John Garamendi

Mr. GARAMENDI

Mr. GARAMENDI. For our hardworking stenographers, it's late into the evening, and we thank you for all the work that you do recording our words, many of which are worth listening to and having written down and some of which are probably not. I want to thank my colleagues from across the aisle for bringing the issue of securing our borders to our attention tonight and along with it the issue of immigration. I would just like to remind them that the current administration has done more in the last 2\1/2\ years to secure our borders than in the previous 8 years of the George W. Bush administration, putting more Border Patrol to work--significantly more--and also putting on the borders members of the National Guard. It remains a difficult and in very many places a very dangerous situation. Nonetheless, a great deal is being done. I would also like to remind my colleagues from the Republican side that they control this House. When a certain piece of legislation came here with regard to appropriations, they actually proposed to cut the men and women that are there to protect the border. So I'm not quite sure I understood all of tonight's debate from their side. And also I would remind them that if immigration is such a big issue, they should bring a comprehensive immigration bill to this floor so that we have a rational immigration policy in the United States. I guess it's easier to talk than it is to take action. What I would like to spend tonight talking about is putting Americans back to work. Let's go back to work. This is one great country. We're America. We're the people that make things. We're the people that can do things. We're the people that want to go back to work. And this government wants to put people back to work. About a month ago the President proposed the American Jobs Act, a very comprehensive program that would put Americans back to work. I want to spend this evening talking about the critical and the most important elements of that legislation that he has proposed. Unfortunately, our friends in the Senate--well, maybe they're not America's friends--they killed the American Jobs Act. When it came up for a vote this week, they chose to not allow it to come to a vote. They did one of their little filibuster routines over there, with every Republican voting against putting Americans back to work. Now, I don't know exactly what they have in mind. I guess they would like the economy to stumble along with millions of Americans out of work. They couldn't possibly want that. They couldn't possibly want a situation where men and women are desperate for a job when there's an opportunity--and I'll explain in a few moments how many people will be able to go back to work if this American Jobs Act were actually to become law. But they voted not even to allow it to come to a vote. They did one of their little filibuster threats and every Republican lined up sufficient in number to block the bill from moving forward. I must say two of my Democratic colleagues over there also voted on the wrong side of putting Americans back to work. But I'll let them explain that to their constituents. So what is the American Jobs Act? Well, let's start with the foundation. The foundation of any economy is the infrastructure. It is that part of the structure of an economy that is the foundation. It is the transportation system. Infrastructure is the sanitation and the water systems and the modern communication systems. In the President's American Jobs Act is $50 billion, in addition to what we're already spending, to build the bridges, to repair the roads, to add to the transportation systems--the light rail, the heavy rail, the Amtrak systems--to move Americans, and also to move modern communication systems. Fifty billion dollars. What does that mean to my State of California? Well, it's $4 billion right off the top. It's 51,500 jobs that could begin the day after this House and the Senate sends to the President the American Jobs Act--$50 billion, 51,500 jobs for California, building the foundation of economic growth. In addition to that, the President proposed a $10 billion capitalization of an infrastructure bank in which pension funds from around the Nation could then invest in that infrastructure bank--more money for those projects that are not earmarks, not political, but rather jobs and programs that are actually needed in communities, that have the ability to repay the loans that the infrastructure bank would make. Let me just put up a couple of things here that really build an economy, and we will soon come to this issue of making it in America. But before I do, I just want to point out that these are the key elements in creating an economy. We talked a moment ago about the infrastructure. It's down here at the bottom, not for any reason other than that's the foundation. So the infrastructure. The other thing that's in the American Jobs Act deals with this: education. Now, education is the most fundamental investment that any society must make if it's going to have future economic growth and social justice. So what has the President proposed in the American Jobs Act for education? How about putting 280,000 teachers back to work the day after this bill passes this Congress and the Senate and is signed by the President; 280,000 teachers in the classrooms teaching our children, preparing them to compete in the world's economy; 280,000 teachers. For California, $3.6 billion and 37,000 teachers in the classroom immediately. Now, my daughter is a teacher; my son-in-law is a teacher. Their class size went from 22 or 24 to 35, a very difficult situation for any teacher in the second grade to be able to adequately prepare those children. However, my daughter is a great teacher and she's hanging in there, but this is tough. This is a very, very difficult situation. What would it mean to her if there's one additional second grade teacher in her school? It would mean her classroom size would come down and her ability to bring those kids along faster would very, very much be in play. 280,000 teachers. So that's the education piece of it. Let's talk for a moment about the classroom itself. We know here in Congress, all 435 of us, we go back to our districts and we see our schools. The parents out there, they know their schools need to be renovated. They know that many of the bathrooms aren't working. They know the playgrounds are in disrepair. They know the paint is peeling and the roofs are leaking. In the President's bill, 35,000 schools across this Nation are going to be renovated--35,000 schools. In California, that amounts to 2,800 schools being rehabilitated and 36,000 jobs. This is a big deal. If a kid takes pride in his school, he's going to be a better student. If a kid sees his school and it's in disrepair, bathrooms are not working, he could just lose interest. So let's give them a good environment in which to learn. And so the President has proposed $25 billion, 35,000 schools across this Nation. This is a big deal for education: teachers, better schools, renovation. And for community colleges, there's also money in here for community colleges, $5 billion to upgrade the plant, the laboratories, the science facilities for community colleges across this Nation. Let's go back to work. Let's put America back to work. Let's pass the American Jobs Act. The Senate, you haven't helped. In this House, in the House of Representatives, the Republican leadership refuses to even bring this bill up for a vote, even bring it to a hearing in any of the committees. They simply say ``no.'' So what's their solution? What's their solution for putting Americans back to work? Well, thus far it's been to cut budgets, to lay people off all across this Nation. How is this going to get paid for? It's fully paid for. This is not going to be borrowed money. This is not going out and borrowing money to create jobs here in the United States, fundamental investments that we need to grow the economy. This American Jobs Act, just under $500 billion, is fully paid for. It's paid for by fairness. Finally, some fairness in our tax policies. No longer are the superrich in this Nation going to be able to skip out of their share of carrying the burden of America. No longer are we going to see situations in which the top 1 percent of America continue to acquire more and more wealth at the expense of the rest of this Nation. The President and the Senate Democrats--and I credit them with this, positively credit them with this--have said, let's allow the millionaires to share in putting Americans back to work. They certainly have benefited significantly over these years. They will have their opportunity to pay their fair share and put Americans back to work. Now, on tax policy, there's another thing here. Some are going to pay more. Those millionaires who have more than $1 million of annual income, yes, they will pay more. However, the working men and women of America, the 160 million working men and women in America are going to get a tax break. They're going to see one half of their payroll tax reduced, about $1,500 per person. This is a big deal. To have an extra $1,500 in your pocket, you'll be able to pay your mortgage, buy food for your kids, be able to go out, and maybe replace that refrigerator that's broken. 