[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 10]
[House]
[Pages 14553-14559]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        ISSUES FACING AMERICANS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Southerland). Under the Speaker's 
announced policy of January 5, 2011, the gentlewoman from Hawaii (Ms. 
Hanabusa) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority 
leader.
  Ms. HANABUSA. Mr. Speaker, there are now about 11 of us who are 
considered freshmen to the Democratic side, and we are here today to 
share with everyone what we have learned. We hope, because we are 
freshmen, that we bring a different perspective on matters, that 
everyone might be able to see it from our eyes. And for that reason, we 
would like to share what we've learned in this last district work week 
and talking to our constituents about jobs, small business problems, 
and issues that face all of us.
  With that, Mr. Speaker, I would like to begin first by asking the 
gentlewoman from District 36 of California to share with us what she 
has heard. And I would like to say that the gentlewoman from District 
36 of California is the most recent addition to what was originally the 
noble nine, but we are now the exquisite 11.
  I yield to the gentlewoman.
  Ms. HAHN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to bring a perspective as a brand 
new Member of Congress. Last week while I was in my district, I met 
with over 50 businesses who wanted to talk to me about what they felt 
Congress was either doing or not doing. I met with them not to talk to 
them, but I met with them to listen to them. And I met with very small 
businesses, some that had two employees, to some other businesses who 
were considered small but had many more employees.
  What they told me was this: These are tough times. They're having a 
tough time with our economy, but they still want to grow and they still 
want to hire people. We know that our small businesses in this country 
are the backbone of this economy. We know that they are the ones that 
will be hiring people. They are the ones that will be getting this 
economy back up and running. They're going to be part of this great 
recovery, but they need help from the Federal Government.
  I asked them: What is it that you need? What is it that will keep you 
in business? What is it that helps you to grow and to hire people?
  There was a common theme, and they told me it was their access to 
capital which was part of the problem they have. They believed that our 
small business loans took a small mountain of paperwork to apply for. 
They felt like the requirements for these loans were so burdensome that 
they were not able to access capital. And they said, if they could 
access this capital, they would grow. They would hire. And even in 
tough times, this is the American Dream. This is the American spirit. 
They wondered, frankly, why Congress had worked so hard to bail out the 
billionaires on Wall Street; and they wondered what was Congress doing 
to bail out the man and woman on Main Street that works so hard every 
day.
  So I told them I wanted to stay in touch with them and I would urge 
my colleagues to do something else that they wanted, and that was to 
pass the President's Jobs Act. They love parts of this Jobs Act. They 
loved the fact that there is a tax credit there if they hired someone 
who had been unemployed for 6 months or longer.
  They loved the idea that in this jobs bill there was a tax credit for 
hiring our returning veterans. They liked the fact that we even went 
further and said there would be a larger, I think it is a $9,000 tax 
credit if you hire a veteran who's been wounded, because we know when 
our veterans come home that they have a very difficult time reentering 
society. They have a difficult time, frankly, reentering their 
families. They have a hard time relating again to their husbands, to 
their wives, to their communities. This jobs bill actually speaks to 
the plight of the veteran. The woman veteran, by the way, has one of 
the highest unemployment rates in the country.
  So colleagues, I think we should continue to fight for small 
businesses in

[[Page 14554]]

this country. Let's give them what they need. Let's remove the barriers 
that are keeping them from growing and keeping them from hiring and 
keeping them from being the catalyst to getting this economy back on 
track.
  Ms. HANABUSA. I thank the gentlewoman very much.
  Mr. Speaker, my colleagues will be coming in as they return from 
their respective offices, but I'd like to share part of what I found 
when I was in district this past week.
  You know, I think the problem we all have is we are all creatures of 
the media, so we tend to think in 30-second sound bites. And I'm sure 
we all got trained by the best of them: When you run for office, keep 
it short, and you tell everybody what they want to hear so they can 
pick it up on the 6 o'clock news.
  You know, Mr. Speaker, when we do that, we fail to recognize that 
people are not covered by one broad brush. The gentlewoman from 
California, District 36, said it best when she said when she talked to 
small business, they want certain things because small businesses are 
not all alike. But there are things that they do want. They want, for 
example, the finances. What about Main Street? What about the tax 
credits? How will that affect their respective businesses? That's what 
we all have to step back and think about. That's why this time when we 
can go on and not have to worry about whether there is a camera there 
to get a 30-second sound bite gives us the opportunity to tell our 
constituents that we hear them and we know what they're saying.
  When I was in district, I met with one type of small business, and 
they were the construction industry. Quite honestly, when you talk 
about the construction industry, even that we just tend to say we need 
to rebuild construction. But construction isn't as simple as just 
simply saying they all build roads or they all build airports. That's 
not true.
  When we do construction, we talk about construction, you have people, 
for example, who specialize in homes, and that's a definite kind of 
need. Their needs, for example, are regarding finances. Their need is 
how healthy is FHA going to be? What are you going to do with Fannie 
Mae and Freddie Mac? What are you going to do to help foreclosures? 
They have very specific concerns. Where we may think what they're just 
concerned about is the ability to be able to build again, that's not 
it. They understand that in order for us to have a healthy economy, in 
order for us to have the environment in which they can then create the 
jobs and they can then be able to build those homes and people who have 
jobs can buy those homes, that we need to look at the total picture. 
And that's what we're referring to.
  So when we talk to our constituents and we report back to other 
Members of Congress, we have to be very clear as to what we are 
hearing.

