Floor Statements

Thank you to the gentlewoman from California for yielding.

It is an honor this evening to join in the tribute to two very strong individuals who have represented their districts so very well, Representative Waxman and Representative Miller.

One of the benefits and one of the opportunities that comes the way of Members of this House is to stand alongside men and women of greatness who lead not only their home district and State, but the Nation--and the world, for that matter. This evening, we recognize the contributions of Henry Waxman and George Miller.

When I first arrived in the House some three terms ago, my first assignment was on the Education and Labor Committee. I thank you, Representative Miller for being an outstanding chair who enabled me to join in your sound efforts in providing for the empowerment of children, the strengthening of workers, stamping out gender discrimination, and all sorts of work that addressed not only issues of your

home State of California and my district in New York, but the entire Nation--and the world, for that matter. It has been an empowering statement.

To Henry Waxman, the ranking member of the Energy and Commerce Committee when I joined earlier in this third term, it was an honor to join with you, Henry, and to recognize the great work that you have done on climate change and energy issues, certainly on public health, from the warnings of tobacco to affordable prescription drugs and to move forward with the Affordable Care Act.

It has been an honor. It has been a great treasure to call you colleagues and friends. I want to thank you for your intellect, the institutional memory that you carry with you, and the passion that you poured forth for your State, your country, and the world.

Thank you so much for your service. We will deeply miss you.

``Thank you'' to the gentleman from New Jersey for the recognition and for leading us in this Special Order that pays tribute to Representative John Dingell.

Mr. Speaker, it is my honor to stand on the House floor this afternoon to say ``thank you'' to John Dingell.

Thank you for your service to country. Thank you for your service to the State of Michigan. Thank you for your service to your congressional districts through the years, and, certainly, thank you for your interaction and networking with your colleagues, which has crossed over party lines and has shown, in exemplary fashion, how to get business done in the House. In your tribute this evening, it is important to make mention over and over again of your service to the military by serving us in the Army and by serving us during World War II.

Also, the Great Lakes State, Michigan, has produced a leader of greatness in John Dingell.

John, it is an honor to say here, during this special tribute, that you were, indeed, everyone's coach. I know the person of humility that you are. You shed that praise when it comes your way, but make no mistake about it that it has been your coaching, your reinforcement, your encouragement to each and every one of us. Certainly, to those of us who entered as freshmen, you were right there to shadow us and to guide us and to remind us that there is a nobleness--with a small ``n''--of service through the House that can influence policy and speak to the needs of those most marginalized in our society.

To that end, I want to thank you for identifying so very strongly with struggle. You saw a struggle, and you moved to address it. Whether that be through health care, through human services, through education, and certainly through all sorts of efforts that speak to public safety, our environment, and our energy policy, you saw a struggle, and you met it head-on, and you made certain that the challenges were responded to. You showed us how to work across party lines, and you showed us how to be factual and to see your word as your honor.

With all of that, I salute you, John Dingell, as being an awesome leader who taught by example how to conduct yourself in this public arena. You are proud of your heritage. We have talked about that many times over. Those roots have fed you so very well and have enabled you to be this person of greatness coming from the Great Lakes State. So thank you so much for your service to country and to all of us here in the Chamber.

Mr. Speaker, more than 18 months ago, the Senate passed a comprehensive and bipartisan immigration bill that would strengthen neighborhoods across the country, further secure our borders, inject certainty into our economy, boost our STEM and tech community, create jobs, protect employers, keep families together, our deficit would be reduced by nearly $1 trillion, and fix our Nation's broken immigration system. That was 18 months ago.

More than a year ago, we introduced H.R. 15, the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act, which would have moved comprehensive immigration reform forward, a debate so far that has been dominated by partisan politics and obstruction.

All we are asking for is the chance to vote on the bill in this body, a simple up-or-down vote. That is all we ask. We are running out of time to act on immigration reform and pass legislation that an overwhelming majority of Americans have asked the House to approve for more than a year.

Again, I ask this body to put the interests of the country above those of party politics and give H.R. 15 the up-or-down vote it truly deserves.

Well, thank you, Representative Garamendi, for leading us in a very important discussion during this Special Order. There is no denying that all of us, Members of the House and beyond, if you are to ask individuals out there across this country if Alzheimer's or dementia issues have impacted their family, the immediate response is absolutely.

I think all of us have been touched by those devastating impacts, those outcomes that befell our loved ones, and the ripple effect onto that circle of family and friends. It is devastating. You in a sense lose that individual, and it is a very painful process certainly for those individuals living with Alzheimer's and dementia, and for their immediate families and loved ones and caregivers who watch as they painfully travel the journey with those individuals. So I think for us to take that human element, that impact and that dynamic, and put it into working order, we would be well served to acknowledge that Alzheimer's is the most expensive disease in America. It is driving bankruptcy if it goes unaddressed. And when one in every five Medicare dollars is spent on a person with Alzheimer's or dementia, the warning signals should be out there for sounder budgeting, to put our focus on a cure, on research, on developing those opportunities that will bend the cost curve, so to speak, that will enable us to address with dignity and common sense and economic sustainability the issues of Alzheimer's and dementia.

The impact upon our culture is so much so the economic drain is at about $214 billion in 2014. That is an immense economic toll that is placed upon budgets, be they Medicare, Medicaid, local budgets, or not- for-profits that make it their goal to best serve individuals, especially in their elderly years, and to be able to assist in that effort by advancing the efforts of the study of the

brain that have been initiated by this President, by President Obama and his administration, is a very, very worthy investment.

It will tell us much about several diseases out there and allow us to again approach an issue with dignity and facts at our fingertips that will then provide for the best prioritization of how to respond to those issues.

Now, much has been said about research here tonight, and rightfully so. It is very critical that we, you know, grow the investment on research. I have participated in our annual town halls that are called for in the National Alzheimer's Project Act, and that National Alzheimer's Project Act requires that we gather together to understand how well the services are coming together, what the needs are, and how we plan appropriately for ongoing budgets.

There you receive, all of us, the very disturbing testimony that reaches us, impacts our thinking, and certainly speaks to our hearts and souls about what we need to do, painful journeys that individuals have made. I can vividly recall a high school friend mentioning that her husband no longer knew her name but knew her voice. These are painful bits of testimony to absorb, and they motivate us. They ought to motivate us and challenge us to move more quickly in this effort to fund research and find a cure and find better treatments.

The efforts that I think are important here that follow the National Alzheimer's Project Act is to put together a more clinical response, and I think the Alzheimer's Accountability Act, which I have cosponsored, allows for H.R. 4351 to respond to the Alzheimer's planning in a way that clinicians and those directly involved in the service delivery system to the Alzheimer's community, they will advise what those budgeted amounts should look like in an annual effort from here to the threshold year of 2025. That is an absolute essential.

I applaud our efforts here in the House with Representative Guthrie and others--as I said, I am a cosponsor--looking to make certain that we have a much more accountable, logistic, well-planned, and professional-driven estimate that will move us forward with each and every budget year to respond to this crisis in America, and it indeed is at crisis proportion.

So Representative Garamendi, these are efforts that I think need to be made. The commitment that starts with the human element, the compassion that needs to be expressed on behalf of the people of this country via this House, via Congress, both Houses speaking to a legitimate request that authorizes the investment in research, that puts together a plan that is run by clinicians that advise the United States Government as to how to best respond, what those levels, those thresholds should be from now to the benchmark year of 2025, and to make certain that we do it all within our professional capacity in harnessing the resources that are required.

