[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 121 (Wednesday, July 1, 2020)]
[House]
[Pages H3046-H3048]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1745
                           ISSUES OF THE DAY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. 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. Madam Speaker, it is an honor to join you in the Chamber 
this evening. I thank all of our professional staff, as well; our 
parliamentarian, our readers, our clerks, our typists for their 
continued commitment to this institution in this climate.
  It certainly feels different. We recognize that the well is no longer 
open for this time period, that we speak from the desk and from the 
chairs, and yet, we still speak. We still deliberate. We still conduct 
the dialogue and the discourse of democracy, for that is what we do in 
this institution, we erect and pass the Nation's laws.
  And oftentimes we hear from the public that it feels so polarized, 
that it feels too heated, that it feels stagnant because of the 
polarization. Why can't you just work together? You hear that all the 
time. I hear that from my district that is comprised of so many 
Independents, people who are not registered as Democrat or Republican. 
They are registered to vote, and they are good Americans in Michigan's 
11th district, but they are looking for us to work together.
  And in part, Madam Speaker, it is because I represent so many 
manufacturers, so many individuals who are engineers, who are dedicated 
makers and creators, so many educators, people passing those technical 
skills down to the next generation, Madam Speaker. I know you have many 
of those in your district in eastern Iowa. That is something us 
midwestern ladies have in common, the districts we represent are full 
of the people who make things. And they go to work every day not under 
a partisan circumstance, right, they go to work to produce, to give a 
good day's effort for that on-time delivery. That is the privilege I 
have representing the largest concentration of suppliers in America.
  The world changed very quickly in 2020, this new decade in this still 
fledgling century. It changed so quickly with the coronavirus pandemic. 
Almost overnight schools stopped, work stopped. Health and safety 
paramount. The listening and the engagement with the science, the 
patience that we had to provide for the science with a new virus that 
swept the globe in a fiscal quarter, less than a fiscal quarter. Many 
infected, many perished tragically and unfortunately, and yet, our 
economy changed as a result.
  And I think it is worth noting where our economy is today and what I 
am seeing out of my incredible district, a manufacturing district. We 
have some sayings in Michigan, the metro Detroit area. We call 
ourselves ``metro Detroit.'' It is southeastern Michigan. It is just an 
absolutely remarkable place. And we say, you know, Detroit hustles 
harder, that Detroit hustles harder. And I like to say that Detroit 
always rises, that we rise when times are steady, and we certainly rise 
when times are tough. And we have done it before, Madam Speaker.
  There is a fly in here, but I don't mind having a little fly buzzing 
around the floor. Who'd a thunk? But the words continue.
  Detroit always rises. And we say that because 10 years ago we were 
staring at the edge of another cliff. Our auto industry was looking at 
bankruptcy, true liquidation, in the face. And it wasn't just a 
nameplate company, it wasn't just General Motors and Chrysler and Ford, 
but it was the thousands of suppliers with the hundreds of thousands of 
jobs, 900,000 jobs on the line.
  And Democrats and Republicans together said, We are not going to let 
Main Street fail. We are going to continue to be a first world Nation 
with industrial assets. And that is what we did with the CARES Act. 
Overwhelming support passed by a Republican Senate, a Democratic House, 
signed by a Republican President standing up for the hardworking 
American and for our industrial assets that we will continue to make 
cars in America.
  Little known fact about southeastern Michigan, we have an incredible 
aerospace sector, a diversified supply chain. We just launched a 
rocket, SpaceX, into outer space. So many of the suppliers in my 
region, so many of the incredible workers helped produce the parts and 
components that go into those rockets. It is absolutely remarkable what 
we continue to do and the workforce that bests all the expectations.
  So what did we do when this pandemic hit and we had to say, Guess 
what? For the health and safety of everyone, auto manufacturing is 
ceased for the time being. It had to shelter, it had to hibernate. But 
then they stood up and said, We are going to make protective personal 
equipment. Ford with their respirators. General Motors with the 
ventilators. Chrysler with a million-masks source and on and on down 
the supply chain.
  The hand sanitizer coming from Michigan Enterprises. It has been 
unbelievable having those conversations.
  AlphaUSA located right in Livonia, Michigan, right where our 
incredible district office is located. I saw them shortly before we 
went into the shutdown, a UAW-run supplier company and they were making 
the PPE. Now, we keep our fingers on the pulse of this manufacturing 
sector.
  And we, by the way, recognize that today it is an incredibly special 
day, not only because it is America's birthday coming up and we salute 
all of our good men and women, our veterans, our current members of our 
Armed Forces, and those who, throughout our communities, are going to 
safely engage in recognizing America's birthday.
  But we are also going to recognize what July 1st is, which is, it is 
the new day of our competitive framework as a North American continent. 
The USMCA. What the freshman class, with so many of us, came here to 
see done right, not for some, you know, bad action for the prescription 
drugs or anything along those lines, but to say, We are going to make 
things in America. We are going to increase Buy American content. We 
are going to make and produce and sell to the world, and by golly, we 
got this trade deal done.
  And so now we can go and win, and we can compete more effectively