                              {time}  1430

  They don't talk to us in general sound bites to get on the 6 o'clock 
news. What they talk to us about is to say, you know, in our specific 
industry, we have this problem, and what can you do to help us on this 
particular problem? They want to know, even to the point of saying, 
will, for example, credit unions be able to issue different kinds of 
loans? We think of banks, we think of loans, but how many of us have 
stopped to listen to our constituencies and said, hey, why are you 
interested in what credit unions are allowed to do? Because to them, 
especially those who are in smaller businesses, that is their lifeline. 
So they want to be sure that they can affect them and they can help 
them. So they want to know what we are doing in that process.
  And so when we talk to our constituencies and we listen to them, we 
must understand that they are not simply ones that we do with a broad 
brush. So in the construction group that I spoke to, many of them, of 
course, specialized in home building, and they were, of course, 
concerned about the whole gamut, the ability of people to buy a home, 
the ability of people to finance that home, the ability of people to 
then say, hey, we are going to have the jobs to qualify for the 
respective mortgages. Because very few people are out there who can 
actually buy a home for cash. Anymore than we, as government, can buy 
things for cash. People are borrowing. And in order for them to borrow, 
we must have a healthy financial institution that can lend that money 
out.
  So, Mr. Speaker, let's also look at where we are in terms of the 
constituencies. Like I said, small business isn't just small business. 
You can't just say ``small business'' and cover everyone. You need to 
understand what kind of small business.
  I sit on a panel that was created in HASC, and it's on acquisitions, 
and the focus there is small business. I am very honored to be part of 
that, and I am very proud of the fact that we, as a House, are looking 
at how, when military spending gets cut, we are able to preserve the 
small businesses. And the question was, how do we ensure them into the 
future? And we also have to recognize that the definition of small 
business differs for many of us. It's like a company that grosses no 
more than $7 million or $8 million a year. To some they probably hear 
that and say, wow, that's not a small business, that's a big business. 
But every segment of what creates businesses in our economy we have got 
to look at very seriously and understand what their respective needs 
are, because if we fail to do that, if we fail to look at that, we are 
not going to be able to address this crisis.
  So as tempting as it is for all of us to ignore, ignore what it is 
that we are looking to or speaking to, and when we vote on these bills 
that are before us, we have to understand that simply because one 
segment of a business community says it's good, it doesn't mean that 
it's good for everyone. And that is what makes the challenge of what we 
respectively do.
  So back to construction. We said there are those who build homes, for 
example. There are also those who build commercial buildings, and they 
have a different challenge, because their financing is also tied to how 
healthy the economy is. It's also tied to the financial institutions 
and whether the financial institutions are out there lending the money, 
and that's all going to be tied to the whole issue of whether or not 
the economy is healthy. Many of those who build ``commercial 
buildings,'' for example, they too are small businesses.
  In addition to that, you have those major construction companies that 
do major infrastructure. And if you're going to talk about being able 
to get people back to work in large numbers, of course, of course, we 
need to talk about that level of construction. But what does that level 
of construction normally need? To do large infrastructure projects, it 
needs government. It is government that is able to build or contribute 
to a State's ability to build roads, to build airport modernization, to 
improve harbors or to basically look at highways and what we're going 
to do. You need government's role in that. And that is what the 
President has said, and that is what the President has emphasized: That 
he, in fact, is looking to infrastructure to be built and to say that 
will put people back to work.
  In the long run, we as a country benefit the most from that. And you 
may say, well, what does that have to do with small business? It has a 
lot to do with small business because no one company can do it all. 
When you look at how construction, for example, is done, you have a 
general contractor, who usually serves in an administrative capacity, 
but all the respective work that may go into building whatever it may 
be--a freeway, a huge hotel or homes, the other company components of 
it are subcontractors who are small businesses, and each one of them 
hires a specific number of people, whether it be two or three or 20 or 
30. If you have a huge port of some sort, they are there. And we need 
to recognize that, and we need to understand that it is through them, 
through the hiring of the respective subcontractors that are small 
businesses, that we are then able to move this economy along.
  So it's like a situation of, we start on the top and to a large 
extent, government has that role, and it filters down to the bottom 
line, which is to get people back to work. So when we start to

