Russ Feingold: “I rise today to offer some comments on one of the most serious problems we face in this Nation--the severe erosion of…”

“I rise today to offer some comments on one of the most serious problems we face in this Nation--the severe erosion of our manufacturing base. This crisis has been well documented, and the statistics are dismaying. According to the Economic Policy Institute, between January 1998 and August 2003, manufacturing employment dropped by three million, and manufacturing's share of total gross domestic product fell from 16.3 percent in 1998 to 13.9 percent in 2002. In my own State of Wisconsin, 77,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost just in the last 2 rac{1}{2} years. Of course, as shocking as those numbers are, they do not begin to convey the depth of the personal tragedies behind them. Millions of families have had their breadwinner thrown out of work, and entire communities have been ravaged. When the factory shuts down, everybody in town feels the impact. Across my home State of Wisconsin communities are trying to cope with this crisis on a daily basis. There are, no doubt, a number of reasons for this sudden loss of manufacturing jobs, but at the absolute center has been our appalling trade policy.”