John Garamendi

Now, it does run up the debt; but we are using that money to create infrastructure, a necessary investment for the economy to grow and to protect ourselves.

Now, the borrowing rate for the Federal Government on a 10-year note is a little over 1 percent or hovering around 1 percent now?

The same way we build and own our homes. We borrow the money to build that personal infrastructure, our home.

Mr. Higgins, thank you so very, very much for bringing this issue in very stark terms to our attention. You caught my attention earlier when we were talking about this; but here on the floor, this is a $1.2 trillion program that could…

You had a lot of people speaking to your extraordinary career here, and I didn't want to cut it short. Your advice is sound and, hopefully, taken by all of us.

If the gentleman from Texas would like to finish his statement, I would be happy to yield him 5 minutes.

Thank you, Mr. Tonko, and I thank Mr. Pallone and Ms. Velazquez. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time. ____________________

I noticed that we've now been joined by another representative from an area that was significantly damaged, Mr. Pallone from New Jersey. Perhaps you would like to share with us your thoughts and your experience. I did see you on CNN one…

I know that you're deeply involved in small business. You're the ranking member of the Small Business Committee here in the House of Representatives. I would expect that there would be a significant opportunity for small businesses in this…

I thank you very much. Maybe we can engage in a little colloquy here, and we can talk about this in a little more detail. The storm surge that came into New York was anticipated, but the New York/New Jersey region were not prepared with…

I will also remind you that we have requests for money to deepen the channel.

Mr. Tonko, thank you very much for your passion on this issue, and thank you for your compassion for the American people. We can make it. We can make it in America. We need good and wise policies to do that. You can't do it by cutting…

Excuse me for interrupting. Before you came to the House of Representatives, that was your work in New York, wasn't it?

Mr. Tonko, you might actually have bathrooms that work. You might actually have a place where kids would want to be. You'll have a school that has a decent paint job, air conditioning. Kids would want to be in that school. Yet we have…

I have an amendment at the desk. The Acting CHAIR. The Clerk will report the amendment. The Clerk read as follows: At the end of the bill (before the short title), insert the following: Sec. __. (a) Except as provided in subsection (b)…

Well, reclaiming my time, and thank you, sir, for the information. The point here is that in the early development of all of these fuels, whether they are coal-based or other kinds of biofuels, there is a higher cost in the early stages…

Reclaiming my time, sir, in listening to your discussion about the coal-based fuels, clearly those are in the development stage; they're not yet in place. I would assume that in the development stage, the U.S. military would be purchasing…

I have a question to the author of the amendment and to those who are supporting it on the other side. In listening to your discussion, you seem to be in a posture of the military--Navy in this case, and I suppose other branches--having…

Mr. Tonko, before we carry further with the American Jobs Act, I know that the two veterans who were here in the gallery were headed out the door when I recognized them, I saw them leave and I wanted to thank them for their service. I…

Well, this is the only thing that's actually been done. When the President last September proposed the American Jobs Act, the second thing that he talked about was the veterans jobs bill, and it kind of languished around here for a couple…

Well, they are coming back, and I just want to, maybe the three of us can simply recognize them for the service that they provided to this country. I suspect that, normally, I see a gentleman that's always escorting them here in the…

Excuse me just for a moment. I noticed in our gallery two gentlemen, soldiers, who are here, both of them wounded in the wars. This is part of a group that comes in here every day when we're in session to watch what we're doing. They just…

Thank you very much for joining us, and thank you for bringing that perspective. Twice, now, our Republican colleagues have voted for a full repeal of the law, and you very correctly and, I think, almost totally pointed out the things that…

These are all part of the puzzle of putting people back to work. As I started this discussion, talking about the laws of America, the policies that have been enacted by this Congress and by previous Congresses and the way in which they…

It is much easier to say don't cut this, don't raise that tax. The hard part of governing--and in a representative democracy theoretically we all have some responsibility for governing--is making choices.