Make It In America
Floor Speech
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Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Speaker, it's a great privilege to stand here on the floor of the House even at this late hour as we prepare to hear, tomorrow, the President of the United States come before a joint session of Congress to talk about how America can get back on the right road, on the road to recovery from this long recession, and how we can create jobs here in the United States.
For many, many months now, my colleagues and I have been here on the floor and have submitted legislation time after time and week after week talking about specific programs to create jobs. I want to thank my colleague on the Republican side of the aisle for his presentation and the solution of doing away with regulations as the way of creating jobs.
He mentioned getting government out of the way, and he also mentioned the Hoover Dam--which was built with borrowed money. Yes, they borrowed money to build the dam, and it did in fact create jobs. Now, whether there were regulations or not, the fact was that the United States created an enormous infrastructure system in the past, and for the last decade, we've done very, very little, even though we borrowed a vast amount of money to build infrastructure projects in Iraq and Afghanistan but precious few here in the United States. We need to bring that money back home. We need to build those infrastructure projects here.
By all expectation, tomorrow, when the President stands here before us, he will be talking about infrastructure, as he should. It is the foundation upon which we build any economy, and it's certainly the foundation upon which the American economy has been built and succeeds such as it is today.
We need an infrastructure bank. We need to take money that we will borrow at about a 1 or 2 percent interest rate for a 10-year note, put that money into an infrastructure bank, let's say it's $20 billion, reach out to the pension funds--in my State of California, CalPERS and CalSTRS, the public pension funds--and say, Here, invest in this infrastructure bank so we can build projects in California, so that we can put in place the levees to protect us from floods, so we can put in place the communication systems, the fiberoptic cables, so that we can build the sanitation facilities, the water recycling facilities, the dams that we need for a growing population in a State that once again could be growing if we put in place the infrastructure; nothing modest but, rather, a bold program, a bold program to build America's infrastructure, to rebuild the bridges, to rebuild those facilities that are crumbling as a result of years of inattention. Infrastructure, construction jobs, putting people to work.
As the President said on Labor Day, there are a lot of construction men and women out there that are prepared to get dirty on the job once again to end their unemployment. That's one project that I am sure the President will be putting forth to this Congress, and the question to my Republican colleagues: Are they ready to be bold? Are they ready to step forward and put America back to work or only talk about regulations and doing away with regulations?
While we're talking about regulations, one of the regulations they want to do away with is one that would prevent mercury from being in our water and air. It's as though somehow they must think that mercury is good for children and adults. We don't need more mad hatters around. What we really need is a safe, clean environment, and those are the regulations that are out there.
Oh, by the way, if you want to stop our regulations, I suppose you would stop the President's effort to roll back those regulations that have no good purpose.
Yes, indeed, the current administration is in the process of reviewing the regulations and eliminating, rolling back and modifying those that no longer serve a good useful purpose in protecting Americans.
So, here tomorrow, we'll have the President speaking here on the floor of the Congress, talking about putting men and women back to work. We're some 250-plus days into this year and, to date, not one Republican bill has been brought to the floor that would create one job. A lot of bills have been brought to the floor that would actually eliminate tens of thousands, indeed, hundreds of thousands of jobs.
What we need to do is not to address the deficit with immediate cuts that actually constrain and restrict the economy. An austerity budget is not called for as we limp along in the current economy, but, rather, a growth budget, infrastructure bank being but one example.
There are numerous other examples; a tax policy, a tax policy that's rational.
Let me just put this all in the context, for a moment, of what we talk about on the Democratic side, which is jobs, putting people back to work. We can do that. And the Make It in America agenda, which I have here, is just that kind of agenda to put Americans back to work.
We talked already about infrastructure, which is down here. It's not at the bottom of this list; it just happens to be at the bottom here. It's the Number 1 thing that's on the agenda.
