John Garamendi Advocates 'Buy America' T-HUD Amendments

Congressman John Garamendi (D-Fairfield, CA) has offered amendments to the FY 2015 Transportation Housing and Urban Development (T-HUD) Appropriations Act that would spur the growth of U.S. jobs by strengthening Buy America laws.

The Congressman expressed the view that the requirement that federal taxpayer dollars are spent on U.S. manufacturing is currently too weak causing the outsourcing of thousands of jobs. Garamendi’s amendments would close loopholes in the law, so that money invested in public works would stay at home.

While Garamendi fought to create American jobs and boost economic growth, the Appropriations bill itself would take this nation in the opposite direction, he felt. The legislation fails to address the need to rebuild a crumbling infrastructure and to recover from the’s housing crisis. For that reason, Garamendi voted against it. The House of Representatives passed the bill by a vote of 229 to 192.

“This morning, I joined my colleagues at the White House as President Obama signed the overwhelmingly bipartisan Water Resources Reform and Development Act (WRRDA) into law. WRRDA will put Americans to work rebuilding our water infrastructure, encourage business growth, and safeguard communities in flood prone parts of my district, such as Yuba City, Marysville, the Delta, and Sacramento County,” said Garamendi, a Member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

“This stands in stark contrast to the extremely partisan House Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations bill, which, if enacted into law, would drive our economy back into a deep ditch. This bill shortchanges our future by gutting proven investments in transportation infrastructure. It also makes the challenge of housing and homeownership tougher for middle and working class Americans.”

During debate over the bill, Congressman Garamendi fought for American jobs by offering two “Make It In America” amendments. The first would prohibit funds from being used for ships in the National Defense Ready Reserve from being crewed, owned, or maintained by foreign entities. The second would increase domestic content requirements for infrastructure projects from 60% in 2016 to 100% by 2019.

Source: Press release – office of Congressman Garamendi