Tim Ryan

Mr. RYAN of Ohio

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Chairman, while I rise to oppose this appropriations package, even though the Legislative Branch division of this package is worthy of our support, I commend Chairman Yoder both for the product and for the way he reached across the aisle to work with me and other members of our committee and the minority in this process. For all of their hard work, I would also like to thank Liz Dawson, who is on their team; Jenny Panone and Tim Monahan from the Legislative Branch minority staff; Joe Eannello from Chairman Yoder's office; Adam Berg on the minority staff; and Anne Sokolov and Ryan Keating on my team. This year's Legislative Branch appropriations bill would, among other things, allow us to catch up on some deferred maintenance in our buildings; invest in information technology to modernize the Library of Congress, Congressional Research Service, and Copyright Office; and adjust to the new cybersecurity environment faced here in the United States Congress. I am also pleased to see that this bill provides additional funds for the Sergeant at Arms and the Capitol Police to increase congressional security in the wake of the tragic shooting at our congressional baseball practice several months back. Our goal is to give them the resources they need to maintain the security on the Capitol campus and increase their coverage of Members and gatherings of Members that might be targeted. It is the responsibility of the House to look out for our safety and the safety of our constituents and staff, and the funding included in this bill is a step in the right direction. There are things I hope we can improve on as the bill moves forward. For example, I would like to see more money for personnel at the Library and CRS, not just for information technology; and more for the Government Accountability Office, which is flat-funded in this budget. Because of inflation, GAO will have 200 fewer employees than expected at the end of the year. GAO's audits and investigations root out waste, fraud, and abuse in government, something that we all agree upon here should be done. With the Trump administration resisting all of this oversight, GAO is more important today than it ever has been. While I would support the Legislative Branch bill if it came to the floor on its own, unfortunately, we are not considering it on its own. I oppose tying $1.6 billion of wasted taxpayer money for President Trump's border wall to the Legislative Branch bill. We need bipartisan, comprehensive immigration reform, which would include smarter, more effective enforcement of our laws. A few years ago, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said immigration reform would reduce our deficit by $900 billion and increase real GDP growth by over 3 percent. But simply building a ridiculous wall that faces opposition from both Democrats and Republicans won't do anything for our economy, and it isn't even a cost-effective way to strengthen enforcement. Besides, we were told repeatedly over the course of the last 18 months that Mexico would pay for the wall. They would ask the President: Who is going to pay for the wall? Mexico is going to pay for the wall. Why is there a single dime of American taxpayer money for a border wall that President Trump promised Mexico would finance? I oppose the Republicans' partisan budget strategy. By refusing to work with Democrats on a bipartisan budget deal that raises the Budget Control Act caps, Republicans are seriously risking some combination of sequestration, stopgap funding bills, government shutdown, and a catastrophic default on our national debt. Nondefense discretionary spending is one-sixth of the Federal budget. Having already cut it to the bone, they are now sawing off the limbs. The Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations bill; the Transportation bill; and the Financial Services bill that funds consumer protections and regulation of big banks will all see big cuts because of the draconian spending caps. Today's package will squeeze out investments in our infrastructure, jobs programs, early childhood education, scientific research, and all the things that need to be priorities. We are turning our backs on working families across the country who depend on these programs every day. We all believe in the free market system. We all believe in capitalism. We all want to reward risk-takers and provide a good environment for growth for those men and women who will make the investments to hire the workers. But capitalism is not a perfect system. It is these programs in this bill that we need to fund to make sure that we grow the entire economy, that we have sustained growth, we invest in education, we invest in research, and we invest in transportation infrastructure, in order for us to grow the economy. As former Appropriations Chairman David Obey used to say, those programs were about ``knocking the rough edges off of capitalism.'' On this side of the aisle, we believe making those investments is best for the economy. That is what is at stake. Yes, we must adequately fund defense, veterans programs, and the legislative branch of government. But that can't come at the expense of everything else.