Make it in America

Floor Speech

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Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Speaker, before I start, I would like to ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the subject of Manufacturing in America. This is the subject of my Special Order tonight.

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from California?

There was no objection.

Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Speaker, if I might just review with you and others what's happened since 2007 here in the United States. As this diagram indicates, beginning in 2007, the Great Recession during the George W. Bush administration, reaching its lowest point

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in December of 2008 and January of 2009 where 750,000 jobs were lost. The Barack Obama administration came in in January of 2009 and within 2 months passed the first stimulus bill which leveled off the decline and slowly began the recovery of the American economy. And most every month since January of 2009 we've seen an improvement, so that in this year, in 2010, we are now seeing small, but important, gains in the employment in America. Some 600,000 jobs have been created over the last several months. This is the result of policies that were enacted by the Democratic Congress, the Senate, and signed by the President.

Those policies we need to understand. They began with the stimulus bill and carried on through several other pieces of legislation. In each and every one of those pieces of legislation, there was no help from our Republican colleagues. They were absent. They voted ``no'' on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act; they voted ``no'' on the Workers, Homeownership, and Business Assistance Act--93 percent of them voted ``no.'' One hundred percent voted ``no'' on the stimulus even though, as you can see from the charts here, it stabilized the economy and then led to 2.8 million people keeping their jobs and getting a job here in the United States.

The Student Aid and Financial Responsibility Act, 100 percent of Republicans voted ``no,'' denying students larger loans, greater Pell Grants, and it goes on and on. The Cash for Clunkers--and we will hear from Ohio in a few moments--a majority of the Republicans voted ``no.'' The Democrats had to carry the day. The hiring incentives to restore employment, the HIRE Act, creating 300,000 jobs, again, it was the Democrats; the Republicans voted ``no.''

So after this 18 months of concerted effort to create jobs in America through the various stimulus programs, such as the Cash for Clunkers, the homeowners assistance programs, all of those, we're seeing an improvement. But this was the first 18 months. We are now moving on to the second half of the Democratic agenda. If I might just reach over here, this is the second half of the Democratic agenda, Make It in America; Make It in America so that America can make it.

Manufacturing matters, and that's the subject of our discussion. The first 18 months, get people back to work, stimulate the economy, set a solid foundation. We are now on the road to permanent improvement in the American economy through manufacturing.

Joining me here tonight are my colleagues from Wisconsin and from the great State of Ohio to talk about manufacturing in the Heartland--some of it a little cool, or cold, depending on the time of the year, and some of it, the central part of America's manufacturing sector.

I would like to ask the gentlewoman from Ohio, Betty Sutton, to join us and share with us her experiences about the great State of Ohio and ``making it in America.''

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Mr. GARAMENDI. There was significant reform of the mortgage industry with the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, and there was also a provision--well, it wasn't in the Wall Street Reform Act, but there is a debate going on now here in Congress and in the Senate about what to do with this executive pay, with this 300-1 ratio. That is the question of:

Do we continue the middle class tax cuts, and do we let the tax cuts expire that the Bush administration put in for the high and the mighty and the wealthy?

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Mr. GARAMENDI. Before you go to the next issue, I recall a piece of legislation that we had on the floor more than a month ago. That piece of legislation dealt with corporate tax breaks. It ended corporate tax breaks for corporations that ship jobs offshore. When a corporation under the present Tax Code sends a job offshore, it gets a tax break. It amounts to $14.5 billion a year.

Would you put that previous one back up?

Mr. KAGEN. I sure will. Do you want the 22 cents an hour?

Mr. GARAMENDI. The 82 or the 22 cents an hour. Either way.

So, if a corporation were to be making shirts, ties, or suits here in America, it could ship those jobs to China or to Cambodia and get a tax break. Now, this House voted to end that tax break. We voted to end that tax break.

Mr. KAGEN. But it was Democrats.

Mr. GARAMENDI. Again, whose side are you on?

Mr. KAGEN. Right.

Mr. GARAMENDI. Every Republican voted to continue that corporate tax break, giving those corporations tax advantages, literally giving them our tax money so that they could offshore that garment worker's job.

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Mr. GARAMENDI. Let me, if I might, just bring that to the West Coast. The San Francisco Bay Bridge, from Oakland to San Francisco, major artery, had a problem with the Loma Prieta earthquake and had to be rebuilt. It's been a long process to rebuild. It's going to be a magnificent new bridge.

The CalTrans, California Transportation Authority went out to bid. An American contractor proposed two bids. One bid was the steel would be manufactured and fabricated here in the United States; the other bid was the steel would be manufactured and fabricated in China. There was a 10 percent difference. The State of California chose to save 10 percent, and all of the steel winds up being imported from China.

We lost jobs. This is an example of where our tax money, and that's exactly what it is, was not used to support American jobs but, rather, used to support jobs in China. For what, 10 percent?

It turns out it actually turned out to be more expensive because the Chinese welds in the fabrication were not satisfactory, were purposely hidden, and it was only because an inspector finally arrived from California, looked at it and said, Oh, my. This will not work. So they had to go back and do the whole thing over.

