Bureau of Reclamation Small Conduit Hydropower Development and Rural JOBS Act of 2011

Floor Speech

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Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Speaker, my colleagues, those of you that are addicted to late-night C SPAN, you may have noticed this placard which we've used for the last year. If you're not addicted to late-night C SPAN, then let me inform you what this is all about.

This is about rebuilding the American manufacturing sector. Mr. Speaker, if America is going to make it, then we must, once again, Make It In America.

And this is about government policy. This is about the policies that you and I have the opportunity to make here in America so that this great Nation can, once again, become the great manufacturing center of the world.

Is there any one of us in this room that wants to concede American manufacturing to China or to any other place in the world? Is there one of us in this room that's willing to give up the opportunity for this Nation to, once again, be the pride of this world when it comes to making things?

Gentlemen and ladies, it's all about policy. It's about the policy that we write here in the Halls of Congress. It's about how we structure our tax policy, how we structure our employment policy and our educational policy. It's about the laws that we make.

And don't think this is industrial policy that's new. It's not. George Washington turned to his Secretary of Treasury and told Mr. Hamilton, I want an industrial policy for America. And Hamilton came back with eight specific things that needed to be done at the very birth of this Nation to build the American manufacturing sector. And from that start, we grew. So, George Washington set out an industrial policy, put in place laws to build the start of the great American manufacturing renaissance. But let's look what happened.

This chart is not a happy chart. This chart is about the decline. Beginning in the seventies, we began to see the decline of American manufacturing as policies that were written by this House, by the Senate, signed by Presidents, Democrat and Republican, changed the groundwork upon which our manufacturing sector could be built. And so we began the decline.
Twenty-five years ago, 20 million Americans were in the manufacturing sector. Twenty-five years ago, the American middle class was strong and vibrant and growing, prosperous, able to own a home, able to take care of their family, go on vacation, buy boats, fish--whatever--25 years ago. Today, just over 11 million Americans are in the manufacturing sector. If you were to chart where the middle class is in America, it follows almost exactly this same curve downward.

We have an opportunity today to do one small thing, one small thing: to put in place a policy that will once again lead us back to making it in America, back to rebuilding our manufacturing sector. We can do it here with this amendment that I proposed. It's not going to solve all the problems, and it's not going to employ millions. But if you happen to live in New Mexico, you may want to know that the Elephant Butte Irrigation District has a small hydro facility and able to build in America a hydro facility. They cobbled it together on their own.

If you happen to be from Washington, specifically Deming, Washington, you may know that Canyon Hydro builds small hydro projects and programs and materials. If you happen to be from Alameda, California--listen up my 52 other Californians--Natal Energy builds small hydros. And if you're from Ohio--much discussed these last couple days--Springfield, James Leffel and Company builds small hydros.

We can make it in America. This amendment simply says that any company that applies for one of these small hydro projects must use American-made equipment. This is how we rebuild the American manufacturing sector, piece by piece, law by law--laws like this that require in the public works that we buy America, that we build America, and that we return the great American middle class back to where it should be, at the top of the heap, not at the bottom and not declining.

So, gentlemen and ladies, it's up to us. This is our policy opportunity, in one small way, in one small hydro project to simply say: do it, but use American-made equipment.

We can, once again, make it in America. And Americans can make it when we have policies in place.

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