On the recordJune 11, 2012
people in my home State of Ohio know how to make things. We know how to make big things. For decades, Ohio has been a national leader in auto production, in chemicals, in steel, in concrete, in aluminum, and in the aerospace industry and food processing. Now we are a leader in solar power, in wind turbine components and batteries and all the kinds of things that really create middle-class jobs and help us lead the world in manufacturing production. Ohio is the third leading manufacturing State in the country. We make more in Ohio than any State but California, three times our population, and Texas, twice our population. What Ohio perhaps is best known for in production is the auto industry. The auto rescue did not just save the U.S. auto industry 3, 3\1/2\, 4 years ago, it saved thousands of auto-related jobs in Ohio. Estimates are that some 850,000 jobs in Ohio--a State of 11 million people, only smaller than the Presiding Officer's home State of Pennsylvania--that 800-plus thousand jobs in Ohio are related to the auto industry. It is clear from the auto rescue that the President, the Senate, and the House supported that it saved tens of thousands and created tens of thousands of those jobs. New data shows manufacturing is at the forefront of the economic recovery, with factories adding 250,000 jobs since early 2010--the first sustained increase in manufacturing employment since 1997.…





