[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 9]
[House]
[Pages 12680-12686]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           MAKE IT IN AMERICA

  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. Madam Speaker, when talking on the floor, presenting 
legislation, it is always good to have a compass, so you can have some 
sense of where you are going and what it is all about.
  This is one I often bring to the floor when we talk about the issues 
of the day. This is from FDR--Franklin Delano Roosevelt--and he said 
the ``test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance 
of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who 
have too little.''
  It is a compass, and it is a way of judging progress or a lack of 
progress, and we seem to have more of the latter than the former. We 
have much to do if we are going to add to those who have little.
  In America, the American middle class, the working men and women, the 
families who raise their children try to buy a home, a car, maybe take 
a vacation--they have been struggling for the last 20 years. It has 
been tough. They have not seen income growth.
  The statistics are stark and clear. The middle class of America has 
stagnated, and, in fact, it has shrunk, as more and more Americans have 
fallen into the lower income class.
  There is something we can do about it, and we, Democrats, intend to 
do just that. We want to jump-start the middle class. We want to put in 
place policies that will grow the opportunities for the working 
families of America, for those men and women that get up in the 
morning, feed their children, get them off to school while they are 
getting off to a job.
  There are things we can do. I want to talk about that tonight. Some 
of my colleagues will join us a little later.
  Let me put up the agenda for jump-starting the middle class, the Make 
It In America agenda, rebuilding the American manufacturing sector, 
which was the heart and--in many ways--the soul of the working middle 
class of America, where they could get a decent wage, where they know 
that a husband or a wife, by themselves, could provide sufficient 
income for the family to have a home, a car, and enjoy the benefits of 
this great Nation.
  So we will talk about the Make It In America agenda, and we will go 
at that in some length tonight because that is our basic subject 
matter.
  The other one is very simple. It is a reflection on the demographics, 
and it is a reflection on the working people of America, and it is 
women. It is women. What we say is that when women succeed, America 
succeeds.
  There is a set of policies that we need to put in place all across 
this country that will guarantee that the women of America that are out 
there working day in and day out have an equal opportunity. Right now, 
they don't.
  They make about 70 cents on every dollar that a man makes. There is 
an inequality that exists in America's workplace, and our agenda is to 
end that inequality, to make sure that whether you are a man or a 
woman, you are going to be paid an equal amount for the same amount of 
work, the same experience, the same productivity. So when women 
succeed, America succeeds.
  There are several other policies here that are family-friendly 
policies, and we will talk about that another day.
  If the middle class is to succeed, if we are going to jump-start the 
opportunities for the middle class, a key element is education. So that 
is the third plank--the third leg upon which we rest our policies.
  How can we jump-start the middle class? Education--there are very 
many things that we can do in education. One just passed the House of 
Representatives on a bipartisan vote after almost two decades of 
struggle.
  We are revamping the job training programs in America, so that the 
preparation that people need to get a decent job are streamlined, 
effective, and efficient, and that is part of it, the job training 
programs, but it is more than that.
  American students now have to--in almost every case--borrow an 
extraordinary amount of money in order to get a higher education, 
whether it is community college or the 4-year colleges and beyond.
  That extraordinary debt burden is enhanced by extraordinarily high 
interest rates, so what we want to do is to bring down those interest 
rates, and there are three or four different pieces

[[Page 12681]]

