[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 12]
[House]
[Pages 17336-17343]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1500
        WHEN YOU MAKE IT IN AMERICA, EVERY AMERICAN CAN MAKE IT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Huizenga of Michigan). Under the 
Speaker's announced policy of January 5, 2011, the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Garamendi) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee 
of the minority leader.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Speaker, we are going to spend the next hour 
talking about what's on the minds of most every American: jobs. How do 
we get a job? What's it going to take to finally go back to work? 
There's a lot of pain out there, and there's a lot of suffering. And 
people really wonder what this Congress is going to do to help 
alleviate this crisis of unemployment.
  I want to just share a couple of stories and then ask my colleague 
from New York (Mr. Tonko) to join me. I was at a meeting that was set 
up in Berkeley, California, at the Lawrence Berkeley National 
Laboratory, one of the premiere laboratories in the United States. And 
the director of the lab was talking about technology transfer; that is, 
research, the product of that research coming out of the laboratories, 
and then jobs being created from that, and new businesses, the 
entrepreneurial spirit. As he went through his story, I suddenly was so 
upset, not by the research, not by the technology transfer, but rather 
by the fact that his final statement was, ``And this company is moving 
to China to manufacture the product of this research.'' And I thought 
to myself, How can that be, that the investment of the American people 
in the research, the education of the engineers and scientists, and 
then

[[Page 17337]]

this research coming out of the laboratory and all of the development 
work, but finally we find that the whole thing winds up in China?
  So what we want to talk about today, at least in part, is this: 
making it in America. What are the governmental policies that will, 
once again, create a situation where we will be making it in America, 
and the director of the laboratory won't be telling me in a meeting 
that, Gee, this great idea is moving offshore so that the manufacturing 
will take place in China? The reason he said that the manufacturing was 
going overseas is that there was no capital formation, no capital 
available. So I'm going to spend just a few moments on this before I 
turn it over to my colleagues.
  Here is what's important. This is where innovation is, and this is 
where innovation fits into our economy. If you take a look, over the 
last decade, the enormous growth in the sales of the innovation 
companies, it's grown from about $1.5 trillion to $3.1 trillion. And 
all of this is in an innovation economy. So this is exceedingly 
important in the job growth of this country.
  Another thing to keep in mind is this: The innovative companies 
create the jobs, and they grow quickly. Just looking at the total GDP--
the innovation companies that I showed in the previous chart, the total 
volume, over 21 percent of the American GDP is in these innovation 
companies. So why is it that this new company can't find the capital to 
build a manufacturing facility in the United States? Well, one of the 
reasons is Wall Street and all the games that are going on on Wall 
Street. But there's also another one. And this is particularly 
important to California. That is venture capital and IPOs, the initial 
public offerings.
  If you take a look at this, you will notice that a decade ago, we had 
a lot of public offerings. And over the last several years, we've seen 
a decline in the public offerings. What the public offerings do is to 
free up capital by going out to the public, offering stock. That money 
then comes back to the venture capital firms, and this whole process 
goes round and round and over and over again, creating jobs in 
innovation. This is something we're going to have to address, and 
legislation is going to be introduced in the weeks ahead to address 
this part of making it in America.
  So with that as an introduction to one piece of this larger picture 
of making it in America, I would like to yield to Mr. John Larson of 
the great State of Connecticut, who is our caucus leader.
  Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. I thank the gentleman from California. I 
thank him for his leadership on this issue, as he has repeatedly taken 
to this floor in talking about what I think is thematically something 
that America is in tune with, and that's the understanding and the 
commitment that we need to return to manufacturing, we need to return 
to our industrial base, we need to enhance our innovative skills, we 
need to make things here in America. So Make It in America has become 
our agenda. Over the last several weeks, there have been more than 
1,000-plus town forums and hearings where people have discussed the 
concept of creating jobs and making things here in America. We all know 
that for every manufacturing job, that creates four other service-
sector jobs. And this is vitally important.
  I visited a company with its president, Bing Murphy. The company is 
called Industrial Air Flow Dynamics. IAFD is a manufacturer in the 
State of Connecticut. They make everything right here in America. They 
compete with foreign companies. They're begging to make sure that they 
get more skilled workers lined up to do something that is 
extraordinarily unique in manufacturing.
  And a recent study and survey in the State of Connecticut indicated 
that in the State alone, 2,500 manufacturing jobs were going unfilled 
because of a lack of skills or the appropriate training, and the need, 
oftentimes, for the small entrepreneur and manufacturer, who doesn't 
have a huge human resources department, to sort through applicants and 
to make sure that there's this opportunity for them to do that. But 
we're hoping to pilot and lead the way in making sure that we're 
matching skills with manufacturers as we continue to focus on making 
things here in America. We all know, as the gentleman from California 
has pointed out, that when you make it in America, every American can 
make it.
  We have an opportunity that is quickly going to disappear, and that 
is the supercommittee. We have taken the position within the Democratic 
Caucus that there's a very simple equation: that job creation equals 
deficit reduction. Let me say that again: Job creation equals deficit 
reduction. We know from CBO scoring that just getting unemployment--
which is at an unacceptable level of more than 14 million-plus 
Americans and 25 million Americans that are underemployed--that if we 
get the figure of 9.1 percent unemployment to below 7 percent, we cut 
the deficit by a third. There is no other silver bullet. There is no 
other item before us that brings that extraordinary relief that I know 
people on both sides of the aisle desire.