We grow, we cultivate an intellectual capacity in this country of which we are very proud, and one that should serve us abundantly well, and it is important to have our hearts and souls measure that opportunity, to put together the best blueprint for addressing this crisis. Let's move forward with a sound, resounding commitment of support to these individuals and their caregivers.

You know, when we look at the statistics out there, one in nine over the age of 65 is impacted by Alzheimer's, one in three in age category 85-plus. And guess what? That is the fastest-growing age demographic in our country. So in order to plan and plan well for the onslaught of baby boomers who will enter into these given demographics, we need to make commitments, and we need to again bend that cost curve by investing now in research, preventative therapies, and certainly study of the brain, efforts that are promoted by the President and the administration to make certain that we can move forward effectively and compassionately and allow for the best choices to be made.

So I thank you for leading us in this very important discussion, Representative Garamendi, and I am convinced that with the facts at our fingertips and with the elements of compassion and dignity that should respond to the Alzheimer's community, we can get these important measures achieved.

Absolutely. You talked too about the caregivers, and it is theorized that nearly 60 percent of those caregivers who respond to Alzheimer's patients and those living with dementia are impacted with tremendous emotional stress, and they rate that as high or very high. And then of that 60 percent of caregivers, literally one-third is suffering from some order of depression. So the impacts here continue to sprawl and cause greater expenditure for those who are doing their good deed, responding to the needs of loved ones or friends or the patient population out there, and then they are impacted by this order of depression.

It is assumed that has added additional cost to the system of our health care drain, and that is at $9.3 billion. That estimate goes over the year of 2013, so it is very easy to begin to do the calculus here on the cost of status quo, of not responding in deep measure or in wise capacity, so as to put together the sort of research that we require and the respite relief programs that are essential.

Having talked to a number of caregivers during my tenure here, now closing out my third term, but before that in the State Assembly of New York, I would routinely hear from folks who would deal with these situations, these family issues in ways that they never imagined would be possible.

I know of some spouses that indicated to me that, while they stayed home full time being the caregiver, they eventually sought employment and used every bit of that salary that came from that new employment to go toward the cost of caregivers. Now, they did that in order to save a relationship.

It was a tremendous emotional drain on their relationship because it is not easy serving as a caregiver. Individuals have told me, as spouses, that they have gone out and sought full-time employment and again passed over that salary to the respite person.

That is the sort of painful pressure under which individuals and couples--families--are living. It is a very difficult assignment many have chosen to keep their loved one at home.

There are issues of safety, economic duress, and certainly our system has to respond to that, so the sooner we set our sights on a cure, on funding that is adequate and effective for research purposes and for developing the responsiveness of the medical teams out there, via perhaps pharmaceutical assistance and development there, the better our economic situation will be in regard to these struggles.

Here is a chance for Congress to respond in very magnanimous terms that will allow us to state cumulatively that we get it, that we are there in order of compassion, that we understand it is about a dignity factor, it is about quality of life, and it is about providing hope to situations that may be rendered hopeless.

Isn't that the best element of work that we can do here to bridge that order of hope to those who have been so stressed and who have been given a walk in life, a journey that is powerfully painful?

I just appreciate the fact that we are utilizing these opportunities, such as this Special Order, to bring to the attention of those concerned with these issues to a laser-sharp focus and to allow for people to speak out there as the general public in support of measures that can be taken, of budget appropriations that can be secured, of opportunities that come in securing the resources essential to go forward and offer the fullest response that we can.

Again, health care situations are driven by this. There are huge costs if we don't respond to the needs of individuals living with Alzheimer's, and then there is that ripple effect that is happening all too frequently for the caregiver community that is also worn thin because of this assignment, because of this mission that they embrace.

It is honorable that they do these things, but we also have to work the system here on the Hill in Washington, to respond to them with a degree of reverence and common sense and fully acknowledge that there are efforts that can be made here that bend that cost curve and speak to the situations at hand in the most effective manner.

Representative Garamendi, I thank you for bringing us together on this evening of thoughtfulness here concerning dementia and Alzheimer's as a particular stress.

I would just like to attach my comments to those you have just closed your statement by.

This bankruptcy that is driven by certain catastrophic situations with health care costs are impacting far too many families, and this order of work here in the Congress is about prioritizations. We have spent trillions on war, and we have really diminished the investment in domestic programming, including health care.

We come up with all sorts of efforts called sequestration, which is a hidden attack on investments in our domestic agenda. We have to be cautious about how we are guiding those priorities that we are establishing in our budgeting here in Washington, but if we were to prioritize based on where the public demands are, let me suggest, in closing, that I have gone to the Alzheimer's walk in my district for the past several years, and every year, the same statement is made: ``This is the largest crowd ever assembled.''

It keeps growing. It tells me the consciousness of this country, that we want something done for this dreadful disease, doing something that will cure individuals who are walking and living with Alzheimer's and dementia.

The people have asked for this by their participation in local fundraising events. Is that the way that we respond to a crisis, by hoping we have good weather on the walk day, that we reach our intended goal that given year, as people are strapped with expenses of caregiving and medications?

There is a better way to complement that, to lead the effort here in Washington with the research, with the cure that can be found, with the advancements in the pharmaceutical industry to be able to extend life and enhance life and the quality of life. That is what I think is so powerful about the opportunity we have here.

I believe we can be those agents of hope. I do believe firmly that the priority here is to address this crisis that is devastating our American families and our economy. Let's go forward and be those agents of hope. Let's provide for a better tomorrow, and let's show people that there is a compassion that accompanies the efforts here in Washington.

Representative Garamendi, thank you for bringing us together on an important discussion that needs to be followed up with resources and public policy and certainly prioritization that brings us to the threshold of responsiveness that is so needed and so deserved and is so correct.

Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the time offered by the gentleman from Kentucky.

If experience has taught us anything over the past two decades, it is that the Clean Air Act has been a success. New businesses have started, the economy has grown, and the air is cleaner and, beyond that, healthier for all of us.

The adjustments to the National Ambient Air Quality Standards Act are about a large body of research on the impacts of air pollutants on human health and the environment. H.R. 4795 assumes we cannot continue that record of success. The predictions of dire consequences to our economy before and after Congress adopted the 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act have never materialized. We have, however, grown our economy and have achieved cleaner, healthier air for everyone. So, contrary to its title, this bill does nothing to promote manufacturing. It is simply another of many attempts to undermine the Clean Air Act.

Instead of bringing this partisan bill to the floor--yet another bill that has no chance of becoming law--we could be working together on legislation that would reinvigorate our domestic manufacturing sector. We could pass pending tax legislation or, better yet, tax reform, which would provide the certainty, provide the fairness, and provide the clarity that everyone needs and deserves. If it were enacted, this bill before us would be more likely to cause confusion and legal challenges than to generate new manufacturing jobs.

States develop comprehensive implementation plans that take account of all possible pollution sources and balance the needs of all stakeholders in the effort to achieve cleaner air. H.R. 4795 would allow a new facility to operate under less strict air quality standards than existing facilities if the EPA has not issued all final regulations and guidance required for any type of facility that would be covered by a newly established standard.

If the Agency would call a standard into question by issuing guidance at a time after a regulation is finalized, why would the Agency ever do that? Guidance is useful for the regulated community. As new or unique situations arise, the Agency can work with applicants to find the most appropriate and most cost-effective means for moving a project forward under the law.

It seems to me that we want to simplify the regulatory process, not complicate it, and to encourage communication and flexibility, not stifle them. We should ensure that regulations are implemented fairly and consistently, and we should facilitate communication and encourage the Agency to work with regulated entities.