of legislation that our Democratic team has put forth, all of them to 
accomplish the same goal, bringing down the interest rates.
  We would like to see it go down to the same interest rates that banks 
pay for the money that they borrow from the Federal Government and the 
Federal Reserve--wouldn't that be nice--because it is almost zero, but 
we don't think we can get that far.
  We know it can bring that interest rate down from 6, 7, 8 percent 
down to the 3 percent, maybe the 4 percent range--literally cutting in 
half the cost of that money. So there are a series of policies on 
education.
  Let me turn to the one that we want to focus on tonight, which is the 
Make It In America agenda. There are many pieces to this. One of them 
was put forward by our team, and there are about seven different 
elements to this program. This is our logo, Make It In America, so that 
Americans can make it.
  Trade policy, taxes, energy policy, labor, education--which we just 
talked about--research, and infrastructure, these are the elements of a 
solid program to have the middle class have an opportunity, to jump-
start the working men and women so that they can, once again, make it 
in America--by rebuilding the manufacturing sector, by having decent 
trade policies, where we don't give it away and see the American 
corporations simply run off to China or Bangladesh or wherever to get 
the lowest possible wage, trade policies that are fair to America.
  Our tax policy is critically important. If anybody was reading the 
newspapers, The Wall Street Journal or other business newspapers last 
week, the word now is ``inversion.''
  Well, what is inversion? It is simply a runaway American corporation, 
running away to the lowest possible tax haven in the world and making 
themselves domiciled in that country, leaving America behind, where 
they got their start, where they built their enterprise and simply 
running away, leaving those who cannot run to pay the burden of 
operating this great country's security, our defense, and all of the 
other things we need to do. So tax policy fits into it.
  Energy policy, labor--we will go through some of these tonight. We 
won't get to all of them.
  I want to deal very quickly with this last one, which is the 
infrastructure. We passed a bill last week, and it was a stopgap. It 
was a kick the can down the road bill to keep our national highway 
system funded. It was really a pretty lousy bill.
  It would extend for some 10 months an inadequate amount of funding 
for the transportation systems of this Nation, and it was funded by a 
cockamamie scheme of somehow smoothing pensions, which basically meant 
that American corporations didn't have to pay as much into their 
pension system, so that they could pay more in taxes. It is not going 
to happen.
  If you wonder why Detroit, why San Jose, why other cities and 
companies across this Nation have troubles with their pension systems, 
it is because of this kind of foolish legislation.
  What are you to do? Let the highway program stop? No. We passed the 
bill, and we will see where it winds up.
  What we really need is what the President has proposed--a robust, 
comprehensive make it and build it in America program. It is called the 
GROW AMERICA Act, to grow America, to build the infrastructure, and 
there are several pieces to this piece of legislation--all of them 
deserve the immediate attention of the 435 of us in the House of 
Representatives and the 100 Senators--proposed by the President and, 
therefore, dead on arrival here.
  If it had been proposed by--I don't know--any other leader in the 
world, it probably would have passed by now, but the Republicans will 
not allow President Obama's proposals to move forward.
  Here it is, the highway system. Now, this is just in 2015. The 
highway system would get even more money than it has today, some $60 
billion total, $7.6 billion to fix the current highway system, and this 
is in addition to the money that the States and locals are putting in--
public transit, an increase in public transit, the buses, the light 
rail trains, and the like, inner city rail, Amtrak, boosting that--I am 
going to come back to Amtrak in a few moments.
  International trade--back to what I talked about a few moments ago in 
the Make It In America agenda--international trade, the ports, 
revamping the ports, a freight policy--really, for the very first time, 
we would have an opportunity to have, in the United States, a freight 
policy.

                              {time}  1945

  How do you get the containers off the ship in Long Beach, put them on 
a railcar, travel across the United States to some terminal, and then, 
once again, put them on a truck to go to wherever they are going? A 
policy, a comprehensive policy about how we move freight is critically 
important to the United States. International commerce and fair trade 
is important because it does allow for the boosting and the growth of 
the American economy. Now, free trade is something different, and that 
basically means give it away to some other country, which we should not 
do.
  This GROW AMERICA Act is one of the principal elements in jump-
starting the middle class. Why? Because these are middle class jobs. 
These are construction jobs on the highways, on the transit system, in 
the railroads, and certainly in the ports and the freight system--
middle class jobs. How do we grow the economy? Build the 
infrastructure, increase the jobs for the working men and women and the 
families of America, and we grow the economy.
  By the way, we also grow the tax revenues because people are working. 
They are not tax takers, they are taxpayers.
  So this is a proposal that the President has put forward. There has 
not been one hearing in the House of Representatives on this proposal 
that is now over 4 months old. Why? Why? Why is it that we have not 
given the President of the United States at least the consideration and 
the courtesy of having a hearing on his proposal? We should do so 
because it happens to be a very, very good proposal.
  Let's take a couple of these elements for a moment. This bridge 
collapsed. Now, this isn't a bridge from Donetsk in Ukraine that was 
bombed during that war there. This is a bridge in Washington, a bridge 
north of Seattle on Interstate 5, the highway system between Canada, 
the United States, and Mexico, right down the coast, the west coast of 
California. This bridge collapsed just a couple of years ago. And this 
is not unusual. We have had bridges collapsing all across the United 
States.
  This is part of the GROW AMERICA agenda. It is part of the agenda 
that we have in mind for the middle class, jump-starting the middle 
class, because when this bridge is built of American-produced steel in 
the Buy America laws that are presently on the books--which, by the 
way, the President says we ought to make even more robust so that your 
tax dollars are spent on American-made steel, American-made concrete, 
and the other elements that go into building these infrastructure 
projects, in other words, spreading the opportunity that comes from the 
transportation system and the growing and the building of the 
transportation system into all the other elements in the economy. It 
can be done.
  The GROW AMERICA Act is specifically designed to deal with the 
deficiency in America's roads, and particularly in the bridges. Oh, the 
economic loss as a result of this highway system being shut down? 
Unfathomable. Didn't have to happen. And if we pass the GROW AMERICA 
Act, it is not likely to happen.
  I want to pick up that little piece about what happens when you spend 
your tax money on American-made systems. Now, we talk a lot about green 
energy, as we should. We talk about energy conservation, as we should. 
We talk about wind turbines, and we talk about alternate energy systems 
such as solar, as we should. But where are those manufacturers?