                              {time}  1510

  This supercommittee, by embracing jobs has an opportunity, 
unprecedented opportunity without a cloture vote that is used to block, 
and has been used in the Senate, for over 497 bills that we've passed, 
or without poison pill amendments in the House to allow an up-or-down 
vote on job creation, the President's proposals, the proposals that 
have been put forward by our colleagues on the other side of the aisle. 
And while we may disagree in terms of our approach and methods, we all 
agree about jobs and so why not embrace this opportunity to create 
jobs.
  If this should fail, it will fail because we didn't embrace job 
creation. We didn't embrace the concept of making things here in 
America. We didn't do what Bing Murphy has been doing back in 
Connecticut, and other manufacturers, focusing on and refusing to do 
anything other than the patriotic thing, which is to invest in your 
people, invest in a commitment to America, invest in our manufacturing 
base so that we can put this country back to work, grow the economy and 
lower the deficit at the same time.
  Americans simply want one thing. As they sit across their dinner 
tables this evening and have these discussions with their spouses, all 
they want is the simple dignity that comes from a job. We have an 
agenda. We have an opportunity. Let's not spoil this chance. Let's take 
advantage of this opportunity that we have before us to unite the 
country, put them back to work by making things here in America.
  I commend the gentleman for his ongoing work, and I commend our 
colleagues that have come to the floor this evening to express this 
deep and abiding concern about jobs, deficit reduction, putting this 
country back to work, embracing innovation, embracing education, and 
investing in Americans so that we can succeed.
  Thank you so much, and I commend the gentleman from California.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Larson, thank you so very much. You speak well of 
Connecticut and you speak well for Connecticut.
  I guess we are going to do our East-West show here. I would just 
point out before we go there that America has lost about 40 percent of 
its manufacturing jobs in the last 20 years. We can rebuild it. Most of 
the economic indicators are that America can be competitive in 
manufacturing. We need to have a level playing field, so China currency 
is an issue.
  Mr. Tonko, you've been involved in this innovation economy for a long 
time. As I recall, you ran the State of New York's innovation efforts 
before you became a Member of Congress. So please share with us today 
your thoughts, and we'll begin once again the East-West show.
  Mr. TONKO. Thank you, Representative Garamendi, and thank you for 
bringing us together for some very thoughtful dialogue about the 
highest priority that is held by Americans coast to coast, and that is 
job creation, job retention. Make no mistake about it, there is no 
other higher priority.

[[Page 17338]]

  I agree with the previous statements made by the gentleman from 
Connecticut. Representative Larson spoke of the absolute simplistic 
equation of job creation and retention equals deficit reduction. It 
doesn't get plainer, simpler, or more sound than that. It is about 
creating jobs, reducing the deficit. The job growth will move forward 
in resolving several of our major issues out there.
  You know, your focus, Representative Garamendi, on the initial public 
offerings, the IPOs as they're referenced, they have dropped 
precipitously, and knowing that then is a downward spiral that doesn't 
find the sort of investing that is absolutely essential is a very 
troubling notion. You know, many will talk about just leaving it to the 
capitalist model, let it just work on its own. Well, it's obvious we 
need to prime the pump in many areas.
  You talked about my role in the State of New York. When I served as 
the head of the New York State Energy Research Development Authority, 
we found that investing from the public sector sources leveraged 
tremendous amounts of private sector capital. We see it in this global 
race. This global race on clean energy and innovation is driven by a 
robust competition. What we find are the counterparts, the competitors 
to our American industries are helped along the way with a co-
investing, if you will, that comes from their native country. There are 
those economies out there that are co-investing with their private 
sector. Here we are asked to cut dollars for research and development, 
cut dollars for partnerships, cut dollars for incentives that will 
inspire that sort of robust quality that is essential if Americans are 
going to compete and compete effectively well. So our trends are out 
there. They are well documented.
  We saw that we ignored manufacturing as a sector of the economy. We 
ignored agriculture, and we focused primarily on service sector. And 
then very narrowly within that service sector with the financial 
sector. We know what happened. We turned our back, let the watchdog 
leave the cage and allow for freestyle to go amuck. And what happened? 
Across this country people who had invested all their life savings into 
the trusted hands of portfolio activity were found without any sort of 
return. And then America's economy was brought to its knees.
  That is not the kind of outcome we want here. So we have said hey, 
let's go forward and we have witnessed now the growth of some 2.8 
million private sector jobs. That's after a trend with the Bush 
recession of 8.2 million jobs lost. Just this past election day, I 
think you can see some trends out there that are finding the public 
swing to the Democratic message because they know it is about job 
creation and job retention. They know it is about investing in the 
tools and the tool kits that get us those jobs. We are an ideas 
economy, and we need to invest in those ideas, build the prototype, 
allow it to move to a manufacturing sector and be robust in our 
attempts. Make it in America is the mantra to which we have brought the 
conference, the Democratic conference, of this House.
  We are talking in straightforward language about revitalizing 
America's manufacturing sector. We can do it and we can compete keenly 
if we do it smarter. We don't necessarily have to do it cheaper. We 
have to do it smarter.
  I have talked in my tours with manufacturing throughout the 21st 
Congressional District in the capital region of New York State, I have 
talked with a number of manufacturers. We have done tours. We have 
visited and heard front and center from the leadership squad: there are 
thousands of jobs in this country from coast to coast for which skill 
sets have to be developed. If we move to an automated phase of 
manufacturing, there are qualities, there are skills, the academics, 
the analytical skill sets that are required in order for us to move 
forward aggressively.
  Now there is a sophistication in our society, a sophistication that 
finds us creating product lines not yet on the radar screen. People 
will suggest, they will lament that the glory days of manufacturing 
have passed us by. No, we need to move forward aggressively and 
proactively in creating the agenda that will develop the products of 
the future. If someone is to suggest that every idea out there, every 
concept of a product has been conceived, designed, engineered, 
manufactured, produced, we are kidding ourselves. And so this is an 
investment in the future. This is a visionary attempt to pull us along 
into an area that was ignored and ignored, that found that ignoring of 
the manufacturing sector found us falling into the woes of a recession. 
And so it's time now for us to do it smart, to do it in a way that 
invests in our manufacturing base, celebrates the empowerment that 
small business brings to the fabric of our economy, the small 
businesses, the economic engine that provides the jump start to our 
economy. They need the assistance, and that has been our effort here: 
talk about revitalizing manufacturing, supporting small business, 
moving forward with education, higher education, and research and 
development to move the ideas economy along. That's America at her 
best. That's her pioneer spirit, and let's continue to move in that 
direction.
  Again, thank you for bringing this dialogue to the floor.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Tonko, thank you very much. The view from New York 
is very similar to the view from California. We've lost 40 percent of 
our manufacturing jobs. We can get them back. We need a level playing 
field. China currency issues are very much on the mind of the 
Democrats. We want to make sure that China currency is no longer used 
to the advantage.
  But there is also something here, and I will take just a couple of 
seconds before I turn to my friend from Texas, American manufacturing 
does exist. It's the great middle class. I want to give you one example 
where public policy makes all the difference. Near Sacramento, there is 
a very large and very new heavy manufacturing facility in place. It 
stretches about a quarter mile, maybe almost a half mile. It is 
thousands of square feet of buildings, and in those buildings they're 
manufacturing trolley cars, streetcars, light rail, and they're also 
manufacturing locomotives. The company is a German company. In fact, 
it's one of the largest manufacturers in the world--it's Siemens--and 
they have moved to Sacramento to manufacture these pieces of equipment, 
transportation equipment, because Federal law said that the money from 
the Federal Government must be used to buy American made equipment--buy 
American-made equipment so that we will, once again, make it in 
America.

