[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 1]
[House]
[Pages 211-216]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  REBUILDING AMERICA'S INFRASTRUCTURE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2013, the gentleman from California (Mr. Garamendi) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. I thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's good, it is very, very 
good that the new 113th Congress acted today to reach out in sympathy, 
compassion, and with real support to the people who were so severely 
impacted by Superstorm Sandy.
  One of our colleagues, just a moment ago, spoke about this Nation 
being at a crossroad. And indeed, we cross paths many, many times and 
there are many different crossroads. The people of Pennsylvania, New 
Jersey, New York, Connecticut, and other parts of this great Nation 
here on the east coast came to a crossroads. That crossroads was 97 
days ago when Superstorm Sandy came ashore and whacked and destroyed, 
pummeled and, indeed, killed Americans.
  Today, the House of Representatives, not unanimously, unfortunately, 
but by a strong majority of Democrats and some Republicans, stood tall 
and said we are one Nation. We're one Nation, and when one of us is 
harmed, we'll stand with that person. When one State is harmed, we'll 
stand with that State, and we will come together, just as my colleague 
said a moment ago, we will come together to provide what is needed to 
rebuild, to sustain, to provide, so that they who have been harmed can 
carry on.
  There's a lesson here for all of us, and tonight my Democratic 
colleagues and I will talk about the lesson that Superstorm Sandy 
brought to this Nation. Certainly one of those lessons has been 
fulfilled today. As a great Nation, we will provide what is needed for 
the rebuilding, for the immediate needs, even though it is 97 days 
late. We will provide because we are a compassionate Nation.
  But there's also another lesson here, and that lesson is for this 
entire Nation to get ahead of the next disaster. It will come. It'll be 
another storm up the east coast or into the gulf. It'll be an 
earthquake in my State of California or a flood or a fire. But there 
will be yet another natural disaster of one sort or another, perhaps 
man-made, perhaps Mother Nature.
  What we must do as a Nation is to get ahead of that, to prepare 
ourselves not only with emergency responses, but more and just as 
important, to prepare the infrastructure to protect the lives and the 
property of the citizens of this Nation. That's the second lesson of 
Superstorm Sandy. Build the infrastructure to prepare for the next 
flood, the next hurricane, the next onslaught of Mother Nature. We can 
do it. And in so doing, we not only reduce the cost of

[[Page 212]]

that next storm, that next flood, but we also save the lives of 
Americans, and we put people to work right now.
  This Nation is not yet fully recovered from the recession of 2008. 
This Nation has not yet fully brought Americans back to work, and we 
can do so taking the lesson of this day's action here on the floor of 
the House of Representatives where we, at least most of us, voted to 
build for the future, voted to put in place those infrastructure 
improvements, not for yesterday, not to rebuild just what was there 
that was destroyed, but, rather, to build for the future onslaught of a 
storm coming into New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, or other parts of 
this Nation.
  To be prepared. The Boy Scout motto: Be prepared. Benjamin Franklin: 
An ounce of prevention is worth a dollar of cure. These are truisms 
that have been with us forever, and today we want to talk about 
infrastructure investment, the kind of things that were done here on 
the floor, some $33 billion going not only for immediate relief, but to 
build the infrastructure necessary to protect and prepare for the next 
storm.
  Joining me today in this discussion, at least at the outset, is my 
colleague from New York, Paul Tonko. We often meet here on the floor. 
We sometimes call this the East Coast/West Coast show. I'm from 
California. Representative Tonko is from New York.
  And you were there, not only for this storm, but for the previous 
storm, and that was less than 18 months ago. Let's talk about these 
things, Mr. Tonko.