[[Page 12682]]

Where are the wind turbines manufactured? Where are the solar systems 
manufactured? Oh, China. By the way, we have a trade suit against China 
for dumping solar panels in the United States and decimating the 
American manufacturing system.
  This piece of legislation, 1524, I like it. I am the author of it. 
H.R. 1524, Make It In America, create clean energy manufacturing jobs--
simple. Your tax dollars must be spent on American-made solar, wind, 
and green energy systems. Now, if some developer out there wants to 
build a solar energy plant and use your tax dollars as a subsidy to pay 
for that plant, then if this becomes law, he must buy American-made 
solar panels. Now, if he wants to use his own money, he can buy 
whatever he wants. But I believe your tax dollars ought to be spent on 
American-made equipment, which is part of the Make It In America 
agenda.
  There are many other pieces to this puzzle, and in the Democratic 
Caucus, we have introduced well over 50 pieces of legislation to 
advance the program of Make It In America so that the American middle 
class has a chance to grow and a chance to prosper. We can do that. Any 
number of those bills--or, in fact, all of them--would advance the 
middle class, literally jump-starting the middle class and giving 
American families an opportunity to enjoy the benefits of this 
incredible society and this incredible country we call America.
  Joining me tonight is a woman from Ohio who has spent many years 
dealing with manufacturing and talking about the things we need to do 
to build and to grow the manufacturing sector of America.
  I think you come from the heart of that. Marcy Kaptur, welcome. 
Please share with us your thoughts.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Well, first of all, I want to compliment Congressman John 
Garamendi for his exceptional leadership in the Make It In America 
agenda and allowing Members like myself, Congressman Tonko from New 
York, and others to participate in focusing the spotlight on what 
counts. I wanted to follow on what the gentleman had said about what we 
import versus what we export.
  People say, well, America has a budget deficit. Well, we have a jobs 
deficit that grows from importing more than we export. You mentioned 
the energy sector, one that I have particular responsibility for here. 
Last year, we imported $369 billion more of petroleum than we exported 
energy products. That translates into lost jobs in our country of over 
1.8 million, nearly 2 million jobs just in the energy sector that we 
could bring back home if we focused on an all-of-the-above energy 
strategy that would help us recapture that wealth.
  Those jobs here at home, automotive, a sector that our region of the 
country, Toledo, Sandusky, Lorain, Cleveland, Parma, and Brook Park, we 
know the auto industry well. Last year, we imported into our country 
$309 billion worth of automotive products from countries that didn't 
accept our parts for vehicles--take Korea for one--and that lost 
wealth, that ceded power inside this economy translates, just in the 
auto sector, to over 1.5 million lost jobs just in 1 year. That is just 
1 year.
  If we look at consumer goods, we see all these children streaming 
across our border from Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Honduras; 
and you look at the economies of those countries and the sweatshops 
that are making apparel, for example--those are some of the consumer 
goods that come in here--the people are earning a dollar a day, maybe 
$10 a day. They live in utter poverty.
  Okay. So those goods are sent here, and Americans spent $533 billion 
on imported consumer goods last year. That translates--rather than 
making it here, we imported it--just in the consumer goods area, in 1 
year, we lost 2.6 million jobs.
  So if you add up just the energy jobs, the auto jobs, and the 
consumer goods jobs, you are talking about nearly 6 million jobs in 1 
year. And we have 20 million Americans who remain unemployed or 
underemployed in our economy right now. Think about what this 
hemorrhage is costing us.