                              {time}  1520

  Now I happen to have two bills that do that, that extend that 
stimulus bill law into the future not only for transportation but also 
for solar systems, wind, and renewed green energy system. Our tax money 
supports it. Let's use our tax money to rebuild the manufacturing base 
by buying it in America.
  I know the view from Texas is also similar. I've heard Sheila Jackson 
Lee, the honorable Representative from the area of Houston, speak on 
this issue. She's joining us here today on the floor.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas. I thank the gentleman from California and 
my colleagues from Ohio, Alabama, Minnesota, and New York. I think that 
is a sufficiently far reach to know that this is a national issue. Mr. 
Garamendi, we thank you from your perch as an insurer, meaning your 
experience in insurance, which is also a source of funding sometimes. 
As the insurance industry invests, you know that America is not broke 
and that America can, in fact, create jobs and do it by manufacturing.
  So I'm delighted to see the Make It In America theme continue over 
and over again. And let me just share some statistics, because as the 
supercommittee works, one of the challenges is whether or not they are 
focusing on creating jobs or just cutting taxes for those who do not 
need tax relief.
  Eighty-two percent of Americans say it is important for Congress to 
produce legislation this year to reduce the Federal deficit through a 
balanced plan

[[Page 17339]]

combining spending cuts and also ensuring that all Americans pay their 
fair share. In a couple of days, will that occur or will we have the 
same old same old, which is protecting the rich and not allowing a 
fair, equal assessment of one's responsibility?
  Eighty-four percent of Americans say it's important for Congress to 
reach a new Federal spending agreement to create jobs rehabilitating 
schools, improving needs and public transit and preventing layoffs. And 
60 percent of those surveyed think the Federal Government should pursue 
policies to reduce the gap between the wealthiest few and the less 
well-off Americans. Well, that is what we're talking about today.
  I notice that Mr. Garamendi had a poster on IPOs are down, 
particularly small IPOs, and that is a source of cash for investing 
back into small businesses and manufacturing. We did a survey of the 
manufacturing companies in our district. My friends, you can turn the 
corner in your neighborhood and find a building that is making 
something. We do not have to look for the large conglomerates. I'm 
delighted that we bailed out the auto industry. They are doing well. 
But you know them. You know they'll go to Detroit. You know they make 
big things and not little things. But we actually found that our 
manufacturers were embedded--by the way, our zoning is nonexistent, so 
we have a little bit more flexibility. But we found these companies 
embedded in neighborhoods, down the street and around the corner from 
different neighborhoods. They are right there amongst us.
  And the question is are we going to go into the 46th week when our 
friends on the other side of the aisle do not focus on how to enhance 
Make It In America? What I would suggest is that the payroll tax relief 
would help that is in the--pass the jobs bill, and access to credit, 
making sure that banks give access to credit so that the startups can 
have the equal playing field.
  But also, my friend, these companies want to expand. When I visited 
small businesses, happened not to be manufacturers, they all said: Can 
we have money to expand, to create new offices, new services in the 
doctors' office, new ways of exploring resources for a small energy 
company?
  So I'm here today to challenge the friends on the other side of the 
aisle, the Speaker, ready to challenge him to say: You come from Ohio, 
a working family. You get it, Mr. Speaker. Work with our leader, Nancy 
Pelosi. Work with our leadership, from the chairman of the caucus who 
has been so eloquent, John Larson, on jobs to the whip that talks about 
Make It In America, Mr. Hoyer, and, of course, our vice chair and, of 
course, our assistant leader, Mr. Clyburn, and our vice chair, Mr. 
Becerra. All of these folks, if I have not left out anyone, have been 
talking time after time of Make It In America. But more importantly, we 
are not broke. If we can insist on letting our small businesses and our 
manufacturers get a leg up and we stop giving giveaways to those who 
are the beneficiaries of the Bush tax cuts and begin some new concepts 
in funding, I think we can make it.
  I want to close by simply saying to my friends in the private sector, 
you complain when we talk about pass the jobs bill. Frankly, I think 
it's a commonsense approach--payroll tax relief, hiring the chronically 
