[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 180 (Thursday, December 5, 2024)]
[House]
[Page H6374]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 ONSHORING AUTO AND STEEL MANUFACTURING

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I hail from the manufacturing heart of 
automotive and truck USA, right at the Ohio-Michigan border. As this 
new year beckons, Congress must do what it can, as the old saying goes, 
to reconnect the U.S. head bone to its neck bone.
  Specifically, as co-chair of the House Auto Caucus, this means we 
must reshore ownership here in the USA of the Chrysler Group and its 
key suppliers. What America makes and grows here in America makes and 
grows America.
  The popular Jeep Wrangler, Ram truck, and the American steel that 
should go into them create two of the most popular purchased vehicles 
in our country and world. Just these two vehicles represent a major 
manufacturing sector for our heartland that was traded away by Wall 
Street to Europe.
  As a result, thousands upon thousands of skilled workers at 
production platforms in Toledo, Ohio; Sterling Heights, Michigan; and 
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, are now being idled before the holidays.
  Why is it always right before the holidays?
  Meanwhile, the purveyors of vast wealth actually harm the workers 
that create the very wealth that benefit those billionaires. The 
ownership of the production was moved to Europe, and their billionaire 
enablers and buddies on Wall Street from the world of high finance keep 
trading away their livelihoods.
  America's truck, automobile, steel, and auto parts manufacturing 
workers have had enough. They deserve respect.
  Wouldn't the holiday season be happier if Congress could reassure 
thousands and thousands of Jeep and Ram workers a better future?
  The current Jeep Stellantis CEO, Carlos Tavares, is stepping down. He 
lives in Europe. After his dreadful 10 years as leader of this lodestar 
automobile company that was created in this country, he earns a 
whopping $43 million a year, not counting all his perks and stock 
options. He just got another million-dollar raise. After his dreadful--
I can't even call it leadership--heading the company, he just got 
rewarded that additional million dollars. Meanwhile, workers in Toledo 
and Sterling Heights get pink-slipped and hit the unemployment lines. 
How cruel. This has to stop.
  Production pauses were announced just before Thanksgiving as we head 
into the holiday season. That is downright un-American.

  It is long overdue for America to be American again. Wall Street 
traders should bring back ownership of Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge to the 
United States of America. It is overdue to put real car builders in 
charge, not Wall Street traders nor hapless CEOs from another country.
  The outgoing Biden administration and the incoming Trump 
administration must direct attention to what is occurring right at the 
Ohio-Michigan border. This region is the heart of the industrial 
Midwest, where people make and build our real wealth, not just trade it 
away.
  Our people don't live in virtual reality or stock options. We live in 
places where iron sharpens iron--some might say the agony and the 
ecstasy of producing America's real wealth. Yet we have seen it traded 
away time and again, decade after decade as oligarchs and billionaires 
who could care less about America get richer off the sweat of our 
people.
  This is a wake-up call for the current and future President of the 
United States. Hear our call. Reshore ownership of our Chrysler-Jeep-
Dodge platform, both in the automotive and trucking industry. Lift up 
the industrial heartland of America.
  As we reshore the ownership and production of our Nation's most 
popular vehicles, we also ensure that those who own the means of 
production have to live in the same reality as those who build these 
cars and trucks.
  Both Presidents Trump and Biden have said America should stop the 
sale of U.S. Steel to Japanese Nippon Steel. I agree with that. 
Americans who are potential buyers wait in the wings. Engage them. 
Include those that forge quality steel that is a critical component of 
both our rugged Rams and Jeeps.
  American steel in American cars, doesn't that sound good?
  My hope for the USA is that we reclaim ownership of what we created 
in the first place. Our workers know it. They have surely earned it. 
The future of generations across our industrial heartland and Nation 
depends on America restoring America again. What America makes and 
builds makes and builds America. Bring Jeep and Ram back to the United 
States of America.

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