  Some of the very companies that have moved these jobs from 
California, from New York, and from Ohio, they still operate those 
companies in foreign locales. Congressman Levin of Michigan calls it an 
inversion. That is kind of a good word, actually. Others have called it 
outsourcing. Others call it shipping out, shipping out our jobs and 
shipping out our wealth. People say, well, what has happened to the 
middle class? Well, it has gone global. Unfortunately, the people in 
those places are not middle class. They are working under horrendous 
conditions. And those goods are sent here, whether they are 
agricultural goods or whether they are industrial goods.
  I want to compliment you on keeping a focus on Make It In America.
  I do have a bill I wanted to put on the record, H.R. 194, which is 
the Congressional Made in America Promise Act, that would amend the Buy 
America Act to require this branch of our government, the legislative 
branch, in all of its gift shops and supply shops to emphasize the 
procurement of goods made in America. Doesn't that make sense? If you 
go around and you look at what is in there, you will be very surprised 
to find many products that are made overseas. We are just saying put as 
much effort into finding goods made in America and sell them in our 
gift shops.
  So I would hope that some of our colleagues that are listening would 
cosponsor H.R. 194. It is a very well-written bill. It is our bill. It 
makes sure that if something is overpriced and doesn't belong in a gift 
shop, there are requirements. It is very sensible, and it would have 
some affirmative effort by the shops here on Capitol Hill to buy 
American-made goods.
  So I want to thank the gentleman very much for his leadership. This 
is what the American people long to hear, a discussion here in the 
Congress on jobs and economic growth. It seems to be an agenda that the 
Speaker and the leadership is not willing to put on the floor, so I 
thank the gentleman from California for your leadership.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. I thank you, Ms. Kaptur, for bringing to our attention 
ways in which we can actually do something. It may seem small, but we 
get thousands and thousands of people coming through the gift shop here 
at the Visitor Center, can they find something made in America. They 
ought to be able to.
  I like your bill, and it will send a message, a message to us, 
because we will set the policy. If we set that policy right, we can 
grow the American middle class, jump-start the American middle class, 
and give the working men and women a real opportunity to enjoy the 
benefits of this society.
  I noticed while you were chatting a colleague of mine who often 
shares this hour, Mr. Tonko from New York. Thank you for joining us 
once again. We were here last week, weren't we?
  Mr. TONKO. We were, and it is always a pleasure to join with you, 
Representative Garamendi, and with Representative Kaptur for the 
purposes of highlighting what can be done in this arena to cultivate a 
climate that grows private sector jobs and to be supportive of 
American-made products. So I stand here this evening in support of H.R. 
1524, which would allow for us to prosper with the energy innovation 
and energy alternative technology which, as American produced, would be 
highlighted, would be the focus of attention with H.R. 1524.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Would you excuse me?
  Before you came to Congress, were you not responsible for the State 
of New York innovation, energy, and related issues?
  Mr. TONKO. Absolutely. I served as president and CEO before this work 
in Congress at NYSERDA, the New York State Energy Research and 
Development Authority, and some of the partnerships that we inspired, 
public-private matches, where NYSERDA would have a piece of the action 
working with our innovator community and our entrepreneurial community 
and come up with these innovative designs that would allow for us to 
meet energy demands or to foster energy efficiency concepts which are 
very important to

