Paul Tonko: “Right. Their strength, their resilience is infectious. They motivate me. They fill my voice with passion. Again, I thank…”

“Right. Their strength, their resilience is infectious. They motivate me. They fill my voice with passion. Again, I thank you for the wonderful support you have expressed today in caucus to do a stand-alone supplemental bill for the people of this recent tragedy. My district was in the midst of that, as were many others. Forty-seven, I believe, districts were impacted by it. But, Representative Garamendi, I couldn't help but think, as Representative Jackson Lee spoke with such eloquence, that America's most shining moments are when we invested in America, invested in a canal system, invested in an infrastructure program with rail. We invested in a rail system and an interstate system and invested in a race to the moon that unleashed untold amounts of technology. That investment had a bipartisan spirit to it under Republican and Democratic administrations. We were at our shining best when we invested in America. What do we hear now? Let the free market rule. Well, go tell it to companies whose countries are co-investing with them. We hear it all the time. They are co-investing in these other countries. In fact, the private sector investment in renewables used to be placing America number one. We slipped to number two to China, and recently slipped to number three after China and Germany. The America I love, the America we all love is not about being number three; we are about being number one, and that's the investment we are talking about.”