160 million Americans are going to get a tax break when their payroll tax is reduced. Now, what about the businesses in America? We hear a lot of talk from our Republican friends about protecting small business. The American Jobs Act provides 98 percent of the businesses of America with a 50 percent reduction in their payroll tax, a 50 percent reduction in their payroll tax. What's more, in California, 710,000 businesses will see a 50 percent reduction in their payroll tax. That's a big deal. That's money that those businesses can then use to hire new workers. And if they hire a new worker, guess what? The President has proposed that if they hire a long-term unemployed worker, they will have a $4,000 tax credit, a tax credit. That is money right off the bottom line that they don't have to pay to the government, a reduction in their taxes. And if they go out and they hire an injured veteran coming home from the wars in Afghanistan or Iraq, they will get another tax credit. And if they hire a long-term unemployed person, similarly, very strong incentives in this legislation for employers to hire the unemployed, to hire our heroes who are returning from the wars--some injured--giving an additional incentive to hire those people. And let's understand that they do come back with skills, not just skills in war, but skills in communication, skills in repairing machinery. These are vital skills that most businesses in the United States need. So when we look at the American Jobs Act that the President brought here to this House with the speech, standing right there, a speech to the joint session, he said, Pass this law. Let's go back to work. Let's go back to work, America. We are a strong, vibrant Nation. We're a Nation of workers. We're not a Nation of slackers. We're a Nation that wants to work. And what we need is a government that's willing to help American go back to work. And that's what the President has proposed in the American Jobs Act. So where is the American Jobs Act? It died in the Senate early this week. Did it die? I don't think so. Americans are rising up across this Nation. They are in the streets. We often talked about the ``Arab Street'' and the ``Arab Spring.'' Well, this is the ``Autumn in America,'' and Americans are back in the street and they are demanding jobs. They're demanding fairness in their tax policy. They're demanding that Wall Street bankers get with the program of putting Americans back to work. Stop playing your games and all of your derivatives. Stop all of those computerized trading games and make the loans, make the loans to American businesses. That's what the people in the streets are saying. They want fairness in this system. They want a job. They want to be able to get an education, and they want this government to do the kinds of things that the President has proposed in the American Jobs Act: education, teachers in the classroom, renovating the schools, building the infrastructure, putting this Nation back on its feet. That's what we can do, and that's what we must do. Let's take a look at the other things that are necessary if America is going to make it. If America's going to make it, we must, once again, make it in America. Make it in America. This Nation is still, even though we have lost more than half of our manufacturing jobs in the last 25 years--that's right. In this Nation of manufacturers, in this Nation where we once built the armaments of the world, where we once built the cars of the world, where we once built the great earthmovers, in this Nation that once was the strongest manufacturing Nation in the world, we have lost half of the manufacturing jobs. How did that happen? It happened with tax laws that encouraged American corporations to go global, to offshore American jobs and get a tax break. You heard me right. American tax policy, until last December, gave American corporations a tax break for every job they shipped offshore. Before the Democrats lost the House of Representatives in January of this year, we passed a law that repealed those tax benefits. More than $12 billion returned to the United States Treasury, taken out of the hands of American corporations that were shifting jobs overseas--$12 billion. Not one, not one Republican voted to end that tax break. Let's understand. There's a very different way in which we look at how to make it in America. End the tax breaks that allow corporations to shift jobs offshore. Trade policy. My view, today is a sad day in American trade policy. Today this House, and yesterday the Senate, passed three trade bills. They were called ``free trade.'' They were certainly not fair trade, in my estimation. Those trade bills are going to cause a loss of American jobs no matter how you look it, and I'll tell you what the proof is. No sooner had those three trade bills passed out of this House than a fourth bill came up. You know what the fourth bill was? It's called the Trade Adjustment Act, providing a substantial amount of money, billions of dollars for those workers that lose their jobs as a result of the three trade bills that passed this House today. Do you get it? What's going on here? You're telling me these are going to create jobs, and then you turn around not more than 50 seconds later and pass a bill that provides unemployment benefits and educational benefits for the very same workers that lose their jobs as a result of those fair trade acts? Excuse me--free trade, not fair trade. Anyway, trade's an important issue. This Nation has opened its doors to the world. You send your stuff here and we'll buy it. And the doors around the world only opened a little tiny bit. It's not fair. Nonetheless, the President will sign it and we'll go on our way. We talked about tax policy. Let me talk about one more thing here that's really important. Here we go. I think I'll leave that up there. Again, it's tax policy. I suspect most of you have been offered an opportunity to buy photovoltaic solar systems for your roof, generate your own electricity. And I suspect many Americans have seen the big wind turbines and these wind farms going round and round generating electricity. This is really important energy policy for this Nation. It is extremely important that we move to these renewable energy sources. However, it is part of the American energy policy to encourage investments in solar and wind and biofuels and other kinds of renewable energy, and we do that in a variety of ways. We do that by loan guarantees. We do that with direct subsidies. We do that with tax credits. All of those are our tax money being used to encourage the appropriate and correct energy policy. However, there's one thing missing. Where are those pieces of equipment made? Where is our tax money going? Where is it going? Is it going to American-made solar panels, American-made wind turbines, or is it going to solar panels that are made in China or Germany, Korea? Where are those solar panels made, and where is that gigantic wind turbine made with blades that are 300 feet across? Are those made in America? Our tax money is being used to buy it. This is my legislation, House Resolution 487. It says this: If you're going to use our American tax money, your tax money, my tax money, the American tax money, if you're going to use that tax money to subsidize the purchase of a solar panel, a wind turbine, a bio-electric system, then that tax money's going to be used to buy American-made equipment. We're going to make it in America when we use our tax money to buy American-made equipment. That's what this bill does. And I think we ought to be passing this, along with the American Jobs Act. If we're going to go out and spend $50 billion on infrastructure, then it ought to be American-made concrete. That ought to be American-made steel on those bridges. It ought to be American-made, and we can make it in America if we have the right policies in place. A couple of more things. Any of you buy gasoline? Any Americans out there buying diesel fuel for their trucks or their pickups or cars? When you do, you're paying a tax. It's the excise tax on fuel. A little over, what is it, about 16 cents, 18 cents for gasoline and 24.5 cents, 25 cents for diesel fuel. So every gallon you're paying a tax. Where's that tax money go? It goes to build your highways, to repair your highways. It goes to build your bridges. It goes to buy trains, locomotives for Amtrak. It goes to buy light rails for San Diego, heavy rail or transit systems for Washington, DC. That's where the money goes. And we need it. We need that money to be spent on our basic transportation systems, whether they are the rails, the concrete for the highways or the steel for the bridges, or for the buses and trains that we travel in. However, is that money being used to purchase American-made concrete and American-made steel for the bridges? Is it used to buy American-made buses, American-made trains, locomotives and light rail systems? Not always. But if my legislation, H.R. 613, becomes law, it will be American made; and, once again, we will make it in America because we're using our tax money to buy American-made equipment. We can put Americans back to work, and we must put Americans back to work. We can do these things. We can use our government in coordination and cooperation with the private sector to build this Nation once again, to build the infrastructure of this Nation, to educate our children, to do the research that's necessary for tomorrow's innovation. We can do this. We can use our tax money wisely to buy American-made equipment, American-made buses and steel. We can do it. But we need good laws to do it. We need wise laws to do it. We need to not just abandon the American worker and say there's nothing that can be done, government has to get out of the way, just back up and let it go. It doesn't happen that way. We wish it did, but it doesn't happen that way. There are no economists out there that are saying, continue to cut government spending and somehow there will be jobs created. If you cut that spending now, then you're going to lay people off. Surely we have to deal with the deficit, and that's going to take 5 to 10 years to do that. So what we need to do now, in a balanced way, with the American Jobs Act, is to put people back to work, to let those who have prospered so much, those who have made out so well in this economy, the top 1 percent, those whose annual income is $1 million or more, in fairness, in equity, in what is right for this Nation, let them share the burden. Let them help the 99 percent that have been struggling these many, many years. Let them help with their taxes. They can afford it. They're not going to go belly up, they're not going to be hurting, and they're not going to be out in the street homeless. They're going to continue to do very, very well. Fairness demands, as the President has proposed and as the Democrats in the Senate have proposed, that the millionaires, those whose annual adjusted gross income is more than $1 million, that they pay a little extra, that they contribute to the future of this Nation. And in doing so, the American Jobs Act that the President has proposed could become law, not increasing the deficit, but, in fact, reducing the deficit by giving Americans the work, by restarting the great engine of the American economy and by making it in America once again. That's where our future lies, and that's where we must go. So, as we go about the debates this week, as we talk about those things that are before us, let us think about making it in America, let us find ways to use the wisdom of 535 Members of Congress and the Senate and the administration to reflect the wisdom of the American public. Use our tax money here at home. Put Americans back to work, educate, create a fair and equitable tax system. We can do it. We have no choice but to do it. With that, Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. GARAMENDI