[[Page 12683]]

the outcome of energy policy and performance in this country. So, 
absolutely, I was involved in that.
  I know that that is a growing edge. It is a meteoric rise within our 
manufacturing sector with all of this challenge as energy consumers to 
not only provide for alternatives and more efficient and effective 
outcomes and perhaps, in many cases, reduce costs, which are important, 
but also embracing an environmental agenda that deals with carbon 
emission and methane emission through the concepts of climate change 
and global warming.
  So it is an across-the-board win, Representative Garamendi. I applaud 
you for H.R. 1524 and am supportive of H.R. 194, just recently spoken 
about by Representative Kaptur, where we have the opportunity, again, 
to govern the decisions to either sell American-made products in gift 
shops or not.
  One thing I would like to highlight here this evening, we have many 
traditions that have followed through the Halls of this Congress 
through the decades, one of which is the Export-Import Bank. So as we 
talk about product development and working within an international 
marketplace, there are those concepts in competing nations that help 
them with their export-import development. We have such a bank. The 
Export-Import Bank is at risk because it needs to be reauthorized, and, 
again, there is a sluggish outcome here where there is denial as to 
that concept.

                              {time}  2000

  I can tell you that Export-Import Bank supports about $1 billion 
worth of sales in my own district. That is no small change. And so we 
need to make certain that we move forward with this concept of the 
Export-Import Bank being reauthorized. You look at the Ex-Im Bank and 
where it provides great services, and that is with the small business 
and medium-sized business community. Those are the up-and-coming 
efforts within the resurgence of our economy that need assistance. This 
program does it. Whether you are selling state-of-the-art energy 
innovative products or whether it is alarm systems or whether it is 
electronics, there is a great bit of assistance provided by the Ex-Im 
Bank.
  Just last month, the National Association of Manufacturers and the 
United States Chamber of Commerce, who don't always agree, came 
together supporting their togetherness in swiftly addressing 
reauthorizing the Ex-Im Bank. So I think it is very important. You have 
an organization here that has supported $37 billion worth of sales 
through last year that sustains some 200,000-plus jobs with over 3,400 
companies. The important thing to note is their track record is 
stellar. For 80 years, they have been performing without assistance 
from taxpayer dollars. Their default rate is below 2 percent. Who can 
argue with that sort of success story?
  So as we develop this Made In America agenda, we need the 
complementary efforts of the Ex-Im Bank so we can wholeheartedly go 
forward with every tool in the kit for our American manufacturers and 
our businesses, small and medium and industrial style, to be able to 
allow them the engine that heightens their export-import opportunity, 
and that is the way the work should be done, not denied here, not 
procrastinating about whether or not it should be reauthorized, not 
making it a political football, but really going forward and showing 
enthusiastic support based on tradition, on history, on performance, on 
success.
  Let's get it done. Let's do our Export-Import Bank reauthorization. 
It is the right thing to do. This majority in the House of 
Representatives, the Republican majority, ought not hold back that 
progress. It is a support network that is essential to the future, the 
soundness of our business community, from small to medium to large.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Representative Tonko, thank you.
  I was just thinking through that Export-Import, and the buzz inside 
the Beltway here in Washington that it only helps the big companies--
General Electric and Boeing. The fact of the matter is, yes, it 
certainly helps those companies export airplanes and jet engines and 
whatever else, but it is the small companies that really take advantage 
of it. It is the start-ups and the growing companies that need that 
support.
  I asked my staff, actually an intern, to do some research on the 
kinds of financing mechanisms that China, Japan, and Korea use to 
export their ships that they make.
  The great shipbuilding industry is no longer in the United States, it 
is in those countries. There are one or two European countries that are 
also involved, but each of those countries support those shipbuilding 
companies with programs that are exactly the same as the Export-Import 
Bank, which is a loan guarantee. And it works.
  Mr. TONKO. Absolutely. They are more aggressive than our program. So 
why would we reduce the complementary force that we provide to Ex-Im 
Bank. Ninety percent, as you just pointed out, a great amount of the 
activity, is with our small and medium-sized community; 90 percent is 
with the small and medium-sized business community. So what gives? Why 
are we not going forward with great energy, with great passion to say 
we can't miss, we need to reauthorize.
  Instead, we are hearing vibes about not reauthorizing. We are having 
all kinds of groups coming together in nontraditional fashion, 
imploring us to do the right thing here. And again, it is being held 
back by the majority in the House. It is unacceptable, and it is 
unintelligent to do so.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. I actually think, if I might say so, it is a small 
group in the Republican Party that is really taking the lead in this 
issue. Somehow they believe that government ought not be involved in 
commercial enterprise, when in fact since the very beginning of our 
Nation government has been involved, and together with the private 
sector is responsible for the growth of this incredible economy. This 
is but one example. There are numerous other ones.
  I was just thinking about some of the words that the gentlewoman from 
Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) spoke regarding energy policy.
  We are now generating and extracting a large amount of natural gas, 
and so much so that now there is a desire to export that natural gas in 
liquid form called liquefied natural gas, LNG. We have to be careful 
because that natural gas has given us the opportunity to pull down our 
energy costs, manufacturing costs, so we are now seeing companies 
returning to the United States. Dow Chemical is but one example. I used 
to represent their major plant out in Pittsburg, California. They are 
coming home because of energy policy, so we have to be careful about 
the export of LNG because it can drive up the price and harm the growth 
of our manufacturing sector.
  However--and here is an opportunity--the LNG is a strategic national 
asset. It is bringing down our cost of energy. Shipbuilding is also a 
strategic national industry. Our United States Navy, the most powerful 
and most effective and awesome in the world, depends upon American 
shipyards. However, private shipbuilding in the United States has 
basically gone downhill, together with the mariners, the maritime crews 
that are on those American-built ships. We have an opportunity here. If 
we are going to export LNG, then we ought to export that LNG on 
American-built ships with American crews.
  It is an issue of public policy. We can do this, and in so doing, we 
can revitalize an important sector of the American economy, the 
shipbuilding economy, which is found on all of the coasts of America, 
from Maine, Philadelphia, around in the gulf to San Diego, and all of 
the way up to Seattle. There are shipyards that are desperate for 
business, and the LNG export is an opportunity to capture and bring 
home the shipbuilding, and when it is coupled with the Export-Import 
Bank issue, we can really restart and rebuild a critical element in the 
economy of America.
  Mr. TONKO. I hear you making mention of a long-standing skill set, 
that of shipbuilding. It is important as we look at that Make It In 
America agenda that the Democrats in the House of Representatives have 
put together, a

[[Page 12684]]