[[Page 14555]]

talk about the Jobs Act, or how we're going to move our economy along 
and what are we going to do, we need to think about that. We need to 
think about how do we move forward.
  It is on that note that I see my colleague from Detroit whom I would 
like to call upon, because he has a bill that I want him to speak about 
because he knows what it is going to take to get his people in Detroit 
back to work. And let's not forget, we are a great country built on 
manufacturing. That is what made us big. And do you know, it is also 
the city of Detroit that I believe really epitomizes what manufacturing 
is about.
  So on that note, I would like to yield to my colleague, the 
Congressman from Detroit (Mr. Clarke), to talk to us and share what he 
has learned from his district.
  Mr. CLARKE of Michigan. Thank you. And I just want to thank the 
gentlewoman from Hawaii (Ms. Hanabusa) for her commitment to growing 
our economy not only here in this country but we can help the world by 
us in the United States manufacturing the best products and creating 
the best technologies.
  I have introduced a bill called the Detroit Jobs Trust Fund. It will 
create jobs in Detroit. And Detroiters really need it because we've got 
the highest unemployment rate. We've lost more jobs than any 
metropolitan region in this country during the last 10 years. But as 
Ms. Hanabusa pointed out, investing in Detroit not only creates jobs 
for Detroiters, it will put Americans throughout this country back to 
work. And that's because in spite of Detroit's troubling economic 
situation and high unemployment rate, we still have the manufacturing 
know-how and we have the well trained workforce to put Americans back 
to work, especially in the area of advanced manufacturing.
  So when Detroit makes its streets safer by hiring more police 
officers, more firefighters, and properly deploying them, when we 
improve and reform our public education system by opening more high 
quality schools, hiring more teachers who can go do the job, and when 
we reduce the cost of living and doing business in Detroit by cutting 
some very high municipal taxes, those factors--safe streets, good 
schools, and low taxes--that will attract investment back to the city.
  If you take a look at the city of Detroit, you will see that we have 
a lot of vacant property. Well, that's land ready for a big plant to be 
located there. And by capturing the existing federal tax revenue that 
Detroit individuals and Detroit businesses already pay and having that 
money placed in a trust fund administered by the Department of the 
Treasury to be invested in Detroit to hire those police officers, hire 
and train those teachers and to cut taxes, we can bring employers back 
to Detroit to hire Detroiters. But also, we can resurrect our 
manufacturing powerhouse in Detroit and create those jobs throughout 
the country the same way Detroit did back in World War II.