Mr. GARAMENDI. Thank you, Madam Speaker. On October 7, 2001, the United States officially began Operation Enduring Freedom, and the war in Afghanistan was underway. The last decade of wars has cost thousands of U.S. lives and hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars. As a member of the House Armed Services Committee and as a representative of thousands of servicemembers, military families, and veterans, I'm entrusted with weighing the decision on what the profound effect on our Nation's security this war has brought and on the men and women that risk their lives every day to ensure that security. As we mark the 10th anniversary of the longest war in America's history, we believe it's time for Congress to ask some very serious questions about our military engagement in Afghanistan. Whom are we fighting in Afghanistan? We entered this war because of the threat posed by the international terrorist organization al Qaeda. While al Qaeda expands its operations around the globe, our military is tied up in a ground war against the Taliban, an Afghan rebel group with domestic ambitions. Senior intelligence officials have estimated fewer than 100 al Qaeda members remain in Afghanistan, yet we plan to have 68,000 U.S. troops there in that country through the next year. If we are to defeat terrorism, we must stick to our original strategic mission, maintaining a laser-like focus on al Qaeda and capitalizing on our technological and intelligence advantages to cut off their financing, intercept their operations, and take out their leaders. The successful operation against Osama bin Laden epitomizes this targeted approach. Where's our money going? Afghanistan is widely considered to be one of the most corrupt countries in the world, behind only Somalia, and news reports of new corruption emerge every day. Billions of U.S. dollars are siphoned off by crooked officials and contractors, carried out of the Kabul airport in bags of cash, and even funneled to warlords and the very Taliban that we often oppose. To date, the U.S. has spent nearly half a trillion dollars in Afghanistan, and that pricetag increases by $10 billion every month that we stay there. Meanwhile, we are forced to cut critical services at home in the face of our rising deficit and financial instability. We continue to hemorrhage finite U.S. resources in Afghanistan, and it makes us less, not more safe. When will this war end? While the current timeline commits 68,000 troops through 2013, there are reports, backed up by some facts, that in the ongoing talks with the Afghan government about the future of the U.S.-Afghanistan relationship, the U.S. is considering having 35,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan until 2025 at an expected cost of over $50 billion a year. The human cost of this war is immeasurable. The dedication and the commitment of American men and women in uniform is absolute. Our troops in Afghanistan execute their orders that put them at risk because they trust the mission in which they are deployed. That is absolutely essential to our Nation's security. This steadfast loyalty is our Nation's most sacred resource, and thus, it is our most solemn responsibility to ensure that it is never squandered. There is no U.S. military solution in Afghanistan. A political reconciliation is essential. Afghanistan's future depends upon Afghans, not American soldiers. By ending this war, America can focus on rebuilding the foundations of America's strength and security by paying down our Federal deficit, growing our economy, and putting Americans back to work.

Mr. GARAMENDI

Mr. GARAMENDI. Madam Speaker, I rise today to celebrate a very, very special birthday. It is the 50th birthday of the United States Peace Corps, an incredible organization that was started by President John F. Kennedy and a whole lot of people that thought that this Nation had an opportunity to reach out to the men and women of America, provide them with a challenge: to go out to the world to seek peace, to work for peace, and to help developing nations meet their needs, whether it be in education, community development, economic development, or other activities. And so it has been. More than 200,000 Americans, young and old, men and women, have become Peace Corps volunteers. They have served in 139 countries around the world, and today they serve in over 70 countries. It's been a terrific program. It has presented the very best face of America to millions of people around the world. Today, there are leaders of many countries around this world that have been taught by Peace Corps volunteers in their high schools, in their grammar schools or universities. They have a very special understanding of America. They know Americans. They know that Americans have a big heart and they have a desire to see progress, economic and social progress in every country of this world. And so today we celebrate 50 years. We celebrate over 200,000 Peace Corps volunteers that have served around the world, and we celebrate those who have been in the administration, the directors, the country directors, the doctors, the nurses, and the others who have been part of this enormously important part of America. As those Peace Corps volunteers have returned to America, it is now clear in recent polling that they have continued to serve. They serve as volunteers at twice the rate of other Americans. And they are found in the schools, they are found in the community programs, and they're even found in Congress, as strange as that might seem. But, nonetheless, they've served in many, many ways, and they continue to do so. Earlier today, I met two Peace Corps volunteers who were in the very first effort in Tanzania, then Tanganyika. They returned some 40 years later. I'm going to turn that around. They actually served in Afghanistan in the early sixties and then came back 40 years later to serve once again as Peace Corps volunteers. And what we have found over these many years, that once you've become a Peace Corps volunteer, you never stop laboring for peace, wherever it may be. And so today we celebrate the 50th anniversary of a remarkable idea that was put forward by President John F. Kennedy, the idea that Americans could reach out to the whole world and serve wherever that need might be. Happy birthday, Peace Corps. Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore

Mr. GARAMENDI

Mr. GARAMENDI. We use Donald Trump as the example here, but there are probably 400 to 500,000 that fall into this category; extraordinary wealth. Now, we've been talking all night about the American Jobs Act, so I'm going to put this back up for us to ponder for a moment: the American Jobs Act. Total cost of the American Jobs Act: $450 million. The President yesterday said it can be paid for, and he laid out a way to pay for it and, simultaneously, over the next decade, bring down the American deficit--solve the deficit and pay for the Jobs Act. And he said that there are three ways to do it: First, those who have much must participate. They must share in bringing America back. So he has suggested that the highest income, that 1 percent, those who make over $1 million, that they participate, that they no longer would be able to have a tax rate lower than their assistants. That's the Buffett Rule. That's a big piece of it, about $800 billion over the next decade. He also said that corporations that pay no income tax today-- corporations like General Motors, corporations like Verizon, some of America's biggest corporations pay zero income tax. Last year, General Electric paid zero and got about $5 billion back in rebates. Something is seriously wrong, the President says. That cannot happen anymore. Everybody has to participate. He also said that other tax breaks for the oil companies should end. So putting together these tax increases on those who have much, the superwealthy in America, the hedge fund manager that pays 15 percent on his income where you and I and others may pay 30 percent, something's wrong here. So that's what he is recommending. We need to move very vigorously forward on the American Jobs Act, put people back to work, and simultaneously solve the overall budget deficit by not only new taxes, but also with additional cuts. That's the President's proposal.

Mr. GARAMENDI. Let me put a couple of more facts on the table and then let's talk about the policy changes that can redirect that. This is the last 40 years, 1979 to 2006, prior to the Great Recession. During that period of time, there was a shift of wealth and of income, wealth and of income, from the middle class and the low-income to the very wealthy. This lays it out. Again, this is prior to the Great Recession. If we look at it in the Great Recession, these statistics are even more startling. For the low end, the poorest, 11 percent growth. And then you move up to the second group, 18 percent, 21 percent, 32 percent. For the top percentage, the top 20 percent, a 256 increase in income and wealth. Looking at the statistics, a wage earner in a factory versus the CEO, it used to be 1 to 40, now it's 1 to 300. We've seen an enormous shift in wealth from the working middle class families to the very, very wealthy. If you overlay this with the 2007, 2008, 2009, and where we are today in 2011, it would be even more startling because now these are running negative, as you said just a moment ago. For the middle class, that's here and down, not the top 20 percent, but down here, this is the top 1 percent.

Mr. GARAMENDI. We can. Yes, we can. We can rebuild America. We really can do it. You gave a wonderful example of the way in which the great Industrial Revolution in this country took place, government doing its piece and the private sector doing that piece, government setting the stage with infrastructure and then the private sector coming along building the mill towns, building the factories, and the government aiding in the research all along the way. There's a very interesting story about the telegraph. It would not have happened had not that idea been brought to the Congress and then the Congress funding the initial implementation of the telegraph. So we've seen over the history of America the role of government. The President has laid out in the American Jobs Act a very powerful message about the role of government, together with the free enterprise entrepreneurial system, building once again the America that we want. We have maybe another 15 minutes, I think, here, and I want to take this to another part of what the President talked about yesterday. There are two Americas. We are two very different Americas. There is the very wealthy America, and then there is the rest of America. I put this up because I was listening, as I was traveling to one of my meetings in the district over the weekend, to a radio talk show. It was KGO radio in San Francisco. They had a talk show on in support of food banks. They were taking the entire day and assisting in raising money. This is one of the most-listened-to stations on the entire West Coast. They go from Vancouver all the way down to San Diego with their radio signal, and it was a whole day dedicated to food banks and raising money for food banks. The story line was very simple. Food banks are being inundated by men and women that can no longer buy food. They are unemployed. They are simply to a point where they cannot any longer. The stories were heart- wrenching. Men and women, families that had worked their entire life, that had always been able to come home with food and a paycheck and been able to pay the rent or pay the mortgage had lost their job, and they didn't know what to do. They were embarrassed to go to the food bank. They thought it was begging. That's not the case. Nonetheless, the stories tore me apart and caused me to come back and find out about child poverty in this Nation, the richest nation in the world. No other nation, no matter what you think of China, no matter what you think about India and how they have grown or any part of the European Union, no other nation in the world has the wealth of America, and no other industrialized country in the world has the same extraordinary child poverty. What are we? What are we in America if we don't care for our children? Look at this. Nearly 25 percent, some were 23, 24 percent, one in four children in this Nation live in poverty, and they're hungry. They are hungry. This has to be addressed. The President's jobs program puts men and women back to work so that they can care for their children. There is another story behind this, and that is that the rate of poverty in America is the highest it has been since 1962, during the Kennedy period. In the Johnson period, 1963, '64, '65, America started a war on poverty, and the poverty rate in this Nation fell precipitously. Senior poverty with Medicare and Medicaid; men and women in their senior years were taken out of poverty because they could afford health care. They had health care available to them. And other programs were institutionalized. Here we are, 40-some years later, the highest incident of poverty in America since prior to the war on poverty in the 1960s. We have to address this.

Mr. GARAMENDI. If I might just add, I was the insurance commissioner in California twice, first in the early 1990s, and then again from 2003 to 2007 or 2008. During that period of time, we had many emergencies in California. We had fires and earthquakes, and always we could count on the Federal Government immediately providing assistance. Sometimes fast, tens of millions, hundreds of millions, of dollars made available immediately to rebuild. And it was never, never a question of having to take money away from an existing program so that aid could be brought to California. When the hurricane went through New Orleans, nobody said, well, we're going to take care of New Orleans and we're going to cut education or we're going to cut research. They simply put the money together during the Republican, the Bush period, to rebuild New Orleans. And that was a multi-billion-dollar project. Now here we are with these disasters in the Northeast. And our Republicans are demanding an offset, that is, in order to provide money to rebuild the Northeast, we're going to have to cut out the research for advanced auto technology. This is the future of the American auto industry. This is how to build a better electric motor for a car, a better battery so that we can make those things in America rather than importing them from China or Korea or Japan. The opportunity for America's auto industry to advance with more fuel-efficient cars, all of that will be pushed aside for the first time in anybody's memory here. And some people have been here 50 years. Never before was an offset required, particularly one that would harm the future of the American automobile industry. So we are going, This doesn't make any sense. Let the compassion and the generosity of America express itself, as it has done so many, many times. And simply say, okay, we are going to appropriate the money. We'll dig deeper. We'll appropriate the money. We'll rebuild. And in rebuilding, much of it will be made in America.