H.R. 4795 is going to result in greater confusion, more legal challenges, and a less flexible regulatory process. H.R. 4795 will not provide more jobs, and it will not deliver clean air. I reject the notion that clean air and economic progress are incompatible. They simply are not. H.R. 4795 is a bad bill, and I urge its defeat.

Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the New York State Bar Association's Law, Youth and Citizenship Program on its 40th anniversary.

In 1974, the LYC was established to promote citizenship and law- related education in schools throughout New York State, imparting knowledge to 5,000 students per year for more than four decades.

Under the current leadership and the tireless efforts of Director Eileen Gerrish, the LYC engages students in one of the primary statewide education programs of its kind.

Although the institution officially turned 40 in October, this is truly a year of celebration as the school continues to meet its mission and improve communities in New York's capital region.

Along with the teachers, the civic leaders, and the students touched by this work, I congratulate the Law, Youth and Citizenship Program and wish them another 40 years of excellence in civic education.

Thank you very much, Representative Kaptur. Thank you for leading us in this discussion. We are going to be joined in a minute with our representative from Rochester, New York, Representative Louise Slaughter, and she and I, we can suggest, live along the Erie Canal Corridor, she at the western end of upstate New York, I at the eastern end.

That corridor became the birthplace of a necklace of communities dubbed ``mill towns'' with the development of the Erie Canal. Product activity, product discovery, product development was the theme ongoing in that region. People tethered their American dream in these mill towns. They came, they worked their fingers to the bone, they came up with product ideas, and that was the pulse of our community. Manufacturing was alive and well.

Then we saw this onslaught of what was called a trade negotiations process, where we would get into this concept of providing for negotiations, but those negotiations have grown a far distance from trade barriers and negotiations on tariffs. It became a way to encourage public policy in a very veiled kind of concept, so that you were addressing far beyond the tariff measures and the trade burdens.

What we have today, as you indicated, is trillions of dollars in trade deficit where these manufacturing jobs have left our home communities in upstate New York and are now, in many situations, in underdeveloped nations or newly developing nations.

When we look at the Trans-Pacific Partnership that is looming as one of the largest, if not the largest, most complex trade negotiation ever, you are going to look at situations where you have a minimum wage of 25 cents, for instance, in Vietnam, or an average hourly salary of 75 cents.

This is not what we want to bring as a condition for our American workers. We can't compete with that, nor should we. We are holding down the workers' rights, the human rights, of these people in developing nations by agreeing to these sorts of agreements.

I think that we can do better. We must do better. I stand for fair trade. This free trade concept where we sacrifice American workers, we find the rusting of manufacturing towns as a result, is not what the doctor ordered for the American economy.

We need to be fair to the middle class. This is the great many of us who have found our American prosperity developed in manufacturing centers where we were able to raise a family and grow a community and develop a neighborhood simply by a just salary, sound benefits, and the security of knowing that your job was your grounding in that community.

Free trade has taken away that American Dream for far too many, and we need to do better. We cannot continue to endure these trade deficits that are of the trillions of dollars and watch the many, many millions of jobs lost in the ensuing efforts because it is an unsustainable outcome.

I have watched as so many manufacturing centers left our area. I represent the Mohawk Valley Capital District region of New York. We witnessed a huge exodus of jobs. I have people telling me today, as they are closing down factories, they cannot compete with situations in China, for instance, where there are many conditions that favor those businesses because of these sound partnerships that they have with their government, where they will buy the factory and, perhaps, pay the utility bill and then further manipulate the currency.

There is a lot of work to be done on these issues. We need to make certain we go forward and have a sound overview by Congress, so that there is an investment by Congress and we are not circumventing our responsibilities and going forth with sound policy that will strengthen the great many of us called the ``middle class of America,'' provide for the American dream to be tethered in these mill towns, where we have manufacturing opportunities that are paying sound salaries, providing great benefits, and not destroying workers' rights.

I thank you for leading us in this discussion and look forward to exchanging many thoughts here in the ensuing hour.

I was just going to add to that statement, Representative, that there was a GAO study, a report that was called for by Representative George Miller and Representative Sandy Levin. That report clearly indicated that the provisions of these trade agreements have not been carefully and well-enough monitored and enforced. Also, violations that were discovered which require investigations were not done expeditiously. There are huge delays.

That ought to raise some concern to Members of Congress who might just casually dismiss this authority that we should have to review these agreements. These agreements, again, are far beyond tariffs and trade barriers.

They include public policy components that would range from worker protection to environmental concerns to food safety to consumer protection. These are all given dynamics that should not first and foremost be part of these agreements, but because they are, can have devastating consequences.

Again, I think this effort here is about greed. It is about providing for those that can control and manipulate that economy at the expense of diminishing the worker. We have seen what has happened here as we have lost American jobs in our manufacturing base.

The people who have been displaced from the manufacturing centers are now working in jobs that are providing for far less dollars-- remuneration--for the hard work that they invest into that new job.

We are also watching the developing nations and their workers getting paid with a minimum wage of 25 cents or an average hourly rate of 75 cents. That is really destroying the workers not only this in country, but around the world.

To this Nation and her needs, it is about growing our middle class, growing our economy, protecting our middle class, and when we are sending off jobs in this casual, dismissive type of agreement concept called free trade, it is not a fair outcome, and fair trade is where it ought to be.

We need to go forward. I agree with the comments made by Representative Slaughter. We need to make certain there is not a Fast Track opportunity where we circumvent the responsibilities of Congress, where we should have debate, where we should allow for amendments, and not just move to a single up-or-down vote.

That is dangerous, that is far reducing the involvement of Congress. It is relinquishing Congress of its responsibilities and its duties and the empowerment that it can bring to the American worker.

So there is much work that needs to be done here. And as one who represents many manufacturing towns that in their heyday provided for great jobs and great opportunity and for the tethering of the American Dream, we need to move forward with progressive responses rather than this attack on working families in this country and around the world.

As we continue to banter on this importance of trade--of free trade versus fair trade--I can't help but be reminded of the pioneer spirit that has taken this Nation to moments of greatness, where that greatness was written by the American worker, oftentimes by the immigrant who came to this country to pursue the American Dream.

What we need to do here is have history instruct us. Let us understand what the greatness of this Nation is about. Our best days lie ahead of us if we do that, if we are willing to take lessons from American history, where our sons and daughters who, as our ancestors-- many of them immigrants--came to these shores. It was their creative genius. It was their integrity. It was their ingenuity. It was their work ethic. It was their passion as they tethered that American Dream that grew these opportunities of manufacturing in our mill towns. They were undeniably the impetus.

Today, we need to be instructed by that pioneer spirit. We need to understand that, if given a fair shot, we can continue to grow upon that greatness, but if we suffocate that American Dream, if we suffocate the American worker, if we deny just remuneration for their sweat equity as they pour themselves into that job, if they are denied that job because of these trade deals, these negotiated outcomes that are denying again the worker across the world, then we all lose. It is important for us to understand that we need to invest in the manufacturing base. This is a walking away from history.

This is allowing greed to take over the equation of job creation. This is about providing for greed for a very few. Look at the relationship between the worker and the owner, the manager of these situations. We have reduced the worker. We see what the average income is looking like. We see what the household income is looking like. We have destroyed this. We have put people into lower-paying jobs as they have lost those manufacturing sector jobs. We have not allowed for the job growth.