                              {time}  1440

  Detroiters built the arsenal of democracy that helped win World War 
II and saved this country and this world from fascism. It was metro 
Detroiters' manufacturing know-how that built some of the best cars in 
the world and that created millions of jobs worldwide, and especially 
in this country.
  So in the same way, by investing in Detroit, in the Detroit 
workforce, in the Detroit winning spirit--exemplified by the Detroit 
Tigers and the Detroit Lions--we can put our people back to work. We 
can make this country even stronger in advanced manufacturing and help 
uplift the quality of life for everyone around the world.
  I appreciate you giving me this time, the gentlewoman from Hawaii 
(Ms. Hanabusa), for talking about an important issue, putting 
Detroiters back to work.
  If I can just say as a final note--I mentioned this last night--
getting a job is important. Many years ago, in this last big recession 
we had in the 1980s, I was without a job and I lost hope. And that can 
be devastating, not only devastating economically and financially to 
people, but it can be devastating to the spirit of a human being. So a 
job gives somebody a paycheck, but it gives a person self-worth and the 
dignity and the uplifting spirit that they need to keep marching on. 
And that's what this country is all about.
  You know, we have to deal with obstacles; but as Americans, we can 
turn those obstacles into opportunities. That's why immigrants are so 
successful when they come here to this country because they see this 
country for all its richness, for all its opportunity, and they seize 
it. I'm just asking for that same opportunity to be available for 
Detroiters, to put our country back to work.
  Ms. HANABUSA. Before you leave, I just wanted to extend this 
discussion because I think that we tend to think about things like, 
when we talk about Detroit and we think about manufacturing, which of 
course is what we are all focusing on, we tend to forget how that one 
industry then multiplies out and how it creates other jobs. The 
Congressman from Detroit is absolutely correct, that is what made our 
country great.
  And let me share with you, I grew up working in my family's service 
station, which later became a situation where we sold auto parts. And 
one of the things that I will never, never forget is the fact that, 
when you think about the ability to build a car, many of those parts 
are not manufactured in Detroit. They come from other places in the 
United States, and they all are put together to make the car. But the 
subsidiary industry is what my family was in, which is, with wear and 
tear, it breaks down.
  So you have a whole secondary market of used auto parts being 
remanufactured or original-equipment auto parts are being 
remanufactured that then creates yet another industry. And when we, 
unfortunately, get careless and sometimes, through no fault of our own, 
the flagpole or the streetlight jumps in front of our car and we hit 
it, there is that whole other industry of repair.
  So with the good Congressman from Detroit, I want to elaborate that 
just investing in Detroit isn't only for Detroit, but I'm sure within 
Michigan and within all the neighboring States we probably have great 
examples of how small industries are going to just start to kick-start.
  Mr. CLARKE of Michigan. You are absolutely right, creating those jobs 
in Detroit will have a ripple effect throughout this country.
  And I'm glad you mentioned about remanufacturing. That's the best way 
to have Make It in America jobs. Actually, I was able to visit a 
remanufacturing plant right outside the city of Detroit 2 weeks ago. 
It's fascinating what they do. These are not used units. These are 
totally remade. And, actually, these are better units and pieces of 
equipment than if you actually bought something new. So instead of U.S. 
manufacturers buying new products overseas that are made overseas, they 
can buy great remanufactured units right here at home, putting 
Americans back to work. So you're absolutely right about that.
  Ms. HANABUSA. That is why I am a proud cosponsor of your bill because 
I think that you've hit it, that we start with someplace like Detroit 
where people clearly know that work ethic--that work ethic started in 
places like Detroit--and then from there we're going to build and we're 
going to rebuild this country because it has such a great impact all 
the way through. So thank you very much.
  Mr. CLARKE of Michigan. I really appreciate it. And thank you for 
supporting Detroit and supporting Americans going back to work. And 
we're going to make it in America.
  Ms. HANABUSA. We are going to make it in America.
  Mr. Speaker, I also note that we have a person who probably all the 
small business guys would love to get their hands on. And I know for my 
constituents, they would love to have the ability to talk to someone 
from the great State of Delaware because, of course, when we think of 
Delaware, we think of financial institutions, we think about how they 
control our money. But he also is a proud member of the original Noble 
Nine. And I'm asking him to

[[Page 14556]]

speak to us and share with us what he knows from his great State. So 
the Congressman from Delaware--who I would like to add is the only 
person who, while there may be others, he is the only person dear to me 
who actually has fewer people in his congressional delegation than me.
  Mr. CARNEY. I thank my colleague from Hawaii, one of the other small 
States. I know you're a delegation of two; we're a delegation of one. I 
represent the whole State of Delaware. I tell my constituents that we 
have two Senators and one Member of Congress. That means that I have to 
work twice as hard, Mr. Speaker, to serve the people in my State.
  I'm pleased to join my freshman colleagues on the Democratic side of 
the aisle this afternoon for our discussion about small business and 
job creation, and I'd like to talk for a little bit about the situation 
in my State, the State of Delaware.
  All of us are coming off a district work week, where we spent our 
time, I'm sure, meeting with constituents, talking to business owners, 
small business owners, large business owners, and working our 
districts. And I did the same thing in Delaware, not too far from the 
Capitol here. I would like to highlight two meetings that I had in 
particular. One was a job fair that we held in Georgetown, Delaware, 
which is the county seat in the lower part of our State. Many people 
from the Washington, D.C. area know Georgetown as they pass through it 
to go to our lovely beaches during the summer time to enjoy time with 
their family at the beach.
  This particular day we sponsored a job fair in Georgetown, along with 
Senator Carper and Senator Coons. This was a program that Senator Coons 
championed in Wilmington initially, and we've moved it now to the other 
two counties of our State and had a job fair in Dover and a job fair in 
Georgetown this past week, really helping to connect those folks in our 
State who are unemployed or underemployed, people looking to move up 
with employers who are looking to hire. And even though we have over 9 
percent unemployment nationally and a little bit over 8 percent 
unemployment in our State of Delaware, there are still a lot of jobs 
that go wanting, mostly because the employers are not able to find 
people that have the required skills for that particular enterprise.
  So the good news about this job fair is that we had 55 employers 
there, many of whom were prepared to hire people and offer them jobs, 
certainly take resumes and interview people or set up interviews. But 
we had over 8,000 people who came seeking employment or seeking an 
upgrade in their current job situation. And that's a lot of people in 
the small State of Delaware in the least populous area of our State. So 
it tells us the very serious problem that we have with the lack of jobs 
and the lack of skills that people might have to do the jobs that are 
out there.
  Later on in the week, I met at PATS Aircraft, which is an airplane 
manufacturing facility at Georgetown Airport. They've been hiring 
airplane mechanics over the last several years. In fact, when I was 
lieutenant governor, one of the biggest problems that they had was 
finding workers that had the requisite skills to do the jobs that they 
had. Now, they have since lost some of that work; but they were looking 
ahead and anticipating, with some assistance from the FAA, to extend 
the runway there at Georgetown Airport--going back to your point about 
the need for infrastructure to stir business development, business 
growth and job creation. If we were able to extend the runway there at 
the airport, PATS would be able to hire more mechanics.
  But there are a lot of people out there, while they might want those 
jobs, would not have the skills to do the work. And so Delaware 
Technical and Community College, with the help of the State government, 
has developed a training program specifically to prepare workers for 
that facility and other airplane manufacturing facilities in our 
region.

