Paul Tonko: “Well, absolutely. The manufacturing element in our society is strong. It still is very much--a bit of statistical…”

“Well, absolutely. The manufacturing element in our society is strong. It still is very much--a bit of statistical evidence that we rank high in the international economy with manufacturing jobs, but there was a huge loss in the decade before this administration; 4.6 million jobs lost in that manufacturing element. Well, in order for us to stop that bleeding, it's important, I believe, to promote advanced manufacturing. Retrofitting our manufacturing centers in a way that allows us to be cutting edge and doing it smarter--not necessarily cheaper, but doing it smarter--allows us to maintain that world leading status for manufacturing. Also, as we talk about infrastructure, beyond the bonds effort and the American Jobs Act, an infrastructure bank bill that will allow us to utilize that concept to leverage public and private funds that expand the opportunities to invest in our infrastructure takes us well beyond the traditional roads and bridges and levees that we talked about, the waterfront opportunities and dam repair, but it also brings us into the infrastructure for telecommunications and for electric utilities so that we then are cutting edge. We can provide for an upgrade, if you will, in the grid system. Now, we saw what that collapse was about in the year 2003, when branches rubbing on some power lines in Ohio put out the lights on Broadway in New York City. Now, that is unacceptable weakness.…”