Jobs
Floor Speech
Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Speaker, we come here about every week to talk about jobs in America. This last Friday, we held a jobs fair in my district in Fairfield, California, and it was a remarkable event. I have been around a long time. I have seen many, many things. As remarkable as it was, it was also one of the saddest events I have been to. I have been to a lot of funerals and a lot of tragedies over the years, but this one ranks very high.
I put this picture up here because this is a picture of the second hour after that job fair had begun. The line outside the building, where we had some 40 employers that were offering to hire people, stretched over 200 yards. The temperature was about 37, 38 degrees. It was one of those cold mornings, and these people were determined to get a job. They were willing to stand in that line for up to an hour and a half, some of them perhaps even 2 hours, just to have a shot, just to be able to talk to an employer, to have the opportunity to look face-to-face at an employer and say, ``I want to work.'' The stories were incredible. I spent about an hour, maybe an hour and 20 minutes, talking to the men and women that were in this line.
I remember one gentleman who had served several tours in Afghanistan and Iraq. He said he was with the Army Rangers, said he had four Purple Hearts. He left the military and is now unemployed. In fact, in this line were 141 veterans, unemployed, looking for work. They have skills, know when to get up in the morning, know what it takes to go to work, to put in a full day or more--unemployed.
A young woman, fresh out of school, a child at home, she wanted to go to work. She had an associate's degree in social welfare programs, human relations, anything in that area. She said: I will take any job. I just want to go to work. I want to take care of my child.
Another woman, 50, 55, divorced, had an 18-year-old child. Her alimony is over: I have got to go to work. I have got to support myself.
The stories of life, the stories of America, the stories of 971 people that stood in line just to have a shot at a job.
There are 435 of us in this room on a full day. We have a job. We are employed, and we have a good wage. We have a very good wage, and we have health care. And we are not doing our job. We are not doing the job that America sent us here for. America sent us here to put America back to work. That is our job. We are not living up to that.
Two years ago, the President of the United States put forth in his State of the Union message an American jobs plan, an American jobs plan to put people in this Nation back to work. It was complete: education, retraining, a research component for the next sector of this economy for the future, a transportation infrastructure sector, a way to finance it--2 years ago.
Mr. Speaker, 971 people were standing in the cold in Fairfield, California, just wanting a shot at a job; and here we are, 2 years after the President of the United States put forward a jobs plan for America, and it has not been done. The majority in this House has refused to bring up even one of those programs.
I am going to talk about those things tonight, those things that we can do here in America, that we can do so that when 971 of my constituents are willing to line up to get a job, they will have one. They will have that opportunity. They will have a shot at the future.
It is a disgrace that after 2 years with a complete plan that would put people back to work, the majority has refused to bring forward any part of that legislation. It is a disgrace. It is time for this country to go back to work. It is time for this House to go back to work to put Americans back on the job.
You want to deal with the deficit? Put people to work. They will become taxpayers. You want to deal with food stamps? You want to cut food stamps? Put people to work. Build the infrastructure. Put the teachers back in the classroom. But no, you are going to slash the benefits.
These people, searching for a job, know that unless this Congress--and I see our esteemed leadership and the Republicans leaving this House, this floor. These people want to go to work. They are losing, in the next 2 weeks, their unemployment benefits. What will become of them? What will become of those 971 people, including 141 veterans who have fought, who have been wounded? What is going to become of them?
Joining me today are my colleagues on the Democratic side. I would like to start with my colleague from Illinois, General Bill Enyart, who is now a Member of the House of Representatives.
Bill, please join us.
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Mr. GARAMENDI. Thank you very much, General Enyart.
Joining us also is another Representative from the Midwest who has considerable experience here in the House of Representatives--Ohio, in this case--Marcy Kaptur.
Welcome. I am delighted you are with us. You talked about making it in America and about American jobs many times, and we have shared this floor on that subject in the past.
Welcome.
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Mr. GARAMENDI. Representative Kaptur, you have been at this for a long time. You come from an area in this Nation that in recent decades has been called the Rust Belt. I think that is not the situation, with your leadership.
We have seen a resurgence in American manufacturing; and 20, 25 years ago, we had just under 20 million Americans working in manufacturing with those middle-income jobs. This is the middle class. They were able to support their family, educate, get a boat, go on vacation, buy a house, provide the food, and take care of their family, just as you described.
And then we have seen in the last 20 years an enormous decline--from 20 million down to just under 11 million manufacturing jobs, and a lot of that decline had to do with American policies.
You mentioned trade programs. Clearly, that had a lot to do with offshoring tax policies that encouraged corporations to send jobs offshore rather than keeping jobs here. And there are other labor policies and the like that made it difficult for the American family to earn that living.
Our challenge is to reinvigorate the working American families' opportunity. And to address that, I will say that I heard a remarkable speech by a freshman. And it is not that I have been here so long. Steve Horsford from Las Vegas gave a speech on the floor here about a week ago, talking about these issues and talking about the challenge that American families face. I asked him to join us. I was impressed by his grasp of the issue and the passion with which he spoke.
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Mr. GARAMENDI. Thank you so very much, Mr. Horsford. Thank you for your passion, for your knowledge, for your concern about your constituents, and particularly about those men and women that are from the military.
I also have two major Air Force bases in my district with a very large population of veterans, both young and old, from the various wars and conflicts of the past. And they need a shot. Your legislation ought to be the law. It simply should be the law of the land. We should put these people back to work. We showed the picture earlier of the people lined up; 147 of those were veterans. I think about 14 were actually hired that day and given a chance.