                              {time}  2010

  Mr. TONKO. Sure. Thank you, Representative Garamendi. Thank you for 
bringing us together for this hour on the floor, where I think it's 
important to pay attention to the needs out there as they relate to the 
damages that were brought upon certain areas of the country by Mother 
Nature.
  Yes, there's been a lot of focus with this on Superstorm Sandy. That 
really had its presence felt just to the south of my given 
congressional district. However, there was some damages in the northern 
reaches of upstate New York, the more northern sections as we traveled 
north of the metro area.
  But suffice it to say, the need here for assistance by not only New 
York, but New Jersey and Connecticut, where the proper of New York, the 
metro area of New York City, Long Island, Westchester County, were 
impacted severely by this storm. As I said, on the fringe elements in 
my area, not as much. But certainly, New Jersey and Connecticut were 
hard hit.
  But just over a year before that storm, you're absolutely right, we 
were impacted by Irene and Lee, a double dose of damage that really 
impacted my given congressional district severely. It looked like a 
war-torn area, as was the case here with Superstorm Sandy.
  And this Nation, whenever impacted by natural or manmade disasters, 
found a response from Congress, that the President, whoever that person 
might be at the time, working with Congress, expedited the assistance, 
wanted to get that aid there with a high degree of urgency.
  What we saw here was uncalled-for delays as people languished. I 
mean, we have to look at the human element here, the human cost of 88 
Americans that were impacted, lives lost because of this tremendous 
devastation, the impact that befell so many communities with 
infrastructure being damaged severely, if not destroyed totally.
  It was also about the impact on the business community, the loss to 
commerce, and certainly property damage that people are going to have 
to respond to over a long course of comeback that I have witnessed in 
my district with the storm, as you indicated, being more than a year 
ago.
  And so it is important for us, as a Nation, to be responsive and 
responsible. That has always been the measure coming forth from this 
Nation, understanding, with sensitivity, what needed to be done and 
getting aid to people. That's what it's all about.
  And so today, when finally a vote was taken, some 70 days after 
Superstorm Sandy hit, 70-plus days after the storm hit, finally we get 
a response, when so much pain and anguish was allowed to continue, 
unnecessarily so.
  The infrastructure issues in this country, storms aside, need to be 
addressed. The American Society of Civil Engineers has graded many of 
our bridges into a D classification, a poor grade, deficiencies that 
are out there brought to our attention.
  So not only do we need to respond to these tragedies and respond to 
our given infrastructure, but I think what happens here is an 
opportunity to come forward with job creation, providing for the trades 
and skilled tradespeople to be put to work. That is so important for 
our economy. It's so important for our public safety; it's so important 
for emergency response, as we've witnessed here in the northeast of the 
country.
  And so while the fight was long and at times unnecessary, at least 
the vote was taken today and we moved forward.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Thank you, Mr. Tonko. The bill now is out of this 
House. It's over in the Senate. We expect the Senate to pass it 
probably tomorrow or the next day, certainly before the inaugural on 
Monday, and then the President will undoubtedly sign it shortly 
thereafter, bringing that kind of relief.
  You mentioned the job issue, and people need to go to work. When we 
have these natural disasters, and we come forward with the kind of 
support that we have seen today, and will soon be available for New 
Jersey, New York, Connecticut and the surrounding areas, people go back 
to work. Those people that have received immediate FEMA support for 
housing, for clothing, for food, that money's immediately spent into 
the economy.
  On the infrastructure side, it's crucial. When the subways of Lower 
Manhattan flooded, the world's financial institutions took a whack 
because it was shut down for several days. People couldn't get to work, 
and so the entire world's economy slowed down, costing billions of 
dollars beyond just the damage.
  Now, part of the infrastructure, part of the bill that was passed 
today, the infrastructure improvements are to harden, to prepare 
Manhattan and the surrounding areas, the beach communities and others, 
for the next storm, to put up the seawalls.
  Now, what does that mean?
  Well, it means that the ounce of prevention and the pound of cure 
have taken place, but it also means people are going to go to work.
  Let me refer to this chart here. This is from Mark Zandi, chief 
economist at Moody's Analytics, and the former economic adviser to John 
McCain. His analysis, and this is generally agreed to by most 
economists, is that for every dollar invested in infrastructure, you 
get $1.57 back into the American economy. So you're not just putting a 
dollar in. You're getting the American economy going. You're putting 
people to work.
  Those people will then be able to pay taxes, buy food, support their 
families, and build for tomorrow's disaster, putting in place the 
infrastructure that is hardened, that is protected, eliminating the 
potential, in this specific case, of flooding of the subway systems in 
New York City.
  I know that you talked about doing this in your area for the storm. 
You may want to pick that back up, and then I want to come back and 
talk about my own district in California.
  Mr. TONKO. Right. You know, I think over and over again people are 
measuring with exit polling the sentiments of the electorate out there; 
and people have said that there is a need for government. They want 
effective government, efficient government.
  Well, I think when we look at some of the data that are collected, 
Representative Garamendi, it is important for us to acknowledge that as 
we rebuild in our areas that have been damaged by Mother Nature, you 
don't just replace; you need to improve upon the situation.
  For instance, if there are data that are telling us that more and 
more water volume is expected in certain watershed areas, as in my 
district, it