We look at the chart that Representative Kaptur has displayed for us here this evening. It is overwhelmingly convincing. When you look at the activity in one direction versus the activity in the opposite direction, it is absolutely, blatantly, obvious that we need to do better, and we don't do that. We don't begin by relinquishing the role of Congress in this process. A Fast Track, as it has been talked about here this evening, denies the opportunity for fair debate. It denies the opportunity for amendments. It requires a simple up-or-down vote. We don't need to put public policy in for worker protection, environmental standards, child labor issues, consumer protection, public safety. All of these items are tossed into these agreements where there isn't the appropriate discussion and where the worker is held down--25 cents for the minimum wage in Vietnam, 75 cents for the average hourly wage, and then tossing people out of the American Dream here that they wanted to tether.

That pioneer spirit needs to be fed. That pioneer spirit needs to be nurtured. That pioneer spirit needs to be respected. That pioneer spirit needs to be revered. When we do that with sound trade opportunities, we will prosper because we have the intellectual capacity as a nation--we have the work ethic as a nation; we have the creative genius as a nation--to prosper. Give us the fair opportunities to grow our economy and allow for trade policy to initiate a new era of greatness for this country. That is when we are going to respond in justice and in fairness--in social and economic justice--that will allow us again to write these new annals of history that will show yet another era of greatness for the American worker.

The gentlewoman talks about the ownership--the pride of developing community and neighborhood, the investment that the worker made in growing a family, developing a household, building a neighborhood in a strong and powerful and meaningful way. Those are the mill town memories. Those memories guide my heart and soul.

I am from a mill town. I still live in that mill town and represent that mill town here in the House of Representatives, and it was the clamor of that assembly line that resonated to people of all ages in that mill town. It was the activity. It was the hustle and bustle of manufacturing that resonated, that became the pulse of manufacturing, and that became the heart of a mill town. You knew which day the mill was shut--there was silence--but now the silence is deafening, and we need to bring back that resurgence, that opportunity which meant the American Dream, meant an opportunity to earn a paycheck--the dignity to earn that paycheck--and to be able to raise a family and develop and maintain a household. That is what it is all about. It is about economic and social justice.

So we have work to do, and I believe that Washington needs to listen to small-town mill town across this country, to the middle-income community that reminds us it is about the dignity of work; that they want to invest their skill set, that they want to invest their professionalism, they want to invest their work ethic in building a product, allowing us to taste that greatness of manufacturing.

We look at the data that are assembled that should guide us here, and we see CEO salaries and productivity rising steeply upward. Meanwhile, flattened, if not dipping south, is the average worker's salary. Something is fundamentally unjust about that outcome. Something is fundamentally unsustainable about that outcome. If we are going to enjoy prosperity, every strata of the income ladder is affected if we are not dealing with worker fairness. Then and only then, if we address worker fairness, can we rightfully hope to have a better tomorrow. Isn't that what we are about--providing hope, instilling hope into the hearts and minds and souls of individuals and families, of workers--of the mill towns of the American economy?

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to draw attention to families across this country going without or simply scraping by as we enter the holiday season.

Food pantries and organizations like the Hunger Action Network of New York State do a great deal to care for our neighbors who are cold, hungry, or homeless--but they cannot do it alone. These organizations need Washington's help, and the people these organizations care for need it even more.

A uniquely American tradition is helping those in need. In my congressional district, one in 10 households lives below the poverty line. These families live each day with struggles that are reflected across our great Nation. These struggles can be fixed by a Congress that pursues policies that ensure a livable wage, that supports programs that help the less fortunate, and that invests in job creation instead of in cuts to critical programs like SNAP.

It is my hope that this House will work together more than it has in recent years to make progress for all Americans, especially for those whom this Chamber seems to have forgotten about. We do not need to wait for the next Congress to take action. I can think of no better time than this holiday season to make progress on these critical issues.

I thank the gentleman from California for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, the bill before us today is yet another exercise that explains why the public has such a low opinion of Congress.

We have considered this package of bills before. The Senate will not take it up. The President and administration would not approve it. We are wasting valuable time on our last day in session before the lameduck period.

This bill delivers more benefits to big fossil fuel and mining interests. It would allow them to extract fossil fuels and minerals from our coastlines and public lands with no serious consideration of public health, the environment, or of the many other business interests that rely on a clean, healthy environment to support their continued success.

Our Nation has real challenges. We need faster, broader job growth in all regions of our country and in all sectors of our economy. We need a national energy policy that provides more energy security through efficiency and expanded use of renewable energy resources.

We need an energy policy that recognizes and deals with the challenges of climate change. We need a thoughtful path forward that enables a transition to the energy sector of the future that brings workers and communities into this new model productively and profitably.

We need to invest in our transportation and water infrastructure-- infrastructure that is in need of repair, in need of rebuilding, and in need of redesign--to meet our needs into the future. The financing structure in place today and the Federal resources being devoted to these essential systems is outdated and inadequate.

We need to do more to address the lingering problems from the financial debacle that crashed the economy in 2007. Too many of our citizens are still struggling under heavy debt loads as a result of the housing bubble, the stagnant wages, student loans, unemployment, and underemployment.

Our Tax Code needs revision to spur business investment, to bring down the deficit, and to make the Code fair for all taxpayers. We need to invest in research and development, the lifeblood of innovation and progress; instead, this legislation proposes to provide more to a sector of the economy that is already thriving.

Oil and gas production are at record levels, as are the profits of these industries. This bill continues the same old energy policy that we have been following for decades and ignores the mounting social and environmental costs associated with its continuation. This package doubles down on carbon emissions because it is a fossil fuel only policy.

With this proposal, we ask our citizens to accept greatly reduced public health and environmental protection not just to support our domestic use of these fuels, but to enhance our exports of fossil fuels.

It is sad and ironic that, during the week of the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act and of the Land and Water Conservation Fund--laws that recognize all the values of public lands and resources to current and future generations and that have provided so much--that we are considering this bill.

H.R. 2 represents a narrow view of natural resources as assets to be exploited for short-term profit by this generation with little regard for our stewardship responsibility to our children and to our grandchildren. If we do not act decisively and soon, our generation's legacy will be one of shortsightedness and wasted opportunity.

We have ignored real challenges for far too long. We need to demonstrate the vision, the courage, and generosity of spirit that previous generations expressed on our behalf. We need to stop making policy in increments of months and do what we were sent here to do, govern by working together and compromising to find solutions with consideration of the present and an eye to the future with bold plans and initiatives.

Generally, I am a big fan of recycling, but H.R. 2 is only suitable for disposal. This is a deeply flawed piece of legislation. I cannot support it, and I strongly urge my colleagues to reject it.

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

I support the American Falls Reservoir hydropower legislation, introduced by Senators Risch and Crapo of Idaho. The bill would authorize the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to reinstate the license for a hydroelectric project involving Idaho's American Falls Reservoir, and it gives the project 3 additional years by which to begin construction.

This bill allows FERC to get this project licensed expeditiously while ensuring that the appropriate environmental analyses are completed and considered.

The noncontroversial legislation before us today has passed the Senate by unanimous consent in two consecutive Congresses.

With that, I urge my colleagues to support this measure, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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

I rise in support of H.R. 5057, the External Power Supply Service Parts Act of 2014.

I thank my colleague Representative Gardner and Chairman Upton and Ranking Member Waxman for their cooperation and support in bringing this measure to the floor.

External power supplies have become regular fixtures in homes and workplaces around the world as we have expanded our use of rechargeable batteries to power the many electronic products we use every day. Because these products are so common, lowering their power consumption translates into substantial energy savings for consumers and savings for businesses.

