Paul Tonko: “Again, thank you, Representative Garamendi. It's great to join with our colleagues here this evening to share thoughts…”

“Again, thank you, Representative Garamendi. It's great to join with our colleagues here this evening to share thoughts about how we move from a very trying, difficult time into perhaps America's glory days. I think it's important for us to first acknowledge that every Member elected to serve in this wonderful Chamber of the House of Representatives and those down the road here at the United States Senate, each of us is challenged, required, and responsible to polish that American Dream and make it within the grasp, provide it to be within the grasp of America's working families and those who will grow into the middle class and those who are being further empowered by work, the dignity of work, and stronger outcomes with correct policy formats. I think that this journey that we've asked to embark upon, by putting our names on the ballot, begins with us: being a people of vision, being a House that provides a vision for America. That tells me we only need to look to our history--recent and some not so recent. But that will instruct us. Our history will instruct us. We have built a strong Nation. We have provided for growth around the world. We know the secret to the success. We know how we built a Nation. And it took a vision, a New Deal that provided for housing, for manufacturing, for a strong defense, for the opportunity for us, as a Nation, to respect its labor force and insert a value-added connotation for that workforce. That was us in our glory days.…”