[[Page 213]]

would be foolish to spend tax dollars, the hard-earned taxpayer dollars 
and simply replace an infrastructure, a bridge, at the same height, at 
the same span, if, in fact, we know that the water and the force of 
that water is growing with time.
  And so these are the ways to, I think, incorporate the soundness of 
academics and analysis that go into how we respond to this. And if much 
of it is driven by climate change, global warming, some of the impacts 
of Mother Nature that are causing these disruptive scenarios, then 
ought we not look at sound policy that then stretches our thinking and 
really puts a laser sharp focus on these situations?
  So this is a call for a big-picture view. It's a call for effective 
replacement and repair so that we're responding to data that are 
collected that speak to the demographics that we should expect to have 
happen as we go forward and as we rebuild, making certain that there 
are those opportunities for waterfront communities to embrace their 
sense of geography.
  I represent a district that is not only a donor area to natural 
resources, but also historic resources in those waterways. And people 
want to have waterfront opportunities. They want to rebuild their 
communities so as to utilize these natural resources as a marketing 
agent to draw people to the area.
  Well, we can steward those resources so as to tame the Mother Nature 
impact in a way that allows us to go forward with this re-marketing 
strategy, that allows us to utilize our sense of location, our place 
destination, and do it in a way that is possible because of 
preventative measures, because of retrofitting that can take hold; and 
it's a way to utilize the engineering services out there, civil 
engineering, architectural opportunities to build communities and build 
them in a way that allows us to have that sense of place only deepened, 
rather than denied because we've walked away from what might have been 
damage from Mother Nature and have abandoned those opportunities.