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Chairman, I just want to make it unanimous here. I want to thank the gentlewoman from Utah for offering this amendment and Mr. Richmond for coming here to support it. Again, everything has been said. This is appropriate. We are in unchartered waters here. We were at the baseball practices. We saw what happened to our colleague. We go out to events; we can have security. We go to our office; we can have security. You come home, and you can't. So I think this is appropriate. I want to thank you for taking this issue up on behalf of the body. We have so many Members today that will take opportunities to diminish this body, and you stood up and showed some leadership in enhancing this body. I want to support this amendment, and I thank the chairman for allowing this to happen.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Chair, I thank the gentleman. I think the Wounded Warrior Project we have going on here in the House of Representatives is a great project. It is a great opportunity, as you articulated, to get people into the legislative process, both in our district offices and here in Washington, D.C., and I want to voice my support for that.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Chairman, I have been here long enough to recognize that, at times, the majority party will come to some level of disagreement with the Congressional Budget Office. We were here during the healthcare debate, we were here during tax cuts and all kinds of different things that happened in the last 15 years that I have been here. They are not perfect, and they sometimes annoy us. As I can tell from my good friend on the other side, he is in the annoyance period with the Congressional Budget Office. But this is an essential component to what we do here. The Congressional Budget Office sincerely attempts to give us the best, most accurate information that they could possibly provide us, and those estimates change over time as circumstances change over time. When you are talking about one-sixth of the entire United States economy, it is going to be difficult to give you entirely accurate information. But not having this essential service here, I think, would be detrimental to this Congress, detrimental to our ability to even gauge and forecast into the future, and so I oppose this amendment strongly and vigorously. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Yarmuth) who I know also has a strong opinion on this matter.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Chairman, I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. Costa).

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to the amendment.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Chairman, this amendment is breathtaking in its completely overt vindictiveness. Some Members don't like the calls the refs have made in games. You can have your opposition and your opinion. Here, we are trying to get the referee fired. We cannot function as a group here if we are going to continue to try to demean and criticize this very group that is trying to help us do our job. As I said a few minutes ago, the Democrats have had a long list of frustrations with the CBO, but did we have the President, the leader of our party, and a significant number of Members of the United States Congress start bad-mouthing the CBO? We did not. We had our complaints, in all fairness, but we think that this group of professionals is essential to how this body functions. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Tennessee (Mrs. Black), the distinguished chairman of the Budget Committee, if you are not going to just believe Democrats on this issue.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Chairman, may I inquire how much time is remaining.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Neal), the distinguished ranking member on the House Ways and Means Committee.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Chair, as the designee of Ranking Member Lowey, I move to strike the last word.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Chairman, I yield to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Beyer).

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Chairman, let me just say quickly again and reiterate that we are living in a world now where facts are trying to be diminished, science is trying to be diminished, and we rely on these professionals to give us as accurate information as we can possibly obtain at the time from the professionals that are in this office. We rely on this office very much to make the decisions that we make here that have such great importance. While they are not always perfect, I think they always put forth a good product for us. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Chair, I thank the gentleman for yielding. Let me just say briefly that I support this amendment. Making the Capitol complex and other buildings in the legislative branch more family friendly is an important priority. People come here from all over the country to meet with us, to see the sights, and to witness democracy in action. If you have traveled far and wide with your family like I have, you know how much of a difference that it would make even for a brief part of your day, like the inevitability of having to change a diaper. This amendment will make it a little bit easier. So this is just a very thoughtful, practical pro-family amendment, and I encourage all of our colleagues to vote ``yes.''