We also should talk about research. Yesterday I was in Davis, California, invited there by a biotech company that uses biotechnology to manufacture bio-herbicides and bio-pesticides. These are naturally occurring chemical compounds found in plants and animals and bugs that actually kill bugs or kill other plants. They formulate this, using research that comes out of the universities in California and around the nation. That research is extraordinarily important. It's creating a whole new industry of safe, biologically derived chemicals that are safe in the environment, that actually come from the environment and kill bugs in agriculture, or unwanted plants. That's what we need. That's the research agenda part of making it in America.
Now, I notice that joining me on the floor is my colleague and part of our east coast/west coast operation, Paul Tonko from the State of New York. Earlier today PAUL and I were talking here on the floor as we were voting, and he was showing me some pictures of the devastation that has occurred in his part of New York State. And out of that conversation came, once again, the word ``infrastructure.''
Mr. Tonko, I'm very sorry about what's happened in your district and New England and here on the east coast. We've had our disasters in California in the past. Not this year, and we're thankful for that. Our hearts reach out to you and your constituents as they go about rebuilding. I think you were saying even today there may be another flood.
Paul Tonko, Representative from the State of New York, thank you for joining us this evening.
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Mr. GARAMENDI. Representative Tonko so well explained with great passion the problems that his constituents are facing at this very moment, as, once again, the floodwaters rise in his district and throughout the Northeast. Actually, I guess it's most of the east coast as that tropical storm starting on the gulf is now finding its way all the way up the east coast.
Our prayers go out to all the people that have suffered thus far, and our hopes that this will not be a repetition of the devastating floods of last week.
You also brought to our attention the need to rebuild. This is part of the community of America. We're a community. We're 380 million, but we're still a community. We call ourselves Americans. And in these times of disaster, we must come together as a community bringing what resources are necessary, not what's available, that are necessary to rebuild to get people back on the path of living their lives in a safe, harmonious community with the necessary resources to carry out their goals so they can have a job, so that they can rebuild their manufacturing facilities. That fits into the Make It In America agenda.
As we go about that rebuilding, and we've all seen the pictures of the washed-out roads you mentioned, and you showed me the picture of the lock. Was that an Erie Canal lock?
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Mr. GARAMENDI. You're talking about real patriotism. You're talking about real American patriotism, the great strength of this Nation. First of all, our compassion for each other that we're willing to sacrifice today so that you can rebuild in the Northeast. The Northeast has done that or all of America has done that many, many times for California because it seems to have more than its share of disasters.
But across this Nation, this year we've seen natural disaster after natural disaster occur with billions of dollars of loss. As Americans, it is our patriotic duty, it is our community to reach out to help rebuild. As we rebuild, if we keep in mind these seven principles of the Make It In America agenda, we'll not only put people back on their feet, but we will strengthen the American economy.
You mentioned that lock that was taken out, the historic nature of it. It's been rebuilt. I saw the picture. It's a modern piece of equipment. But if that equipment is made in America, it's not only going to help the economy and your community once it gets back into place and the commerce that results from it is restarted, but it will also mean jobs for steelworkers who are making the steel, the fabricators who are building the lock, the engineers, and even the regulators that are making sure the lock goes in in a safe and appropriate way. Those are all American jobs.
So part of the rebuilding of America is the Make It In America, so that Americans can make it once again.
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Mr. GARAMENDI. Thank you very much.
You're quite correct about how we pay for all of this. We know that we're going to be borrowing money to rebuild these communities, as we should and as we must and as it is our purpose in a community. But in doing that, we must be very careful not to offset that expenditure in some way that harms others, for example, the educational system.
Now, tomorrow, we have a bill on the floor dealing with charter schools and the funding of charter schools, both the physical plant as well as the educational programs in charter schools. It seems to me that if a charter school is to be built, or any school for that matter, it's our tax money, either local or Federal or State tax money, that that money ought to be used to buy American-made equipment--American-made roofing, American-made concrete and steel--so that our tax money is used to buy American made.
