Brad Miller: “I also rise to oppose this rule because it does not allow this Congress to consider the amendments offered by the…”

“I also rise to oppose this rule because it does not allow this Congress to consider the amendments offered by the gentleman from California (Mr. Honda) to authorize or reauthorize the advanced technology program. Mr. Speaker, in the almost 3 years that I have served in the House of Representatives, I am not sure that I have heard any words spoken on this floor with which I have disagreed more strongly than with the statement of the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Gingrey) just a few minutes ago that we were doing enough already to address the problem of manufacturing job loss. I think his exact words were it is simply not true that we are not doing enough, that Congress and the President are not doing enough to address manufacturing job loss. If the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Gingrey) thinks this, if any Member of Congress thinks that, I invite them to come and visit my district. I want to introduce them to some of the people who have lost their jobs. My State has lost almost 200,000 manufacturing jobs in the last 4 years. They are in industries that have been the backbone of my State's economy: tobacco, textiles, furniture. And those were jobs that people depended upon to build their lives around, to support themselves and to support their families, and they are gone. It is not that they have laid off a shift until the economy turns around. The plants are closed. The equipment is sold. The jobs are gone forever.…”