                              {time}  1450

  We have a Dassault Falcon plant, which does airplane maintenance and 
mechanics at the New Castle County Airport, as well as a large Boeing 
facility over the line in southeastern Pennsylvania. So these are jobs. 
They are highly skilled jobs. They are jobs that require mechanical 
ability. They are jobs that require training. And there are certainly 
lots of folks out there that are looking for employment, and these are 
the kinds of jobs that we need to prepare people for.
  One of the press conferences we had this week was at Delaware 
Technical & Community College where we highlighted a Federal grant that 
was going to Delaware Tech to create training programs for businesses, 
basically to enable people to upgrade their skills to take the jobs 
that are available. One of the problems, obviously, that we have in our 
country--and the President's employment council has identified this 
problem--is that we have jobs that are out there, but we don't have 
people with the right kinds of skills for those jobs. So we need to 
have programs--and this is where the public sector comes into play, 
particularly technical and community colleges--to provide that training 
and those skills for those folks.
  Later on in the week, I met and spoke with the Georgetown Chamber of 
Commerce; and the Georgetown Chamber, of course, is comprised mostly of 
very small businesses. They had a really simple message for me, as a 
Member of Congress, and that is that they see their businesses 
struggling because of a lack of confidence among consumers. And when 
you think about the U.S. economy at large, about 70 percent of economic 
activity is consumer driven. So when consumers don't have confidence 
either in their employment situation in the present--they may not be 
employed--or their future employment situation, they're not willing to 
spend money on small business services or products in the community 
and, therefore, these small businesses suffer.
  So their message to me was really a simple one, twofold. One is: Do 
no harm in Washington, DC. Do the work of the people, solve the 
problems that we have, and inspire confidence. And I think one of the 
ways that we can do that--there's a lot of discussion. Most of the 
discussion that I hear from my constituents in the State of Delaware--
and we've had town hall meetings. We're going to have a telephone town 
hall meeting tonight. I'm sure I will hear the same thing: Enough with 
the partisan bickering back and forth across the aisle. Let's focus on 
the challenges that we face--creating jobs and strengthening 
businesses, creating a business climate in the short term where 
businesses can thrive, where consumers can have confidence so they'll 
be willing to spend on small businesses and other procurement. And in 
the long term, address our deficits, our debt, and our budget 
imbalances.
  If we're able to do that, we'll at least provide some confidence to 
the people that we represent that those that they send from Delaware, 
the Members of the House of Representatives here and our Senators 
across the Capitol, are doing their part, are working together, are 
focused on not the politics of where we all stand in relation to the 
next election but on solving the problems that face our country.
  I think the vote that we have coming at the end of this year, which 
will be the result of the work of the Committee on the Budget, will be 
maybe one of the most important votes in a number of years. I have 
heard our majority whip Steny Hoyer refer to it as the most important 
vote here in the last 30 years. And I think that's right in many 
respects, because people out there, my constituents, your constituents, 
Ms. Hanabusa, in Hawaii--I see our colleague from Rhode Island (Mr. 
Cicilline) has joined us as well--our constituents are asking us, 
begging us to do our work to inspire confidence and to do the right 
thing for the country. And that involves giving people the skills they 
need to be able to do the jobs that are available out there, creating 
confidence so businesses can make investments, so people will be 
willing to spend money and consume so our economy will get back on its 
feet again. In the long term, we'll set up a fiscal situation with our 
government so