Mr. RYAN of Ohio

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the chairman and the ranking member for their leadership on this. This clearly is a big issue pressing the country, and I just wanted to rise in support of what is happening here today; of taking a firmer stance on Russia, Iran, and North Korea; trying to stabilize the peninsula; trying to take care of the funding that is coming out of Iran to all of these terrorist groups across the country and across the world. What is happening with these sanctions here in the targeting of Russian gas pipelines--their number one export--I think is entirely appropriate. The Nord Stream 2, which carries gas from Russia through the Baltics to Germany--and I know Germany isn't happy about it, but this is something that we have to do. The point I want to make is that we have to address this issue in a comprehensive way. We must continue to focus on how we get our gas here in the United States, our natural gas to Europe, to our allies, so they are not so dependent on Russia. We have got to have the sanctions, but we also have got to be shipping liquid natural gas to some of these allies of ours so they are not so dependent on the Russians, which is part and parcel of this entire approach.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak on the healthcare debate that we are having here in the United States. We had a bill come out of the House of Representatives. We have a working bill that has just come out of the back room in the United States Senate. I think it is important for us, Mr. Speaker, to get some clarity on where each party stands on this issue. When the Democrats passed the Affordable Care Act, we had some clear goals. We had some clear objectives, back in 2008, 2009, 2010. Our goal and goals as a party were simple: we wanted to expand access to healthcare. We wanted to make sure, in the wealthiest country that God has ever created, that every citizen, wherever you lived, urban, rural, suburban, you would have access to affordable healthcare. We wanted to make sure that the insurance companies wouldn't knock you off the rolls or charge you a lot of money to get a plan, that when you got sick and you went in to cash in the plan and get some coverage, they said: Oh, we don't cover that. We wanted to make sure that didn't happen. We wanted to make sure that if your kid had cancer or if you had cancer and the healthcare bills started ratcheting up pretty quickly, that the insurance company couldn't come in and say: Sorry. This is a tragic situation for you and your family, but you just hit your lifetime cap, so we can't cover anything else. You have to go to the Ronald McDonald House, and you have got to go do a fish fry at the local union hall to try to get enough money together to try to pay your healthcare bills, in the wealthiest country God has ever created. That is unacceptable here in the United States. We were trying to cover more people. You know what? We paid the political price for it, but sign me up. I think of my friends John Boccieri and Steve Driehaus, former Members of Congress. They gave up their seats in this Chamber to make sure that American citizens had healthcare. The Democrats went into the minority since 2010, primarily because the Republican Party used this issue to bludgeon the Democrats. They demagogued the issue. Repeal and replace. Seven years, no plan. Nothing. And now we have got two bills--one from the House, one from the Senate. Both bills, neutral analysts, the Congressional Budget Office says 22 million Americans will lose their healthcare. Fifteen million will lose it in the next year. If you are between 50 and 64 years old, you are probably going to lose your insurance. If you are a 60-year-old person in Ohio, you are going to pay $4,000 more a year. We get off this recent Presidential campaign where we heard a candidate: We are going to expand Medicare. We are going to expand Medicaid. It is going to be beautiful. Everyone is going to be able to afford insurance. I am not inhumane, is what one person said, one candidate said. But the realities, Mr. Speaker, are much different, because in the wealthiest country God has ever created, we have a political party that is trying to throw 22 million people off of their healthcare. We need to get some clarity. We are trying to cover people. I am not trying to be judgmental, but I am just saying the Congressional Budget Office is saying, in both bills, 22 million people are going to lose their healthcare. Democrats, in order to implement our bill, we asked the wealthiest in the country to pay a little bit more. With that revenue, we expanded the Medicaid program for people who were working. If you made less than $90,000 a year, they got a little bit of that money to help them pay for health insurance so they had more money in their pocket so they could go out and not only take care of their families, but be able to spend and help boost the economy. That is what we wanted to do. That is what we did. Republicans cut taxes for the wealthy and cut the program by $700 billion. Clear differences, Mr. Speaker. We need to knock down both of these bills and start all over. We need to fix the Affordable Care Act, not repeal it.