One example. I'll give you more examples as we go down here, but I'm telling you this: We can make it in America.

Wind turbines. We led in the development of wind turbines. We're spending billions of dollars a year to subsidize the wind turbine industry.

China said, Oh, we've got wind in China. Let's build wind turbines. They have excluded every international company except a Chinese company in the manufacturing of turbines, and now they are exporting those turbines to America.

The same way with solar panels, photovoltaic panels. And I'll come to buses a little later. But this is something that I find extraordinarily wrong, and we're going to change it. And before this conversation is over, we're going to talk about how it can change.

Mr. Kagen--excuse me. Dr. Kagen.

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Mr. GARAMENDI. At the beginning of this discussion, the gentlewoman from Ohio talked about the wise use of our tax money, in this case in the water systems and the sanitation systems, to use that tax money for materials and products and machines that are built in America. That's but one example. It's a very good example, because we desperately need that infrastructure. It's the foundation for quality life, for healthy life, as well as for building our economy.

There's another one that came to me in this process. Actually, today I had a telephone town hall, and a fellow said, you know, in Vallejo, California, the old shipyard at Vallejo, Mare Island Shipyard, has this huge building, and one of the European train companies is setting up a shop there. They don't know what they are going to do with it, but is there some way that you could help that company bring to Vallejo, California, and Mare Island jobs to refurbish trains? And my answer was, yes, absolutely.

We have had a buy American provision in your tax money for years and years. There has also been in the law four waivers that Secretaries of Transportation have used repeatedly for more than 20 years now to waive off, forget about, ignore the buy America clause. So about $5 billion a year of our gasoline tax money is used not to buy buses and trains and light rail cars made in America, but rather made overseas.

So my answer to this gentleman was a piece of legislation that I have introduced, a lot of support among my Democratic colleagues to simply tell the Secretary of Transportation you don't have four waivers; we're eliminating three of those discretionary waivers. If the cost is more than 25 percent, then maybe you can have a waiver. But the other three waivers, they're gone. We're bringing those manufacturing jobs, those manufacturing jobs that build the buses, that build the trains, that build the BART cars, the MARTA cars, the transit cars here in Washington, DC, we are going to make those in America because, by golly, that's our tax money, and we're going to use it in America just as we're going to use our tax dollars to make those sanitation systems and water systems from American-made goods. That's our promise, and we can do it.

I talked to Secretary LaHood, the Secretary of the Department of Transportation, yesterday. I said, Mr. Secretary, I know that you have been working hard not to give waivers, but I want to give you--in fact, I want to take away three of the tools that your predecessors have used to ship jobs overseas. And he said, I'm not giving waivers. And I said, if my bill passes, you won't be able to. We're going to spend that money in America. One more example of what we can do not just for jobs today, but for tomorrow and for generations

in the future using our tax money to make it in America.

Manufacturing matters. It's the heart and soul of the middle class. It is the strength of the economy. And we're going to reestablish in America the manufacturing industries of yesterday and today, whether it's buses or trains or light rail.

Mr. Kagen, you were kind of getting agitated there. Maybe you want to add to this.

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Mr. GARAMENDI. Well, the answer is halfway home. This House passed legislation more than a month ago, and tomorrow I believe we will have that same legislation back for another vote. Our Republican colleagues universally voted ``no'' on ending the tax loophole that gives corporations $14.5 billion of our tax money to offshore American jobs. We're going to end it. We're going to put the issue back on the floor tomorrow.

The problem is the United States Senate and the Republican Party, where in the Senate one Republican Senator stands up and objects and says I'm going to filibuster, and everything stops. They got to round up 60 votes. The Republican Party controls that 60 votes, and they have repeatedly, time after time said ``no'' to jobs for American workers in the first 18 months of this Congress, where we have put 2.8 million people back to work. The Republicans in this House and in the Senate say ``no.''

I have got a solution for it. The next Senator that says, I object and I'm going to filibuster ought to be paraded down to the well of the Senate, the microphones turned on, and start talking, Mr. Senator. Let's see how long you are going to talk with the C-SPAN cameras on you. My guess is within an hour you'll make a fool of yourself. The filibuster will be over. The votes will be there to put Americans back to work.

I yield.

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Mr. GARAMENDI. Yesterday, Dr. Kagen and I were in the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee hearing, and Dr. Kagen was in the chair, and we heard from a panel of contractors and bus manufacturers that the stimulus bill actually created jobs.

Dr. Kagen, I know you have personal experience in this. You had told me about it earlier. Why don't you share that experience where Republicans say no jobs are created, yet the contractors, the voters are saying thank goodness for the stimulus bill because it kept me in business, it kept my employees employed. Dr. Kagen.

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Mr. GARAMENDI. Let me give another example of where we can set the stage for future manufacturing jobs in

America. It was America that really created the photovoltaic cells. We've lost this industry in America. This is in China. Some of it is in Europe. But it's no longer really much of a manufacturing industry in America.