[[Page 14557]]

that the economy can be strong and create jobs for my children and 
their children.
  So I want to thank my colleague from Hawaii for leading our dialogue 
this afternoon on job creation, on small business development across 
our country in our respective districts, and I look forward to sitting 
here with you for a few more minutes and engaging in this dialogue. I 
just wanted to give a few words about how the people in Delaware are 
responding to the work that we are doing or are not doing here in the 
Congress.
  Ms. HANABUSA. Thank you. And before the Congressman from Delaware 
sits, I just wanted to explore one thing, because when I was in 
district, one of the comments I got was about the dysfunctional 
Congress. But one of the things that I asked them to really sit back 
and look at--and this is really our friends in the media, and they have 
to do something about the way they report. I told them that when they 
ask about our votes, they should really look at it seriously and say, 
okay, how many votes are really that controversial? How many times are 
we just adversaries, and how many times is it that there are just a 
handful of votes, relative to how many we pass in the House, that rise 
to the level that people would say that we are just cutting down 
partisan lines? Because I don't really think that that's the case. It's 
a minority of votes, but it's that which is played up. And when I tell 
my constituents that, they're sort of amazed. They think every single 
bill that we practically pass up here is controversial.
  Did you get that sense from talking to your constituents?
  Mr. CARNEY. Oh, I absolutely got that sense. And people that I talked 
to--Democrats, Republicans, it really didn't matter what party 
affiliation they had--were pretty fed up with what they had seen in the 
whole debt ceiling debacle, not so much the debate around it but the 
fact that we let it go to the brink and that we seem to want to, with 
every continuing resolution, every important vote, take it to the brink 
before coming together, however that might happen, whether it's one 
side of the aisle getting enough votes or whether it's coming across 
the aisle and having a bipartisan approach.
  Frankly, the people in Delaware are more focused on having us address 
problems and solve those problems, and they're not really concerned at 
all, in fact, with the politics of it. What they tell me is: Cut it 
out. Cut it out. And they ask me: Is it so bad? And I tell them that I 
have been reading a lot of Civil War history of late.
  I read a book about Abraham Lincoln about a year ago and, after that, 
started looking for other books to read. Of course just after we were 
sworn in, one of our leaders, Congressman Larson from Connecticut, gave 
us a history of the House of Representatives. And because I had been 
doing so much reading about the Civil War, I decided to go first to 
those chapters just before the Civil War and during the Civil War and 
afterwards and to read about the history of the House of 
Representatives.
  And I want to tell you, it might be hard for some of our constituents 
in Hawaii and Rhode Island and Delaware to believe it, but things were 
a lot worse during that period of time. One of the stories was related 
in the book that one Member almost caned another Member to death on the 
floor of the House. I tell my constituents, it's not nearly that bad. 
In fact, we have a lot of friends--frankly, I have a lot of friends, 
and I know you do--across the aisle. I think the real problem is we 
have pretty significant differences of opinion on issues, and that's 
understandable. That's what makes our country so great, frankly, that 
we can come here. We can come from our respective areas of the country 
with different points of view.
  As I look around this Chamber, you see America in this Chamber 
through the Representatives that are sent here by the people. But we 
need to understand that this country is greater than all the rest of us 
as individuals, and we need to live up to the greatness of our country 
by recognizing that we have got to put our differences behind us at the 
end of the day so that we can come to some resolution for the good of 
the people at large.
  Ms. HANABUSA. That's a great message. The whole is greater than the 
parts. Thank you.
  With that, I would also like to call on another colleague of ours, 
the Congressman from Rhode Island, who is actually my cosponsor of this 
time.

                              {time}  1500

  Mr. CICILLINE. I thank the gentlelady for convening this conversation 
and thank my friend from Delaware for his thoughtful remarks.
  I think that what the American people want from us, and I think as 
freshmen, we were sent here to do our best to solve the problems, to 
meet the big challenges of our time. While that has been our 
responsibility, I think what the American people have seen, 
unfortunately, is really a lack of action by the Congress of the United 
States on the most urgent issue of our time, and that is jobs and 
getting this economy back on track.
  We have some proposals before the Congress that are sound and that 
will really make important progress in our effort to get this economy 
back on track and create jobs. What I found when I was home in Rhode 
Island in listening to my constituents, I'm just reminded of how 
devastating this recession has been for American families and American 
businesses and how difficult it is right now for people who are out of 
work trying to find work, or people who are trying to hold onto a home 
and are facing foreclosure because of their inability to make ends 
meet, or people that are running a small business and are just trying 
to stay afloat and keep their business going.
  I think our challenge is to first of all never lose sight of how 
devastating this recession has been for American families, American 
businesses; and then focus on what we can do, what are the practical 
solutions that we can find to meet this challenge. I think what people 
want is they want to see Congress, Republicans and Democrats, working 
together to find common ground, to find real solutions to these 
challenges.
  I spent time in my district at a couple of things that I thought were 
particularly exciting examples of what small businesses can do. I 
welcomed the SBA regional administrator, Jeanne Hulit, to Rhode Island 
and we visited a company called Wide World of Indoor Sports. Stephen 
Sangermano and Dan Fawcett are two Rhode Island entrepreneurs that 
brought this small business together and created jobs. They used the 
Small Business Administration loan program to do it, to start their 
business; and it allowed them to hire 80 full- and part-time employees, 
and they're looking at the opportunity to create another facility, 
another business in another part of the State which is likely to have 
the same number of employees.
  It's really about how do we provide the needed capital to small 
businesses, to start-up companies so they can grow their businesses. At 
another event in my district, we announced along with our Governor and 
our entire congressional delegation--Senator Whitehouse, Senator Reed, 
Congressman Langevin, and I--the launch of a new $13 million loan fund, 
which is Federal funds again, to be administered by the Rhode Island 
Economic Development Corporation to assist an organization called 
Betaspring and the Slater Fund. Both of these organizations are really 
designed to help start-up entrepreneurs access the capital they need to 
start a new business and to grow jobs.
  I think one of the things I've heard repeatedly is that small 
businesses need access to capital, they need an environment in which 
they can start and grow their business, but the other thing that small 
businesses need that I hear about all the time is they need customers 
to buy the goods and services they produce. I think one of the things 
that is really important about the President's American Jobs Act is it 
really focuses on tax cuts for small businesses, tax credits for small 
businesses, particular attention to our returning veterans, our heroes, 
those who have been unemployed for a very long time, and our young 
people; but at the