very sound platform of initiatives, of policy and resource advocacy, a 
multifaceted concept of how to underpin the strengths of our 
manufacturing sector.
  As we move forward with those skill sets that are required to build 
these ships, we need to make certain there is an investment in skills 
development and training, retraining, so we are doing it smarter. It 
doesn't have to be the cheaper price delivered to the market; it has to 
be the most quality also. And so we can win several of these contracts 
through brain power, through the investment of our intellectual 
capacity.
  We are a Nation of pioneer spirit. I think that holds true to this 
day. Our humble beginnings taught us that we impacted not only the 
growth of this country with a westward movement, but through an 
industrial revolution. It affected positively the quality of life 
throughout this world because of that intellectual capacity, because of 
that pioneer spirit, because of that creative genius. And so it is 
important for us to include in our package as we do training and 
retraining, education formats, and research. We see it in the energy 
sphere. We see it across the board. It is important.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. If I might interrupt you, before you move to the 
research agenda, which is absolutely critical, today the President of 
the United States signed the revamping of the job training programs in 
America. This is a bipartisan effort. It passed the House on a 
bipartisan vote--I think almost universal votes for the Democrats; the 
Republicans, maybe two-thirds voted for it and a third against it--but 
it is a complete revamp of an important element of what you just 
described, which is the job training and the job preparation and the 
training that is needed for these advanced manufacturing technologies.
  Mr. TONKO. Absolutely. And it is the way we keep our cutting edge as 
sharp and precision-oriented as possible.
  We know that it is three areas of investment. It is investment in 
capital infrastructure, physical infrastructure, and human 
infrastructure. Having that quality workforce, well prepared, skill 
sets that are at the cutting-edge quality so that we can continue to 
prosper as we compete, our companies compete, our businesses compete, 
at that international market. So it is important for us to constantly 
invest in that upgrading, in that training and retraining, and in that 
enhancement of education for our young people.
  So there is the cornerstone of our plan, along with research which, 
as we have seen through the last couple of decades, it is critically 
important. If we look back as far back as the global space race, that 
space race required an investment of research. Landing a person on the 
Moon first of any nation, with that American flag being anchored onto 
the surface of the Moon, didn't just happen; it took an order of 
planning and commitment and passionate resolve so that with that 
passion we could make a difference. Well, it happened, and America was 
energized and it was lifted in the eyes of nations around the world as 
that leader.
  We are at a critical juncture again, and can we afford to walk away 
from an investment in research? Can we afford to walk away from an 
investment in training and retraining? Can we afford to walk away from 
an investment in education, or the Export-Import Bank, or all sorts of 
incentives that provide for upgrades to manufacturing, advanced 
manufacturing, robotics, technology that allows us to build the best 
product out there, and we set the pace, we set the tone? It is about 
this wonderful agenda of Make It In America, established by so many 
people, including yourself, Representative Garamendi, the leadership in 
our House, Leader Pelosi and the Democrats in the House, advancing this 
cause of investment in tomorrow, investment in today. It is how we get 
there and how we always achieve by seeing the problem, meeting the 
challenge, and investing in America and her people.
  We don't get there by cutting our way to prosperity, by denial, by 
games on the House floor, by resoundingly defeating a reauthorization 
of the Export-Import Bank. It is absolutely essential that we do those 
building blocks that take us to the next generation of competition, the 
next generation of workers, and it can happen only if we plan 
accordingly and if we take that effort to lead rather than just hold 
back.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. You are so correct.
  Let me give you an example. Yesterday I called together my 
manufacturing advisory committee. We had about 50 manufacturers, some 
very, very large--Boeing was there--and some very small companies. The 
discussion centered around precisely what you talked about. We had 
representatives from Lawrence Livermore National Lab, Sandia National 
Lab, Lawrence Berkeley Lab, and the University of California Davis, 
researchers, the most advanced research going on in the world.
  Their discussion was not about nuclear weapons, which you might 
expect from Lawrence Livermore and Sandia National Labs, because that 
is their principal job, how to deal with the nuclear weapons issue, but 
they were talking about technologies that they have come into and have 
advanced through their research, like laser research.
  One of the companies that was there was a spinoff from research that 
was done at Lawrence Livermore National Lab on laser technology, and it 
is called laser peening. Now you have heard of a ball-peen hammer that 
is used to strike metal, and in striking the metal, it actually 
strengthens it. Well, now they are using lasers to strike that metal, 
and the result of it is that you significantly strengthen the metal. 
And this is now used by General Electric and others in the 
manufacturing of some of the internal parts in the jet engines. It 
substantially strengthens them.
  That is just one example of the way that research can flow into the 
manufacturing sector, enhancing the job opportunities for the middle 
class, and once again, it is made in America and is giving the middle 
class a jump start.

                              {time}  2015

  These things all come together, so this manufacturing group yesterday 
dealt on everything you talked about. They were talking about export. 
They talked about tax policy. They talked about research into the 
private sector.
  Another example, the University of California, which I have the honor 
of representing, has a very large engineering school. It is one of the 
largest in the Nation, and they are producing--I think they have 8,000 
students in their engineering program.
  A couple of the graduates, a few years back, developed a new way of 
programming machine tools--computer-assisted machine tools. They were 
so advanced that a Japanese machine tool company, one of the largest in 
the world, began to look at this and said: we need that technology.
  They incorporated it into their program, and then they decided they 
needed to be near the researchers. So they have now located in Davis, 
California, a major manufacturing program to make these very advanced 
machine tools, using the research that comes from the university, a 
marvelous example of what we need to do in our public policies.
  Mr. TONKO. It is interesting, as you highlighted the discussion, the 
dialogue with your advisers. The business of representing congressional 
districts, of representing any district in the halls of government, the 
key factor is listening, opening up to discussion, ideas, constructive 
criticism of what needs to be done out there, what is being done and 
what can be done better, what is not being done that needs to be done.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Can I give you another example? It was exciting--it 
was a really exciting day, Mr. Tonko.
  Mr. TONKO. Go for it, Representative.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. One of the small businesses--of several of them, 
actually, after listening to the heads of these extraordinary 
laboratories said: yeah, but I am just a small company, I don't have 
any money to go and work with you guys on products that we want to 
develop.

