Paul Tonko: “Earlier, Representative Sarbanes talked, Representative Garamendi, about human infrastructure. It begins with sound…”

“Earlier, Representative Sarbanes talked, Representative Garamendi, about human infrastructure. It begins with sound schools that are not crumbling over the students' heads but also an investment in education. Just recently, during our August district work period, I did a tour, a number of tours in my district with manufacturing. But one story pops into mind where a manufacturer in Schoharie County, a very rural county in my district, has utilized the efforts of its CAT Center--the Center for Advanced Technology--to come up with an idea that created automation so that he can remain competitive in the global sweepstakes. But he needs people who are specifically trained and educated to run this automation aspect within his assembly process, and so it becomes very important that this human infrastructure is critical. I'm reminded all the time about a centuries-old saga and decades-old stories of what we used to manufacture in America. After doing it someplace else, the daunting challenge to America, to a sophisticated society, is build the products not yet on the radar screen. And that takes intellect. That takes genius that's cultivated in our schools and in our colleges and our universities and research centers, and then we create that product line that is brand new. But that's a sophisticated society responding to a manufacturing challenge. And it begins with the human intellect; it begins with human infrastructure.…”