unemployed, putting to work teachers so that class sizes can go down, 
educating your next workforce, firefighters, police, et cetera. It is 
well documented that our large companies have a very flush cash flow. 
It is well documented that our major banks, our multinational banks, 
are well endowed with resources. My plea is that all of us become 
patriots, not party belongers, not card-carrying sign wavers as it 
relates to what party you're in, and begin to invest in America.
  Frankly, our President has stabilized--stabilized--the economy. It's 
not where we want it to be. It's not bleeding. It's not where we want 
to go, but it's on the surge up. The numbers will show that it can do 
that.
  We need the kind of partnership with the private sector that is long 
overdue, and we need the support by our government of supporting our 
manufacturing. We can come back. Before you know it, we will be 
percolating along and being the leader, if you will, of manufacturing, 
businesses, job creation, and investment as not arrogantly so but the 
model for the world in how do you invest in your people. And I'm 
looking forward to that starting with supporting a number of 
initiatives that are already suggested and certainly some that I'm 
introducing.
  But I am just delighted that we have the thinkers that realize that 
investing in America is not the end but the beginning of a greater and 
greater America.
  Mr. TONKO. Thank you, Representative Jackson Lee, for your 
outstanding leadership on behalf of the Texas district that you 
represent with your outstanding leadership on this floor. You're so 
right. Everywhere we turn, you can see job creation and what it means 
to the local regional economy.
  I have a touring concept that we do in our district, and we have a 
roundtable discussion routinely held with the small business community. 
And it is just profound to go around and see how many people are 
investing in manufacturing out there; and their product delivery is 
powerful, and the fact that they're exporting is an encouraging and 
enthusiastic thought. So it's all about showcasing what can happen.
  And just think of it on a grander scale when we provide the 
underpinnings of support, when we invest in that concept of 
manufacturing and move forward with the incubator networks and all of 
the activities that nourish this sort of comeback story that is so 
essential right now after this economy was brought to its knees by an 
approach that was hard-hearted to manufacturing. It ignored what was 
happening. The same is true in agriculture, and we will maybe talk 
about that in a few minutes.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas. You're absolutely right.
  Just one point about Make It In America and the idea of companies 
such as Siemens, our colleague from California, indicated, that they 
are in California, rightly so. And we should be very, very strong in 
making sure that our Federal dollars--this is not selfish. We are 
probably more expansive and liberal than many other countries around 
the world to ensure that if you're using our Federal tax dollars, you 
build it and make it in America, and you spread it.
  There's a company called Caf, and I know that they're located in New 
York. We want them to spread some of that construction and building 
work down in Houston, Texas, because they're building a light rail with 
$900 million, potentially, of Federal dollars.
  So we can do this together, make everybody happy, create jobs, and 
insist upon putting our families, our young people, and America first 
in job creation, building buildup and making it in America.
  I thank the gentleman.

                              {time}  1530

  Mr. TONKO. Absolutely. And I think it is about investing, the key 
word; investing our way to a stronger tomorrow, investing our way to 
opportunity, investing our way to prosperity. I see it all the time. 
The dollars that were invested from State sources, public sources, and 
some Federal dollars into the capital region of New York that I 
represent leveraged tremendous private sector dollars with an 
investment in the bottom-line calculation in nanotechnology, in 
semiconductor science, in chip manufacturing, and in green collar 
workforce development. These dynamics are so powerful that they have 
lifted that region to the first of all hubs in America for job growth 
of the green collar variety, and in the top five as a hub for high-tech 
growth. So it happens. When you invest, it happens.
  Now, speaking about sound voices for a resurgence in our private 
sector job growth, in our public sector support networks, for those 
employees, a tremendously dynamic voice from our new freshman class, 
Representative Terri Sewell from the great State of Alabama.
  Representative, thank you for joining us this afternoon. And I know 
that

[[Page 17340]]

