On the recordSeptember 13, 2011
I thank my friend from New York. It's a great pleasure to talk about the subject that's on every American's mind, and that is, how do we rebuild America, how do we put Americans back to work, and how do we recreate the kind of America that we all once admired and will admire again? You've talked about a very incredibly important element of the job creation agenda, and that is research and development. It's clear that the jobs that we look forward to in the next generation, and the generation after that, are jobs that probably don't exist today. We're going to find them. We're going to discover them. And if we don't do it, they will be invented somewhere else, and that's why the initiatives that you have been talking about in the energy field are so critical. But I would like to talk today about a job opportunity that exists right now. The President referenced this in his speech last Thursday night, and I thought he was incredibly powerful and articulate in doing that. Because what he did was connect the dots. And when he talks about infrastructure and jobs, that's something that most Americans can understand. When we built the interstate highway system, that created an awful lot of jobs, and it also established an infrastructure that has enhanced our commercial activity throughout this country for more than a half a century. And now today we have a gap in that interstate highway system, and it happens to be in my community.…