Earlier this year, the Department of Energy finalized a rule to strengthen the energy efficiency standards for these products. I support that rule.

H.R. 5057 is not intended to undermine the new standard. H.R. 5057 simply creates a short-term targeted exemption to enable a smooth and orderly transition to the new standard for both manufacturers and for the current owners of equipment purchased prior to the adoption of the new standard.

This narrow exemption enables manufacturers to continue to provide service and replacement parts for existing equipment. It allows owners of equipment to keep it functioning for the full intended life of that given product.

The bill ensures the exemption included in this legislation will not result in a significant delay in reaching the new energy efficiency targets for EPS equipment.

The bill provides DOE with the authority to establish a reporting requirement to track the number of parts that are shipped and of those that do not meet the efficiency standard.

If the Department finds that this exemption is undermining the energy savings that are projected under the new efficiency regulations, the Secretary can issue a rule to limit or rescind the exemption.

H.R. 5057 strikes an appropriate balance, I believe, that keeps us moving forward on efficiency goals for external power supplies while providing manufacturers and owners of current products the assurance that service and spare parts will be available.

Again, I want to thank my colleague, Representative Gardner, for working with me and working with our colleagues on this bill.

I urge all Members to support the legislation, and with that, Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I have no other speakers, and with that, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to bring up H.R. 15, a bipartisan, comprehensive immigration reform bill to properly address the humanitarian crisis at the border.

We were, and it is always a pleasure to join with you, Representative Garamendi, and with Representative Kaptur for the purposes of highlighting what can be done in this arena to cultivate a climate that grows private sector jobs and to be supportive of American-made products. So I stand here this evening in support of H.R. 1524, which would allow for us to prosper with the energy innovation and energy alternative technology which, as American produced, would be highlighted, would be the focus of attention with H.R. 1524.

Absolutely. I served as president and CEO before this work in Congress at NYSERDA, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, and some of the partnerships that we inspired, public-private matches, where NYSERDA would have a piece of the action working with our innovator community and our entrepreneurial community and come up with these innovative designs that would allow for us to meet energy demands or to foster energy efficiency concepts which are very important to the outcome of energy policy and performance in this country. So, absolutely, I was involved in that.

I know that that is a growing edge. It is a meteoric rise within our manufacturing sector with all of this challenge as energy consumers to not only provide for alternatives and more efficient and effective outcomes and perhaps, in many cases, reduce costs, which are important, but also embracing an environmental agenda that deals with carbon emission and methane emission through the concepts of climate change and global warming.

So it is an across-the-board win, Representative Garamendi. I applaud you for H.R. 1524 and am supportive of H.R. 194, just recently spoken about by Representative Kaptur, where we have the opportunity, again, to govern the decisions to either sell American-made products in gift shops or not.

One thing I would like to highlight here this evening, we have many traditions that have followed through the Halls of this Congress through the decades, one of which is the Export-Import Bank. So as we talk about product development and working within an international marketplace, there are those concepts in competing nations that help them with their export-import development. We have such a bank. The Export-Import Bank is at risk because it needs to be reauthorized, and, again, there is a sluggish outcome here where there is denial as to that concept.

I can tell you that Export-Import Bank supports about $1 billion worth of sales in my own district. That is no small change. And so we need to make certain that we move forward with this concept of the Export-Import Bank being reauthorized. You look at the Ex-Im Bank and where it provides great services, and that is with the small business and medium-sized business community. Those are the up-and-coming efforts within the resurgence of our economy that need assistance. This program does it. Whether you are selling state-of-the-art energy innovative products or whether it is alarm systems or whether it is electronics, there is a great bit of assistance provided by the Ex-Im Bank.

Just last month, the National Association of Manufacturers and the United States Chamber of Commerce, who don't always agree, came together supporting their togetherness in swiftly addressing reauthorizing the Ex-Im Bank. So I think it is very important. You have an organization here that has supported $37 billion worth of sales through last year that sustains some 200,000-plus jobs with over 3,400 companies. The important thing to note is their track record is stellar. For 80 years, they have been performing without assistance from taxpayer dollars. Their default rate is below 2 percent. Who can argue with that sort of success story?

So as we develop this Made In America agenda, we need the complementary efforts of the Ex-Im Bank so we can wholeheartedly go forward with every tool in the kit for our American manufacturers and our businesses, small and medium and industrial style, to be able to allow them the engine that heightens their export-import opportunity, and that is the way the work should be done, not denied here, not procrastinating about whether or not it should be reauthorized, not making it a political football, but really going forward and showing enthusiastic support based on tradition, on history, on performance, on success.

Let's get it done. Let's do our Export-Import Bank reauthorization. It is the right thing to do. This majority in the House of Representatives, the Republican majority, ought not hold back that progress. It is a support network that is essential to the future, the soundness of our business community, from small to medium to large.

Absolutely. They are more aggressive than our program. So why would we reduce the complementary force that we provide to Ex-Im Bank. Ninety percent, as you just pointed out, a great amount of the activity, is with our small and medium-sized community; 90 percent is with the small and medium-sized business community. So what gives? Why are we not going forward with great energy, with great passion to say we can't miss, we need to reauthorize.

Instead, we are hearing vibes about not reauthorizing. We are having all kinds of groups coming together in nontraditional fashion, imploring us to do the right thing here. And again, it is being held back by the majority in the House. It is unacceptable, and it is unintelligent to do so.

I hear you making mention of a long-standing skill set, that of shipbuilding. It is important as we look at that Make It In America agenda that the Democrats in the House of Representatives have put together, a very sound platform of initiatives, of policy and resource advocacy, a multifaceted concept of how to underpin the strengths of our manufacturing sector.

As we move forward with those skill sets that are required to build these ships, we need to make certain there is an investment in skills development and training, retraining, so we are doing it smarter. It doesn't have to be the cheaper price delivered to the market; it has to be the most quality also. And so we can win several of these contracts through brain power, through the investment of our intellectual capacity.

We are a Nation of pioneer spirit. I think that holds true to this day. Our humble beginnings taught us that we impacted not only the growth of this country with a westward movement, but through an industrial revolution. It affected positively the quality of life throughout this world because of that intellectual capacity, because of that pioneer spirit, because of that creative genius. And so it is important for us to include in our package as we do training and retraining, education formats, and research. We see it in the energy sphere. We see it across the board. It is important.

Absolutely. And it is the way we keep our cutting edge as sharp and precision-oriented as possible.

We know that it is three areas of investment. It is investment in capital infrastructure, physical infrastructure, and human infrastructure. Having that quality workforce, well prepared, skill sets that are at the cutting-edge quality so that we can continue to prosper as we compete, our companies compete, our businesses compete, at that international market. So it is important for us to constantly invest in that upgrading, in that training and retraining, and in that enhancement of education for our young people.

So there is the cornerstone of our plan, along with research which, as we have seen through the last couple of decades, it is critically important. If we look back as far back as the global space race, that space race required an investment of research. Landing a person on the Moon first of any nation, with that American flag being anchored onto the surface of the Moon, didn't just happen; it took an order of planning and commitment and passionate resolve so that with that passion we could make a difference. Well, it happened, and America was energized and it was lifted in the eyes of nations around the world as that leader.

We are at a critical juncture again, and can we afford to walk away from an investment in research? Can we afford to walk away from an investment in training and retraining? Can we afford to walk away from an investment in education, or the Export-Import Bank, or all sorts of incentives that provide for upgrades to manufacturing, advanced manufacturing, robotics, technology that allows us to build the best product out there, and we set the pace, we set the tone? It is about this wonderful agenda of Make It In America, established by so many people, including yourself, Representative Garamendi, the leadership in our House, Leader Pelosi and the Democrats in the House, advancing this cause of investment in tomorrow, investment in today. It is how we get there and how we always achieve by seeing the problem, meeting the challenge, and investing in America and her people.

