Chaka Fattah: “So we have had about 30,000 small and medium manufacturers close their shop in our country over last 20 years. We have…”

“So we have had about 30,000 small and medium manufacturers close their shop in our country over last 20 years. We have 11 million Americans who go to work every day making things with their hands. We still lead the world as the number one manufacturer, but what used to be an absolute lead is now relative. Part of the challenge is technology. This Congress has provided writeoffs for new machinery and other types of write-downs on capital equipment. We need to fortify our manufacturing base, and we also need to provide technical support. We provide billions of dollars to our National Laboratories. I went out to visit Oak Ridge in Tennessee. They have a manufacturing center there that helps small manufacturers think through their challenges. And the last thing we need to do is to retreat on this battlefield on manufacturing. So the gentleman from Georgia is headed in the wrong direction. I hope that the Congress does not follow him. I will be voting against this amendment, and I support this technology loan guarantee program. In fact, I authored it in this bill, and, yes, it has been built up over the last couple years to make sure that before they do anything that they do it correctly because we want to get it right. But the one thing we should be certain about is that small and medium manufacturers, which are at the heart of our manufacturing industry in our country, they need our support, and this is a way to help them.…”