Waldorf, MD – United States Congressman Steny H. Hoyer came to North Point High School Thursday, Oct. 30 and was impressed by what he saw in John Hollyfield’s Technology and Education class.

Hoyer met and talked with students who are learning manufacturing skills, telling them they are on the right track to helping not only their own lives, but to better America as well.

“If America is going to be what we want it to be, we have to have a ‘Made in America’ label all over the world,” he said. “The good news for us is that markets are expanding all over the world. People are making more money, the standard of living is coming up around the world in places like China and India and other places with billions of people. That’s with a ‘B.’ We have 320 million people living here, but billions, there are 2.3 billion people in those two countries alone.”

Hoyer told the students that somebody is going to find the market where four or five billion people who are starting to emerge and be more like America, which has a lot of consumer goods and money to spend.

“So we are going to be as competitive in the 21st century as we were in the 20th century,” he explained.

“When I graduated from high school, there were no competitors to America in the world,” Hoyer added. “None. Zero. Not Europe, not Asia, not China. Now, as you graduate, we have a lot of competitors. What does that mean? That means we have to compete better. We have to practice more. We need to have more skills on our teams to create the types of jobs we need.”

Hoyer said that as congressman he travels all over the United States, citing that he was in Detroit, Michigan on Tuesday and Florida on Monday. He said he spoke to elected officials in Detroit who are seeing more and more people moving to the city, but fewer and fewer of them have the skills they need to compete in the world force.

“More skills are necessary to do things,” he said. “It is computer driven, because all of you know as you use computers, they’re more precise and faster, but they’re not human and they need those of us who have some skills to tell them what we need them to do.

“We need a plan a national plan,” he added. “We still manufacture more goods than any other nation in the world, so we’re not catching up, we’re there now. But just as when you’re in a league and you’re winning 9 out of 20 games, you get a little lazy. If you’re 6-4 or 5-5 you work at it harder. That’s what you’re doing here every day, learning the kind of skills that are needed in the private sector.

“There are manufacturers all over America who are looking for you and the skills you are acquiring here,” he said.

Contact Joseph Norris at joe.norris@thebaynet.com