[[Page 14558]]

same time it puts money in the pockets of middle class families so that 
they can increase their demand for goods and services that ultimately 
will help small businesses grow and create jobs.
  I think this is one of the important lessons that we should have 
learned over the last decade, that it's not enough, that it's unwise 
fiscal policy to simply ensure that people at the very top, the 
millionaires and billionaires, get to hold onto more of their money at 
the expense of the middle class; because in order to have a thriving, 
prosperous economy, you not only need entrepreneurs and innovators, you 
need hardworking middle class families who have the ability to buy the 
goods and services that businesses produce. I think that's what we need 
to do. We need to be looking at policies that will do both things, that 
provide access to capital, that will create an environment for small 
businesses to grow and at the same time give hardworking middle class 
families the ability to buy more goods and services.
  What's exciting about the American Jobs Act is it does all of those 
things: it provides tax cuts to help American small businesses hire and 
grow. It puts workers back on the job by rebuilding and modernizing 
America's infrastructure. It creates pathways back to work for 
Americans looking for jobs to be sure that they have the skills 
necessary for the jobs of the 21st century. It puts more money in the 
pockets of every working American family, every worker, that again will 
help to stimulate growth of our small businesses.
  I think the President has really identified a very serious plan to 
put Americans back to work; and I really hope, as I know the gentlelady 
from Hawaii hopes, that our colleagues on the other side of the aisle 
will be part of this conversation. If they have different ideas, better 
ideas as to ways we can create jobs and get the American people back to 
work, they ought to be part of the discussion.
  But I know one thing for sure: we cannot simply do nothing for the 
next 14 months. The American people expect us to take action, to not 
only talk about jobs but to do things that are going to create jobs and 
create conditions for job growth, private sector job growth, and to be 
able to demonstrate that what we're doing, the policies we're enacting, 
are helping to get our economy back on track and to stimulate jobs.
  The other point I want to mention, I know the gentlelady from Hawaii 
has been a big supporter of this, and that is the whole Make It in 
America agenda. I have the privilege of visiting manufacturers in my 
district. Rhode Island has a very rich history of manufacturing. I 
think everyone recognizes that if we're going to continue to be a 
leading economic power in the world, we have got to make things again 
in this country. While we've lost some manufacturing, the low-end 
manufacturing that may be difficult to get back, there's a lot of new 
manufacturing, more highly skilled manufacturing that's growing in our 
country. What we need to do is to have policies put in place that will 
support American manufacturers, American workers here so that we can 
compete in this global economy.
  We have a very ambitious, comprehensive agenda, making it in America, 
that begins with the development of a national manufacturing strategy 
so we can have benchmarks and compete successfully with other countries 
that are engaged in manufacturing; creating tax policies that support 
investments in manufacturing and job growth. One of the pieces of 
legislation will create what's equivalent to an IRA for manufacturers 
to reinvest in capital equipment so they can grow jobs; my Make It in 
America block grant that will help retrofit factories, retrain workers, 
increase exports, things that are necessary to ensure that American 
manufacturing can be rebuilt in this country. This is an area where I 
think the public is way ahead of the policymakers in believing that we 
have to make things again in America.
  I again thank the gentlelady for leading this conversation. I think 
we all know, particularly as members of the freshman class, that the 
single most urgent challenge, the single greatest crisis we face right 
now is job creation, is getting the American people back to work. When 
you think about all the other challenges that our country faces, if 
suddenly 14 million Americans were put back to work, it would go a long 
way to solving many of the other challenges we face. When people have a 
job and they have the ability to support themselves and their family 
and, of course, they're also contributing as productive taxpayers, 
that's a benefit to our whole society and certainly to our country.
  I hope that what the President has outlined in the American Jobs Act, 
what we've outlined as part of the Make It in America agenda, the 
investments that are included in the American Jobs Act to rebuild the 
infrastructure of our country, to invest in roads and bridges and ports 
so that we can move the goods and services and information necessary to 
compete successfully in the 21st century, are those kinds of 
investments that ensure that we will do things today that will create 
jobs in the short term and in the long term deal in a responsible way 
with managing our debt and our deficit.
  But we've got to do both things: we have to have a long-term strategy 
for fiscal responsibility that addresses the serious challenges that we 
face in terms of our debt, and at the same time we have to make the 
right investments that put people back to work and that ensure that 
we're investing in the things that are necessary to compete 
successfully and win in the 21st century: innovation, infrastructure, 
education, the things that are necessary to ensure that we rebuild the 
economy and that we not only put people back to work, that we position 
ourselves to continue to succeed and lead the world as an economic 
power.
  I think that we can do it, the American people expect us to do it, 
and I know when I am home in my own district and I hear directly from 
my constituents, they are expecting Congress to take action that is 
going to get this economy back on track, that's going to create jobs, 
and that's going to allow every American to have a legitimate shot at 
realizing the American Dream.
  I thank the gentlelady for the time.