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commemorate the 150th Anniversary of Babcock and Wilcox. While their headquarters are in Charlotte, North Carolina, I am proud to have one of their major operations located in my district in Barberton, Ohio. B&W's remarkable history began 150 years ago in 1867, when Stephen Wilcox and George Babcock established the company to manufacture and market their patented water tube boiler. Since then, B&W has been at the forefront of energy innovation in the United States and around the world. In the 1880s, the company's boilers supplied energy for the first electric street lights in Philadelphia and the first central public utility, Pearl Street Station in New York City. B&W's boilers also powered Thomas Edison's laboratories and New York's first subway. In Barberton, B&W Power Generation Group designs and builds boiler and steam generators for industry. As environmental issues moved to the forefront beginning in the 1970s, B&W became a leading innovator in emissions control technologies. B&W's environmental equipment protects the air we breathe, the water we drink and the land we use by controlling nitrogen, sulfur, heavy metals, ash, particulates and other emissions from hundreds of power plants and industrial facilities around the world. Today, B&W employs 5,000 people on six continents and continues to be a global leader in commercial power and environmental technologies, renewable energy, and industrial power and emissions control. As the company celebrates its 150th anniversary, it's important for us to recognize and to be thankful for the hard work and outstanding contributions from the many thousands of employees who have proudly served at B&W, our customers for their support and trust in our technologies and expertise, and for the communities and the leaders who have stood behind B&W all of these years. Congratulations on 150 years of quality work and innovation.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life of Frank J. Hoso, Jr. who passed away on Friday, June 2, 2017. He was surrounded by his loving family. He leaves his wife Sylvia and 9 children behind. Frank was born on May 17, 1934 in Niles, Ohio, and he remained a lifelong resident of Niles. Frank was a 1952 graduate of St. Mary's High School and then continued on to pursue a Bachelor Degree in Education at Kent State University. Frank also courageously served our country in the United States Army Reserves. After leaving the Army, he went on to earn a Master Degree in Education in 1968 from Westminster College, and he took additional Post Graduate classes at Youngstown State University. Frank was married to wife Sylvia for 57 years, and together they shared 12 adoring children. Frank worked as a teacher for much of his career. He began teaching junior high at Saints Peter and Paul School from 1959-1969 before going on to teach for 39 years at Warren City Schools. Even after he retired as a full-time teacher, he continued to assist as a substitute teacher. Frank was also an active member of his community. He served with the United States Army Reserves for five years before being honorably discharged on November 20, 1962 with the rank of Corporal. Additionally, he was a faithful member of Saints Peter and Paul Byzantine Catholic Church in Warren, where he tended to the parish cemetery. I extend my deepest condolences to Frank's family and friends. He was a wonderful man who leaves behind an extensive legacy. He will be dearly missed.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life of Mr. John Fleming, his wife Suzanne, and children John and Andrew, who all tragically died in a plane crash over Lake Erie last December. John was born December 30, 1970 in Youngstown, Ohio. His wife Suzanne was born September 22, 1970 in Youngstown as well. Both John and Suzanne were 1989 graduates of Boardman High School and high school sweethearts. John graduated magna cum laude from Wake Forest University in 1993 as a CPA and member of Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity. Suzanne graduated from Youngstown State University with a Bachelor's Degree in social work. They were seventeen year residents of Columbus. John worked for almost 30 years for the Superior Beverage Group in Columbus and the beverage distribution industry. He was incredibly successful, rising to President and Chief Executive Officer. In addition to his influential leadership in his career, he was a leader in his community. He actively volunteered at nearby charities, and was a yearly supporter of the Dublin Irish Festival. Above all, he was known for being a family man. His wife Suzanne was a devoted mother and passionate supporter of Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, the leading funder of type 1 diabetes research. Their oldest son John was a sophomore at Oletangy Liberty High School where he excelled academically and was an Ohio sports enthusiast. His younger brother Andrew attended the Ohio State School for the Blind in Columbus. Like his brother, he too was an avid supporter of sports, and he also participated in Special Olympics. This family will be greatly missed by their family, friends, colleagues, and their community. I extend my condolences to their family and friends. These wonderful people will be dearly missed.