                              {time}  2020

  Mr. GARAMENDI. You're speaking of something that is very close I know 
to your heart. I've heard you speak on this issue some months ago about 
some of the historic buildings that date back to the pre-Revolutionary 
War era in New York.
  And it's interesting to note that in this Sandy legislation that 
passed the House today there are numerous reforms, improvements on the 
way in which the Federal Emergency Management System works, so that the 
historic resources can be rebuilt and maintained, so that that sense of 
history, that sense of our past and who we are as Americans is going to 
be there for future generations. Some of the old rules and regulations 
made it virtually impossible to do that.
  There's also in this legislation other reforms that allow the 
projects and homes and businesses to be rebuilt in a way that protects 
them from the future storms and the increased storms that you so aptly 
described.
  Let me just take this home to my district. I represent the Central 
Valley of California, the great Sacramento Valley, 200 miles of it, 
literally from the beginning of San Francisco Bay 200 miles up the 
Sacramento River. And probably, I haven't been able to count all the 
levees in my district, but I probably have well over 1,500 miles of 
levees that protect large cities, medium size cities, farms and other 
critical assets and infrastructure in the State of California. For 
example, the intercontinental rail system both north and south, 
intercontinental highway systems, universities, international airports. 
These critical assets are at risk of flooding.
  The Army Corps of Engineers is taking a look at the levees in one 
part of my district. The Natomas Basin, which is part of the city of 
Sacramento, judges those levees to have a 1 in 30 chance of failure, so 
that over a 30-year period of time it's anticipated there will be a 
catastrophic failure of those levees. One hundred thousand lives just 
in that part of Sacramento at immediate risk because those 
floodwaters--should those levees fail, it would be a repeat of what 
happened in New Orleans, only the water is deeper and the floodwaters 
would rush in, at least as fast, if not faster. A monumental disaster, 
international airport gone, highways gone and on and on.
  We need to get ahead of that. We need to build that infrastructure, 
those levees, to protect those assets. A penny of prevention, a pound 
of savings.
  So these are the kind of things that we can do. And there are ways we 
can do this. Yes, it may run up the immediate deficit. But once again, 
for every dollar that we invest in those levees we not only save lives 
and property, but we put people to work and we get the economic engine 
going.
  Further up in my district, again along the Sacramento and the Feather 
Rivers, I have a project that's 44 miles of levee that clearly will 
fail. It has failed four times in the last 60 years. Lives have been 
lost. One of the most catastrophic failures of a levee happened in this 
stretch of river. We need to rebuild that.
  The Federal Government's role in the construction projects of these 
levees has gone back to the very beginning of this Nation. And it is 
Congress' task to allocate the money, to decide the projects that are 
going to be built. But unfortunately, we've tied ourselves in knots 
here with certain rules that have been put in by our Republican 
colleagues that prevent us from taking the necessary action to protect 
our communities.
  We're not talking about willy-nilly unnecessary projects; we're 
talking about saving lives and property. This is how we should be 
acting. Rebuilding after a storm to a higher standard, building before 
the storm to protect our people, the people that we represent.
  These are critical issues, these are infrastructure projects, and we 
need to get on top of this and push these projects forward. Yes, it 
will cost money, but not nearly as much as the cost of a levee failure 
because we failed to act in time.
  Mr. TONKO. Well, when you speak, Representative Garamendi, about the 
cost of these repairs or improvements we're talking about a design 
team, we're talking about a construction team, we're talking about a 
maintenance team. And all of that translates into jobs. So these 
efforts are, yes, an expenditure, but it's putting people to work and 
addressing not only public safety but commerce.
  Again, my home county, which is split by a historic river, was the 
scene of devastation just over 25 years ago where a New York State 
Thruway bridge collapsed because of the flooding that was occurring 
beneath that bridge. A creek that you could walk across, walk through 
in the middle of summer, was equal to in CFS, cubic feet per second, 
the flow of Niagara Falls. We lost 10 lives in that incident, and also 
saw the impact locally to commerce. It just disrupted the flow of 
activity to ship goods to whatever section of our area. It totally 
disrupted that situation. That is just a microcosm of impact of what 
happens.
  But you're very right. With the levees that might be at risk that 
could be a challenge to public safety, the poor ratings of our many, 
many bridges across this country, the need to begin aggressively to 
address these situations, means that you can bend that cost curve 
simply by moving projects forward, because the longer we go in time the 
more expensive it will be and the more risky it becomes with these 
deficient bridges.
  So programs like The American Jobs Act or Build America Bonds, all of 
these efforts are a progressive bit of policy that then takes us to a 
new realm of thinking, a commitment to the safety of the people of this 
great country, a commitment to commerce and the doable qualities of 
having infrastructure vastly improved that enables us then to talk 
serious business about growing our Nation's economy.
  So I think that the efforts here by the Democratic Caucus to bring to 
the attention of the full House the sort of positive thinking, the sort 
of planned opportunities that speak to the very nature of our 
infrastructure--and both of us represent States that rely heavily

[[Page 214]]

