Bob Menendez: “for working people, the most important asset that they have is their job. It supports their home, their family, their…”

“for working people, the most important asset that they have is their job. It supports their home, their family, their children, their hopes, their life. This bill will save and increase good-paying American jobs. Mr. Chairman, I want to commend the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. McDade) and the gentleman from California (Mr. Fazio) for crafting a bill that, in a time of fiscal belt-tighening and hard choices, makes the right choice to keep American jobs as the top priority. The Port of New York and New Jersey, a good part of it, is in my district. It is the economic lifeline for the northeast region. Mr. Chairman, 180,000 jobs and $20 billion in economic activity is generated though the port. If my colleagues live in the Northeast, there is a good chance that the things that they buy are coming from the port or that they are dependent upon other goods, products, or machinery coming through the port. Mr. Chairman, to keep those goods coming here on the increasingly large industrial ships, we need deeper channels and modern port facilities. If we do not modernize, the larger ships will go elsewhere and goods may start coming into Canada instead of our harbor. That hurts everyone in this country and the national impact could be enormous. That is not acceptable. This bill sends a message that we will not stand by and let American jobs go elsewhere. To our friends up north in Canada, let the message from this House be clear. We are committed to shipping commerce.”