                              {time}  1510

  Ms. HANABUSA. I thank the gentleman from Rhode Island. Before he 
leaves, I'd like to say this:
  We have an opportunity as freshmen. We came here as a small number 
originally--the Noble Nine--and we have maintained our relationships. 
We hear each other all the time. Some of us sit right in front of where 
the Congressman from Rhode Island is, and we shift in and out of those 
seats because we hear what each other has done and what our 
constituents are saying.
  I can't tell you--and I'm sure he shares this with me--how great it 
is to hear, for example, the Congressman from Detroit talk about the 
Detroit plan and to hear the Congressman from Rhode Island speak about 
a type of block grant for his Make It in America part. Each and every 
one of them has done something where they're looking at and hearing 
their constituents. That's what we want to impress upon everyone, that 
we hear what our constituents are saying.
  I think it was said very well by the Congressman from Delaware that 
we all have to put everything aside and build on the public's 
confidence. In Congress, we're just another body. The public has got to 
feel that confidence, not just in Congress, but in the United States of 
America, the greatest country in the world. They've got to feel that 
confidence. They've got to understand that other economies depend upon 
us. When we look like we're quibbling over things that are irrelevant 
to international matters, that's when their stock markets go crashing--
based on how we act.
  So wouldn't you say, Congressman Cicilline, that what we need to do 
is set things aside and, as to anything we've got to do within the next 
14 months, work together so that people begin to have confidence in us 
and then, by that, have confidence in this great Nation?
  Mr. CICILLINE. I agree.

[[Page 14559]]

  One of the important responsibilities that we have--and I think the 
work of the supercommittee is, obviously, first and foremost to all of 
us--is the opportunity to deal with the urgent responsibilities of our 
economic condition and our debt and our deficit and being sure that we 
are responsible in the way we cut spending. At the same time, if we do 
this right, we have an opportunity to restore the public's confidence 
in the operations of its national government.
  I think people are going to look to this, and it will not only matter 
for the next fiscal year; it will matter for many generations. We will 
be able to demonstrate to the American people that we came together, 
Republicans and Democrats, and solved this hard set of questions and 
made the tough decisions to fix our economy in order to be sure that 
America continues to lead the world.
  As freshmen on both sides of the aisle, we come here new to this 
experience and maybe without a lot of the history that so many other 
Members of Congress might have and some of the scar tissue that has 
maybe been built up over the years. I'm hoping, with the energy and the 
optimism of our freshman class and with our freshman colleagues on the 
other side of the aisle, it can help propel us into a new way of 
working together, in a bipartisan way, to solve the real challenges 
that face our country.
  Ms. HANABUSA. The one message that resonated at home is that people 
think we're going to do this time and time again--in other words, that 
we're going to have the CR issues, that we're going to have the debt 
ceiling issues. So I've impressed upon them, if the supercommittee does 
what it's supposed to do, that it's a plan for 10 years, and hopefully, 
it will give us stability.
  The gentleman from Delaware said Steny Hoyer, our minority whip, 
stated it's going to be the most critical vote we all take and one of 
the most critical votes that this Congress will take because, in this 
difficult time, that's what is going to render us stable if we're able 
to do it correctly. So I hope that on both sides of the aisle we're 
able to do that.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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