that go into our devices that secure the production of some of 
our incredible innovations, like our smartphones.
  America depends on China for 80 percent of its rare earth imports, 
and that is not a desirable position to be in. We must reclaim our 
supply chain. We have to reclaim or categorize an agenda for rare earth 
minerals.
  The global rare earth market is projected to grow in value from $8.1 
billion to $14.4 billion by 2025, as driven by the demand for electric 
vehicles, cell phones, and other products.
  Here is a story of a manufacturer in Michigan, a company in 
Northville called soulbrain MI, that develops and delivers quality 
lithium-ion electrolytes in steel cases--which they are paying tens and 
tens of thousands more for, not realizing a profit--which is a core 
component of the lithium-ion batteries that go into our electric 
vehicles.
  It is just one of two producers that we have in the United States, 
and yet they pay the price because of the policies, the overregulation, 
and the failure to support the small businesses and the manufacturers. 
The subsidies have gone to agriculture. And there was not one 
investment or change for our manufacturers, albeit, the several great 
pieces of legislation that we have passed out of the Science, Space, 
and Technology Committee.
  Many of my colleagues are paying attention to this. Many of them are 
working on this, but we need the legislation to come to the floor. We 
need it to be voted on in the Senate, and we need to usher in a new 
manufacturing agenda.
  The world is demanding our electric vehicles. It is demanding our 
technology. It is demanding our manufacturing.
  Let's revive the great ability to sell our products.

[[Page H8668]]

  Let's revive the great ability to advocate on behalf of our labor 
force, our 21st century labor movement.
  Let's reconcile the reality of today's economy and policies that have 
been 19th or 20th century proposed solutions to 21st century problems, 
and let's get smart about how to win and compete again. It is a new era 
that begets a new trade orientation for us.
  Mr. Speaker, I would be remiss in this Special Order hour, of which I 
am reeling with passion for our manufacturing economy and have profound 
excitement and only want to see it succeed through an economic agenda 
that I believe this House majority can usher in, that I believe that 
this Congresswoman from Michigan's 11th Congressional District can 
champion the great requests, but I would be remiss to leave out, in 
these remarks, another moment and marker in time as we will close out 
session tomorrow and resume our in-district work activity, recognizing 
that we will be hitting 1 year since this 116th Congress was elected--
and how magnificent this year has been.
  With so much energy and gusto, we made our way to freshman 
orientation shortly after that election--less than a week after--
meeting our colleagues, meeting our deliberators, meeting those, the 
small, collective composite of us, the 435 of us in this House Chamber 
who are charged with making this Federal Government work for the 
American people.
  Let me say, by the way, that this manufacturing agenda has tremendous 
return on investment should we so choose to embrace it as a nation. We 
know our House majority is ushering it in. We know we are balancing the 
equities and advocating for all components of a good trade deal, 
inspired by the Buy American content, pushing for the enforcement 
standards, embracing the need for certainty to come to our small and 
midsized manufacturers, the manufacturers in Michigan's 11th 
Congressional District, the people who are wondering: How will my 
taxpayer dollars work for me?
  It has been an incredible moment in time to be a part of this 116th 
Congress. And while we will not be together as a body on both sides of 
the aisle to look at each other and to recognize what has happened in a 
year since what sometimes feels like dramatic action with elections, we 
can reflect on some of the moments that oftentimes don't even make it 
into news headlines or Twitter feeds or proclamations from Members of 
Congress, but ways in which we have embraced this new orientation of 
government in the Democratic House majority of our For the People 
agenda: bringing up issues for the labor movement, whether you belong 
to a union or not, for our middle class; the long overdue passage of 
Butch Lewis, the Butch Lewis Act, bringing the pensions of many to 
solvency, a classic example of doing nothing is greater than the cost 
of doing something; solving people's problems, making their taxpayer 
dollars work, not forcing small businesses to feel a pinch, not looking 
job layoffs in the face but saying, ``We are investing in you.''
  We are championing legislation and policy that embraces and puts 
people at the forefront, those who are not armed with the biggest 
lobbyists or the fanciest offices but who are counting on those who 
hold the stewardship of trust to deliver for them.

  We will also recognize, in this 1-year anniversary mark--without 
being in one another's presence--that we still have a lot of work to 
do.
  The bipartisan elixir, in my humble opinion, is our manufacturing 
economy. It is our ability to make things. It is our ability to help 
the people whom I have spoken to directly, whose factory floors I have 
walked on, whose office rooms I have sat in looking at that pathway to 
growth, not disinvestment.
  Too many have told me: We have had to invest elsewhere, we have had 
to remove ourselves from deals. We need to be competing effectively as 
a continent with the rest of the world. We need to take Asia by storm 
because we know they want our goods. We know they want our innovations. 
And it is that ability to do original research, the ``if not but for 
the Federal Government'' approach to basic research investment that 
catalyzes and proliferates new technologies of scale.
  I am looking forward, Mr. Speaker, to continuing to learn and to grow 
and to advocate fiercely on behalf of my economy in Michigan's 11th 
Congressional District for the betterment and the semblance of our 
future.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________