you've been a very powerful voice for job creation, job retention in 
our economy.
  Ms. SEWELL. Thank you very much. I am indeed delighted to join my 
colleagues in discussing making it in America.
  I think you will all agree that any playbook about job creation must 
have as its cornerstone the creation of jobs in our small businesses. 
And so today I rise in support of small businesses and entrepreneurs 
across the Seventh Congressional District of Alabama, and indeed this 
Nation.
  As America recovers from our economic recession, we must continue to 
make strategic policy decisions that benefit our economy and encourage 
job creation. Small businesses play a critical role in our economy. 
They provide jobs, they spur innovation, they indeed strengthen our 
economy.
  Small businesses are the backbone of our economy and are responsible 
for generating half of the Nation's gross national product as well as 
employing over half of its workforce. In fact, over the past decade and 
a half, America's small businesses and entrepreneurs have created 65 
percent of all new jobs in this country. That is why I introduced H.R. 
1730, the Small Business Start-Up Savings Account Act. More 
entrepreneurs will benefit if they are provided better incentives that 
will allow them to save and start a new business.
  On average, an entrepreneur who wants to launch a new business spends 
on average $80,000 in their first year in startup costs. Entrepreneurs 
often go into debt to start their own businesses. Many even use their 
savings from their retirement accounts to build the capital they need 
to run those small businesses. This bill will allow entrepreneurs to 
save up to $10,000 per year tax free so they can start their own small 
businesses. Once an individual starts their small business, funds from 
a savings account can be used for their operating expenses.
  The government can't guarantee a company's success--I think all of us 
would agree with that--but the government can knock down barriers that 
prevent hardworking Americans from starting their own businesses.
  Innovation is the key to keeping America number one, and small 
businesses have always been at the forefront of American innovation. We 
can't expect to start and continue to be competitive in a global 
economy without making small businesses and the creation of small 
businesses the centerpiece of our playbook.
  As we continue to build our economy, we must give entrepreneurs 
incentives and the tools they need to prosper right here in America. 
When American small businesses are given the opportunity to grow and 
thrive, they help rebuild our country, our country's middle class, and 
strengthen our economy. We must recommit ourselves to helping create 
businesses right here in America.
  My colleagues have been talking about rebuilding in America and 
investing in what's good in America. Our small businesses are where 
it's at. They create the bright and prosperous future that we as 
Americans want to ensure. Small businesses will help to out-innovate 
and out-build our other competitors globally. I urge my colleagues to 
join with me in standing up for small businesses and entrepreneurs 
across this great Nation and support H.R. 1730, the Small Business 
Start-Up Savings Act. Now is the time to blend bold, new initiatives 
with commonsense solutions so that we can strengthen our economy and 
create jobs right here in America.
  I thank my colleagues for letting me join them in this hour in 
promoting all that is good in America, and in promoting innovation and 
entrepreneurship right here in America by supporting our small 
businesses.
  Thank you very much.
  Mr. TONKO. You are most welcome, Representative Sewell.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 5, 2011, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Tonko) will control 
the remainder of the hour.
  Mr. TONKO. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.
  Representative Sewell, absolutely right on in your focus as to the 
strengthening and the value added of small business.
  H.R. 1730 is a powerful response to the needs of small business, 
making certain that the savings opportunities, especially in those 
early startup years, are made more valid and more available to small 
business as a network. Certainly the small business community is a 
tremendous corporate citizen in the fabric of our communities, and they 
get tethered into our communities in a way that enables them to grow 
and prosper, all while adding jobs and providing the intellect and 
innovative sort of spirit, which is important.
  Speaking of colleagues who have been outstanding voices on job 
creation, job retention, we know that Ohio has been in the news lately. 
And we have one of those voices from Ohio serving in the Democratic 
Caucus, one whom I am very proud to know and work with. Representative 
Tim Ryan, representing communities like Youngstown and Akron, has been 
a very powerful force in acknowledging that it's investing in job 
creation that is our number one concern right now.
  We've seen what's been happening in Ohio. There is an outburst of 
pride coming from that State about the activism that is really speaking 
to and empowering the middle class. And we empower the middle class by 
providing jobs.
  Representative Ryan, thank you so very much for being that 
outstanding voice.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I thank the gentleman.
  He hit the nail right on the head when he was articulating the kind 
of things, whether in New York or Ohio or anywhere in the country, 
really what the essence is, and that's resuscitating manufacturing back 
in the United States. And that needs to be a goal throughout the 
country because of what it does for the local economy and what it does 
for the States, what it does for tax revenue, what it does for the 
creation of intellectual property, because there are many people on the 
factory floor actually thinking about how this product can maybe be 
made differently, manufactured differently, how value could be added to 
it. It is very important. But what it's going to take, in part, and 
what's been happening in Ohio is a coalition, I believe, of working 
class people, of small business people who recognize that we have to 
make investments into our States and into our country.
  And what happened in Ohio last week with the referendum that was 
trying to dismantle the bargaining rights of public employees, police, 
fire, teachers--the very people that we need to protect our communities 
so that we can have good, strong, vibrant small businesses, the very 
people who are educating our kids and our students who are eventually 
going to go into these businesses--were under attack.
  The upside to this whole thing is that a coalition formed in Ohio, a 
coalition of working class people who get educated, get trained, have 
master's degrees, protect us, go into burning buildings, we call them 
when we get in trouble, they deal with all of the societal problems 
that go into their classroom, but they are committed to educating our 
young people. Eighty-two out of 88 counties in Ohio helped beat back 
this attack, and with over 61 percent of the vote in Ohio, beat back 
this attack. And the real upside to this whole thing is that a lot of 
people who are in this coalition of police, fire, teachers, public 
employees, as well as the private sector unions--the autoworkers, the 
steelworkers, the plumbers, the pipefitters, the piledrivers and 
millwrights and the ironworkers and sheet metal workers, there were a 
lot of these people who used to watch Fox News. They used to listen to 
Rush Limbaugh. They used to listen to Glenn Beck. And they said, in 
story after story, after campaigning for this for months, that they 
realized what's been happening here. They've realized this assault 
that's been coming in and funded campaigns across the country, big 
money coming in to try to divide the middle class and try to dismantle 
the agenda. And I believe that this coalition, Mr. Speaker, is an 
opportunity

[[Page 17341]]

for us to have the political coalition needed to recognize what 
investments we have to make back into our country. That's what happened 
in Ohio.

