The Duneland Chamber of Commerce held their monthly luncheon on Wednesday at the Waterbird Banquet Center in Chesterton. There to address business, education and community leaders throughout the Duneland Region was U.S. Representative Pete Visclosky.
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“We’ve worked hard over the last year to get Rep. Visclosky to speak at one of our events,” said Maura Durham, President of the Duneland Chamber, “And we’re really happy to have him here today. Since his first election he’s always fought hard for Northwest Indiana’s domestic steel industry. He recognizes its importance to each of our communities and to our overall economy.”
While Congress is out of session this week Rep. Visclosky will be travelling around the region and speaking with constituents about the issues that are important and have an impact both in Washington D.C. and here in Northwest Indiana.
“I really appreciate the opportunity to talk about the future of Indiana and particularly our corner of the state,” Rep. Visclosky said. “We need to remember we are a nation at war. Our involvement, militarily, over the last decade and a half has almost been frictionless for most of the 330 million people who live in America. As we continue to have military men and women in harm’s way we need to keep them in mind. Situations around the world remain very conflicted and we owe these veterans a great deal for their service and their sacrifice.”
These soldiers returning from overseas continue to run into problems with getting adequate health care. Systemic problems have created a backlog of treatment at the V.A. which has negatively impacted the ability of veterans to receive the care they need.
“Just about a year ago we passed legislation that begins to address that backlog and the systematic problems the V.A. is facing,” Rep. Visclosky continued. “We have a lot of veterans in Northwest Indiana who are aged. Some of them have some very chronic health problems. Our efforts to take steps in the right direction are getting closer to where we want to be.”
“We’re out of the depths of the Great Recession of 2008, 09 and 10,” Rep. Visclosky said, “Though it’s still a very difficult economy. Steel remains the anchor for the economy in Northwest Indiana despite the collapse of steel employment because we’re so efficient doing it. No one else on the planet makes steel at less than two hours per ton of labor but we’re still experiencing serious difficulties. People take advantage of our trade laws and violate international laws every day. The problem is that we regularly win most of these trade cases but it takes 18-24 months to win them. By that time jobs have already been lost.”
“We’ve seen the same story over and over,” Visclosky continued. “People are beating the system to death. We need relief now before every American manufacturing worker loses their job.”
Rep. Visclosky also spoke about projects and circumstances here in Northwest Indiana. “The RDA (Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority) has done a terrific job and made a commitment to the expansion of the South Shore and the State has made a 30 year financial commitment to its development. The coordinated effort is to reduce travel times to Chicago.”
“It’s an evolutionary process to bring new industrial development to Northwest Indiana.” Rep. Visclosky said. “It means all these elements coming together. For people to move new business and manufacturing here we do need an educated workforce to bring them here. I’m convinced we’re on the right path and things are going to get better.”