[[Page 12685]]

  The fellow from the SBA, the Small Business Administration, raised 
his hand--you know, I kind of see him wanting to jump into the 
conversation--so I called on him and he said: we can help.
  I am going: You are from the government, and you can help? He said: 
we can help, we can help, we have a voucher program.
  I didn't know this existed in the Small Business Administration, but 
they have a voucher program that a small business that wants to connect 
to one of the national laboratories or one of the universities can get 
a voucher that is worth a certain amount of money, take it down to the 
laboratory, and begin to work with the laboratory on transferring 
technology to that business.
  Wow, I mean, do businesses know that such a thing exists? Are we 
promoting that? Are we supporting the Small Business Administration, so 
that they can help these small businesses in really what I think is a 
unique and wonderful way?
  I interrupted you. My apologizes, Mr. Tonko.
  Mr. TONKO. No, no. It is fine because you are just speaking to the 
point of listening and responding, learning from our constituents, 
learning from the front line of the business community and the worker 
community. Basically, when we travel this route, if we gather the 
information and then act accordingly, great things can happen. 
Prosperity blooms and blossoms.
  I believe that when the business community is speaking--from small to 
medium to large industry--when they are telling us we need workforce 
development investment, we ought to listen. When they are telling us 
they need immigration reform, we ought to listen. When they are talking 
about reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank, we ought to listen.
  When they talk about incentives that modernize and transfer and 
transition traditional manufacturing into advanced manufacturing, we 
ought to listen. The list goes on and on.
  Just recently, I toured a manufacturing center, a factory in my 
district. My grandparents called the district I represent home. 
Ironically, a set of them worked in that factory. I am a product of 
immigrants--grandparent immigrants, who were dairy farmers and factory 
workers.
  Those factory workers worked on that same floor that we were 
visiting, those grandparents--my grandparents. One couldn't help but 
wonder the equipment changes that have come in those decades that have 
passed. While they wove carpets--they were weavers in that carpet 
industry--today, they are weaving fiber strands for defense contracts, 
for huge equipment out there.
  The owner implies and states to me that: I can't compete, I have to 
offer my product at a 1985 price level.
  Why? One would ask why? He responded rather quickly and 
theoretically: a, our foreign competitors are subsidized by their 
government--they oftentimes own the factory, the government owns the 
factory. In this case, China manipulates the currency.
  He said: you take away any of those factors, any one, and I can 
compete; you take all of them away, and I am a winner, hands down.
  When our communities speak to us--in this case, workers, businesses, 
management--when they speak, we ought to respond accordingly. I don't 
understand the lack of action on an Export-Import Bank reauthorization. 
I don't understand the dumbing down of research opportunity. I don't 
understand the lack of resources to provide for a Make It In America 
agenda fostered by the Democratic leadership of this House, 
understanding full well that we are at our best when we invest in our 
tomorrow.
  That pioneer spirit comes fully alive when we do that. Let's move 
forward with progress by committing to that order of agenda.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. There are so many pieces to this puzzle. At the top of 
our Make It In America is trade policy. Thank you for bringing that 
issue back onto the floor. It is something we constantly need to deal 
with.
  We have not talked this last year--actually, since Republicans took 
control of Congress, we have not talked about the manipulation of 
currency by China. I know when the Democrats controlled the House, we 
were putting forth legislation multiple times to address the currency 
manipulation issue, but there are many, many pieces to this trade 
policy that are relevant to us.
  As you were talking about the manufacturing, I put up one of my 
favorite photos, a Make It In America photo. You have seen my photo 
here, I am sure, of a locomotive. The American Recovery Act, a stimulus 
bill which really did work--trash it politically, but it actually 
worked--there was money for Amtrak to buy locomotives.
  In that particular section of the Recovery Act, Congress wrote--and 
you voted for it--I wasn't here at the time, I wish I was because I 
would love to take credit for this--wrote a little paragraph that said 
this money must be spent on locomotives that are 100 percent made in 
America--100 percent made in America--a couple hundred million dollars 
to build these locomotives.
  Companies looked at it. A German company said: that is a lot of 
money, we can build locomotives. Siemens, a large international 
industrial manufacturing company--located in Sacramento, building light 
rail cars--said: we can build American-made locomotives.
  They started a new manufacturing plant. They have over 600 workers 
there today. They are producing 100 percent American-made locomotives 
because of public policy. Your tax dollars are spent on American-made 
locomotives.
  That supply chain is all across this Nation--not made in Germany, 
made in America--the wheels, the trains, the tracks, the electronics, 
all of that, American-made. It is a matter of public policy. The 
Export-Import Bank, tax policy, how you are going to spend American 
taxpayer dollars--these are the things we wanted to do to jump-start 
the middle class--Make It In America.
  Mr. Tonko, we have got about 7 or 8 minutes left, so let's roll on.
  Mr. TONKO. Okay. Well, some of those trends that saw decline in some 
of the manufacturing sectors in our economy over the decades are now 
beginning to close on that gaping bit of disparity.
  Labor rates, for instance--as countries had very, very cheap labor 
rates, they witnessed that their labor population began to demand more, 
which is a sign of civilization. When you are investing your skill set, 
your brain power, into the development of products and working on that 
assembly line, you will begin to understand that remuneration for what 
you do is important.
  An order of social fairness, social justice, comes into play, 
economic justice, so the discrepancy between the labor rates has 
narrowed.
  We have earlier talked about the energy supplies and energy costs. 
Many now are citing us as the millennium of Mideast here, with the 
supply of natural gas and energy issues that are being addressed 
significantly through innovation and alternative supplies and through 
natural gas supplies.
  So the energy quotient in that formula for manufacturing has been 
very much flipping, cycling favor for the U.S. economy.
  As these major factors begin to steady our way, there is a brighter 
bit of hope out there that is launched. If we accompany that with the 
appropriate policies and attached resources, if we can adopt, if you 
would, the Democratic agenda for Make It In America, great things can 
happen.
  It takes a vision, and it takes leadership, and it takes planning so 
as to get to that point where we are investing in that pioneer spirit 
of America. I earlier talked about my grandparents and the fact that 
they claimed the 20th Congressional District in New York as their home.
  They tethered their American Dream there. They went to work in those 
factories, on those farms, and made certain they could climb that 
ladder for economic opportunity. They shared that with their children 
and their grandchildren. They wanted to make certain that this American 
Dream was