[[Page H3047]]

against China. We know they are a problem. We know they are not good 
actors. We know they manipulate their currency. We know that they dump. 
But yet, it is a new dynamic here with this trade deal, and it begins 
today.
  And I am on the phone with the trade ambassador and the deputy trade 
ambassador and all our manufacturers working on an effective and fair 
implementation, recognizing that given this pandemic, given the low 
demand, that sales are down. It is on the front page of our Detroit 
newspapers today, the free press and the news, the projected almost-40-
percent decline in auto sales.
  Remember my friends, Detroit hustles harder. Detroit always rises. We 
rise to the industrial call in this Nation. That is what we did in 
World War II. And we don't say those things because they are cliches. 
We don't hearken to the Greatest Generation because it is trite. It is 
because we can do big things in this Nation collectively and together. 
We can fight common enemies. We can protect the health and safety of 
everyone together.
  Look at what is manifesting in the neighborhoods around this country. 
Certainly, in the incredible neighborhoods that I represent. Right 
across the street from me is an industrial park right off of Auburn 
Road. And then you go on down and there is a nursing home. Heroes work 
here.
  We value work in America. And there is no better time than this era 
that we have found ourselves in with the respect and dignity for the 
value of work and organized labor and a 21st century labor movement 
that is going to protect enforceable standards and make sure that no 
one has to go to work afraid, but that they can successfully go to work 
and produce that outcome. Everyone matters. No one should be left 
behind.
  Our schools, the envy, frankly, in my opinion, in my district, the 
envy of the world because of our training programs. We have more first 
robotics teams in Michigan than in any other State in the country.
  Now, I was looking forward to going to Worlds, okay, it is located in 
Michigan. It has teams from all over the world competing, not just 
because they are making amazing robotic machines and pieces of 
equipment, but they are doing strategy, they are doing communications, 
they are doing sales, they are doing diplomacy. These students give me 
hope, and we owe them all a debt, not just of gratitude but of 
responsibility.
  We talked a lot about the class of 2020. We talked a lot about the 
class. They didn't get to go through their traditional sayonaras, the 
traditional graduations, the proms, the engagements. Some of them have 
senioritis to begin with. They are ready for that next step. They are 
ready for that training program, that engineering degree.
  Oakland University, located in my district, an amazing engineering 
school leading in cybersecurity. We are a hub for cybersecurity in 
Michigan's 11th District in partnership with Automation Alley. And yet 
we think about our students who are still coming through the pipeline 
who missed out on a sports season, who missed out on a computer science 
class, and yet they are not even seniors. And we have got to think very 
carefully and effectively and collectively as a government, not just 
exclusively as the House of Representatives as one Chamber, but in 
partnership with our government actors.
  This is why I talk to the dozens of mayors from Michigan's 11th 
District every week. My friends, from Commerce, to Canton, to Plymouth, 
to Troy. We are on the phone with one another working, deliberating, 
identifying, and engaging. How do we get the best results possible for 
the most amount of people who we represent and work for in the given 
time? And that is what we are doing for our students.
  So I want to remind every student from the Chamber of which I am 
delivering this address, the House of Representatives, we work for you 
and we will continue to be accountable to you and for you. We will 
listen to you, and we are so proud of you.
  For the recently graduated seniors who are going to go off to that 
freshman year or to that new job or to join our military, we salute 
you. We are grateful for you.
  And for those of you still making your way through, we are not going 
to leave you behind, and we are going to continue to listen to you and 
see all the ways in which you use the tools before you to succeed. It 
is absolutely remarkable.
  And we are going to continue with your intellect, your talent, your 
brilliance to be leaders in Michigan of the manufacturing economy.
  Where the world looks to us leading on electric vehicle technology, 
companies like soulbrain that make the chemicals, the electrolytes that 
go into the lithium-ion batteries. They are the only one in the region, 
and they are one of two in the United States.
  So we talk a lot about Buy American. Buy American. American jobs. Of 
course, we do. We are the country that makes things that the entire 
world wants to buy. And when we look at the complexity of supply chains 
and sourcing Buy American and who chooses to expand their business, we 
love when they come to Michigan. We do that because we have the right 
policies in place, and we have the right tapestry here.