I often put this up when we have these opportunities to speak on the floor about jobs and putting men and women back to work, because this is kind of a compass that I like to use when I think about legislation, when I think about what we ought to be doing here.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, FDR, talking about a New Deal, he said this:
A test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much, it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.
We need to think about that often here on the floor. The issues that we have talked about today--putting people back to working, the minimum wage, and unemployment insurance, and food stamps or the SNAP program--all speak to this fundamental test of America's moral compass. A test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much. It is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.
December 28--Representative Horsford laid out that date--December 28, millions upon millions of Americans will lose their unemployment insurance, not because they are lazy, not because they don't want to work. These people, 971 of them last Friday in my district at my jobs fair, they want to go to work. Many of them will lose their unemployment insurance on December 28.
Joining us today is a remarkable woman, incredible background in caring about the people of America, working on a national program to make sure that women have a good shot. Incidentally, let me put this up there just before I introduce Representative Edwards. Today is a remarkable day for women. The new CEO of General Motors is a woman. She is not going to be on the unemployment line. She has spent 30-some years with General Motors, has visited the very, very top. I understand coming from the factory floor, all the way to the top. That is your story too, Donna Edwards, incredible Representative from the State of Maryland. I think you wanted to talk to us about your citizens, your constituents.
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Mr. GARAMENDI. One of the reasons is this: this is the infrastructure investment from 2002 to 10 years later. That is about an $85 billion reduction in infrastructure investment.
I wanted just to drive home the point that you have made about putting people to work and about what happens when you bring down the infrastructure investment. People are unemployed, construction workers and beyond.
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Mr. GARAMENDI. Congresswoman Edwards, thank you very much. I have known you for the almost 4 years that I have been here. The passion that you have for the American people is unmatched. Your willingness to stand for them has been seen in many pieces of legislation and votes and also on the floor of the House of Representatives. I thank you for that.
How correct you are. We are going to leave here Friday, probably around noontime. The question Americans ought to ask us is: So what have you done for America? Tell us what you have done, Congress, for America.
I will tell you what we want to do. We want to put people back to work. This ought not be America. This is the inside of the hall where we had the 40 employers that were looking to hire a few people. The outside of the hall, that was 200 yards in 35 degree weather, people standing there well over an hour, some an hour and a half, two hours, wanting to at least get a shot at a job.
Have we forgotten, have we forgotten about Franklin Delano Roosevelt's moral compass, the moral compass that we ought to be employing here? I am going to put up something. Ms. Edwards, if you will just stick around just a few moments.
America has gone back to work, at least some Americans have gone back to work. This is the recovery; this is the reduction in the unemployment. The moral compass of America. Are we doing more for those who have much or are we doing for those who have little?
This is the fact of the growth of the American economy, the creation of wealth, the creation of wealth in America. Billions of dollars. New wealth created. Where did it go? Where did that wealth go? Where did all the labor, all the hard work, all the men and women that got up in the morning and went to work, put in their 8 hours or 12 hours, their 40 hours a week or more, where did that labor, where did it go, what was the result of it?
Here it is. Here is the fact. The tale of two Americans: 95 percent of the wealth created in America from 2009 to 2012 went to the top 1 percent of Americans. So all those people out there, all the 99 percenters that worked day in and day out, that struggled for a job, that stood in line to get a job, what did they get? They got 5 percent of the new wealth of the wealth created in this Nation.
This is an indictment of the fundamental policies of this Nation. It wasn't always that way. During the Clinton period, the top 1 percent did very well. They got 45 percent of the wealth. The top 1 percent took 45 percent home. They did leave 55 percent for the 99 percent.
This isn't just happening because the Sun comes up in the morning and sets in the evening. This happens because of public policy, tax policy, employment policy, social welfare policies, food programs, unemployment programs, and the crash of the American economy caused by greed, Wall Street greed principally, and greed of others to be sure.
Keep in mind, America, this is our Nation today. Work hard? No, you may not get ahead. Keep in mind the moral compass of Franklin Delano Roosevelt:
The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is rather whether we provide enough for those who have too little.
December 28 is coming. Today is the 10th of December. Eighteen days. Just after Christmas, 3 days after Christmas, days after the holidays, 1.7 million Americans are going to lose their unemployment insurance and, since the farm bill hasn't been brought to the floor, the question of what kind of cuts will be made in the farm programs specifically for the food programs.
It is not the loafers that are out there, although there are some. It is the men and women that stood in line waiting for a job in my district last Friday, stood in line at Representative Edwards' job fair here in Maryland in the past days, those people, unemployed, depending upon the supplemental food program, the senior citizens who are trying to make it with the meager benefits of Social Security. They are the ones that are receiving the supplemental food program, the food stamps. $40 billion over the next 5 to 10 years taken away, away from farmers' income, yes, and away from the men and women that are hungry.
One more thing. I am going to put this up. I have seen this so many times. You want to take $40 billion away from the children of America? Is that what our Republican leadership wants to do? This is the face of America's children right there. One out of every four children in this Nation wondering where their next meal is coming from. Jobs? Absolutely. Unemployment benefits? Essential, unless you want this to be the American story. Food stamps? That is where he gets his food; that is where these American children are able to get their food during these hard times. They want to cut it. Where is the moral compass in that? Where is the fundamental moral compass when one out of four children in this Nation goes to bed hungry?
Where is the moral compass that takes 95 percent of the wealth created in this Nation and gives it to the 1 percent who have millions and, indeed, billions? Something is wrong here.
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