on well-developed and very well-maintained infrastructure--is indeed 
imperative. We need to move forward with a very strong supportive 
statement about this Nation's infrastructure.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. I would like to move in just a moment to the issue of 
how we can actually help other parts of our economy grow as we build 
our infrastructure. But before I do I am just thinking about the 
previous discussion from our Republican colleagues where they talked 
about the deficit and we ought to eliminate government programs.
  Certainly there are government programs that are neither efficient, 
effective, or necessary, and, yes, those should be cut. But when you 
start talking about infrastructure, this is something that we really 
must do.
  It was said that for an expenditure of some $15 billion New York City 
could have protected its subway system and the shoreline from the 
devastation of two major storms, one that occurred a year ago and 
another one that occurred just 97 days or 3 months ago, Superstorm 
Sandy.
  So if we get ahead of these disasters and build the necessary 
protections, for example in my district if we build those levees, yes, 
it will cost money. For the Natomas area it's about $1 billion. Very 
expensive, no doubt about it.
  But if we do not protect and do not build those levees the 
devastation will amount to several times that amount of money. That's 
precisely what happened in Manhattan and in the New York City area.
  So again, you spend that money up front, yes, you put people to work, 
yes, there may be an immediate issue of where and how we fund it, and 
that's a legitimate issue, but fail to do it and then the cost is 
horrendous. And, yes, if the State, the Federal, the local governments, 
the individuals, that will all be an expense that they have to endure. 
And Superstorm Sandy, the bill we saw today, is precisely on that.
  Now, having said that, let's talk about the broader subject. You 
mentioned Build American Bonds just a moment ago. The Build American 
Bonds were part of the stimulus program, now almost 4 years old.

                              {time}  2030

  That program created a new mechanism to assist local governments in 
providing the funding to build infrastructure--very, very successful in 
putting people back to work. We could extend that. In doing so, we will 
put people back to work. We will build the infrastructures, whether 
those are highways or bridges or whatever.
  As we do that, one of our favorite topics that we've talked on this 
floor many, many times about is this: We can Make It in America. We use 
our taxpayer money to make and to spend that money on American-made 
products. So the steel in the bridges, the concrete, the other design 
elements are American jobs. And as we do that, we rebuild the American 
manufacturing base.
  You've talked about this extensively. You go back in history, but go 
for it.
  Mr. TONKO. Well, absolutely. The manufacturing element in our society 
is strong. It still is very much--a bit of statistical evidence that we 
rank high in the international economy with manufacturing jobs, but 
there was a huge loss in the decade before this administration; 4.6 
million jobs lost in that manufacturing element. Well, in order for us 
to stop that bleeding, it's important, I believe, to promote advanced 
manufacturing. Retrofitting our manufacturing centers in a way that 
allows us to be cutting edge and doing it smarter--not necessarily 
cheaper, but doing it smarter--allows us to maintain that world leading 
status for manufacturing.
  Also, as we talk about infrastructure, beyond the bonds effort and 
the American Jobs Act, an infrastructure bank bill that will allow us 
to utilize that concept to leverage public and private funds that 
expand the opportunities to invest in our infrastructure takes us well 
beyond the traditional roads and bridges and levees that we talked 
about, the waterfront opportunities and dam repair, but it also brings 
us into the infrastructure for telecommunications and for electric 
utilities so that we then are cutting edge. We can provide for an 
upgrade, if you will, in the grid system.
  Now, we saw what that collapse was about in the year 2003, when 
branches rubbing on some power lines in Ohio put out the lights on 
Broadway in New York City. Now, that is unacceptable weakness. If there 
was ever a vulnerable, gaping situation that would have those looking 
at us for a weakness, it was there, that this grid system was so weak, 
designed for a monopoly setting and now being utilized to where 
electrons, not only region to region within States, but State to State 
if not nation to nation, with Canada wheeling in electrons into the 
U.S.
  So we need to vastly improve that sense of weakness in our system and 
allow us to speak to the needs of manufacturing because many are an 
energy-intensive operation. We need to be energy efficient so that 
they're utilizing their manufacturing process in a way that reduces 
cost, and to build into the equation all sorts of innovation so that 
they're doing things in a smarter fashion and able to compete at that 
international level for jobs; because as they land those contracts with 
improved operations, that means more American manufacturing jobs. That 
is that kind of approach, that cutting-edge thinking that enables us to 
maintain our sense of productivity, that embraces our intellectual 
capacity as a Nation, and that takes the research that we should invest 
into and allows us to translate that research opportunity into jobs.
  So there are these dynamics of change and reform that can be brought 
into the discussions here as we go forward. That will speak, I think, 
to the vitality, the economic vitality of this Nation and the growth of 
jobs in a way that is significant, that is long lasting and that brings 
us into a sophisticated thinking, which this American society is very 
capable of doing.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Last year, you and I talked--or last Congress, which 
was last year, you and I talked about this Make It in America, this 
manufacturing. We spent a lot of time talking about it. I had 
introduced in that session of Congress legislation that would require 
that our tax money--at least 85 percent of it--be spent on American-
made products and equipment.
  Let's take the Superstorm Sandy situation. We know that, for example, 
Amtrak is receiving, I think, a little over $150 million to repair its 
tracks that were damaged by Superstorm Sandy. Those are jobs--men and 
women will be working--but it's also steel, it's electrical wires, it's 
consultants, and it will undoubtedly be various kinds of electrical 
systems that will be used by Amtrak in rebuilding, similarly with 
regard to the subways in New York.
  Now, if we were able to write into the Superstorm Sandy legislation 
that 85 percent of that money that's used on rebuilding the 
infrastructure came from American-made products--in other words, Buy 
America--then that would not only put people back to work, but it would 
stimulate the steel industry, the electrical industry, and certainly 
the consultants, engineers, and architects. So I'm going to reintroduce 
that legislation--too late now for Superstorm Sandy, but there will be 
other legislation.
  For example, we know that we're going to have to rewrite a new 
transportation bill in this session. There's a 2-year bill that's now 
in place. It will expire at the end of the 213th Congress, so we're 
going to need to redo that. We should write into that transportation 
legislation--where we will spend $50 billion, $60 billion a year to 
build transportation systems--a clause like my bill that says that's 
taxpayer money; let's use that taxpayer money to buy American-made 
equipment and supplies, putting Americans back to work and using that 
to rebuild the American manufacturing sector along the lines that you 
describe, not with yesterday's technology, but with advanced 
manufacturing.
  Mr. TONKO. Right. The efforts that we have with so much of 
manufacturing, with the incubator programs that enable us to provide 
for an innovation of sorts in any of these assembly

