Jobs in America

Floor Speech

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Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for taking the floor, and I thank the gentleman from New York for joining in. I think that we are on the cusp of a real expansion and reinvigoration of our manufacturing sector in this country for a lot of reasons that I point out around the country, and I know the two of you do as well.

First of all, salaries are going up overseas. That's good news for them and, frankly, for us.

Furthermore, as we all know, it's costing a lot more to ship goods back to the biggest market in the world than it used to.

Thirdly, I think both of you have talked about energy. We are about to become an energy-independent Nation with energy that has a cost less than most of our competitors around the world, so we have become, in a relatively short period of time, I think, in many respects, the venue of choice for someone who wants to either expand or establish manufacturing here in this country or, frankly, continue to grow things in this country.

As you know, our Make It in America agenda really has four component parts. One is having a plan. Nobody talks about this more than John Garamendi of California, and God bless you for that. Thank you so much for your leadership on this issue. And Paul Tonko from New York also has been very focused on this issue, and I thank him for that.

The second part of the agenda is to not only have a plan, but be focused on exports, be focused on building markets for small, medium, and large businesses. Large businesses have the resources to look for markets themselves. In many respects, small- and medium-sized businesses do not, but they are producing products that they can sell not only here but around the world.

President Obama was in Baltimore not too long ago at a relatively small company, Ellicott Dredges, in Baltimore. They have sold dredges to over 100 countries in the world, and they are making those dredges in America.

The third part is to encourage bringing jobs home, not sending them overseas. It makes no sense to have a tax policy that gives benefits to people who are sending job overseas while we have millions of Americans who can't find jobs. So what we want to do is incentivize bringing jobs home by giving a tax break for not only bringing jobs home, but creating jobs here in America.

Lastly--you both referenced this--we need to make sure that we have a 21st century workforce. As a result, we need to invest, as the gentleman from New York just said--I am just repeating his words, but I use them all the time as well--we need to invest in education, innovation, and infrastructure. That's what helps you grow American manufacturing jobs. And Americans, when they're polled, over 85 percent of them say, if America is going to be the kind of country we want it to be, it will be because we make things here in the United States of America. And the ``Made in America'' label is seen all over the world. In fact, the ``Made in America'' label is a very popular label all over the world.

So I want to thank the gentleman from California (Mr. Garamendi) and the gentleman from New York for their leadership and their focus on what is critical: if the next generation of Americans is going to make it, that we provide the kinds of jobs and opportunity, as well as education and investment in innovation, that they need to continue to live in the most successful economic country on the face of the Earth. I thank the gentleman for his leadership.

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