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity. I just want to say thank you to the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) for her great words and Congressman Crowley, who was here a little bit earlier, for his good words as well. I am starting tonight a segment that I am calling America 2.0. I think we are in the midst of, obviously, some chaos in the United States, in Washington, D.C., and in so many communities across the country that feel we are disoriented with our politics, disconnected from our politics, and we are disoriented around the idea of what is happening in our economy. Globalization, automation, all of these things have dramatically affected the American economy and American wages and standard of living. We have actually seen, Mr. Speaker, over the course of the last 20 years, a huge decline, a sucking out of middle class wages that have gone primarily to the top 1 percent. Now, I am not here to bash rich people. I am not here to make any enemies, but I think it is important and instructive for us to look at where we were and where we are now. If you look at where we were in 1980, of all the income growth in the Nation in 1980, 70 percent of all income growth went to the bottom 90 percent of Americans. So we had some significant income growth, and 70 percent of it went to the bottom 90 percent, 30 percent went to the top 10 percent. The wealthy were getting more, but the middle class, the upper middle class and the lower middle class, the bottom 90 percent saw 70 percent of the gains. Fast forward from the early 1990s until just recently just a few years back, the bottom 90 percent, Mr. Speaker, got zero percent of the income growth that happened in the United States--zero. So the economy in 1980, for average families in Youngstown, Ohio, or Struthers, Ohio, or Akron, Ohio, saw that hard work paid off; that if you worked hard, you played by the rules, you did what you were supposed to do, and if you were in the bottom 90 percent, you saw some income gains. Fair enough. Where the anxiety has come in now is that people are working harder, they are working longer hours, and they are not seeing any growth in their incomes. We have teachers, for example, in the Youngstown City Schools who have not seen a cost-of-living raise in 9 years--9 years. Police and fire, people who cut hair, people who are waitresses, people who take showers after work instead of before work, those people aren't getting ahead, and the cost of everything is going up. So that is where we are, erosion of our manufacturing base and globalization and automation. I was just looking at an article earlier about a new Amazon project-- I think it is called Amazon Go--where you can actually go into a grocery store--how cool is this? You can actually go into a grocery store and shop and pick out whatever it is that you want at the grocery store and walk out. Everything gets rung up, scans and all the rest, and you get billed, and you pay your bill. Now, here we are in 2017, that is pretty cool stuff. The downside of that is, there are 2.7 million workers who work at grocery stores. Where I come from, some of those grocery stores are actually unionized where the person at the counter actually makes a pretty good wage and has a pension and has a decent healthcare plan, standing on their feet all day long, probably not the easiest line of work to be in, but people go there and they work hard. Those jobs are going to be gone. We hear all this technology about driverless cars and driverless trucks. Youngstown is not too far from Pittsburgh, and Ford just committed a billion dollars to Pittsburgh to advance driverless vehicles. Uber is in Pittsburgh talking about investing in the research and development for driverless vehicles. It is going to be great. The downside is, in about 25, 26, 27 States, the number one job is driving a truck. It is driving a truck. Pretty cool that my son, who is going to be 3 in June, may never have to drive a car. As a parent who also has a 13- and 14-year-old at home and talking about when they are going to get the keys to the car, I kind of like the idea of a driverless car. I kind of like that. At that point, it would be pretty safe. But we have the downside to that, which is the loss of all of these jobs. So what we need to do as a country, as a dynamic country, as a wealthy country, as a creative country is we need to figure out what is America 2.0 because this isn't your dad's or your grandfather's America. This isn't going to be your grandmother's America or even your mother's America. Things are accelerating so quickly that as a legislative body that was designed to be slow, and those of us operating in a political system that was designed to slow things down, we didn't want a concentration of power where a king ruled. We took that, and we divided the power up into a legislative branch, and then divided that up between the House and the Senate and the executive branch. The executive branch has some powers, and they have got to figure out how to work with each other. If they have got a problem, we have got a judicial branch that is going to reference the Constitution of the country to make sure that everything that is going on is abiding by the basic values on which we started the country. Pretty cool system, elections every 2 years, replenish the ideas in the legislative branch, and every 4 years in the executive branch, so we can try to get some new ideas. But the system was designed to be slow. So here we are, working within a system that is designed to be slow with an economy that is going 150 miles an hour down the highway, which means the legislators and the President and the Governors and the people elected to office, we better get our act together. We better figure out how to make things work because that is what we owe our constituents. That is what we owe that family who, for 30 years, hasn't seen