Mr. GARAMENDI. The East-West show will continue, and the Make It in America agenda will be the American agenda because Americans want to make things in this country. They want to rebuild the manufacturing industry. The President has given us a way to do that with the American Jobs Act. Trade policy, tax policy, energy, labor, Make It in America. Make the jobs in America. Rebuild America's manufacturing base. Rebuild the American middle class. We will do it. And if we pass the American Jobs Act, it can happen very quickly. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. GARAMENDI. We can rebuild America, and we're certainly going to have to rebuild your part of America. You and your constituents in upper New York and in Vermont were devastated by Hurricane Irene, floods that had not been seen, perhaps, in the entire modern history of those areas. So that needs to be rebuilt. But you are quite correct about the rest of the Nation. San Francisco Bay Bridge went down in the 1989 earthquake, the Loma Prieta earthquake, and devastated the economy of San Francisco. Freeways collapsed. So we know that we need to build to a higher standard and we know we need to repair. These are American jobs that are readily available today. And when we couple it with the American-produced cement and steel and equipment that's American made, we will generate a new resurgence of America's manufacturing industry. It can be done. All we need is a vote of this House. All we need is a vote on the President's American Jobs Act. It's all there. The Buy America, Make It in America is there. The construction jobs are there; the education is there; 1.5 million to 2 million Americans going back to work the day or shortly after the President signs that legislation. This is really an opportunity. And to sit here and to waste time, it just seems to me to be a tragedy. We need help in Vermont. We need help in New York. Your people do. They have been devastated. And yet that bill hasn't even passed this House to provide the money for it. We have to do it. It's up to us. This is our task.

Mr. GARAMENDI. You also, Mr. Tonko. You have been here night after night with the same theme, the Make It In America theme. You went through these so very, very well, a trade policy that really positions America to once again be the manufacturer for the world. Tax policy, we've done a lot on tax policy already. Let me just mention two things. One we did last year. Unfortunately, none of our Republican colleagues were with us on that, but at that time the Democrats had the majority. We eliminated about $12 billion of tax breaks that American corporations received. Our tax money was given to those American corporations for shipping jobs offshore. What? You mean they got a subsidy for shipping jobs offshore? They did. We ended it. So those are the kinds of tax policies we're talking about. Now the President has proposed a continuation of another tax policy that we put in place last year. He wants to continue it as part of the American Jobs Act, and that is to give a business the opportunity to expense in 1 year, in 1 year, the cost of capital equipment so that it's not depreciated over 7 years. That's an enormous advantage for a business to make the capital investment. Now, there is one thing that I would add to that. The President said it, but it wasn't specific to this, and that is that that capital equipment, that that lathe, that that welding machine, that that saw, whatever it happens to be, or the cultivator, the tractor out in farm areas, that that be an American-made piece of equipment, that the equipment be made in America. Because, once again, we're using our tax money to subsidize the capital equipment when I want my tax money to be used for American-made equipment. And, in fact, guess what? I've got a piece of legislation--I got so excited, you will have to forgive me, but I have a piece of legislation that does just that. It couples up with what the President's been talking about. He talked about American made, that we buy American. Well, H.R. 637 says for that construction, for that infrastructure, airports, highway, high-speed rail, trains, et cetera, that they are made in America. These are opportunities for all parts of America, and it works. It works.

