Make It in America
Floor Speech
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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 very 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.
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