a raise. You know what? They want to send their kid to college. Do you know what? They want to have a job, they want to have a pension, they want to have a secure retirement, and they want their kid to have more opportunity than they had. They are not going to complain, they are not going to moan, they are going to put their boots on, and they are going to go to work. It is our job to help create an environment where they can go and take advantage of those opportunities. God helps those that help themselves. You have got to go to work and you have got to put the time in. It is not going to be easy, especially in this economy. It is going to be tough. It seems like it is going to get harder. But with all of this automation coming down the pike, what are we going to do as a country with all of these people in my district that are 50-year-old men who used to work in a steel mill, now it is closed, or used to work in an auto plant that used to have 16,000 people working there and now it is down to 3,000, or the supplier to that auto plant that used to have 13,000 people and now it is 1? So we can say, yeah, pull yourself up by your boot straps and work hard. The jobs aren't there. They are not there anymore. So what are we going to do here in 2017? How are we going to get our President with his good brain that he has to sit down with us and figure out what we are going to do? So America 2.0 is: What is the next version of this great country, what is the next version, to where my grandfather could be a steelworker and a couple of generations later his grandkids are doctors, lawyers, and Congressmen? That is what is important about these jobs we have. That is why they shouldn't be taken lightly. That is why instead of tweeting about some show or some family business, you should be focused like a laser beam on how we fix these problems. If you are not, you are not doing what you said you were going to do. America 2.0 is a series of ideas. I will share a few tonight and a few over time on what I think we need to do. We have a near-term problem, mid-term, and long-term, some of what I mentioned. The near-term problem is wages, jobs, and workforce participation. Workforce participation rates are at 63 percent. They are still too low. People aren't just employed, they are underemployed. They are making less today than they were before the great crash in 2008, 2009, and 2010. So what are we going to do? I know we have talked a lot about we are going to retrain. It is going to be great. We are going to get you this job, and you are going to be trained up and ready to take it. What job? We need to create jobs. And it just so happens we need to rebuild the country. So let's make the investment to put people back to work by rebuilding the country. We need waterlines. We need new sewer lines. We have lead in our pipes that people are drinking. We have old dilapidated homes all over older communities that need to be taken down. Even if we are going to put up just parks and green space, take those down. Those are all jobs that could be created. We need roads and new bridges. Most bridges are deficient in the United States. A good many of them need to be rebuilt. We need steel in those bridges, and we need concrete. So let's do a big jobs bill where we rebuild the country. I am not making stuff up. We have got to do this. Let's put Buy American provisions in there so we put the American steelworker back to work, and the people that work at the concrete plants in America get the money, get the contract. Those private businesses that do the roads and bridges and all of the rest, let's make sure it is Davis-Bacon, it is a prevailing wage, so that our friends who work so hard and are so skilled in the unions are able to get that work because they have a good pension, a good wage, a good retirement plan, good healthcare benefits, and they are the most skilled workers in the country. Let's make sure they get the work so we are actually lifting people up; and get people in these unions so that more people can earn a good wage, have a secure retirement and a little bit less anxiety. So roads, bridges, pipes, airports, ports on the ocean, rebuild them. This is nobody's fault. The country is getting older. A lot of this stuff was done 50, 60, 70 years ago. It is time to reinvest. It is time to put a new roof on the house. We will put people back to work. For every $1 billion we spend on infrastructure, we put about 27,000 people to work. So if we have a $1 trillion infrastructure plan and we ask the wealthiest people in the country--maybe people in the capital markets who have seen a significant amount of wage growth, we ask them to help us pay for it so we don't have to borrow the money and put it on the backs of our kids. So we are putting people back to work, we are doing what needs to be done, we are using American steel and American concrete and American union workers and having more people join the union so more people can have a secure living, and we are creating jobs. That is step one. What also needs to be included in this is: How are we setting ourselves up for success in the next 10, 20, or 30 years? How are our kids going to be able to operate in this bridge we are creating to this new economy? One of the things we need to do is we need to wire the country. We need to have the most sophisticated, broadband capabilities in every corner of the country so that every community can participate in the new economy that is driven by a