We talked earlier about the wind turbines and the way in which that industry has gone offshore. We talked about the buses. It turns out that many, many economists, and certainly I would join with them, say that the future industries are green technology industries. We have to shift away from coal and oil. We needed to be energy independent. The green technologies of solar, wind, all of those biofuels and algae fuels, all of those are the industries of the future.

Yet, our tax money is not used to support those industries. All too often here's what happens: Just as in buses, our tax money is used to buy wind turbines from China or Korea. I will give you another example on the wind turbine. Let me get that wind turbine back up here so I can get excited about this.

I represent some of the biggest wind resource areas in the Nation: the Altamont Pass and the Solano wind resource area. I was out there touring it one day with one of the three companies that operate in the area. I looked at this thing. It's 400 feet tall. The blades are wider than the length of a football field. It's going round and round and generating electricity, and I said, where is it made? And the executive looks at me and said, well--I said, no, no, where is it made? He said, well, the tower is made in Korea. Oh, how about the blades? Well, the blades are coming from Europe. And I said what about the generator and all of the electronics? Well, it's not made here. It's either made in China or it's made in Europe. And I told him, I said, what's wrong with that story? And he said, well, that's where it's made. And I said you're receiving serious taxpayer subsidies to build those, to put those towers in place, and you are subsidizing China. Do you think that's right?

He goes, well--and I said, I'm going to promise you this. I'm going to go back to Washington and I'm going to introduce legislation that says in the green technology, all of those subsidies, all of those tax subsidies for putting the photovoltaic system on top of your roof, for building a huge, giant solar thermal system or biofuels of all kinds, and of course the wind turbines, if you want that tax subsidy, it's going to be made in America or else you will get no tax subsidy. Those are our tax dollars. Those tax dollars are going to be spent on American-made equipment. And he said, Well, I don't think we can do it. I said, Your choice; you don't want the subsidy, then you can buy it from China, but by golly, if you want a subsidy, you're going to buy American-made equipment.

That bill is introduced. It is going to move because Democrats understand American taxpayer money, whether it's building a sanitation system or a water system or paying for a wind turbine or a photovoltaic system on top of your house, those are going to be made in America.

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Mr. GARAMENDI. Well, we have about 10 minutes left, and I would like to bring us back really to where we started, or where I started this discussion, and that is, for the first 18 months, the strategy of the Democratic Party in this House, in the Senate, and with President Obama has been to stabilize the American economy. Let me go back to this. Let's review what was happening.

Beginning in December of 2007, the last 2 years of the George W. Bush administration, the American economy slid into a recession. It became the greatest recession in America's recent history, since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

By December of 2008, in January of 2009, the last months of the Bush administration, we were losing over 700,000 jobs, 750,000 jobs a month. President Obama came in and my two colleagues here--I was not yet in Congress, having just joined last November--you put through the stimulus bill, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. It stabilized. It stopped the slide, and people began to go back to work, with the largest, middle class tax cut in America's history, the largest middle class tax cut ever in American history. There were major investments in infrastructure. The result, after 18 months, was 2.8 million Americans working that otherwise would have been out of work or had gone back to work; 2.8 million Americans.

We see that here. We see the improvement, the monthly reduction in the number of people losing jobs. So that by this year, 2010, after 1 year of the stimulus program and other programs that were all voted on by Democrats with virtually no Republican support, we began to see job growth; not enough, not nearly enough.

We are now shifting gears. We are into the second half. We have stabilized the first half. We have reached some improvement, and now, now it is the second half.

In the second half, manufacturing matters. This is the heart, the soul, the strength of the American economy, and it is where the middle class makes it. It happens to be, as you so eloquently pointed out, Dr. Kagen, it is where the middle class lost. When those manufacturing jobs were shipped overseas, middle class lost. We will make it in America when we manufacture once again in America.

Both of my colleagues here have laid out some very important elements. One is the international competition, and I would like, Dr. Kagen, if you could review with us the international competition and the disadvantage of one--both hands tied behind the American manufacturer's back.

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Mr. GARAMENDI. Before I turn to the gentlewoman from Ohio, I want to pick up that tax policy. American tax policy, probably set by both Democrats and Republicans in the past decades, gave an advantage to United States corporations that would offshore American jobs with a tax credit, $14.5 billion a year.

The end of those credits came to the floor a month ago on a piece of legislation that would end those tax breaks that American corporations have for offshoring jobs. The Democrats voted to move that to the Senate. Not one Republican voted for ending those despicable tax breaks that the corporations have.

There is a difference here. Where do you stand? For whom do you fight?

Now, the gentlewoman from Ohio started us off talking about how we might use our tax money more wisely. Would you please bring us back to the reality of what's going on in your district and how this would benefit your district.

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Mr. GARAMENDI. How correct you are. And we would reach out to our Republican colleagues and ask them to join us on Making It in America.

We've had enough of our tax dollars shipped overseas to buy buses that are manufactured overseas, to buy trains and ferries. Our tax dollars need to be spent at home. If it's a water system, a sanitation system, a bus, if it's our tax dollars, make it in America. If it's our tax dollars, then let's use it to make our future energy supplies--wind turbines, solar systems--make it in America. It's our mission, in the second half of this session, to make it in America.

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