Paul Tonko: “Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's an important topic these days when we refer to jobs--jobs in America, jobs that we retain…”

“Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's an important topic these days when we refer to jobs--jobs in America, jobs that we retain, jobs that we create. The overwhelming issue right now in the minds and hearts of constituents across this country, I firmly believe, is about the dignity of work, jobs that need to be strengthened out there in number so as to provide for the opportunity for people to dream the American Dream, the American Dream of home ownership, of education for their children, of higher education pursuits, so as to unleash the skills and the talents and the passions of the next generations of workers. Training, retraining programs to enable the human infrastructure required as an investment in the work zone of America is an important aspect of the investment that we need to make through policy reforms and policy strengthening and resource advocacy that we could do here in the Halls of Congress, on the floor of the House of Representatives to enable us to fill those coffers with the quality investments that need to be made from a human infrastructure perspective to a capital infrastructure, and certainly to a physical infrastructure as we go forward and allow this country to utilize its intellectual capacity, to use the brainpower of these United States to enable us to compete and compete effectively in a way that acknowledges that the jobs market, the jobs created, the jobs retained through advocacy here in Washington can speak to the ultimate highest priority that people…”