                              {time}  1540

  People are recognizing that they've been trying to get us divided, 
who's in a union, who's not in a union, who's in a public sector union, 
who's in a private sector union, who's black, who's white, who's gay, 
who's straight; just divide the middle class, divide the working class. 
And this coalition came together.
  And I believe that if we're going to have the kind of investment, if 
we're going to resuscitate manufacturing in the United States, if we're 
going to realize that the government certainly can't do everything, but 
it has to do something, it has to make these investments into engineers 
and good, solid public schools, and community colleges, and colleges 
and Pell Grants, so that you can have the work force available to 
ignite this kind of economic development that's needed around our 
country.
  These are about investment. And to have 2 to $3 trillion in 
transportation and infrastructure investments that need to get made, we 
now need a political coalition to say, hey, let's make these 
investments. Akron, Ohio does not have $1 billion to finance their 
combined sewer problem, so let's put these building trades workers back 
to work, which is going to generate revenue for the City of Akron and 
Youngstown and Cleveland and Pittsburgh and all these others, which is 
going to increase their coffers, that they will have money to spend on 
police and fire and teachers and investments back into the community, 
and then partner with the private sector.
  Ultimately, at the end of the day, the private sector has got to come 
in and drive this revolution, without a doubt. But it is time for us to 
make the investments necessary that are going to allow the private 
sector to come in here and make the private investments that will lead 
to job creation. So the bills that we have and that we're offering are 
an alternative vision.
  I'll tell one quick story. We were having a conversation one day, a 
Member of Congress and I, one from the other party, talking about 
investments into the semiconductor industry. And they were down here 
lobbying, the semiconductor industry was down here lobbying on 
investments that need to be made.
  And one of our colleagues said well, that's why we're giving you tax 
cuts, so that you guys in your business can make these investments. And 
the four or five CEOs said, you don't understand. We're talking about 
billions of dollars that need to get invested in order for the 
semiconductor industry to go in and partner and use the technology and 
the research that has been developed.
  So it's the government's job to plant the garden, to till the soil, 
the sunlight, the water, to grow the plant, and then let the private 
sector come in and pick the fruits and the vegetables that they may 
need. That's what we've always done in this country, whether it was 
military research, NASA, NIH, that's what we did, and that's been a 
recipe for success for us.
  So I'm excited about what's going on in Ohio because I think we 
finally have the political coalition that is needed to give politicians 
and leaders in the State and country the backing that they need to push 
this kind of agenda.
  Mr. TONKO. Representative Ryan, what a great coalescing going on in 
Ohio, and what a statement by the middle class, of people of all 
backgrounds coming together speaking with one voice, based on a common 
thread of jobs, the dignity of work, powerful statement. And we should 
all be motivated and inspired by that outcome.
  You talked about government's role to plant the garden. Let me just 
talk about another sector just to associate with that element of 
agriculture just for a bit here this afternoon.
  Why such a struggle on this House floor to get the dollars for 
farmers who were impacted by natural disaster?
  I saw record flooding in my district. We had wonderfully productive 
soils in the upstate regions of New York State. You would think that it 
wasn't part of some industrial sector, that there wasn't an ag sector 
in our economy. All they were asking for was to have debris removal 
dollars, to have farm land restoration, crop land restoration dollars 
at a time when we were impacted by the ravages of Hurricane Irene and 
Tropical Storm Lee. Was that too much to ask?
  Well, I'm happy to see that the push here in this House coming from 
those of us who have visited those districts and really pushed the 
agenda are able to account for $338.6 million being added so that we 
can take programs like the Emergency Conservation Program, the 
Emergency Water Protection Program, and allow for restoration of farm 
land, debris removal and all the activities that will drive 
productivity back to the farm.
  All they were asking for was a chance to recover from the forces of 
Mother Nature. And if you can't assist in a situation like that, if it 
took this tug of war, if it took advocacy, if it took putting a bill in 
the House to really push everyone to move on behalf of our farmers--you 
know, I voted against that original package because they said zero 
additional aid for the ag community. Unacceptable.
  So you talk about government planting the garden. That's just a 
sampling of investing that was critical so you could keep those ag 
forces going, those ag related jobs. Absolutely critical, not only to 
our economic recovery, but to the nutritional impact that it bears for 
all of America's families.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. If the gentleman will yield, I think there's really 
something to this idea that there's a lot of things that happen that 
support our economy that we take for granted, that we don't see all the 
time. And I think what you're talking about, with farmers, you know, 
food just arrives at the grocery store. You know, a lot of us don't pay 
enough attention to all the intricacies that go into that getting 
there.
  The same with the police, same with the fire, same with the teachers. 
You take it for granted that this is always going to be there. But 
these people who are sanitation workers in your city or town are 
essential to the functioning of our commerce, and so we've got to pay 
attention to this stuff and reinvest back into it.
  Mr. TONKO. And it took putting the flood lights on to the situation, 
where in the middle of tragedy we're looking to change the rules; we 
are looking for offsets in order to provide assistance to our national 
farmers' impacted farms under water, valuable farm land being eroded 
away. And we changed rules? I mean, it was unacceptable.
  And just speaking to that hardheartedness was an exercise for me that 
was a learning curve because it took every bit of providing evidence, 
from pictorial evidence to documentation of loss that finally moved 
this House to respond to the needs of our farmers.
  So, that being said, it's about, I think, investing, as has been said 
here in this special order hour. It's about investing and believing in 
America. The middle class needs that empowerment. They deserve and 
require it.
  Think of it. None of the strata can survive without a powerful middle 
class. Someone needs to build the product, someone needs to purchase 
the product. Enhancing the purchasing power, growing consumer demand 
will drive private sector jobs growth. More expectation, more desire to 
buy products, you put more people on, you develop product line.
  It works. It's a simplistic thing to follow. It's a pattern that's 
sensible. And so what we want to do is make certain that we empower 
that middle class. We've seen a lot of outbursts about the social and 
economic injustice out there, and it's about providing a reasonable 
approach so that our middle class can be vibrant again.
  I think it's what people were stating a week ago at the polls. They 
were saying, we're listening to the Democrats' message; we're embracing 
it and we're shifting our loyalties. We're now choosing to side with 
those who are talking about a wise approach, investing in job creation, 
which equals deficit reduction. Basic, simple, sound.

