Washington, DC -- Congressman Eliot Engel (D-NY-17) issued the following statement in response to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address on Tuesday evening. 

“While the bipartisan atmosphere in the room today was a nice change in tone, President Obama said it well, Democrats and Republicans are not enemies, and we need to stop treating each other as such.  Only together can we address the issues facing our country today and in the future.  That should be our goal – ‘winning the future’ for all of our children. 

“We sat together tonight to show solidarity for our friend Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, but I am calling on my colleagues to keep this sense of fraternity going and use it to govern.  This should not be an aberration but rather our usual way of doing business.  This is something I’ve tried to exhibit each and every day during my 22+ years in the Congress.  The American people have been crying out for their Congress to focus on their issues and not on political partisanship.  We must listen from this point on and do the business that they sent us here to do.

“President Obama rightly stated that while we focus on chipping away at the deficit, we cannot ignore things that require attention.  A strong spotlight on transportation and infrastructure is important to create jobs and make badly needed improvements to our crumbling roads, bridges and infrastructure.  I was disappointed the Recovery Act fell short in areas of infrastructure investment. I am hopeful we will soon see projects such as the Tappan Zee Bridge, Saw Mill/Sprain Brook interchange, Henry Hudson Parkway rehabilitation, in my district to move forward.

“The President also urged a focus on education, and I could not agree more.  Democrats and Republicans all agree that teaching our children to be better prepared for a global market is vital for America’s future.  As a former educator, I can speak firsthand of the urgent need to upgrade our schools and colleges.  This is an area I believe we can find bipartisan agreement and make some real progress.  We all want our children and grandchildren to succeed.

“When President Obama took office, he faced the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.  It required some bold, and some unpopular, choices to be made to get past the devastating recession we were in.  The worst seems to have passed, with the stock market recovering, profits rising and more jobs created in the last year, than in the many years leading up to the 2008 crisis.  However, unemployment is still completely unacceptable.   Sometimes in a time of desperate need you run up a credit card bill, you have to pay it off the first chance you get.  We as a nation must now put our financial house back in order and pay those bills.  Together, we can do this.

“I am hopeful that we have reached what the President called our ‘Sputnik Moment.’  I am hopeful that Congress and the American people will do what I have been trying to do my whole career, treat those who don’t agree with you with the respect you expect to receive.  Today was not just a speech, and it was not ‘fake civility night’ in Congress as some have derided it as being.  I choose not to have such a jaded and cynical outlook on our country and our Congress.  I choose to believe that we have turned the page and have moved to an era of cooperation and productivity.  That may not sell many papers or increase ratings, but it will do a better job at doing the people’s business.”

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