If you want to use your own money, and anybody out there that wants to go buy a solar cell for their house and they're using their own money, fine, buy anything you want to buy. But if you want to use our tax money as a subsidy for that solar system, then, by golly, it ought to be an American-made solar panel; not one made in China but, rather, one made in the United States.
Now, I have two bills that deal specifically with that. One in the energy that says, hey, you want an energy subsidy to put up this big energy clean, green solar power plant, good. We need that clean energy. But use that tax subsidy to buy American-made equipment. That way, we can rebuild our American manufacturing base.
Similarly with transportation. In transportation, we all pay 18 1/2 cents on every gallon of gas beyond the Federal excise tax. It's billions of dollars. It's used to build the roads. It's used to repair the bridges. Not enough now to keep us going but, nonetheless, billions of dollars a year. Is that tax money used to buy American-made buses and American-made trains and American-made steel and concrete? Not really. But we need legislation that says our tax money is going to be used to buy American-made equipment.
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Mr. GARAMENDI. You're absolutely correct on that.
I want to give just a couple of very quick examples of the way in which that policy finds its way into legislation, and then I want to turn to our colleague who just arrived from the great State of Texas. SHEILA, thank you so very much.
But let me just give a couple of examples. Tax policy. You're talking about a system to capture waste heat and to use it in a productive way, to generate it for electricity or for some other purpose. That's a capital investment.
When the Democrats controlled this floor, we passed legislation that allowed a business such as you've described to put that equipment into place and to write off the total investment in 1 year, in the very first year, an immediate writeoff, giving an enormous incentive to businesses to make a capital investment. Now, that's very wise tax policy put forth by the Democrats, signed by President Obama, and it's one of the kinds of tax policies and tax breaks that we think needs to be in place to grow the economy.
There are many other examples, and I can go on for several hours, but I would rather yield to my colleague from the great State of Texas.
Please tell us what's going on in Texas besides fires here and there and, once again, another disaster area in which, as America, we need to reach out and support Texas.
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Mr. GARAMENDI. We understand. There are many different kinds of disasters. There are natural disasters that we have discussed for several minutes here on the floor. There is also the disaster of not having a job, of losing your home, not being able to care for your family and seeing all of your dreams just basically disappear for lack of a job.
As we reach out, as we think about these natural disasters and our human desire to be helpful, we would also think about those millions of Americans, and we are probably talking well over 20 million, maybe 25 million Americans that do not have a job, and they are facing their own personal disaster. They need help. They need help from many different places, certainly their communities, wherever it may be, but also the Federal Government.
I know that those of us on the Democratic side of this aisle have for the last 3 years attempted and succeeded in developing programs that actually have created millions of jobs. A lot of people talk about the American Recovery Act not working. In fact, it did work. Some 3 million jobs were created. Those are not my estimates, those are estimates by the Congressional Budget Office and others. Give or take 100,000, we are talking about thousands and tens or hundreds of thousands, millions of jobs that were actually created.
We cannot go through an austerity period at this point, because people are hurting. They need help, they need jobs, and we can do it and simultaneously build the American economy by the infrastructure, putting in place the foundation, by educating, a great example. Just yesterday, I talked earlier about this biotech company that's creating bioherbicides and biopesticides. They need to hire technicians in their laboratories and in the manufacturing. They can't find them.
The education bills that we put forth that have been stopped and actually reduced by our Republican colleagues are necessary for the community colleges and other educational institutions to provide the skills needed for those people that have lost their jobs to become technicians, high-paid technicians in that new biotechnology field.
So there is where these things come together. We need to always keep in mind the millions of personal disasters that are out there as people have lost their jobs and struggled.
Representative Tonko, I know you're facing natural disasters, but when we were here in August, in early August and July, you were talking about jobs and the need for jobs in your area. Please come back and let's just pick this up again and carry it.
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Mr. GARAMENDI. Representative Tonko, as you were talking, I reached back and I found this display that we sometimes use. These are critical investments. Yes, infrastructure, the dams and the roads, those are critical investments. But here is the most critical investment of all. These are American workers being educated, getting prepared for the new technology jobs, carrying on the jobs of the future. This is where we need to make a critical investment in America, and this is a key part of the Make It In America agenda--that is, the education, labor and education, making sure our labor force is well educated and well prepared for the jobs of the future.
