Recognizing the remarkable contributions of the American Council of Engineering Companies for its 100 years of service to the engineering industry and the Nation.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 447) recognizing the remarkable contributions of the American Council of Engineering Companies for its 100 years of service to the engineering industry and the Nation.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on House Resolution 447, the resolution now under consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I may consume.

I rise today in support of House Resolution 447, recognizing the remarkable contributions of the American Council of Engineering Companies for its 100 years of service to the engineering industry and our Nation. I also want to thank the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Shuler) for introducing this resolution.

The American Council of Engineering Companies is the oldest and largest business association representing America's engineering industry. It represents more than 5,000 engineering firms that employ more than 500,000 engineers, architects, land surveyors, scientists and others. Its members engage in a wide range of engineering work, including designing the infrastructure, energy and technological projects that contribute to our economy and our quality of life.

The American Council of Engineering Companies traces its roots back to 1909, when a group of engineers in private practice established the American Institute of Consulting Engineers. Today, the American Council of Engineering Companies is a large federation of 51 State and regional councils representing a large section of America's engineering industry.

I congratulate the American Council of Engineering Companies on its 100 years of service and urge passage of House Resolution 447.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I now yield 3 minutes to Representative Earl Blumenauer of the State of Oregon. He is an outspoken voice for energy and environment matters and understands the role of engineers in that entire process.

Mr. Speaker, as an engineer serving in the House, I want to commend Representative Shuler for his work on House Resolution 447, which recognizes the American Council of Engineering Companies for its 100 years of service. Obviously the impact made by engineers and related scientists on our society is profound.

We need them to continue through their professionalism to lead us along the ways of discovery of creating new concepts and certainly designs that will lift us as a society. This Nation relies heavily on their professionalism and their services, and they will be those agents that transition this economy to an innovation economy.

So I would ask that our colleagues strongly support House Resolution 447.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back my time.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Thank you. I appreciate the gentleman's courtesy and his leadership.

If you spend a little time around here and work on a variety of issues, occasionally the various awards and honorary memberships come your way. Well, I am pleased to be an honorary fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers. Nothing gives me more pride.

In the fight to rebuild and renew America, the American Council of Engineering Companies is in the forefront. ACEC provides, as referenced by my colleagues on the floor, the technical know-how to plan, develop design projects and help manage them through construction. These companies are at the heart of the essential building blocks of the built environment, the bridges, roads, water, sanitation, transit, rail, buildings, environmental protection and cleanup. They are leaders in the policy areas as well.

We have watched the engineering profession provide leadership and insight, counsel and advice in dealing with the reauthorization of our transportation bill, dealing with the recent legislation we have offered for a water trust fund, and with the reinstitution of the Superfund, the accountability that the ASCE has provided with an invaluable report card on the State of American infrastructure. They have done the study on a repeated basis, most recently issuing a new report that showed that we are still rated about a ``D'' in all the different categories. They do this on an ongoing basis to provide information that policymakers, businesses, the media can rely upon. Nobody else does it as well and as systematically.

For years, Congress has ducked the tough questions of accountability and finance. Here again, ACEC is in the forefront.

There are lots of jokes about engineers and the pocket-protector crowd, but I am deeply appreciative of how the American Council of Engineering Companies, and their thousands of engineers across the country, are playing a critical role in rebuilding and renewing America and making sure our communities are more liveable, our families are safer, healthier and more economically secure.

I hope our Members not only celebrate this 100th anniversary, but maybe use this as an opportunity to take the time to look at the resources that ACEC gives to us to help us do our job better.

I thank you for recognizing me, and I wish to join in the accolades. You just heard from the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer) about the pocket-protector crowd, and I am proud to say that I am a member of the pocket-protector crowd, although I am not an engineer; I am a physicist. But I rise to commend the engineers for the work that they do and to recognize not just the companies--you have already heard all the companies lauded, and they do great and marvelous work--but the engineers behind it are also essential.

Whenever you step on an elevator, whenever you drive your car, whenever you go down a road or across a bridge, you are using engineering products. Throughout your entire life everything you touch, almost everything you do is related to engineers who designed and built the objects that you are using.

We fail to recognize the importance of this. Other countries have not failed to. India, for example, which has a much bigger population than the U.S., is now producing more engineers than we do.

China, with a very large population, is producing considerably more engineers than we do. If we want to maintain our preeminent position as a Nation, we have to provide more emphasis and more incentives to engineers, and especially incentives to students to get into the engineering profession.

And that is why it is extremely important that we improve our math and science curricula in the elementary and secondary schools, because it has become true that if students don't study enough math or science in the elementary and secondary schools, they will not go into engineering when they get to the university because they simply don't have the right background. So it is essential that we develop better programs and better-trained teachers for elementary and secondary school math and science courses, so that we can once again capture the lead in engineering and manufacturing that we have had for many years and which we are in danger of losing.

So I urge that, as we celebrate what this particular organization has done, we also recognize that they need good engineers to accomplish their objectives and we, as a Congress, have a responsibility to make sure that we train the people who will become the engineers of the future.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to express my support for H. Res. 447 and recognize the American Council of Engineering Companies for its 100 years of service to the engineering industry and the Nation. In Indiana, the American Council of Engineers has been active for 50 years and currently represents over 100 firms throughout the state.

The engineering industry has been responsible for tremendous developments in the transportation, environmental and energy infrastructure that contribute to our economic success. Indiana has long been known as the ``Crossroads of America'' and our transportation infrastructure is fundamental to our economic health. Engineers design and create critical infrastructure to help ensure the goods we produce in our area are able to move to market.

My Congressional District is the manufacturing center of the country and has the highest percentage manufacturing jobs in the United States. However, in recent years, these positions are increasingly becoming more hi-tech and require higher levels of skills and training.

The American Council of Engineering Companies of Indiana is helping to meet this need through college scholarship programs that awarded $17,500 in 2009 to Indiana residents who are pursuing a Bachelors or Masters in engineering at an Indiana school. With programs like Project ``Lead the Way,'' the American Council of Engineering Companies partners with Middle Schools and High Schools to promote engineering, and make science and math relevant to young students by demonstrating how these technical skills can be applied in every day life.

Through these educational outreach programs, the American College of Engineering Companies is working to address the need for a skilled workforce and helping to generate interest in the math and science skills necessary for the next generation to succeed in our competitive global economy.

I ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing the American Council of Engineering Companies on its 100th year anniversary.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I rise today, of course, in support of House Resolution 447, recognizing the very remarkable contributions of the American Council of Engineering Companies for its 100 years of service to the engineering industry and to the Nation. ACEC is a large federation of 51 State and regional councils representing the great breadth of America's engineering industry. This includes one of the largest councils serving 325 firms in my home State of Texas.

ACEC represents more than 5,000 engineering firms that employ more than 500,000 engineers, architects, land surveyors, scientists and other specialists responsible for more than $100 billion of private and public works annually.

It's an effective and growing advocate for advancing the practice of consulting engineering and the promotion of private enterprise, working to further the business interests and opportunities of the world's most respected engineering companies, those that design and build the roads, the bridges, the subways and the airports, industrial facilities and water systems of America. These buildings and infrastructure have truly been the backbone of American commerce and industry during the last 100 years. The ACEC member companies that have helped to construct them will no doubt be on the front lines of the economic recovery that lies ahead of us.

I commend ACEC and its member companies and employees for the immeasurable service and contribution to the country.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Boozman).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Michigan, Dr. Ehlers.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.