As the economy improves and new investments are made, the Tennessee Valley is well positioned to provide the technology, hardware and manufacturing goods to meet many of the challenges we face in this era of homeland security and to supply the free world with the materials necessary to maintain our productivity and prosperity.

President George W. Bush rightly highlighted the importance of manufacturing in his recent State of the Union address before Congress. The facts are straight-forward; if someone doesn't "build it" or "make it" there is nothing to service. A society of consumers and service providers can not survive without a manufacturing sector.

At the national level, manufacturing has been lagging behind primarily because of unfair competition from foreign interests that receive government subsidies, have much lower wage rates and face less stringent environmental regulations. Some countries manipulate their monetary policy to further aggravate a gross trade imbalance. Possible solutions could include the Administration negotiating further on trade agreements, trade ambassadors intervening on monetary policy, including "Buy America" provisions in all government contracts and promoting grassroots efforts to purchase products that are "Made in the U.S.A."

At home in the Tennessee Valley, our economy has centered on a strong manufacturing base for many years. From Alabama through East Tennessee and into Virginia, products from socks to nuclear weapons have been produced right here in the Valley.

With some of the assets that are already in place, we are uniquely qualified to carry out many of the new manufacturing applications, including hybrid automobiles and transportation systems, radiation detection equipment, antidotes and treatments in the field of nuclear medicine and hydrogen fuel cells. However, we will need to continue our traditional manufacturing in the area of food products, appliances, furniture, mobile homes and plastics.

Now is the time when we need to look to the past in order to see into the future. We must retain our heritage in conventional manufacturing while staking our claim to the technologies of the future. By transitioning into a modern, technology-based manufacturing economy, we will build, make and export the products of tomorrow which will provide a legacy of jobs and opportunity for generations to come.