Hoyer Remarks on Democrats' Record of Success in the 117th Congress and Commitment to Ensuring Workers Can Make It In America

“Good morning.  I’m here standing proudly next to Pittsburgh steelworkers, who have been building America for generations.  These workers are a living bridge to those who, in past decades, produced the steel from which our cities and towns grew, who forged the material by which our workers made the products in America that enabled them and their families to make it in America.

“I want to thank the United Steelworkers for inviting me here today.  And I want to recognize Rep. Conor Lamb, who has been a champion for Western Pennsylvania and for working families, for all he has done during his time in Congress.  He's reminded us – as these steelworkers have – that union labor built America and will continue to build America long into the future.

“Less than twenty miles away from here, Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy is standing next to extremists like Marjorie Taylor Greene to unveil a platform that, in truth, has less to do with Pittsburgh steel than it does with ‘Stop the Steal.’

“Their new platform, which isn’t new at all, is long on slogans and short on details.  That’s because the true details of Republicans’ agenda are too frightening for most American voters.  Details matter, however.

“Over the past two years, our Democratic House Majority has been focusing on the details and putting people over politics to deliver results.  Together with President Biden and Senate Democrats, we’re building a table of security and opportunity for American workers and their families while ensuring that American businesses can compete and grow.

“First, we enacted the American Rescue Plan to help businesses and schools reopen safely.  It put money into American workers’ pockets and more than 250 million shots into arms that saved lives and livelihoods.  It also provided states with funding to hire union labor for state and local projects that help communities grow.  The result has been the fastest economic recovery in our history, with nearly 10 million new jobs created under President Biden and unemployment at 3.6% - as opposed to 2.8 million jobs lost under the previous president.  There are more Americans working today than before the pandemic.

“Last year, we enacted the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to create millions of good union jobs by repairing our roads and bridges, expanding public transit and high-speed internet, and upgrading our electric and water infrastructure.

“Pittsburgh, of course, is a city of bridges.  Just a short drive from here, the Fern Hollow Bridge collapsed in January, injuring ten people.  Just fourteen weeks later, in early May, construction began on a new bridge, funded with $25.3 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.  It's one of thousands of bridges across America being rebuilt and upgraded or soon to be repaired thanks to that legislation we enacted.  I’m proud that Democratic legislation is making it possible to rebuild those bridges, including the Fern Hollow Bridge. 

“Leader McCarthy and 199 other House Republicans voted against fixing and upgrading America’s infrastructure, against jobs for American workers, and against supply chains that work.  Maybe that’s why he chose not to come to the City of Pittsburgh today to hold his event – too many bridges to remind him of that fact.

“We also enacted the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act, which will promote the production of microchips here at home.  It creates new opportunities for workers, helps them accrue in-demand skills, and sets them on a pathway to good jobs and careers.  House Democrats’ original bill also included a must-needed extension of Trade Adjustment Assistance.  While Republicans blocked it in the final version, we are committed to getting T.A.A. across the finish line.

“Not only will the CHIPS and Science Act ensure that we can continue to out-compete China; it will also usher in a new wave of American manufacturing.  Pittsburgh has become a model for this kind of new manufacturing growth.  Here, through many of the same policies that Democrats enacted in the CHIPS and Science Act, city leaders turned a city of old factories into a hub of new, advanced manufacturing for the twenty-first century.  Once again, Pittsburgh is a city of makers, innovators, and manufacturing pioneers – a city of opportunity.

“The fourth leg of our table is the Inflation Reduction Act.  When we enacted that law in August, Democrats voted to bring down health-care, prescription-drug, and energy costs for American workers and their families.  It was also the largest investment any nation has ever made to tackle the climate crisis by promoting the manufacturing and adoption of American-made clean-energy technologies.  And we paid for it, not raising the deficit by a dime.

“Republicans voted against these policies, time after time after time.

“Leader McCarthy, of course, is in Pennsylvania today because he wants voters to forget that fact.  He also wants Americans to ignore that a majority of House Republicans voted to overturn the 2020 election – even after violent insurrectionists attacked the U.S. Capitol building.  The Republican party calls it ‘legitimate political discourse.’

“He's hoping that Americans forget how many House Republicans have said that Congress should defund the FBI or who refuse to say that keeping highly classified government documents at Mar-a-Lago, unsecured, was wrong.

“Leader McCarthy won't say either if House Republicans would take up Sen. Graham’s bill to restrict abortion nationwide.  However, 166 House Republicans – that’s 78% of their Conference – have cosponsored legislation to ban abortion from the moment of conception.  Indeed, House Republicans refuse to commit to protecting contraception access or same-sex marriage, which the Supreme Court has put under threat.

“I’ve spent enough time here in Pittsburgh to know that this is a city of makers, not of ‘MAGA.’

“Like hardworking Americans across our country, ‘Yinzers’ want Congress to focus on how they can afford health care, access education and skills training, find good jobs that pay well – union jobs! – and achieve economic security.  They don’t want extremism that seeks to tear America apart.  They don’t want ‘MAGA’ extremism.  They want to make it in America.

“The innovative and hardworking people of Pittsburgh helped inspire parts of the Make It In America plan I’ve led since 2010, such as when I came here in 2018 with Rep. Mike Doyle to visit Carnegie Mellon’s robotics campus as well as a technology startup incubator, where entrepreneurs can turn their ideas into new products.  That’s what Democrats are offering the American people this election: a chance to tap into the same energy and ideas that have been transforming places like Pittsburgh and using them to help businesses and workers across our country make it in America.

“That’s the choice in 2022.  People over politics; lower costs; better-paying jobs; and safer communities?  Or ‘MAGA’ extremism?

“The choice is clear.”