Mr. GARAMENDI. Madam Speaker, thank you for the opportunity to discuss employment, or lack of employment here in the United States. We just listened to a discussion about the problem, and certainly immigration is a piece of the problem. But in the whole totality of the extraordinary unemployment in the United States, it is but one piece. The solutions to the crisis that faces America and Americans is way beyond just the immigration policy. I would hope that my colleagues from the Republican side would work towards a comprehensive immigration reform program, one that certainly will deal with the border and security on the border, although I think much of what was said earlier is overblown. And dealing with deportations, I would point out that the current Obama administration has deported more people in the last year than in the entire 8 years of the Bush administration. Much needs to be done. A comprehensive immigration policy needs to be put in place. But if it were in place today, the unemployment in this Nation would not be solved by that alone. There is a solution that's at hand. There's an opportunity for this Congress to act immediately to bring back American jobs, to put Americans back to work. It's the American Jobs Act. A week ago, a little more than a week ago now, the President stood before a joint session of Congress here in this Chamber filled with Democrats, Republicans, Senators and Members of Congress, and he presented to us a comprehensive program to put Americans back to work. I want to discuss that tonight and also pick up the issue that he raised yesterday about how we do that, how we put Americans back to work and, in the next several years, bring the deficit under control and put America's financing back in shape. It's the American Jobs Act, a very comprehensive proposal, a very bold proposal, and one that would actually, not by his estimate but by the estimate of independent economists, employ some 1\1/2\ to 2 million Americans immediately. And I'd like to tell you how that might come about if this House were to pass the legislation. We know that for America to succeed both in the short term and the long term, it's not only about going back to work, it's also about critical investments. Over the weekend, back in my district in California, the East Bay area of San Francisco Bay and up into the Central Valley, I had the opportunity to talk to teachers, teachers who were very concerned that given the financial situation in California, that they were going to be laid off, and generally it's the new, the young teacher that has only been there a little while that's given the pink slip and sent on down the road. This is a personal issue in my family. My daughter and son-in-law are teachers, and their class size has already grown from 20, 21 to 34, 35 in the second-grade class. A very difficult teaching situation. Yet, more layoffs are likely to occur. One of the fundamental investments that needs to be made in any society that wants to grow, that wants to prosper, that wants to have social justice is the education of the young, and in the case of the United States, with the extraordinary number of unemployed, some 12 million to 14 million, and underemployed, perhaps another 10 million, it's the reeducation of those that have already been in the workforce. So a key investment is education. In the American Jobs Act, the President has proposed a very strong, vibrant, and necessary program to keep teachers in the classroom and to bring teachers back into the classroom. He's proposed that we fund 280,000 teaching positions across this Nation. Now, that's a huge number of teachers, many of whom have already been laid off and did not arrive for this fall school year. We can put them back into a classroom as soon as this Congress and the Senate passes the American Jobs Act. It's about $30 billion, $35 billion to do this. Is it money well spent? Well, if you want to consider investments in the most critical of all the things that a Nation does, it's the education of their children. This is an enormous and the important factor in building the future of America and simultaneously putting people back to work. When these teachers go back to work, that cycles money into the community. So the grocery store, the arts store, programs that require books and pamphlets and so forth, all of those things will begin to be circulating in our community. So this is one of the key programs that the President has proposed, the American Jobs Act--fixing our schools, putting teachers back to work. And that is a critical investment. If I might just put up another way of describing this. If you really care about America, and you want to have a better America, then we simply have to invest in America. There are numerous ways we can do it. We talked about the education programs, and that's certainly one. This is another one here that relates to education. I don't know if you can see this, but that's a young technician in a laboratory, perhaps in a hospital or quite possibly in a program, a new business like I saw in Davis, California. It's a biotechnology firm that actually produces herbicides and pesticides that are taken out--well, first discovered in the environment. These may be bugs, these are a fungus, these are bacteria that exist naturally in our environment that in one way or another kill bugs or kill unwanted plants. So they're discovering these, they are then understanding the chemical, the biological nature of it, and then mass producing these biological pesticides and herbicides. Two things they need. They will eventually go out with an IPO so they'll need capital, and that's another piece of what the President is proposing. But they also need technicians in the laboratory. In going through this particular lab, I said, How is your employment? The owner of it said, Well, we're at 90 employees now. We're 2 years, 3 years old, and we need to grow, but I can't find the technicians. In the President's program there is a specific reeducation program that's available for young men and older men and women that want to learn a new technology, a new trade, and that's the technicians here, so that they can fill those four immediate openings that exist in Davis, California, for lab technicians. Similarly, the community colleges will be able to receive the Pell Grants and the grants and loans for the first time ever to provide money so that these people can go to work. There is yet one other program, and we'll get to the construction here in a little while as we go through this. One of the key aspects of the President's jobs program is the fact that we have about 3 million, almost 4 million men and women who have served in the Iraq and Afghanistan theaters. Many of those are still there but most have come home. When they leave the military, they have one of the highest unemployment rates of any group in the United States. This is simply wrong. These are men and women that have served this Nation heroically and in considerable danger, and in many, many cases having suffered grievous injuries. We need to pay special attention to them and recognize that they have acquired some very, very important skills. They know how to work, they know how to show up on time. They know how to take instructions. What they don't know is how to be a lab technician, and they don't know that there are job opportunities out there. So the President has proposed a special program to encourage American employers, for example the biotech firm that I discussed earlier, to reach out to veterans. There is a $5,600 tax credit. This is not a deduction. This is right-off-the-bottom-line taxes, $5,600 for any company that has less than $50 million of payroll to hire a veteran returning from the wars. It's incredibly important and the right thing for America to do. The other thing, and this is even, I think, more--well, just as important and perhaps more important. This $9,600 tax credit--again, this is a reduction in an employer's taxes of $9,600 for each wounded veteran, disabled veteran that has returned from the wars. We only need to look at the photos that are too often in our newspapers about post- traumatic stress syndrome, about the men and women who have suffered grievous injuries of one sort or another. But if an employer is willing to reach out, they will be able to receive a $9,600 tax credit for those wounded warriors. These are America's heroes. These are the men and women who should be first in our thoughts and first in line. This can be combined with the educational programs that I discussed earlier so that as these veterans come back, they have the opportunity to learn a new skill, perhaps as a lab technician, and carry on and work through with a good career ahead of them that has enormous upside potential. Once you're in these high-tech businesses and the laboratory is there, the opportunity to go on and get additional education and additional pay and benefits is clearly before you. So this is one of the other aspects of the American Jobs Act. It's good for employers. They need an employee they can deduct off their taxes. It's $5,600 by hiring a veteran or $9,600 for hiring a disabled veteran. It's a very good, a very, very solid program in the American Jobs Act. It doesn't stop there. Let me bring up one other item that I think we should really be focusing on. I said earlier I'd come back to this issue of the construction worker over here. The unemployment in construction is probably well over 30 percent. In some parts--and I know this is in California--it's in the range of 50 percent. So the men and women who are in the construction industry have suffered enormous unemployment, in part because of the housing market, in part because of the cutback in State and local government expenditures. But in the President's American Jobs Act, there is a critical investment for this Nation, and that is the investment in the infrastructure. A big word. Most of us now know it. Infrastructure are roads, airports, water systems, sanitation systems, and even the modern communication systems, not of telecommuting, but of various kinds of microwave systems and other fiber optic systems. All of those are modern infrastructure. Now, across America, we have allowed our infrastructure to deteriorate. Our bridges are in bad shape. More than 60 percent of the bridges in America need to be repaired and made stronger. There are earthquake standards that are not met. Virginia wasn't thinking too much about those until about a month ago, and then suddenly Virginia began to think about earthquake standards. I will tell you that this building--this Capitol--was built a century or more ago, and they weren't thinking about earthquakes at that time. All across this Nation, the infrastructure needs to be modernized; it needs to be brought back up to speed. So the President has proposed a $50 billion sum of money immediately available for the infrastructure of the Nation--bridges, roads, airports, the infrastructure of the modern communication systems. All of that is immediately available and, in addition to that, a very innovative--and I think a very important-- idea called an ``infrastructure bank.'' An infrastructure bank has been talked about for a long time. Europe has had one for more than two decades. What it is is an initial investment by the government and then an additional investment by public pension funds, by individuals. That infrastructure bank operates just as a commercial bank does. It's not a bunch of pork barrel projects by me or any of my colleagues but, rather, projects that are brought that are cash flow. They are able to repay the loans, repay the loan guarantees, and perhaps, depending upon the structure of the proposal, are able to get a grant of some sort. That could turn into another $50 billion very, very quickly. I know that, out in California, CalPERS--the big public pension fund--has already said they're going to commit $800 million to infrastructure in the State of California. With an infrastructure bank in place, such as the President has proposed, they may put in $2 billion, $3 billion, $4 billion. They certainly have the money. Now, in this House, my colleague from Connecticut, Rosa DeLauro, has pushed the infrastructure bank for several years, but has gotten no traction from our Republican friends. At the same time, several Republicans have signed onto that infrastructure bill, so it is bipartisan and bicameral, as the Senate has a similar bill on that side. This is something we can do immediately. This is not new science. This is not a new program. It's a program that has been around a long time, that is not yet in law but that has been fully vetted; and it can happen very quickly as soon as the American Jobs Act is passed. If that happens, we'll be looking at at least $50 billion for infrastructure projects and quite possibly much more than that if the infrastructure bank comes along. Let me take up one other aspect of this program. There is not a community in America that has all of its public schools as neat, as well painted and as well conditioned as a community would want. In fact, in many of our communities, our schools are an embarrassment. They're rundown. The paint is chipping off the walls. The playgrounds are in disarray. The toilets don't work. The lab is a 1950 laboratory. There are no Internet communications within the school. The President has proposed about a $25 billion to $30 billion program to renovate America's schools, to take those schools that are rundown whether they are in rural areas or in urban areas. Schools that are rundown, schools that are in need of rehabilitation, remodeling and upgrading would be in line, and it's calculated that there are 35,000 schools that could benefit from this program. Now, who's going to do the work? These are new jobs--these are new job opportunities--and much of this work is not of a very high skill but, rather, of a skill that could be met by many of the unemployed. So this is cleanup. It's painting. It's the other kinds of work that may not require the highest of skill levels, but that is one of the additional programs that's available and is a key infrastructure program. So, as we go through these various elements that the President has proposed in the American Jobs Act, we will find the opportunity to put Americans back to work. I notice that my colleague from New York has joined us; and we'll begin, once again, the east coast/west coast. Earlier on, I talked about the education program. I talked about the veterans programs that the President has proposed, and I'd gotten into the infrastructure. We have yet to hit the unemployment and some other areas, but take us wherever you want, Congressman Paul Tonko from the State of New York, the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution. We haven't talked about Making It in America yet, which is one of your favorite themes. So please, Mr. Tonko, share with us your thoughts.