[[Page 17342]]


  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. And I don't think anybody's of the illusion that 
somehow a coalition like this is going to agree on every issue. But 
what happened in Ohio was that there was a prioritization of what 
really matters, of what are the fundamental issues that it means to be 
an American, and what's the recipe that America always had that led to 
our success.
  It wasn't an accident that we jumped the Soviet Union in the race to 
space. It was a concerted effort on behalf of the government, private 
industry and the people in the country. And we had this recipe that was 
investments and infrastructure and research and education and making 
sure we had good regulations in the financial industry. And we were the 
world power for a long, long time, and we still are.
  But we've seen the decrease in wages or stagnant wages for 30 years, 
and attacking the workers now to say, as they were in Ohio, that it's 
your fault. You're making too much.
  There was a great placard at one of the rallies. The guy said, I make 
$30,000 a year, I have a Master's Degree and I'm the problem. So this 
is the kind of coalition I think we need.
  I think it gets to, hopefully, a new alternative vision for the 
country and for our government which, to me, is it's not about 
government being too big or too small. It's about the government 
working.
  And if the people, the working class people see that the government 
is working, that it is regulating its markets, making wise investments, 
recognizing the value of education and the investments we need to make, 
then they're going to vote in who's ever doing that.
  But this shrink it and drown it in the bathtub and don't make the 
kind of investments that we made for so many different years is not a 
recipe for success. It's a recipe for disaster.

                              {time}  1550

  Mr. TONKO. I think the people feel at risk when they believe that 
those who have this highest concentration of wealth have just so much 
influence on the outcome in Washington that it's unacceptable. And they 
now know who's paid the price.
  You know, the middle class, when given the opportunity, remains 
silent, or at least mildly content. When you take that away and you 
then involve this unjust outcome to impact them, then they get angry.
  So the outburst here is we need the investing. We want our children 
to have the opportunity to reach for the American Dream. It has always 
been the passion that drives this country. And when you talked about 
the global race on space during the JFK years, President Kennedy 
acknowledged up front we're going to do this, not because it's easy, 
but because it's hard.
  People know that these are tough decisions, but they also want to 
hear the commitment. They want to hear conviction. Are we going to 
support, are we going to be the underpinnings of human infrastructure, 
the development of a workforce, training, retraining, education, higher 
education; incentives that provide for research so you can be a land of 
discovery, a land of creating product line, of traveling into new 
spheres of influence that can just express the magnanimous quality of 
America and all she offers?
  When you suffocate those areas of potential, you're denying the 
middle class its chance at the American Dream. And that's what this is 
about. People see undue influence coming from a very few and denying 
the vast majority their chance at the American Dream. And that's what 
this Nation has always been about. It's been there as an ideal. It's 
been a beacon of hope. It's seen as a garden of opportunity, and we 
need to culture, move that culture forward in a way that is driven by 
sound programs, sound projects, sound policy. It's about the programs, 
projects, and policies.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. And a respect for the workers who are ultimately 
going to elevate this. And we see that within manufacturing, how the 
ideas and the intellectual property that come from the factory floor 
are driven by those workers who are sitting there every day thinking 
about how this can be done better.
  We have so much potential within the workforce that is undeveloped, 
untapped, and not utilized properly that could lift us up and help us 
create this whole new economy that is going to get created somewhere by 
somebody somehow, and it might as well be us. And if we make the proper 
investments, we have the talent and the creativity in the country to 
make it happen. But I think it gets back to having a general respect 
for the workers.
  We had firefighters that I met make 30 runs in one day on a rig and 
get paid 40-some thousand dollars a year. And the runs aren't like me 
and you running over to vote. They're runs into burning buildings.
  Mr. TONKO. With a lot of weight on your back.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Carrying oxygen tanks and everything else. And 
there just has been a disrespect for that kind of work--the sanitation 
worker, the custodian, the teacher--pushing the blame of all society's 
problems onto these public workers in that instance.
  Then, now in Ohio, for example, they're coming in and they want to 
make it a right-to-work State. So those building trade folks who we're 
going to try to get back to work, there's 20 percent unemployment in 
the trade. We're trying to get them back to work with the 
infrastructure investments that we need to make. To say to them, 
``You're not going to be allowed to have a fundamental right of 
collectively bargaining and to be able to negotiate contracts, and it's 
going to diminish the wages and everything else,'' similar to what 
happened or what they wanted to do in Ohio--it's about respecting these 
people. And when you respect them, they'll come to perform, but it 
takes those investments and that general appreciation.
  Mr. TONKO. And essential services that are performed.
  You talked about water and sewer opportunities, the construction 
projects that we require. It's about human infrastructure, capital 
infrastructure, physical infrastructure. If we feed that with soundness 
of investment--not just spending and throwing money at something, but 
with an accountable plan, one with a vision, one with goals, one that 
embraces a soundness of future--we are ahead of the race of anyone else 
out there. We can maintain the soundness of leadership in this global 
economy if we believe in ourselves, if we believe in the American 
Dream, if we invest.
  We've been joined by Representative John Garamendi from the great 
State of California. He kicked us off. The hour came into my hands, and 
now you're back to revisit. So we thank you Representative Garamendi, 
again, for serving as inspiration to really get the thought process 
moving and verbalize where we are as a powerful conference in this 
House and where I think we've attached to the great thinking out there, 
the overwhelming thinking of Americans.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Tonko, thank you very much for carrying on; and, 
Mr. Ryan, thank you for your insight into what is so obvious. The 
American people do not want their rights taken away from them. They 
have the right of collective bargaining; you're quite correct about 
that.
  Excuse me for having to step out. My constituents from California 
were here in town, and interestingly enough, they were talking about 
one of the jobs programs that we really need to do.
  I represent the central valley of California, the great California 
Delta, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the largest estuary on the 
west coast of the Western Hemisphere, and there's always been severe 
flooding problems in that area. So they were asking about how are we 
going to fund the necessary flood projects.
  It's been a long, long history of the Federal Government through the 
Corps of Engineers supporting the construction of levees and other 
flood protection devices. But all of that seems to be ramping down as 
this mania of cut, slash, and burn the budget occurs around here.
  Now, the President offered the American Jobs Act; and in the American