We don't get there by cutting our way to prosperity, by denial, by games on the House floor, by resoundingly defeating a reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank. It is absolutely essential that we do those building blocks that take us to the next generation of competition, the next generation of workers, and it can happen only if we plan accordingly and if we take that effort to lead rather than just hold back.

It is interesting, as you highlighted the discussion, the dialogue with your advisers. The business of representing congressional districts, of representing any district in the halls of government, the key factor is listening, opening up to discussion, ideas, constructive criticism of what needs to be done out there, what is being done and what can be done better, what is not being done that needs to be done.

Go for it, Representative.

No, no. It is fine because you are just speaking to the point of listening and responding, learning from our constituents, learning from the front line of the business community and the worker community. Basically, when we travel this route, if we gather the information and then act accordingly, great things can happen. Prosperity blooms and blossoms.

I believe that when the business community is speaking--from small to medium to large industry--when they are telling us we need workforce development investment, we ought to listen. When they are telling us they need immigration reform, we ought to listen. When they are talking about reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank, we ought to listen.

When they talk about incentives that modernize and transfer and transition traditional manufacturing into advanced manufacturing, we ought to listen. The list goes on and on.

Just recently, I toured a manufacturing center, a factory in my district. My grandparents called the district I represent home. Ironically, a set of them worked in that factory. I am a product of immigrants--grandparent immigrants, who were dairy farmers and factory workers.

Those factory workers worked on that same floor that we were visiting, those grandparents--my grandparents. One couldn't help but wonder the equipment changes that have come in those decades that have passed. While they wove carpets--they were weavers in that carpet industry--today, they are weaving fiber strands for defense contracts, for huge equipment out there.

The owner implies and states to me that: I can't compete, I have to offer my product at a 1985 price level.

Why? One would ask why? He responded rather quickly and theoretically: a, our foreign competitors are subsidized by their government--they oftentimes own the factory, the government owns the factory. In this case, China manipulates the currency.

He said: you take away any of those factors, any one, and I can compete; you take all of them away, and I am a winner, hands down.

When our communities speak to us--in this case, workers, businesses, management--when they speak, we ought to respond accordingly. I don't understand the lack of action on an Export-Import Bank reauthorization. I don't understand the dumbing down of research opportunity. I don't understand the lack of resources to provide for a Make It In America agenda fostered by the Democratic leadership of this House, understanding full well that we are at our best when we invest in our tomorrow.

That pioneer spirit comes fully alive when we do that. Let's move forward with progress by committing to that order of agenda.

Okay. Well, some of those trends that saw decline in some of the manufacturing sectors in our economy over the decades are now beginning to close on that gaping bit of disparity.

Labor rates, for instance--as countries had very, very cheap labor rates, they witnessed that their labor population began to demand more, which is a sign of civilization. When you are investing your skill set, your brain power, into the development of products and working on that assembly line, you will begin to understand that remuneration for what you do is important.

An order of social fairness, social justice, comes into play, economic justice,

so the discrepancy between the labor rates has narrowed.

We have earlier talked about the energy supplies and energy costs. Many now are citing us as the millennium of Mideast here, with the supply of natural gas and energy issues that are being addressed significantly through innovation and alternative supplies and through natural gas supplies.

So the energy quotient in that formula for manufacturing has been very much flipping, cycling favor for the U.S. economy.

As these major factors begin to steady our way, there is a brighter bit of hope out there that is launched. If we accompany that with the appropriate policies and attached resources, if we can adopt, if you would, the Democratic agenda for Make It In America, great things can happen.

It takes a vision, and it takes leadership, and it takes planning so as to get to that point where we are investing in that pioneer spirit of America. I earlier talked about my grandparents and the fact that they claimed the 20th Congressional District in New York as their home.

They tethered their American Dream there. They went to work in those factories, on those farms, and made certain they could climb that ladder for economic opportunity. They shared that with their children and their grandchildren. They wanted to make certain that this American Dream was there for their family and then share it with others. That is us at our best.

Why not invest in that American Dream, so that as families go forward, as they dream their dreams, as they tether those dreams, as they become all they can be, as they submit to an American agenda that has always been about opportunity, about taking your natural skills, talents, and abilities and investing them for your own growth, but certainly for the growth of community and the American culture--that has been us, that is our history. Let it speak to us.

As we hear others who speak to us about the needs to grow the economy, let us respond. Let us do that with a keen sense of awareness, of empathy, of attachment to an American agenda for jobs.

Absolutely. Just underscoring your statement that when women succeed, America succeeds--when women succeed, that lifts all families, whether it is a single female head of family, whether it is a male-female household, two women in the household, whatever it is, across the board, that is a win situation.

So families prosper, families succeed, and then, of course, America succeeds. Again, a multifaceted agenda that speaks to core needs. It speaks to social and economic justice. It speaks to the fact that pay equity and equal pay for equal work is a cornerstone to our women succeed, America succeeds agenda, the minimum wage being lifted, and certainly quality child care, affordable child care. That is what sustains the agenda, so that when women succeed, families succeed, America succeeds. We move forward with a vibrancy that began with its underpinnings of support here on the Hill in Washington, with Congress working toward the needs of workers and the business community and making certain that we respond to the present-day needs that exist out there that only build upon the richness of history and allow America to truly succeed.

Mr. Speaker, last week's Energy and Water Appropriations bill provided another glaring example of an opportunity squandered. We could have invested more in clean energy and certainly weaned our Nation off its heavy dependence on fossil fuels. We could have heeded the warnings of the scientific community and taken greater steps to reduce emissions and adapt our dams and ports and coastal infrastructure to new conditions. We did neither. Even worse, the bill contained riders to prevent the modeling and study of climate change.

The climate deniers are condemning us to a future of crisis management. Organizations, including global manufacturers, governments, aid organizations, and the insurance industry are examining risks to key infrastructure of supply chain disruptions, water shortages, and increased political unrest.

Instead of suing our President for taking action, we should be joining him and organizations around the world in the effort to understand and meet this formidable challenge. Failure to do so will be costly, and failure to do so will be tragic.

We must do better. We should start by doing something.

Thank you, Representative Garamendi.

I believe that is 53 minutes, Mr. Speaker?

Thank you.

Representative Garamendi, let me, once again, thank you for leading us in this hour of discussion, 53 minutes worth of discussion, that focuses on the value added, the importance of investment in transportation projects.

Back to our humble beginnings as a Nation, we were able to cite the relevance of having investments made in transportation. Whether it was to address public safety, whether it was to address the needs of commerce, or to grow our Nation, transportation investments have always provided that lucrative dividend that enables us to be just that much stronger as a Nation, and certainly to build our competitiveness to the ultimate.

That is the wisdom here that comes with an associated investment in transportation. Now, we have throughout our history tremendously sound ideas of how we work together as a Nation with a vision, with a sense of purpose, that enabled us to move forward, whether that was investing in an Erie Canal that gave birth to a necklace of communities called ``mill towns'' that enabled people to tether their American Dream in those given locations, as they were to find life anew here in their new country, or whether it was the Transcontinental Railroad.

