Rep. Connolly: Investment is key to future success

U.S. Rep. Gerald Connolly (D-11th) is well aware that the current Congress has passed decidedly fewer bills than its famous “Do Nothing” predecessor, which President Truman railed against in 1948.

That Congress passed 980 bills, but the current one has managed only 162. “It’s the least-productive Congress in the history of the republic,” he said.

Speaking to the Vienna Host Lions Club Aug. 26 at American Legion Post 180 in Vienna, Connolly also contrasted the performance of today’s Congress with the one that served in the early 1860s.

With the nation’s bloodiest war swirling around it, the 38th Congress mustered a giant army and the world’s largest navy to defeat the Confederacy. But even while facing those challenges, that Congress financed the transcontinental railroad, passed the Homestead Act and Land-Grant University Act, and worked to complete the U.S. Capitol’s dome during the Civil War, Connolly said.

Those investments in education, infrastructure, and research and development primed the country for success after the war and similar steps should be taken now, he said.

“We cannot say as Americans, ‘We can’t afford it,’” Connolly said. “We must and can invest in the future for the sake of our kids and grandkids and to keep America strong and competitive.”

The United States invested about 6 percent of its gross domestic product in infrastructure during the Kennedy administration, but that figure now has dwindled to 2.4 percent, while China’s is 9, Connolly said.

The congressman lauded President Eisenhower’s vision of an interstate-highway system, which has reaped enormous economic rewards.

Acknowledging that anti-government fervor is bubbling in places, Connolly said government still could play a vital role in expanding opportunities for America and the entire world.

Connolly pointed to the Internet and global-positioning-system technology as revolutionary technical achievements created entirely with U.S. government funding.

The private sector cannot be relied upon to do research in fields that are not profitable, Connolly said, citing how private companies have gotten out of the business of studying antibiotics.

A former U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff member, Connolly first became politically active as president of the Mantua Citizens’ Association, where he helped resolve problems stemming from leakages at a nearby oil tank farm.

He was elected Providence District supervisor in 1995 and elected Board of Supervisors chairman in 2003. Connolly first was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2008, following the retirement of U.S. Rep. Tom Davis (R-11th), and has been re-elected twice.

He will face Republican Suzanne Scholte, Green Party candidate Joe Galdo and Libertarian Marc Harrold in the Nov. 4 election.

Connolly was bullish on the country’s future. The United States is on track to surpass Saudi Arabia as the world’s largest energy producer, and lower energy U.S. costs likely will lure back manufacturing companies that moved operations overseas, he said.

The current political atmosphere and media coverage encourage partisanship and divisiveness, but Connolly predicted that in time Americans will insist on action and cooperation.

Connolly said he missed the direct public contact and accountability experienced by local government officials.

“There’s no hiding in local government,” he said, pointing to two Vienna Town Council members who were present. “You know where Howard [Springsteen] lives, you know where Edythe [Kelleher] lives and you know how to get them on the phone. And if they don’t answer the phone, you know how to knock on their doors.”

Connolly touted positive economic news, noting Fairfax County’s unemployment rate is just 3.6 percent. Among 3,166 U.S. counties in the United States, the three ranked highest for median household income are Loudoun, Arlington and Fairfax.

Among the 100 largest U.S. cities and counties, Fairfax County has the lowest crime, murder and high-school-dropout rates, Connolly said.

Northern Virginia thrives because of the unique partnership between the federal government and private sector, Connolly said.

“We don’t manufacture things really in Northern Virginia, but we provide a lot of smarts,” he said.