Claudia Tenney: “Once again, I stand on the floor of this great body to urge my colleagues to support American manufacturing and American…”

“Once again, I stand on the floor of this great body to urge my colleagues to support American manufacturing and American workers. The first shovel was struck into the ground in Rome, New York, to build the Erie Canal, which started the Industrial Revolution in America on July 4, 1817. We were booming. Paul Revere started his company there. Remington Arms was founded just down the road in Ilion, New York, which supplied our military with firearms. These two iconic companies remain, but many more have left. Throughout our Nation and the region that I represent, factories that once boomed with activity and production are now shuttered and empty. Meanwhile, an entire segment of the population has been pushed out of the workforce. President Trump described the America we know in central New York in his first inaugural speech: Our manufacturing plants are now ``rusted out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape.'' In the 22nd District, the Rust Belt of New York, and in many other regions across this Nation, economic activity has been on a consistent downturn. Well-paying manufacturing jobs have become increasingly hard to come by, leaving former industrial communities like ours empty as families and businesses flee in droves. In my home State of New York, we have lost 1 million residents since 2010 alone. Here in Washington and in State capitals across the country, special interests have been placed before the American worker.…”