There was an investment, there was a plan, there was a vision shared by this Nation where we chose to go forward and invest those dollars so as to enable us to connect as a Nation, enable us to, again, sharpen the edge, the competitive edge of this country. Or perhaps it was an interstate highway system that found President Eisenhower working with Democrats and Republicans in Congress to put together this strategy, to have a better way to allow us as States, individual States, to, again, connect as a Nation.

So, we have been, or should be at least, inspired by these chapters of our history that showed that when we had this vision, when we executed this plan, when we dug deep to make the investment, and when we were bold in our initiative, great things happened. There were tremendous responses that came to build commerce, to provide for public safety, and to, again, connect the Nation.

Today, the saga is no different. We should respond again in robust fashion, and understand that in this new century it is important for us as we compete in a global economy to offer our business community the best sets of infrastructure investment so that we can move forward with that sound down payment that enables them to function and function well.

What we have seen here in the House, as my colleague from California just indicated, was a delay tactic, a kicking the can down the road, if you will. And as it was the only game in town, that was a ``take it or leave it'' situation, where we did not want a trust fund to be emptied, and we moved forward with this effort.

However, the leadership bringing their bill to this floor didn't even have enough Members of their majority to support this measure. So, they needed to reach to Democrats to say: okay, we will move forward with this short-term solution, it is not the optimum, it is not near what is needed, and so now the work should continue to put together a legitimate opportunity for us to avoid insolvency in the near future.

What do we need to do? We need to have a long-term strategy, we need to go forward to avoid what could have been without action today 700,000 jobs lost nationally and some 100,000-plus projects either delayed or coming to a grinding halt. We need to provide the predictability, the stability, for those groups that want to invest in our infrastructure.

No corporation, no group out there, no business which involves itself in improving our highways and bridges will take this method seriously unless they feel that, they sense that stability. So, let's go forward and be sound about the investments we will make in our infrastructure, and let's put together that long-term strategy, because as we have witnessed in the past, and understand it to be today, that investment in infrastructure is the rock-solid cornerstone of a stronger tomorrow.

Representative Garamendi, there is much work to be done. There is work to be done that will require investments into infrastructure, transportation and infrastructure, in every region of this country. We know that. Let's get serious about the business, and let's avoid these short-term strategies that, again, get into areas where we smooth pensions, which can create another crisis of another kind.

We need to do better than what was done today, and we need to go forward. There were attempts to improve this, but this was the measure that was put before us, and, again, people saw it as the only opportunity to avoid insolvency of that highway trust fund. So, here we are again challenged in this moment to go forward with much better vision, with bolder initiatives, and with deep-rooted commitment to the transportation needs of this Nation.

Before you go there, let me just share this, because even though it is 27 years old as a memory, it is still vividly captured by so many of us that lived in upstate New York. When I served in the New York State Assembly, Montgomery County, New York, is my home area. We are a donor county to the New York State Thruway system. Twenty-seven years ago, ten lives were lost when a Thruway bridge collapsed. It, obviously, was a terrible price for those ten individuals to pay. Their family members and friends would remind us that there is no pricetag that we can put on that loss.

I can tell you the economic impact on many counties in that region was severe. Interestingly, no one from that home county, my home county, was lost in that tragedy. Some in New York State paid dearly for that tragedy, but people whose home States were far away from New York were lost in that tragedy.

So that reminds all of us that we are all at risk, no matter where that deficiency may be, no matter where that lack of investment may fall. We are all at risk because we are interconnected, incredibly so, which is an undisputed fact. Any failure out there, any deficiency, challenges each and every one of us.

And so when we talk about the future, that past history of lack of investment needs to remind all of us that there is a worthiness here that this should be a high priority.

You talk about the delays that trip has measured. The impact on people within the capital region that I represent in New York is some $1,600 annually in terms of idle time, in terms of repairs required to their vehicles, in terms of accidents that might be caused by less than acceptable conditions on those roadways. So this is costing us, as you just indicated, annually.

We need to understand that it is about public safety and it is about avoiding accidents and tragedies. It is about connecting the Nation. It is about investing in commerce. That is what this is telling us. It is the requirement of this Chamber and the United States Senate and the White House to come together and get things done.

This President has urged us to accept his plans to close loopholes that will provide revenues in a long-term strategy, that will provide for work for millions of people in the trades industry, to put their skilled labor abilities to work for us as a nation and to make certain that future consequences like those that were faced in Montgomery County with the bridge collapse aren't repeated time and time again.

Before we go to the future, I just wanted to set that tone for some very tragic situations that we as a nation have endured. I am speaking of one assembly district in one State, but I know across the country there have been these terrible situations where the infrastructure weakness gripped us with pain and consequence.

Right.

What I like about the plan, Representative Garamendi, is that it is all-inclusive in terms of an umbrella approach that encompasses several policy areas. It is not just transportation, which is very valid and certainly urgent, but we also address environmental policy, energy policy, economic development policy, and urban policy.

There are a number of strategies that come together into this one initiative that allow us to be smart about our investments and to be efficient. And isn't that what people seem to call for when they go to vote each and every time for Congress?

People interpreted the 2010 election that the voters were saying government is the enemy, government is the problem, government is too big. I think the people said, no, we want efficient government, effective government.

That is what a strategy like this provides. It incorporates planning. It incorporates investing on a routine scale so that we are not doing these catch-up games that require down payments of interest before we even get some investments made in infrastructure. So I like this.

With the rail portion, we are talking about the most energy-efficient form of travel. In order for us to provide a benefit to the public or to commerce, a transportation quotient is an important factor in the household budget and planning that all of us do as households and in budgeting for business so that they can cut that factor and be competitive in landing the contracts for the work that they do. So rail is an important component for that vision of providing a sounder outcome. It is better for the environment, and there is less pollution as we become more energy-efficient in our travel.

The next order of business is the connection with urban cores. Multimodal concepts enable us to again provide for the recovery of our inner urban cores. We have been lacking for sound urban policy in this Nation. It is time for us to have a heart for these urban cores and to put together smart growth strategies, which this sort of planning, this sort of vision enables us to do.

And the list goes on and on.

To your point, Representative Garamendi, we are going to put people to work, too. That is not a bad thing.

Instead of coming up with dollars to sue a President, why don't we invest in our infrastructure? We are going to rush around this week and come up with ways to make certain that we can go forward with a lawsuit against the President. We are going to invest hard-earned taxpayer dollars to prove a point, to stage some sort of political theater and not do the sort of priorities that the American public is calling on us to do.

They don't want this acrimony to be driven by additional digging into the pocket of the taxpayers. They want soundness and effectiveness of programs. They want to know that what we do will grow jobs, create a climate that fosters private sector job growth, enable us to be more competitive, enable our public to be more safe as we travel, and enable us to put people to work.

That is what people deserve. They are calling for that sort of vision and initiative. We owe it to the American public to put into play this long-term strategy that we know deep in our hearts is the best thing to do.

And there is talk of how we will provide the dollars to make that happen.

Right. I think the approvals we are looking for here ought to come for sound investments that will bear benefits for generations to come--and in a multiple order of effectiveness for various purposes, from jobs to safety to connecting for commerce and the like.

What I would add to your support of statements would be that, as we delay, as we do these gimmicks, as we do these kicking the can down the road scenarios, there are projects lining up. They are building up.

We are not resolving the overall core of concern out there. In a way, projects are piling up. In New York, the American Society of Civil Engineers has given this country, as you stated earlier, a poor report card on our infrastructure.

Yes. I mean, we have some tough, tough issues to deal with, and this report card from professionals is telling the story as it is.