[[Page 215]]

operations is key, I think it's key to our future.
  I think of those situations in my district, or even in my former 
district, where they worked with a local college that was very 
technically sophisticated. In this case, RPI, in the Greater Capital 
Region of New York, worked through its incubator program to develop 
these new opportunities within the plastics manufacturing that Kintz 
Plastics in Schoharie County utilized.
  I think it's worth mentioning on this floor that that really brought 
about a new phase of activity for this company. By innovation, by 
readjusting its procedure, its process, they were able to compete more 
effectively. That required, however, that they move to training their 
workforce because it required a new skill set. As they did that, they 
reached out to a local community college, in this case, Hudson Valley 
Community College in the Capital Region of New York.
  That partnership created the human infrastructure, the incubator 
provided the innovation, and they lived happily thereafter, because 
what they did was secure contracts in that international competitive 
sweepstakes because they provided for innovation. The improvements that 
they made to their assembly operation enabled them to maintain that 
sense of competitiveness.
  It's that sort of thinking that takes us to a new level of job 
creation and job retention. Compounding that, or creating in the 
complement the Buy American concept, then inspires reaching to those 
local firms. It can all be done in that holistic sort of format, with a 
big picture sort of view that enables us to go forward and build upon 
sound policy, sound investment, with guarantees of much better outcomes 
for America's working families.
  The middle class is taking it on the chin. The working families have 
paid the price, and it's time for us now to be high geared in terms of 
making certain that the American worker comes first in our thinking.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. You couldn't be more correct. You used the word 
``holistic,'' meaning whole and in total, a total package. For years 
I've said that to have a growing economy and a just social environment, 
we needed to make, as Americans, critical investments. You hit three of 
those critical investments.
  You talked about research--absolutely critical investment in the 
future growth of the economy and to solve today and tomorrow's 
problems. That's research, most of which, interestingly, is funded 
either directly by the Federal Government through the National 
Institutes of Health or Defense Research Agency, DARPA, or one of the 
other Federal agencies, or indirectly through the research tax credit 
that we provide for businesses to engage in research.