Mr. GARAMENDI

Mr. GARAMENDI. Pass the bill. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. GARAMENDI. Pass the bill. Pass the bill. Put Americans back to work. I'm going to quickly go through some of the parts of this bill and the way in which they affect Americans. It's about investment, investing in our infrastructure: $50 billion directly available for the transportation sector--rail, high-speed rail, intercity rail, bridges, roads, $50 billion available this year to put men and women back to work repairing our transportation infrastructure. Another $10 billion for an infrastructure bank in which the pension funds of America, the public pension funds, could invest. And perhaps another $20 billion or $30 billion in that infrastructure bank to once again augment the development of the infrastructure that we need--water systems, sanitation systems, all of those communications systems that we desperately need. That's on the infrastructure side. On the education side, repairing our schools: Thirty-five thousand schools to be repaired, repainted, classrooms, science laboratories, as well as the playgrounds; 35,000 schools out there. Your neighborhood school, the opportunity for it to have a new paint job, a new bathroom, whatever is needed; 280,000 teachers. You could fill the entire stadium in Ann Arbor, Michigan, football, 100,000, and still have a third game with only 80,000 people. 280,000, think of it. The Ann Arbor, Michigan, stadium filled 2.8 times over. Teachers in the classroom. This is exciting. Veterans, a very powerful incentive where a business can reduce its tax burden. That is the bottom-line tax reduced by $9,600 when you hire a disabled veteran. That man, that woman is going back to work, becoming a taxpayer. Once again, pride in our Nation. This is powerful. For the unemployed, an extension of unemployment benefits, and we didn't even get to that today--and all of this in the context of rebuilding the American manufacturing sector. More than 10 million American manufacturing jobs have been lost in the last two decades. We can put them back to work if we use our public policy, use our tax money that's going to build those bridges or those roads, buses and locomotives, use our tax money to buy American-made, American-made equipment. All it takes is a law, and it works. Sacramento, California, near where I live, has built--or Siemens, a German company, has built a major manufacturing plant in Sacramento, California, to manufacture light railcars and Amtrak locomotives. Why did they do that? They did that because the American Recovery Act, the stimulus bill that our Republican colleagues like to trash, said that the money for transportation systems--buses, light rail, and trains--must be spent on American-made equipment. So Siemens said, well, if that's the law, we want the business. They built the plant, and they're manufacturing light rail cars and locomotives today in America, using American equipment, using American workers. That's what we can do if we are willing to pass the laws to make it in America. Photovoltaic systems, wind turbines, all of these things supported with our tax dollars. Why not use those tax dollars to buy American- made solar cells and wind turbines? The President has given us the opportunity to do what we should do, as representatives of the American people. Put Americans back to work. Pass the American Jobs Act. Pass the American Jobs Act. Mr. Cohen, wrap this up for us.

Mr. GARAMENDI. We have a different view here. I'm confident that the President will be reelected because he understands very clearly that we need to put Americans back to work, And he has given us the American Jobs Act--complete legislation. All the sections are there. All the writing is done. All the legal work is done. It is now before the United States Congress and the Senate, and it's up to us, 435 of us in this House. Are we ready to act? Are we ready to do what Americans want us to do? And that is to put them back to work.

Mr. GARAMENDI. The American public, through the TARP program, bailed out Wall Street, bailed out the banks, and the banks have done nothing. The big Wall Street banks have done nothing except enrich themselves at the expense of the American taxpayer. Those days should be over. We need to move in a different direction. One of the groups we really need to help are those men and women that have been fighting the wars. Now, my personal view is that the war in Afghanistan ought to stop tomorrow. We ought to bring that $120 billion a year that we're spending in Afghanistan, bring it back here, invest it in America in education and bridges, infrastructure and debt relief; 120 billion a year in Afghanistan, and we're still spending a vast amount of money in Iraq. End those wars, bring that money home. Bring the soldiers home. And when we do, we're bringing home a lot of wounded Americans, wounded Americans who need our respect and who need jobs. In the American Jobs Act there is a special place for veterans, special advantage. They deserve it. They're the ones that have sacrificed. They're the ones that took time out of their lives to fight those wars. Whatever we may think about those wars, we can only think good thoughts and honor the veterans, and here's a way to do it. There are 877,000 unemployed veterans in America today--nearly 1 million; 877,000 looking for work. In the American Jobs Act, there is a very special tax credit available to any employer who hires a veteran. You can reduce your taxes by $5,600 right off the bottom, $5,600 tax credit--not a deduction, but a credit. And if you happen to hire one of those wounded vets--and we know them, we've seen their pictures, we know what post-traumatic stress syndrome is all about--hire a wounded vet, and it's a $9,600 tax credit to every employer, whomever it happens to be, across this Nation. Now that's what we need to do. All the talk about balancing the budget, all the talk about a deficit hasn't put one person to work in America; in fact, it has laid off hundreds of thousands of people. We need to put America back to work. The American Jobs Act does that, and it does it in a very special way. For those Americans that have been out there sacrificing in Iraq, in Afghanistan it gives them an opportunity. It gives every employer an incentive to hire those workers. We owe it to these men and women. And when these men and women go back to work, they become taxpayers. And when men and women in America go back to work and become taxpayers, then the deficit will be resolved, then we will solve the deficit. We need to make cuts, we need to do those things, but those are in the out years. Right now, it is about jobs. The President has given us the legislation. The question for our Republican leadership here is-- they control this House; they're the ones that set the agenda; they're the only ones that can bring a bill to the floor--When will you bring the American Jobs Act to this floor so that we can put Americans back to work? Mr. Cohen, I know how deeply you feel about this. I know that in your district your people that you represent are hurting. They want jobs. We're going to wrap this up in just a few moments. So for our closing remarks, go for it.

Mr. GARAMENDI. They're talking about laying off 40,000 people across America in the next year.

Mr. GARAMENDI. So taxes are part of it. The energy policy, we haven't talk about that. We talked about labor--putting men and women back to work. And the education system, 280,000 new teachers or teachers in the classroom. Research and infrastructure, this is part of the Make it in America agenda which can be carried out with the American Jobs Act. So, if we pass the American Jobs Act, we've got a really good opportunity to once again make things in America, because the legislation calls for about $50 billion in infrastructure and the establishment of an infrastructure bank for sanitation, water systems, Internet, high-speed cable, and all of those kinds of things in the infrastructure bank. So we may be looking at $60 billion, $70 billion a year of investment in these infrastructure projects. Coupled with that is Buy America, Make it in America. Buy American-made buses, American- made locomotives. The concrete and steel in the bridges, that's going to be American made. I can tell you one of the greatest horror stories about infrastructure. It's right in San Francisco, just outside my district. The San Francisco Bay Bridge, a multibillion-dollar rebuilding of the Bay Bridge because it falls down in an earthquake. It did once. We don't want it to happen again. Multibillion dollars. To save 10 percent, the contract went to Chinese steel companies. All of the steel manufacturing in that bridge comes from China. Thousands of jobs in China. And to make things worse, the inspectors were over there, and they didn't do a good job. Beyond that, when the bridge parts came over here, Chinese workers came with the bridge. No more of that. We're going to make it in America. I've got a bill in--others are working on this--and that is, if it's American taxpayer money, by God, it's going to be used to buy American taxpayer goods and services. We can do this, and the first step is the American Jobs Act.