Today, nearly 13 percent of New York's bridges are deemed structurally deficient. Some 27 percent of the State's bridges are considered functionally obsolete. Now, that is piling up. It is not going to get better until we invest. As it piles up, these concerns or these benefits from this investment are not being shared with the country.

Now, people don't want to hear about climate change and global warming, but at least see it as a way to be more resourceful with the energy supplies that we do have. If you can't buy into the notion of cleaning up the air to avoid carbon emission and methane emission, at least see it as a way to pull cars off the highway and allow for mass transit, public transit, to enable us to better address the capacity situation of our roads and bridges throughout all of our States, then see it as a way to bring under control the transportation cost factor for commerce.

When you build this port system, when you connect with rail and highways and bridges and when you have the ultimate investment made in today's state-of-the-art infrastructure, you are providing this golden benefit to commerce, so that they can compete and can compete effectively in a global marketplace. It is driven by commerce, as is our public safety, as is our connectedness as a Nation.

So there are many benefits here. The multiple facets of all of this vision that the President has shared with this Congress should not be kicked aside. You don't kick this away, like you did the strategies and the solutions for our infrastructure needs. You sit down at a table together and perform, as this Nation expects us to on behalf of issues as critical as infrastructure.

We know what has to be done. Let's do it. Let's be the professionals as we come together in a bipartisan fashion and bicameral fashion--the legislative branch working with the executive branch--and get it done. We have been inspired throughout our history with those concepts of the Erie Canal, the Transcontinental Railroad, the interstate highway system.

Here is our moment. Do we let it pass us by, or do we move forward and get it done in grand fashion, where we are pulling cars off the road, enabling people to enjoy the public and mass transit opportunities as a Nation and where we have state-of-the-art port facilities so that we can ship our goods and so that we can enable commerce to be given that muscle it needs, which is the American way?

Our grandparents knew about this. They handed us a better Nation. Where are we in this moment? As stewards of today's given strategy and policy, are we going to fail for the next generations? Or will they look at us someday and say: they got it, they did it, they did it well, and they did it with a sense of vision and planning and passion and commitment, and they scored for us as a generation, and now, we will build upon that success?

Yes, we can.

When you look at that strategy, Representative Garamendi, you sense the fundamental fairness.

I look at projects like the efforts in New York where Governor Cuomo is leading this effort to make certain that we invest in the rebuild of the Tappan Zee Bridge. That takes traffic from the greater Metro New York area, the New York City area, and moves it along into upstate New York and into the Northeast area of our country--a major thoroughfare with a huge price tag.

Now, if we partner with our States, that is helping those individual States to endure, to provide for the resources needed to build these major projects and to do them well. Otherwise, it falls upon the local taxpayer and on State income taxes and what have you--or whatever the State revenue supplies are--so that there is this partnership that is strengthened when the Federal Government leads with a strong commitment to infrastructure improvements.

Now, in looking at the safety, the stretch is miles long as we travel from that metro area on the Tappan Zee Bridge into upstate New York. It was in need of improvement for quite some time, and I applaud the Governor for leading the effort now in putting it together, but, again, the Federal partnership here is important.

For us to continue to ask middle-income America to pay the bill--they are already saturated with these efforts. They know that they have been stressed out.

What this measure does is provide fundamental fairness again. It is not just about the projects done, the vision shared, the implementation of a plan. It is about a revenue side that comes together in a progressive fashion, in socially and economically just fashions, to make certain that there is an equal sense of responsibility to bear in terms of providing for the infrastructure improvements that we as a Nation, as an American society, require.

Let's go forward and be the bold pioneers, if you will, of this generation

and show people that we didn't miss the opportunity to invest in America. This Nation, as great as she is, with this economy as strong as it can be, requires assistance through our wonderful history, and this is not a surprise. It should not be a surprise. We need to constantly upgrade and improve and maintain our infrastructure.

Tonight, we have spent a lot of time, Representative Garamendi, talking about projects and initiatives that can move us forward, but there is also a commitment that needs to be made to the maintenance and operational costs of these systems.

If we don't commit to that, it sooner or later catches up with us, and then there are requirements for huge bond acts, or there are various ways to come up with strategies, and when you come into moments like this, you will have resistance from certain thinking, philosophical approaches in government, and it makes the job all the more difficult.

We know what needs to be done. We have been bolstered by our rich history. We were at our best when we invested in America. Let's learn from that. Let's seize the moment.

Let's go forward and commit to commerce, to safety, to the general public--to the needs of the general public. Let's provide for that strength of America, for that pioneer spirit that has always driven us.

I know I have talked about this so many times when I have been with you on the floor, but the pioneer spirit was on display when we built that Erie Canal. It was on display when those manufacturing towns built their factories.

It was on display when so many of our ancestors as immigrants came here and tethered their American Dream. They climbed that economic ladder. They ascended with those opportunities to provide for their families, for their children and grandchildren to go forward.

That is us. That is the synergy of this Nation. That is the passion of the American public. We deny that when we deny the vision, the plan, the investment, the policy, the initiative driven right on this floor that ought to be bipartisan in nature. Make no mistake about it-- bipartisan in nature.

Let's move forward. Let's have that plan. Let's have that vision, and let's commit to this future.

I believe we probably have about 5 minutes now. I think we go to about 7 minutes after.

Look, I think what you point to--the gentleman from California is absolutely right on. It is a ripple effect. It is not just the rail tracks that are developed, the railways that are developed. It is not just the highways and bridges. It is incorporating rail cars.

Now, here is a ripple effect. As we have grown the efficiency of the system, now we are building, manufacturing rail cars, putting people to work, alternatively-fueled vehicles that can enable us to continue in that effort to reduce carbon emission and methane emission, making certain that, again, we go through this whole process, coming out more environmentally sound.

So, yes, today's vote was a big disappointment, in terms of what we could have accomplished. It was that short term, get out of this immediate challenge, and let's go forward.

There is not that vision. There is not that full indepth plan that is required of us, and certainly, we fell short--far short of the mark that should have brought us across the finish line and enabled us to say, hey, we scored really well here, we put together a sound package.

This is about putting a strategy together that enables us to advance all of these cutting-edge technologies that enable us to strengthen the manufacturing base of America where these ripple effects reach us into our communities.

You talk about the locomotives of today and the future that are driven by the intellectual capacity of workers and researchers in this country. I think back on the industrial heritage of Schenectady, New York, that I represent here in the House.

The American Locomotive Company, ALCO, was producing tremendous cars that enabled us to again have that richness of rail history.

Well, you know, all through our history, there have been those decades and chapters that have inspired us because we met the task, we came ready to deliver, and we were not going to let any force stop us.

That is the greatness of America. That is how we achieved. That is how we climbed to our mountains, where people noticed America, where we were that beacon of hope, where the best things came from this Nation.

Are we ready to settle for second best? Fifth best? I don't think so. So let us move forward.

Other nations are investing in their infrastructure. You hear it all the time, about rail systems in Europe and Asia. You hear about the improvements that people have made with subway systems and the like.

We know that we have got the smarts to do it. We have got the intellectual capacity to lead not only this Nation, but the world, and as we go forward, let us be proud of the fact that we can come together, make things happen, and have that long-term strategy, which was just not here today for that vote. It was not here today for that vote.

I will repeat myself. The Republican majority didn't have their votes enough to pass the measure, so they obviously didn't believe in what they were doing, and it is unfortunate. It was the only game in town. It was the only plan placed on the table.

We need to do better than this, and we can. So our bright days of tomorrow lie ahead of us, only if we are ready to muster up the boldness to make it happen.

Representative Garamendi, to you to close.