[[Page 12686]]

there for their family and then share it with others. That is us at our 
best.
  Why not invest in that American Dream, so that as families go 
forward, as they dream their dreams, as they tether those dreams, as 
they become all they can be, as they submit to an American agenda that 
has always been about opportunity, about taking your natural skills, 
talents, and abilities and investing them for your own growth, but 
certainly for the growth of community and the American culture--that 
has been us, that is our history. Let it speak to us.
  As we hear others who speak to us about the needs to grow the 
economy, let us respond. Let us do that with a keen sense of awareness, 
of empathy, of attachment to an American agenda for jobs.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Tonko, it is always a great pleasure to be on the 
floor with you. You are so clear. Your vision and your purpose is so 
very, very clear.
  The Make It In America agenda has many pieces: trade policy, tax 
policy, energy, labor, education, research, and infrastructure. All of 
it is designed for one purpose, and that is to give American working 
families an opportunity.
  It has become part of our jump-start for the middle class. This is 
our policy. These are the things that we want to do as Democrats. We 
want to see the working families of America make it. We want it made in 
America, and we want American families to be making it, so the Make It 
In America is one part of this agenda.
  When women succeed, America succeeds. This is the fact that a 
majority of the workforce in America is now women. The reality is they 
make 70 cents on the dollar for every man that makes a dollar, so we 
need to address that. We need to make sure that they have the 
opportunities.
  Right now, there is an increasing concern about on-demand labor, 
which is mostly women. You can imagine the destruction to family life 
when a woman that is working at a retail store gets a phone call and 
has to immediately report to work for 3, 4, or 5 hours.
  This is craziness, but there is a whole series of family-friendly 
policies for women that are involved in this issue, including the 
minimum wage.
  Finally, the issue of education, which we have talked about. These 
are the jump-start the middle class policies that we are pushing 
forward.
  Make It In America is the agenda that you and I have talked about so 
many times here on the floor--little progress is being made--but I am 
telling you, if we had the majority in this House, these pieces of 
legislation that we have talked about today would be sitting over in 
the Senate and they would be on the President's desk very, very 
quickly--critical policies for the future of this Nation, critical 
policies for the working men and women and the families of America.
  We intend to do it. We intend to see this agenda, the agenda for the 
working men and women advance.
  Mr. Tonko, do you want to have another 30 seconds before we are told 
to wrap?
  Mr. TONKO. Absolutely. Just underscoring your statement that when 
women succeed, America succeeds--when women succeed, that lifts all 
families, whether it is a single female head of family, whether it is a 
male-female household, two women in the household, whatever it is, 
across the board, that is a win situation.

                              {time}  2030

  So families prosper, families succeed, and then, of course, America 
succeeds. Again, a multifaceted agenda that speaks to core needs. It 
speaks to social and economic justice. It speaks to the fact that pay 
equity and equal pay for equal work is a cornerstone to our women 
succeed, America succeeds agenda, the minimum wage being lifted, and 
certainly quality child care, affordable child care. That is what 
sustains the agenda, so that when women succeed, families succeed, 
America succeeds. We move forward with a vibrancy that began with its 
underpinnings of support here on the Hill in Washington, with Congress 
working toward the needs of workers and the business community and 
making certain that we respond to the present-day needs that exist out 
there that only build upon the richness of history and allow America to 
truly succeed.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Tonko and Ms. Kaptur, thank you so very much for 
joining us tonight.
  America will make it when we Make It In America.
  I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________