                              {time}  2040

  So research is one of the key investments that lead to economic 
growth. You mentioned the second one, very interesting, and that's 
education. A well educated workforce will be competitive across the 
world. That's a critical, perhaps the most critical, investment. Again, 
a role for the Federal Government, certainly a role for States and 
local governments, but a role for the American society that cannot be 
ignored--research, education.
  You drew it very, very correctly, and that is the manufacturing that 
comes from that. Manufacturing matters. How do you do that? You need to 
be in front of it; and when you talked about the research and the 
manufacturing technology, you were spot on. That's the third critical 
investment. The fourth one we also talked about here is infrastructure. 
So these are four of the critical investments that we need to make as a 
society.
  Some of that falls on individual companies, encouraged by a research 
tax credit or encouraged by Buy American. In different ways, we can 
encourage the manufacturing tax policy, which is critically important. 
We did that. Actually, it was a Democratic proposal. We did it 3 years 
ago. We've continued it. We've continued it in the recent fiscal cliff 
legislation where we provided 100 percent write-off for capital 
investment.
  That was from the Democrats. We care about business, and so we said, 
grow your business. We will provide you with a 100 percent write-off in 
the first year of capital equipment that you put in place. Not 
depreciation over 3, 4, 7, 15 years, but rather immediate, an enormous 
benefit to business. So we want the businesses to invest so that they 
can Make It in America.
  There are two more critical elements. I'll go through them very, very 
quickly. Provide for the national defense wisely. I think the public 
knows by now that we're spending $100 billion in Afghanistan this 
year--$100 billion. We need to bring it back home. We need to end that 
war. Thankfully, the President has set us off on a course where we will 
end American offensive action and move to supporting the Afghan 
Government in the spring of this year.
  Mr. President, we're thankful that you put that policy. Now let's 
bring the rest of it home, $100 billion. We need that money here. So we 
need national defense, but we need to be really wise about how we spend 
our money.
  Finally, the fifth thing is this: we need to change. We need to be 
willing to change. Thank you for bringing up the first three of those. 
But this is how we invest in the future, and these are policies that we 
need to put forward. They're the critical foundation for economic and 
social growth.
  Mr. TONKO. You speak to the innovation, you speak to research, and to 
me that speaks to the DNA of our Nation, which has always been this 
pioneer spirit. It's what's paid tribute to on this floor when policies 
such as that which you just describe are promoted. It's embracing that 
pioneer spirit, knowing that there are better ways, better 
opportunities out there and better avenues to travel. Let's pursue that 
with this utmost bit of pioneer spirit.
  I represent a district that was the donor area to the Erie Canal--
you've heard me talk about this--that provided for the Westward 
Movement and the Industrial Revolution. It was America at her best, 
believing in herself, listening to the needs of workers, listening to 
the ideas of workers and moving forward, embracing that sort of pioneer 
spirit and building the research opportunities. I'm thinking of line-
loss along our electric grid system. Think about what we can save in 
terms of energy supplies and in dollars if we moved forward with the 
superconductive cable research project.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. If I might interrupt you for just a moment. This had 
to be 6 or 7 years ago, I was Lieutenant Governor of California, and 
3M, the manufacturing company, came in to talk about exactly that 
issue; and they had researched and developed a new conductor that was 
30 percent more efficient in passing those electrons down the line. 
Think about what we could do in America to improve our energy 
capability by putting that in place; and if that were made in America, 
we could not only improve the energy efficiency, we would increase the 
capacity of our electrical system by 30 percent simply by rewiring 
those conductors across this Nation. That's American manufacturing, 
research and manufacturing. Put it in the infrastructure and build our 
strong economy. Great example.
  Mr. TONKO. There are so many of us that are fans of education, higher 
education investment. Think about it, we cultivate all of this talent, 
we draw forth the abilities of people through education, and we allow 
them to discover who they are. What are the gifts that I bear that can 
be utilized to strengthen society? Well, we make that investment and 
then don't gain on it. We don't stretch those opportunities to the max.
  It's so important, I believe, to continually think beyond the status 
quo. And when we're dealing with the energy arena, it's a line-loss for 
one that allows for huge savings, and great opportunities for jobs to 
research that potential; but it's also issues like waste heat which can 
be recaptured and make our energy system more efficient. So as we 
create and generate these energy supplies, if there's waste there, and 
we can captivate, or capture, that waste and stretch the amount of 
energy supply that we can create, here yet is another opportunity.

