Hoyer Remarks on Series of "Make It In America: What's Next?" Hearings

WASHINGTON, DC - House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (MD) spoke on the House Floor today about the series of "Make It In America: What's Next?" hearings he is holding to help update the Make It In America jobs plan to address the economic challenges facing American families and businesses in 2015. Below is a transcript of his remarks and a link to the video:

 Click here to watch the video. 

“I thank you very much, Mr. Garamendi. You do such an extraordinary job for California and have for a long period of time. But you're doing an extraordinary job here in Washington on behalf of America, on behalf of America's workers, on behalf of America's manufacturers, and on behalf of making sure that we make it here and sell it here and everywhere. That's what Make It In America is about, and nobody, including myself, has been any more tenacious in informing people about this agenda, and I thank you for that.

“I want to thank Annie Kuster. Congresswoman Kuster and I had an opportunity to visit a really neat manufacturing facility in her district not too long ago. They were excited about what they were doing, and they were excited – as she has pointed out – about making their business more technology-focused and making it more efficient and more productive and, yes, more profitable. But the good news is they were retaining jobs in that effort. So I thank Congresswoman Kuster.

“I want to thank Don Norcross, who’s a new Member of the Congress, but not new to supporting the Make It In America – he may not have called it Make It In America in New Jersey, but Make It In America legislation and policies. Don Norcross comes from a background of a working family, and he's made them proud, made us proud, and we welcome him to this effort.

“I noticed also that Sheila Jackson Lee from Houston is also on the Floor, who's been a tenacious and very, very faithful spokesperson and worker on behalf of Make It In America.

“I'm proud to share with my colleagues that House Democrats held a hearing, as has been mentioned, this past Thursday to begin exploring how to improve, expand, and adapt the Make It In America plan to meet the needs and challenges of 2015 and beyond. As a matter of fact, one of the things we want to find out is how we can better create an environment for new technologies, for new ways of doing business, for new ways of making it in America.  Rep. Garamendi was one of thirty-four Members who participated at last week's hearing.

“For the past five years we've worked together in a bipartisan way to enact already sixteen Make It In America bills into law. These bills included measures to clear the backlog of patent applications, reauthorize the America COMPETES Act, and expand investments in workforce development – which is what Mr. Garamendi was talking about and Ms. Kuster was talking about in terms of training people for the new technologies. If we are going to compete worldwide in this global marketplace in which we now find ourselves, America’s going to be the high-value end of the market of the global marketplace. And, as a result, we need to make sure that we educate and train people to effectively participate and compete and succeed in that high-tech environment.

“For the past five years, Make It In America has been focused on creating the conditions that encourage – as I said – businesses to innovate, manufacture, and create jobs here in the United States of America. Now, with the rise of new technologies with the potential of transforming our economy, it is now time to update the Make It In America plan to address today's challenges and build on past successes. That's why, Mr. Speaker, the hearing that House Democrats held on Thursday was the first in what will be a series of hearings to solicit feedback from Members, entrepreneurs – job creators, in other words – economists, innovators, and others who have insights to share how we can be more successful in creating jobs and competing.

“These hearings are entitled ‘Make It In America: What's Next?’ Five years have gone by, circumstances have changed. Challenges have changed. Opportunities have changed. We need to be making sure that we're in a position to seize those opportunities on behalf of all of our people. This is a process of listening, learning, and then implementing the best ideas that emerge.

“Thursday's hearings – Mr. Garamendi, you participated in, you were one of the leaders there – which highlighted members' ideas and feedback they have received from speaking and meeting with constituents back home, was a great success.  And I want to emphasize that. You know, we take from time to time breaks, and we call them ‘district work periods.’ Some people call them vacations. Almost every Member on both sides of the aisle use a district work period to go among their constituents, go to businesses, go to schools, go to construction sites, go to offices, and talk to people about what they think. That's what our Founding Fathers had in mind: House Members close to the people, listening to the people, bringing their views here. That's what we did at this hearing.

“We heard about the economic impact of the so-called ‘Internet of things’ – which in my generation would have been ‘what language are you speaking?’ Internet of things – which uses wireless technology to connect everyday objects. Your home, your refrigerator, your air-conditioner, your television – everyday objects, we’re all connected now. We also heard about ‘maker [spaces]’ and ‘fab labs,’ where students and professionals alike can transform tinkering into innovation.

“You know, I sometimes say, Mr. Garamendi, that one of the policies we ought to do is we ought to – a previous president talked about a ‘chicken in every pot.’ We ought to give a garage to every graduating high school student. It seems everything is generated in a garage in America, although as Bill Foster pointed out, these ‘fab labs’ and ‘maker [spaces]’ were perhaps the new garages of our time.

“Rep. Garamendi, as I said, was among those who spoke about new ways to help traditional manufacturing when he discussed the role our shipbuilding industry plays in helping American businesses move natural gas and other goods to market at home and abroad. That shipbuilding industry was critically important to us winning in World War II, and now, as Mr. Garamendi pointed out, it is a shadow of its former self, and we need to rebuild it, and we need to be shipping goods on American fleets.

“These were just some of the things that came up in the hearing, and I encourage all of my colleagues and all Americans to go online to www.democraticwhip.gov and read Members' testimony.  Ms. Kuster's testimony is on that.  Mr. Garamendi's and Mr. Norcross's testimony are on the web, and you can see their perspective. Add them all together, we come up with a powerful agenda to create jobs in America. That's what we're focused on. That's what the people want us focused on, and that’s what we’re going to work on. That's what Make It In America is all about.

“I want to express my gratitude, again, to all the Members who participated in the first hearing, including, of course, the leader of this Special Order, Mr. Garamendi from California.  And I thank him for yielding and I yield back the balance of my time to him.”