                              {time}  1800

  We are looking at our countless downtowns, small communities. I 
represent the suburbs, the downtown areas, the sole proprietors, the 
individual companies that are not reliant on a brand name, but they are 
reliant on themselves. They are entrepreneurs. It is really quite 
remarkable the leadership that they have shown.
  We are going to continue to listen to them and compete on fair and 
level playing fields. That is certainly a big part of it.
  We are going to recognize what a diverse workforce gets us, what the 
competition for talent gives us, and we are certainly going to talk 
with our community stakeholders.
  We did so much in the CARES Act, Madam Speaker, to make sure that we 
stood up for the small businesses of America, the small businesses in 
our district. It is absolutely imperative to make sure that our small 
businesses can compete.
  Now that some of our companies are back online and we are seeing our 
auto manufacturing go back--I was just at a great company, Clips & 
Clamps, a tool and die company. They bought a brand-new stamping 
machine, just gleaming, absolutely beautiful. They turned on the 
stamper; I cheered. Just amazing, the humming of making things in this 
country.
  You have to understand the supply chain. You have to understand the 
complexity that goes into the payment cycles and the receivables and 
the need for fair and proper assurance.
  We only have to bat our eyes a couple of times and then we remember 
what we were looking at when we had the largest drop in automotive 
sales in recent history. In 2008, credit dried up, and our suppliers 
were left wondering, ``Am I going to get paid? Am I going to continue 
to be able to do the on-time delivery?'' We have to do that today, 
right?
  Liquidity in the supply chain is a real thing, and boy, is it complex 
to talk about. It certainly doesn't fit into a nice hashtag or a 140-
character sound bite.
  We wrote the Secretary of the Treasury about this, Senator Gary 
Peters and I, along with the Michigan delegation.
  This is a great coming together of our government if we can get this 
done and make sure that our suppliers can continue to supply the 
original equipment manufacturers. That is all they are asking for. That 
is all we are looking for in that.
  I believe, with the right wherewithal in the Treasury, you can bring 
the banks together, you can listen to the workforce, you can make sure 
people still have jobs and that we continue to make things and compete 
as effectively as possible.
  OPS Solutions is located in Wixom. I invite everyone to come over to 
Wixom, Michigan, home of the shuttered Ford Lincoln plant from 2007, a 
rebuilt area.
  There were people who were singing the swan song of my region not too 
long ago. We know what they were saying. We stood up and said something 
different.
  OPS Solutions is run by Paul Ryznar and his incredible team of people 
doing light-guided parts assembly. You can do it from home. You can do 
it with a

[[Page H3048]]

disability. It is something for all workers.
  We talk about education and the need for equal funding in education. 
We talk about educating students of all abilities and jobs for people 
with all abilities. OPS Solutions was formed in the downturn in 
Ryznar's basement, a furloughed auto engineer creating this incredible 
new enterprise.
  OPS Solutions just today joined the World Economic Forum, one of 50 
companies in the advanced manufacturing and technology space.
  The quiet humming that comes out of Michigan's 11th District is the 
determination for where the world is going to go with how we make 
things, how we sell things, and how we operate in a digital economy.
  When we think about the plight of these last 20 years--I was talking 
to another small business owner in my district in the retail sector. 
``Oh, boy,'' he was saying, ``these last 20 years have really been a 
whopper. We had 
9/11. We had a recession. Now, we have a global pandemic. And every 
day, I am going into work, and I am working to sell, and I am working 
to connect with customers. And now, it is really different, connecting 
with customers.''
  You look at us as a Nation, and so many of these students today, 
these young adults, were just being born when our Twin Towers fell down 
and when our Pentagon was attacked.
  I was a young freshman myself at American University, dropped off for 
school, a kid from the Midwest who got a chance to study political 
science at an incredible school just a few miles from the Pentagon. My 
mom and my brother dropped me off, and they left.
  I had been talking to my mom about my new Government 101 political 
science course. I said, ``Mom, I am so excited. This is such an amazing 
class. It is four credits, and that extra credit is experiential 
learning, and we get to go to the Pentagon.'' That was the last 
conversation I had with my mom before 9/11/2001.
  She was calling my dorm room. She was calling my dorm room, and she 
was trying to get in touch with me. Everyone was trying to get in touch 
with their loved ones, before the smartphone. She couldn't get through.
  I signed on to AOL Instant Messenger: ``Hey, mom.''
  What happened next, as a Nation? It is a long story, but 
economically, we were the ones who proliferated the internet in 
Industry 4.0, as some people like to describe it, the industrial 
Internet of Things, making faster, better, closer together, re-
localizing manufacturing, re-shoring the production of things.
  I believe that device, those flat-screen devices, came from the great 
innovation of America.
  That is what we celebrate. That is what we work toward. That is the 
tapestry that we are working to put together in this Chamber.
  Come visit us at the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee 
under Eddie Bernice Johnson's fabulous leadership, Chair Eddie Bernice 
Johnson, an incredible leader.

  Shortly before this pandemic was declared, we passed a bipartisan 
energy and R&D package through the committee.  Jim Baird and I, my 
ranking member, as I have the privilege of serving as the chair for the 
Research and Technology Subcommittee, passed the Building Blocks of 
STEM Act, investing in our next generation through the National Science 
Foundation.
  We can do these things with a return on the taxpayer dollar, by the 
way. We can have the conversation about effective and efficient 
spending. Just as this institution made money from the auto rescue, the 
taxpayer made money.
  I am optimistic about what is ahead. I am committed to what is ahead 
because of the stories and the people whom I have the privilege of 
working alongside in Michigan's 11th District.
  I thank you, Madam Speaker, for your time and your diligence this 
evening, and all the people who continue to make our House of 
Representatives hum.
  Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________