digital world. We have companies, for example, in Youngstown, where we don't have a whole lot of broadband in Youngstown. We don't have a whole lot of penetration for broadband in Youngstown. We have companies that are very sophisticated that try to get defense work or work with defense contractors that actually are put at a disadvantage because they don't, and we don't, have the broadband capability for them to be able to download the kind of files they need to be able to download in order to get the contracts they need to do the advanced manufacturing work. So not having broadband in your community would be like not having a road going in and out of your community, or waterlines going in and out of your community 50, 60, 70 years ago. Do you want to start a factory and create jobs? How are you going to get the raw materials in and the product out if you don't have a road? The same concept with broadband in a 2017, 2027, 2037, 2047 economy. So this is a great investment. The World Bank has studied this. They have said that every 10 percentage-point increase in broadband penetration equals 1.2 percent growth in your GDP. So you are making these investments and you are growing your economy at the same time. I think we go to these coal miners who have been put out of work, we go to the steelworkers who have been put out of work, we go to the autoworkers who have been put out of work through the deindustrialization, through globalization and automation, and we say: You are hired. You are going to get on-the-job training. This isn't going to be: We are going to train you for some job that may or may not come. You are hired in America 2.0. You are going to work. You are going to lay broadband. We need to upgrade our energy grids. We need smart grids that are more efficient, more secure, and less prone to terrorist attacks--more efficient, can communicate with the end user better so you know how much money you are spending when you wash your clothes. And you may go off hour so you can wash them at a different time and save a little money on your energy bill, money in your pocket because we make these investments. You are going to work now on the smart grid. You are hired. And this country, as wealthy as we are, we are going to pay for it. We are going to build it, and we are going to change the trajectory of our country, and we are going to be ready to play ball in the economy. So these workers that we are hiring that may be 50 or 55 years old, they don't know how they are going to get to retirement, they are hired. They are hired. And this is no make-work job because we feel bad for you. This is a job we need you to have in order for you to change the trajectory of our country for your kids and for your grandkids. If we don't make these investments, if we don't make this happen, America is going to be bringing up the rear. We have got a great dynamic economy still, even with the stagnation that we have. We have just got to make a few key investments and not get caught up in this polarized political discussion that is getting us nowhere. Nobody in this Chamber suffers. Everybody in this Chamber draws a paycheck. They have got a job. It is the family in Youngstown, it is the family in Gary, Indiana, it is the family in Milwaukee that suffers because we have failed to make the basic investments that this country has always made--always: the interstate highway, the intercontinental railroad, land grant colleges, NASA, the space program. Look at all of the technologies that spun out of NASA--in health, telecommunications, energy--because we said, ``We are going to the Moon''; and it was as much about going to the Moon and about spinning off new technologies and saying, ``We can figure out how to go to the Moon'' because we were committed, as a country, to do great things. And now we are committed to tweeting about some nonsensical show that is on TV or some backhanded comment that somebody gives. There is too much at stake. Every time we do that, we fall further and further and further behind. One other piece of America 2.0, and the final piece or two I will share tonight, is green energy, resuscitating manufacturing in the United States. How do we do it? I know we have discussions here about climate change. Some people say it is not happening. Some people say it is not man made. It is an important point to make that 98 percent of scientists who have reviewed all of the literature on this say it is happening and it is caused by man. I think that is an important point. But let's set that aside. How do we help people with their energy bill and how do we resuscitate manufacturing in the United States? I believe that, if we move towards a green economy, we will have a renaissance in manufacturing, and let me tell you why. Because for every windmill that we put up, there are 8,000 component parts to the windmill: gearshifts, hydraulics, steel, aluminum, plastics, all kinds of things, bolts. There is a sidewalk mile of concrete in a windmill. These are things we make in this country. These are things we make in northeast Ohio. Talk to Timken; talk to Parker Hannifin; talk to some of these energy companies that make solar panels. That stuff needs manufacturing. And we can do it here in the United States with the smart energy grid, and broadband, and use renewable energy to increase our manufacturing base, reduce our carbon footprint in our country and around the world, export the technologies and the stuff that we make, and put