[[Page 216]]

  So it's endless. And for us to just continue to do the same old kind 
of responses to everyday issues isn't the sort of challenging outcome 
that I think allows us to best function as an American society.
  So there are policies and there are tax reforms that encourage and 
inspire this sort of investment, research tax credits, opportunities 
within the renewable energy area with production tax credits. All of 
this, being promoted in advance, we need to expand upon those 
opportunities. Because you're right, Representative Garamendi, it is an 
investment, it requires dollars, but those investments provide for 
lucrative dividends. And there are many more dollars earned than those 
invested into the progress that we need to strike.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Well, we have a little bit more time. I think it's 
about time for us to wrap all of this into one piece. And I will take 
the first shot at it, and then if you would be so kind as to finish it 
up.
  I'm thinking of Chicago. It's not my territory. It's a long way from 
California. It's a beautiful city, a very dynamic city. At the turn of 
the previous century, in the late 1800s, they had an architect, a city 
architect, Burnham, and he wrote: Think no small thought for it stirs 
not the heart of man. Very interesting. We ought to add women to that 
equation now. But what he said is that when we rebuild this city, we 
need to build big. We need to think bold thoughts. We need to think 
about the greatness that could exist if we step forward.
  Earlier in the previous hour we heard about the exact opposite. We 
heard about inward, thinking small, we are not going to reach out and 
fulfill the great potential of this Nation. Instead, we're going to 
retreat. We're not going to allow government to be part of the 
greatness of our future; but, instead, we're going to make it smaller 
and less viable. And those five things that I talked about, education, 
that's a public investment. Infrastructure is both public and private. 
But the public side is critical.
  You look at manufacturing, manufacturing has always been private; but 
it has also relied upon the public sector. And if we use our tax 
dollars to buy American-made products, we are causing the manufacturing 
sector to grow, to blossom and to innovate and to be even greater than 
it is today. In developing the research, that's both public and 
private, but it is largely a public sector investment. So we can deal 
with this by investing, by thinking boldly about what it is we can do 
and, in doing so, make certain that everything we invest in publicly is 
necessary, that it is run efficiently, and that its outcome is 
effective, and that it fulfills the goal for which it was designed.

                              {time}  2050

  Those should be our watchwords: efficient, effective, necessary, and 
bold. Think no small thought. This is America. This is the world's 
greatest country perhaps ever, and it was created by bold thinking, 
both public and private working together in a synergy that created this 
incredible Nation.
  I'm excited. I'm excited here in the very early days of the 113th 
Congress. I know we're going to have some big battles over debt limits 
and the like. But as we go through those fights, I want us to be bold. 
I want us to be big in our thinking. I want us to fulfill the great 
potential of this Nation. And I know we can do it. I know we can do it.
  Mr. TONKO. Representative Garamendi, what I hear you say is probably 
a definition of the American Dream.
  The American Dream was designed and brought to us by the boldness of 
generation upon generation of immigrants who added to the peoplescape 
of this great Nation, added to the native American population by stages 
of journeys that traveled to these shores. We as a compilation of those 
journeys are a stronger people. The foundation upon which we stand and 
function and dream was developed by people who dared to dream nobly, 
dared to invest in their community, in their people. That, I think, is 
the challenge to us in this very moment in time.
  Will history see us as a people that dreamt beyond the ordinary, or 
will we be those who were frightened by the thoughts of the challenges 
of our times? I think that our greatest days lie ahead of us. The 
American Dream that burns boldly and nobly in our hearts speaks to us 
as that beacon of inspiration. Move forward, invest in America's 
people, invest in ingenuity, innovation, in the intellectual capacity 
of this Nation, and tread boldly into the future. And know that you 
will leave that next generation with an even stronger foundation that 
was granted us for our time in this Nation.
  It has been an honor to join you this evening.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. It's always a pleasure to work with you, Mr. Tonko.
  With that, Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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