[[Page 17343]]

Jobs Act, there's $50 billion for infrastructure, part of which is 
water systems, sanitation systems, road transportation systems, but 
also flood control systems--desperately needed in our area. We could 
probably employ a couple hundred thousand construction workers 
immediately if somehow this House were to pass the American Jobs Act.
  So I'm just thinking about the relationship of what we're talking 
about here on the floor and what my constituents were talking about, 
the necessity of developing water projects as well as flood control. We 
really ought to do that, because we can take these unemployed 
construction workers, several hundred thousand of them who are now 
receiving unemployment checks--they're tax takers. We can put them to 
work building the infrastructure, the foundation for tomorrow's 
economy, and they become taxpayers.
  You started off this conversation with something that is so very, 
very true--I guess Mr. Larson did--and that is the best way to deal 
with the deficit is put Americans back to work. It was an interesting 
side bar to our work here on the floor; but it fits so well with what 
we're talking about here, which is jobs, putting people back to work, 
using our collective powers of citizens of this great country to employ 
people by building the foundation for future economic growth. And you 
mentioned education as one of those pieces. There's so much to do.
  If you would kind of wrap us up. I think we've got 3 or 4 minutes, 
and we can go from there.
  It's been a good afternoon sharing our thoughts about how we can 
create jobs, get Americans back to work, get our economy back to work. 
And the President's laid out a good, bold program.
  Incidentally, it's paid for. We're not going to borrow money to put 
these construction workers back to work. It's paid for. The way it's 
paid for is that those 1 percent of Americans, the superwealthy who've 
had an income of more than a million dollars a year after all of the 
deductions--that's after adjusted gross income, a million dollars or 
more--they have enjoyed enormous tax reductions over the last 11 years, 
what we would ask is some basic fairness, that they contribute to 
putting Americans back to work with a small increase in their taxes 
over and above a million dollars. No increase below.
  Mr. TONKO. Well, I think to just match some words to what your most 
recent statement was, we have to think back, too, and look at recent 
history to have it speak to us. We borrowed totally for the 
millionaire-billionaire tax cuts and for two wars that were being 
fought, and now we wonder why we have a problem, a deficit situation, 
and why we want to blame the worker.
  Now, look. We say it's about investing in the human fabric, in the 
core individual, making certain that the skills that can be unleashed 
by that investment are put into a work situation that can enable us to 
be a nation of discovery, a nation of innovation, of design, of 
invention. That's America in her greatest moments, and I think those 
moments lie ahead of us.
  I'm optimistic that if we do this plan of investment, we will see 
tremendous growth in our economy. We will see our competitive edge in 
the global market get all the sharper and more keen. However, it takes 
that investment. It takes that vision, laser sharp, and it takes the 
commitment to stand up against this tide to just slash and burn, as you 
indicated, after so many were witnessing that the very few were given a 
gift for which we borrowed.

                              {time}  1600

  Now we're asking for someone else to have their turn--America's 
middle class.
  Pursuing the American Dream deserves that sort of attention. It 
deserves the dignity of work. It deserves the respect of those who lead 
this Nation, and for them to do it in a fashion that is going to 
respond in fullest measure.
  Representative Garamendi, it has been a pleasure to join with you on 
the floor.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. The gentleman from New York says it so eloquently.
  Long ago, I did a study of the California economy. We decided there 
were basically five things that needed to be done, and now, from the 
Federal level, I'd add a sixth. They are the things that you've been 
talking about:
  Education, the best education in the world, so that our workers are 
capable of carrying on the new tasks.
  Research, as I discussed earlier, from our laboratories and our 
universities of the new products.
  We need to make sure the research is there and then take the research 
out of the laboratories and create the new products--making it in 
America because manufacturing matters.
  The fourth thing is the infrastructure, which I was discussing and 
that I know you discussed while I was gone here, and laying the 
foundation upon which the economy will grow--transportation, 
communication, sanitation, water-flood protection--all of those 
infrastructure items.
  Then we need to always think in this context about our Nation's 
security and use our money wisely to provide the kind of defense and 
security that we need. That's also an energy issue, which we didn't 
bring up today but that we will the next time we talk.
  Finally, the sixth thing is one that I think is so very, very 
important, which is the willingness to change. What we did yesterday 
will probably not work today or tomorrow, so we must always be willing 
to change and not be stuck back in the 1790s, but rather deal with the 
reality of the world in which we live today and change our systems and 
be willing to adapt and change.
  Mr. TONKO. This has been a Special Order hour that I've enjoyed. I 
thank the gentleman from California.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. And I thank you.
  Mr. TONKO. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________