Mr. GARAMENDI. Exactly right. Twenty-two million children living in poverty, not knowing where their next meal is going to come from. At the same time, they're cutting the food programs. This is our program. This is the President's program. Every one of the things that is in the American Jobs Act is here. Taxes. There are tax breaks for businesses. And this entire program is paid for by ending the giveaway of our tax money to the oil companies. That's $4 billion a year--$40 billion over the next decade--of our tax money going to support the oil industry, the wealthiest industry in this world.

Mr. GARAMENDI. I've been kind of shuffling the boards down here because you went through several subjects along the way, and each one is so terribly important and pertinent to the issue. But I think I can wrap it all up in this, and that is, America lost about 50 percent of its manufacturing jobs in the last 20, 25 years. We went from 20 million, 21 million manufacturing jobs to just over 10 million today, but we can once again rebuild the American manufacturing sector. That's where the middle class jobs are. You had talked about tax policy, that the tax policy has shifted from one that was broad based and which the wealthy and everybody participated in in a progressive mechanism in which now the wealthy-- and Warren Buffett has said it so very well--he actually pays a lower tax rate than does his secretary. He said, This is wrong. This is upside down and wrong. And he's quite correct. But if we take a look at the manufacturing sector of America and we apply a couple of principles, that is, that we're going to buy American--and this has to do with our policies here. Trade policies. We've been giving it away in these international trade deals. On the taxes, we just talked about that. The tax burden has shifted from the wealthy down to the middle class, further eroding the purchasing power and the status of the middle class, so much so that just yesterday the Bureau of Labor Statistics came out with a report that the poverty level in America has reached the highest level in 52 years. That's the pushing down of the American middle class so that those at the bottom have been pushed out of the middle class into poverty.

Mr. GARAMENDI. So a warehouse with a payroll last year of $7 million that this year hires 40 new workers, it would add $2 million to its payroll. It would get a full refund of the 6.2 percent payroll taxes paid on the $2 million of payroll. How much is that? That's $124,000 that goes immediately to the bottom line of that warehouse. In addition to that, they have already seen a 3.1 percent reduction--actually, it's a 50 percent reduction in their payroll tax for workers who were already there, and that's another $155,000. So we are looking here at $279,000 of reduced expenses, taxes, to that company. That means that they can improve the warehouse. That means they can expand or hire more workers. This is in the President's American jobs program specifically for small businesses. Listen up, America. Listen up businesses out there. There is an opportunity here for you to immediately expand your business, reduce your payroll taxes, hire new workers, bringing a new worker on that has been on long-term unemployment and paying no payroll taxes for the next year. This is very, very important and very big, and it is immediately available as soon as the leadership, the Republican leadership in this House, brings the American jobs bill to the floor. Mr. Cohen, if you would like to carry on here, I know you have some more thoughts.

Mr. GARAMENDI. I thought they might have some of that Tennessee whiskey in them. Some of that, too?

Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Cohen, thank you so very much. Your experience from the great Midwest, along America's great river, is really important for us to understand. We really have an opportunity here right now. This legislation is before Congress and the Senate, and we have an opportunity for a better deal for America. It's an investment in America. We talked about the infrastructure. That's an investment that will last for 50 to 100 years because it's in the ground. It's the roads, the sanitation system. It's also a critical investment in tomorrow's workers, in our children. The American Jobs Act has money for 280,000 teachers; 280,000 teachers will be able to stay on the job. Right now in California, teachers are getting laid off as they are in most other States of this Nation. That means that classroom sizes are going up, and the educational opportunity for our children is diminishing. We have no more important investment. Roads are important and bridges are important, but the most important investment in any society, in any economy is the investment in education, in the children, in tomorrow's workforce. 280,000 teachers will be able to stay in the classroom. This money flows directly to the school districts, not a big administrative task at all but one that goes there directly. Small businesses. Our Republican colleagues love to talk about small businesses, and they say, correctly, most jobs are created by small businesses. That's true. That's accurate. Sixty-four percent of the new jobs over the past 15 years were created by small businesses. But what are they doing for small businesses? Cutting the contracts that the small businesses depend upon as they push an austerity budget. The American Jobs Act takes a different path. It tells small businesses: You get an immediate tax break; 3.1 percent of your payroll tax will be eliminated in the next year. That's a lot of money, and I'll explain how much it is. In addition to that, if you hire a long- term unemployed worker, your entire payroll tax will disappear. Let me tell you what that means. Let's take a warehouse. You've got warehouses in your district?

Mr. GARAMENDI. There you have it. That's when we have the opportunity if we act now. If this Chamber, empty but for three of us and our staffs here and the desk crew, were to act tomorrow on the legislation that the President has brought before us--it's in proper form; it's before us--we could take it up, and these people, all that you talked about, could be at work in the next couple of weeks. That's the possibility. Ms. Edwards, thank you so much for joining us and for your eloquence and for your determination to make this happen. Our friend from Tennessee (Mr. Cohen) has joined us. Please share with us your thoughts from middle America.

Mr. GARAMENDI. Representative Edwards, thank you so very much for your compassion and passion for these issues. Bringing FDR, the monument, and Martin Luther King together around this set of issues is really important. This is the worst economy since the Great Depression, and I remember on one of those plaques at the FDR memorial--and I may get this wrong a little bit--but he said, we measure our progress not by those who have much could have more, but by those who have little have enough. He had the compassion. Last week, the President brought to us an answer to the compelling question that we hear--what are you going to do about jobs?--the American Jobs Act. You spoke so eloquently about the infrastructure--the streets, the bridges, the schools--and that 2 million construction workers are out of jobs. The President has proposed a $50 billion immediate infusion of money into America's infrastructure--into our roads, our bridges, our water systems, our airports. There is $50 billion available this year to put Americans back to work. It's not just the construction workers that will have those jobs, because these people will be able to keep their homes. They will be able to buy their food; they will be able to bring that money back into their economy with what is called the multiplier effect. And so that $50 billion may run through the economy three times, two and a half times, so that instead of 2 million, maybe it will be 3 million that will get their jobs. I know that you want to add to this, Ms. Edwards.

Mr. GARAMENDI. Well, he pays 15 percent. Somehow or another they got into the law. The hedge fund folks that are making hundreds of millions of dollars a year--in some cases, billions--are paying 15 percent on their income. Now they've got it classified as capital gains when, in fact, it's their labor. That is, it's their work. As you and I are working here and as people are working in the manufacturing plants, it's their work, but it's taxed at 15 percent, not at 35 or 38 percent. What's that all about? Where are we going to end that tax break? That's about $17 billion over 10 years.