Paul Tonko: “Right. The efforts that we have with so much of manufacturing, with the incubator programs that enable us to provide for…”

“Right. The efforts that we have with so much of manufacturing, with the incubator programs that enable us to provide for an innovation of sorts in any of these assembly operations is key, I think it's key to our future. I think of those situations in my district, or even in my former district, where they worked with a local college that was very technically sophisticated. In this case, RPI, in the Greater Capital Region of New York, worked through its incubator program to develop these new opportunities within the plastics manufacturing that Kintz Plastics in Schoharie County utilized. I think it's worth mentioning on this floor that that really brought about a new phase of activity for this company. By innovation, by readjusting its procedure, its process, they were able to compete more effectively. That required, however, that they move to training their workforce because it required a new skill set. As they did that, they reached out to a local community college, in this case, Hudson Valley Community College in the Capital Region of New York. That partnership created the human infrastructure, the incubator provided the innovation, and they lived happily thereafter, because what they did was secure contracts in that international competitive sweepstakes because they provided for innovation. The improvements that they made to their assembly operation enabled them to maintain that sense of competitiveness.…”