The Stimulus Plan
Floor Speech
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Mr. JORDAN of Ohio. Well, thank you. I appreciate the gentleman for
yielding and for this Special Order on just a critical issue highlighting why you should never start down this road where government is making decisions in private enterprise.
But the gentleman related 2 weeks ago in Judiciary Committee we had auto dealers, we had experts, and two experts on the auto industry, unlike the auto task force, which has no manufacturing experience, no auto dealer business experience. We had real experts in there talking about the fact that these handful of people who are making decisions that impact so many communities and so many families across this country really have just that, no experience whatsoever in manufacturing, and particularly auto manufacturing.
I just appreciate my colleagues from the Buckeye State pointing out--here's what is so frustrating. Government caused this problem, and now government is going to fix it? I mean, the CAFE standards artificially plucked out of the air, which are the reason, frankly, one of the reasons that the stamping facility in the Fourth Congressional District was closed down, announced foreclosure this Monday. The lack of what I call a coherent, commonsense energy policy.
Let's remember where we were last summer that really started to lead to this situation. It was $4 gasoline. And the fact that we don't use the natural resources we have in this country to help this situation and specifically to help this industry. Again, a failure of government to do the right thing, which helped bring us to this day.
Frankly, we're only going to make it worse, as my colleagues know, if we pass this crazy cap-and-trade concept, which will make it even tougher for manufacturing and auto manufacturing. So that's the frustrating part.
One last point before I yield back to my colleague. I was on a conference call Sunday night with some of the members of the auto task force briefing Members of Congress about what was going to happen with the restructuring at General Motors and, frankly, the announcements that were going to occur the next day, June 1, 2009, when 11 GM facilities, an announcement was made they were going to close. Again, one of which was in Ontario, Ohio, in Richland County in the Fourth Congressional District.
Mr. Sperling, a member of the auto task force, stated in his comments that the government, the auto task force, wasn't going to be involved in day-to-day decisions about General Motors. They would only get involved if it was a ``major event.''
And so when his comments were done and Members of Congress began to ask questions, I finally got around to my turn and I said, Mr. Sperling, you indicated in your opening comments that the auto task force, the government would only get involved if it was a major event. I said, It's going to be pretty major tomorrow when they shut down 11 facilities in 11 congressional districts. What is your definition of ``major''?
And here's the scary thing. He didn't have one. He said it could be a merger, it could be a major change in corporate philosophy. He didn't have a definition, which just tells you they can do whatever they want, whenever they want, and that's why it's so appropriate what Mr. LaTourette and Mr. Tiberi are doing here tonight on the floor of the House of Representatives, showing the chaos that they have caused in all kinds of congressional districts, in all kinds of families and communities around this country.
So I want to applaud, again, the Member from Ohio and his hard work in trying to get to the bottom of this and letting the American people know what is really going on out there in this important industry in our country.
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Mr. JORDAN of Ohio. I think this is important to understand. If President Obama can fire the CEO of General Motors, then he can keep a facility open. Frankly, his task force and members of his Cabinet, who are traveling across the Midwest right now, who are in our State, in Ohio as we speak--they were there yesterday and today--they owe it to those communities like Twinsburg, like Ontario. They owe it the those workers, those families to go to those facilities, look those workers in the eye and explain to them why they chose to shut down their facility and keep another one open. They owe that to them.
This is coming from someone whose father worked 30 years at a General Motors facility in Dayton, Ohio. I know what it's like for those families. I remember when I was a kid and there was talk of a possible layoff, talk
of a possible strike. The emotion that that causes in a family and the concern that caused within a family is real.
So we know what these families are going through in Twinsburg, Ohio, and Ontario, Ohio, and Michigan and other States. We know what they're going through. Frankly, the auto task force owes it to those families to come to those communities and explain to them why they're closing their facility.
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