Mr. President, I would like to salute Jeffrey R. Immelt for agreeing to chair the President's new Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. Mr. Immelt knows quite a bit about creating jobs, promoting innovation, and competing in the marketplace. As the chairman and chief executive officer of General Electric, Mr. Immelt has led the company through a major expansion into growth markets overseas and made GE a leader in manufacturing a new generation of environmentally friendly technologies. Now, as we transition from stabilizing our economy to increasing employment and growth, Mr. Immelt's experience leading GE will help him counsel the President through our long-term recovery. Mr. Immelt knows that innovation is the key to America's economic growth. Consequently, GE relies heavily on the U.S. patent system. I have been very happy to work with Mr. Immelt and GE as strong proponents of bipartisan patent reform legislation. I recently met with Mr. Immelt and was impressed by his determination to make GE even more competitive in the future than it has been in the past. He has original ideas on investing in research and development and understands that reviving and updating America's manufacturing economy is critical to creating jobs in this country. I have always been impressed with his commitment to manufacturing in Rutland, VT, where GE Aviation has a major plant. In honor of his willingness to serve in this new capacity, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record Mr.…
Share & report
More from Patrick Leahy
Madam President, I will speak more on this subject later this week, but I spent much of last week, both Marcelle and I did, in Vermont. It is a very peaceful State. We walk across the fields at our home, walk down the dirt road where we…
Madam President, today marks the 1-year anniversary of the election of Xiomara Castro Sarmiento, the first woman to hold the office of President of Honduras. She succeeded Juan Orlando Hernandez who had discredited the office of the…
Mr. President, we have so many things going on in Washington these days, with just about everything from budgetary matters to wrapping up this session of the Congress. I was delighted today to take a step back and, in my role as President…
Mr. President, a continuing resolution to March 10 is short-sighted and wholly unnecessary. It imperils our national security, and it ignores the real pain and consequences of inflation. Without funding from a full-year omnibus…





