Paul Tonko: “Thank you, Representative Garamendi, and thank you for bringing us together on a very important topic. "Make it in…”

“Thank you, Representative Garamendi, and thank you for bringing us together on a very important topic. "Make it in America" manufacturing matters, absolutely. I think what has been promoted also as a subtheme here has been the investment in basic research, R&D, and in scientific research, making certain that we can move forward with cutting-edge, ahead-of-the-curve sort of technology that enables us to create jobs on the radar screen that simply are not there today, and it allows us to advance, I think, an energy agenda and an environmental agenda that allow for us to grow jobs. Now, as you were making your introductory comments, I was thinking about America COMPETES, which is the legislation we did on this House floor several months ago. I think 98 percent of our Republican colleagues voted against the measure. We got just about no support. Yet it was supported by the United States Chamber of Commerce. They understood the wisdom of investing in R&D and basic research and in providing for the modernization of our manufacturing sector. I am convinced, like you, Representative Ellison and others, that we can make it smarter in America, which will allow us to be very sharp, competitively speaking, on the global market scene. I think that we can do it in a way that allows us to advance jobs in this country simply by embracing the intellectual capacity of this great country.”