Haley Stevens: “I rise within this Chamber this evening to give an address on the state of our manufacturing economy. It is certainly…”

“I rise within this Chamber this evening to give an address on the state of our manufacturing economy. It is certainly very significant to do so this evening in the well of our House of Representatives, one of the more sacred and distinct places of our democracy, where we deliberate, exchange, and make our Nation's laws. Certainly, the weight of a great history is also upon us, and some profound and oftentimes troubling questions are asked of us. How do we make government work for the people we represent? How do we restore trust, faith, and accountability in our Federal Government? Henry Clay once said that government is a trust, and those elected into office, into Federal Government, are its trustees, and they work together for the benefit of the people. We hear and see the aching headlines of dysfunction, of inability, of stagnation, questions around progress and where we seek and look to go. Trust in government is at its lowest levels, according to Pew. We are waiting for an infrastructure deal. We are waiting for tenets of social justice, of economic justice, of equal opportunity for education. This House of Representatives in this 116th Congress has passed some remarkable bills, over 200, in fact, bills that colleagues who preceded me worked for years to get to the House floor. Now, the American public waits for those bills to become law, to be passed through our Senate, to be signed into law. That is why we are here today.…”