Matt Cartwright: “I thank Representative Tonko. We have an engineer on his toes here this evening who has picked up on a lot of the points…”

“I thank Representative Tonko. We have an engineer on his toes here this evening who has picked up on a lot of the points that have been made previously. For example, Representative Mary Gay Scanlon and Representative Tonko both brought up the similarity between expanding broadband internet access to all of the rural places and all the nooks and crannies and hollers in this country. The similarity between doing that and enacting the Rural Electrification Act 80 years ago by President Franklin Roosevelt, if we hadn't done that so many people would have been left behind, literally, in the dark. If we don't do this, we are going to leave Americans behind in the quest for knowledge and keeping up in the modern economy by use of high-speed broadband internet. Another thing Representative Tonko just mentioned, Madam Speaker, is about filling jobs. I represent northeastern Pennsylvania, and I talk to employers a lot, employers of manufacturing jobs, employers of retail and restaurant jobs, and the lament has been constant. With manufacturing jobs, it predated the pandemic, it was that we can't find people trained-up to do our work. We can't find people who know how to run CNC machines, the modern version of the lathe, to manufacture parts in their businesses. The Build Back Better Act includes a lot of money for workforce development. It is a big favor being done for employers, for companies that do manufacturing work; but it goes beyond that.…”