When We Make It In America, America’s Families Will Make It Too

Democrats’ Make It In America plan is based on the belief that when more products are made in America, more families will be able to Make It In America. The plan is intended to create the conditions to help American businesses produce goods here, innovate here, and create jobs here; it includes many of the investments necessary for America to out-educate, out-innovate, and out-build its international competitors. President Obama has already signed ten Make It In America bills into law, many of which won bipartisan support. Business and labor leaders alike support Democrats’ Make It In America plan—because Making It In America is central to the future of our competitiveness, our jobs, and our place in the world.

Make It In America: Legislation

The following is a cross-section of new proposals included in the Make It In America plan.  This plan has been updated with new ideas to create good jobs, to help our companies produce more goods here, to maintain our leadership in innovation, and to educate a 21st-century workforce.

Make It In America is…investing in infrastructure and supporting the flow of commerce.

• Focusing Resources, Economic Investment, and Guidance To Help Transportation (FREIGHT) Act, H.R. 1338 (Sires): Calls for the development of a National Freight Strategic Transportation Plan to assess the current national freight transportation system, designate priority freight corridors and gateways, and create a proposed investment plan to develop the priorities.  It also creates a National Freight Infrastructure Investment Grants program, which would fund eligible projects such as port development, freight rail improvement, and intelligent transportation systems.

Make It In America is…keeping America competitive.

• Miscellaneous Tariff Bill: Eliminates duties on certain products not produced in the U.S., particularly raw materials and intermediate inputs that are used by U.S. manufacturers, reducing these manufacturers’ production costs and making them more competitive.
• National Network for Manufacturing Innovation:  Creates a national network of manufacturing institutes to stimulate U.S. leadership in advanced manufacturing research, innovation, and technology.
• Advancing Innovative Manufacturing Act of 2012 (E. B. Johnson): Creates industry-led consortia that will identify, prioritize, and address long-term, pre-competitive industrial research needs in advanced manufacturing; establishes a pilot program to promote advanced manufacturing and enhance the innovative capabilities and competitiveness of small and medium-sized manufacturers; creates a pilot program to award “innovation vouchers” worth up to $20,000 that small and medium-sized manufacturers can use to acquire technical expertise; and amends America COMPETES to provide competitive, merit-reviewed grants to community colleges for the development and implementation of innovative advanced manufacturing curricula and degree or certification programs.
• American Textile Technology Innovation and Research for Exportation (ATTIRE) Act, H.R. 2275 (D. Price): Creates a competitive grant program to fund research and innovation and to promote increased textile exports.

Make It In America is…ensuring a level playing field, enforcing trade laws, and promoting exports.

• Enforcing Orders and Reducing Customs Evasion (ENFORCE) Act of 2011, H.R. 3057 (Long/Linda Sanchez):  Establishes new procedures for investigating claims that foreign manufacturers are evading anti-dumping and countervailing duty orders to better enforce trade laws and prevent illegal imports.
• The Customs Training Enhancement Act of 2012 (Lipinski): Creates a public-private partnership between the U.S. Customs and Border Protection and American manufacturers to provide specialized training to CBP agents to prevent mislabeled or transshipped items from entering the U.S.
• Export Promotion Reform Act, H.R. 4041 (Berman):  Strengthens the interagency Trade Promotion Coordinating Committee (TPCC); increases coordination among federal export programs; requires the government to gather input from more sources, including small and medium-sized businesses, when drafting strategic plans for federal trade promotion policies; and directs ambassadors to develop country-specific commercial diplomacy plans to increase U.S. exports.

Make It In America is…smart tax policy.                                   

• The Bring Jobs Home Act, H.R. 5542 (Pascrell):  Eliminates the tax deduction for moving expenses for companies sending jobs overseas and provides a new tax credit for companies that bring jobs back to the U.S.

Make It In America is…innovative education policy

• Workforce Investment Act of 2012, H.R. 4227 (Tierney):  Reauthorizes and modernizes the Workforce Investment Act to help close the gap between the talent manufacturers need to keep expanding their businesses in the U.S. and skill level of today’s workforce.
• Workforce-Ready Educate America Act of 2012, H.R. 4249 (Hochul): Allows a $1,000-per-student tax credit to employers that partner with educational institutions to provide skills training.

Make It In America is…clean energy jobs.

• Rural Energy Investment Act, H.R. 5955 (Kaptur):  Renews and streamlines the Rural Energy for America Program, which provides financial assistance to rural small businesses to purchase and install renewable energy systems and make energy efficiency improvements; renews and expands the Biobased Markets Program, requiring the federal government to increase by 50 percent  its commitment to purchase biobased products like cleaners, lubricants, building materials, and other industrial products; and renews and streamlines the Biomass Crop Assistance Program, which provides incentives for producers to find new uses for biomass by-products.

Make It In America is…making it in America.

• Market Based Manufacturing Incentives Act of 2011, H.R. 3495 (Honda): Allows a tax credit for the purchase of new products certified as assembled in the U.S. and consisting of at least 60 percent of components assembled in the U.S.
• Patriot Corporations of America Act, H.R. 1163 (Schakowsky): Rewards companies that voluntarily meet “patriotic” standards (e.g., produce at least 90 percent of their goods and services in the U.S., spend at least 50% of their R&D budgets in the U.S., pay at least 70 percent of the cost of health insurance premiums) by giving them preference in government contracting and a 5 percent reduction in their taxable income.

Make It In America: Enacted Laws

Since 2010, President Obama has signed the following Make It In America bills into law:

• U.S. Manufacturing Enhancement Act: Makes it cheaper for American companies to obtain the materials they need to manufacture goods. [Public Law 111-227]
• Protecting American Patents: Helps the Patent Office to begin to unclog the backlog—totaling about 1.2 million pending applications—by giving the agency access to more of the fees it collects so that patent applications can continue to be processed and innovative ideas can continue to move to market. [Public Law 111-224]
• Preventing Outsourcing: Prevents the outsourcing of U.S. jobs by closing tax loopholes that encourage companies to send U.S. jobs overseas. [Public Law 111-226]
• Small Business Jobs Act: Expands much needed lending to millions of small businesses and offers tax incentives to help small businesses grow, hire, and fuel our economy, without adding a dime to the deficit. [Public Law 111-240]
• Energy Jobs and Training for Veterans Act: Provides grants for programs to provide on-the-job training, apprenticeship, real experience, and long-term employment in all energy fields. [Public Law 111-275]
• America COMPETES Reauthorization Act: Establishes innovative technology federal loan guarantees for small- and medium-sized manufacturers and invests in science, technology, engineering, and math education. [Public Law 111-358]
• Reauthorization of Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs: The six-year reauthorization ensures that the nation’s small, high-tech, and innovative businesses are a significant part of the federal government’s research and development efforts. [Public Law 112-81]
• Leahy-Smith America Invents Act: Improves the patent system to provide incentives for companies to continue innovating and manufacturing in the U.S. [Public Law 112-29]
• Export-Import Bank Reauthorization Act: Reauthorizes the Export-Import Bank for three years, ending uncertainty for businesses and providing the resources needed to keep American exporters competitive. [Public Law 112-122]
• Surface Transportation Reauthorization: Funds infrastructure improvements that will support manufacturing, spur economic growth, and create jobs in our communities. [H.R. 4348, signed into law on July 6, 2012]

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