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Mr. GARAMENDI. It is jobs, jobs, jobs, Ms. Jackson Lee. Thank you so very much.
This is America. This is America, the strongest country in the world today. There are others that are growing, and thankfully they are. But this is America. We talk about patriotism. Some people say we are broke. We're not broke. We have troubles, to be sure, but we have an extraordinary strength in America, and that is the American worker, and they need a chance. They need a governmental system that is supporting them with education, with programs such as infrastructure, with using our tax money to buy the products that they make.
This is America. We're Americans. We are the people who get things done. Nobody has been at it longer than upstate New York. The Industrial Revolution started in your territory, Mr. Tonko, and I see the strength that you have and I see the strength your people have to rebuild after this devastating week.
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Mr. GARAMENDI. You mentioned something that just caught me like that. Public policy, public laws make a difference. I want to give you an example. You mentioned Germany and the advances that they've made in green technology.
I had the opportunity over the recess to go to a manufacturing plant owned by Siemens, a German company, one of the biggest manufacturing companies in the world, in Sacramento, California, and they are manufacturing in Sacramento, starting with just pieces of steel, and building light railcars and heavy-duty locomotives for Amtrak. I mean, this is the heaviest manufacturing that occurs in any country. It's a German company located in Sacramento, manufacturing from start to finish for American transportation systems.
Why are they doing that? Why is that German company investing millions upon millions of dollars in California to manufacture trains and locomotives? They are doing it because the American Recovery Act, the stimulus bill, said that the money must be used on American-made equipment. The laws we make on this floor, the work done here in this Capitol, will determine the future of America's manufacturing.
If we ignore the necessity of putting in place laws that say make it in America, use American taxpayer dollars to buy American-made equipment, if we ignore that, then we will see those jobs go offshore and we will see that equipment come onshore. That's not what I want. That's not what the Make It In America agenda is all about. It's about a set of policies, trade policies. Free trade, no; fair trade, yes.
China, you're manipulating your currency. There is a bill that's being held up in committee by our Republican colleagues that would force China to deal with its currency manipulation. They have a 25 to 30 percent advantage in cost simply through an unfair trade practice that China is foisting upon this Nation and others.
Taxes. We haven't talked about tax policy much, but there are tax policies that are critically important.
Energy we touched on. We'll come back to energy in the days ahead, because this is about national security. Labor, education, research, infrastructure. We've touched on that today.
We've got about 5 to 7 minutes. Let's do our lightning rounds here and we'll go round and round. That Invest in America, I like that one.
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Mr. GARAMENDI. Thank you, Mr. Tonko and Ms. Sheila Jackson Lee. Your representation of your constituents and for America is unparalleled. You are fighters. You are fighters for those people that have faced the personal disaster of losing their job, losing their home, and many of their dreams.
Tomorrow, here on the floor of this Congress, the Senate and the House will meet and we'll be listening to our President talk to us and to the American people at a moment in time that is of critical importance to the very future of this country; a moment in which we will choose a path, an aggressive path, to deal with the disaster of unemployed Americans. He will come to us with a plan. I believe it will be a bold plan. It will be comprehensive. It will cover probably many of the issues that are here on our Make it in America agenda. But I want all of us, Democrat and Republican, to take those ideas and to put them into law so that Americans can have a job so that once again they can become taxpayers, and in doing so, bring to America's Treasury the money that we need to deal with our deficit. It's a very, very important moment.
We're going to need to reach across the aisle, right down this middle aisle, reach across it, and say, okay, our colleagues here were talking earlier about regulation. There's some good that needs to come from that. There are regulations that impede progress. And on our side, we want to put people to work.
With that, we await the President tomorrow, and we'll stand with him and with all Americans to put us back to work. Thank you so very, very much.
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