people back to work. What is the matter with this? What is wrong with this picture? We have a country now that is more reliable on renewable energy, that is increasing our manufacturing base, that is putting people back to work. To me, that makes a lot of sense. So these families that are struggling--because we will be making a heck of a lot more solar panels than we are now--we can start getting these solar panels up on people's homes and reducing their energy cost. So if we do the smart grids and we do the solar panels, and we start reducing people's energy costs in their homes, you are putting money in their pocket, you are starting to close that gap a little bit, you are starting to reduce that anxiety a little bit, and you are starting to get us into new technologies and new ideas that are going to lead to growth. So let's build out the country. Let's build out our roads, bridges, ports, and airports. Let's extend broadband to every corner of the country and hire Americans to go do this work. Let's redo our grid and extend it so that we can get this renewable energy all across the country; put people to work doing that; resuscitate our manufacturing base; and change the trajectory of our country so that our kids are wired, prepared, and living in a country that is ready to lead the world again in some of the great challenges that face us. That is the outline of America 2.0. In my mind, that is the direction we need to go in. It starts, Mr. Speaker, by getting people back to work, by us getting focused and being disciplined, and talking about the things and figuring out how to work out the deals that need to be worked out here in order to help those people back home. That is our obligation because the generations before us--whether it was the Intercontinental Railroad, or the social justice movement, or the equality movement, or the interstate highway, or the land-grant colleges, or NASA--gave us a pretty good world to grow up in. And now it is our obligation to take this to the next level and create the next version of America. Create America 2.0. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, due to a medical emergency involving a member of my family, on January 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th, 2017, I was unable to return to Washington, DC in time to cast my vote for roll call votes 24 through 54. Had I been present, my votes would have been the following: Aye on roll call votes: 24, 25, 28 through 30, 34, 37 through 44, 46 through 50, 53. Nay on roll call votes: 26, 27, 31 through 33, 35, 36, 45, 51, 52, 54.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I am deeply saddened by the passing of John Glenn. My thoughts and prayers are with his wife Annie, his family, and the countless others who are mourning this great loss. John Glenn was a decorated World War II Marine Corps Fighter Pilot who broke the transcontinental speed record. A pioneer astronaut who was the first American to orbit the earth, and he later became the oldest man in space at the age of 77. He was a distinguished statesman who represented Ohio in the United States Senate. But most importantly, he was a family man who married his childhood sweetheart, Annie, and enjoyed spending time with his family and friends. I count myself lucky to have had the opportunity to spend some time with Senator Glenn and I will cherish those moments for the rest of my life. Today is a sad day for the State of Ohio and for the United States of America. John Glenn was an American hero and his life and legacy will never be forgotten.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Youngstown, Ohio, native Eric Spiegel, CEO of Siemens USA, and congratulate him on his retirement. Mr. Spiegel has worked at Siemens for seven years, where he has been able to grow the company and further its reputation within the United States. As CEO he has shown tremendous leadership as he contributed to our country's economic, manufacturing, and innovation engines. While serving as President and CEO of Siemens USA, Mr. Spiegel focused on electrification, automation, and digitalization. Siemens USA is represented in all 50 states. Before joining the Siemens USA team, Mr. Spiegel gained 25 years of experience working with many complex organizations during his time in the consulting field and served as the Managing Director of Booz Allen Hamilton International from 1999-2003, while living in Tokyo. Mr. Spiegel managed the firm's business in Asia, Latin America, and in the Middle East in his role as Managing Director. Mr. Spiegel was a member of the Board of Directors for Booz Allen Hamilton, Inc. and remained a senior partner of Booz & Company's Global Energy, Chemicals and Power until taking on his position at Siemens USA. Before Mr. Spiegel began his successful career, he earned an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College and an A.B. with Honors in Economics from Harvard University. He remains a member of The Board of Overseers at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business. Mr. Spiegel has given back to the Washington, DC communities in many ways, one being his dedication to Ford's Theatre as a member of its Executive Committee. Mr. Spiegel's accomplishments are many; including his position as a member of the Business Roundtable, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and the Electrification Coalition. I wish Mr. Spiegel a happy retirement, and will continue to admire his accomplished career.