“The fact that U.S. manufacturers recently posted their first yearly jobs gain since 1997 demonstrates how much American manufacturing and those who rely on manufacturing for their livelihood have suffered over the past decade,” Rep. Lipinski said. “Just last month came the news that China has seized the title of the world’s leading goods producer, ending America’s 110-year reign. Yet no plan with broad support and real momentum currently exists for growing American manufacturing and reversing the offshoring that has been killing the middle class. That’s why we need to develop a manufacturing strategy and follow through on its recommendations. Our bills may differ on the details, but Senator Brown and I share the same goals for manufacturing and job creation in the heartland and across America.”

“The manufacturing industry helped build our middle class and must lead our nation’s economic recovery,” Sen. Brown said. “If we’re going to out-compete and out-innovate other countries, it will require a national manufacturing strategy. The United States has been without one, and our economy has paid the price. We are seeing manufacturing help lead us out of the recession, but we need a sustained strategy to ensure long-term growth and job creation.”

America has lost 5.5 million manufacturing jobs, or one-third of the total, over the last decade. In addition to the consequences for the middle class, the loss of manufacturing capacity harms national security by threatening America’s ability to independently equip its military.

Rep. Lipinski’s bipartisan National Manufacturing Strategy Act passed the House last year 379-38. The current version, H.R. 1366, has 11 Democratic and 10 Republican cosponsors. To ensure widespread buy-in from both business and government, it requires the president to establish a Manufacturing Strategy Board of federal officials, two state governors from different parties, and private-sector manufacturing leaders. Every four years, the board will conduct a comprehensive analysis of the manufacturing sector covering matters ranging from financing to trade to the defense industrial base. Based on this analysis and ample public input, the board will develop a strategy that includes specific recommendations to the President, Congress, and industry for bolstering American manufacturing. To make sure we stay the course, the board will assess the implementation of its recommendations annually, and the GAO will conduct a separate review.

Described as “Congress’ leading proponent of American Manufacturing,” Brown held a series of hearings as Chairman of the Senate Banking Subcommittee on Economic Policy to examine ways to revitalize American manufacturing. His hearing "The U.S. as Global Competitor: What Are the Elements of a National Manufacturing Strategy", examined how best to establish a national manufacturing policy; while other hearings addressed ways to restore credit to manufacturers, and the Obama administration’s manufacturing agenda. He has also been working with the Obama Administration on the creation of a national manufacturing policy and has outlined six key areas of focus for investing in manufacturing. These include creating a business climate favorable to investing in manufacturing; investing in manufacturing for priorities such as clean energy and critical military equipment; strengthening supply chains through the Manufacturing Extension Partnership; matching dislocated workers with training in emerging industries; making the research and development tax credit permanent; and defending against unfair trade. 

Sen. Brown’s National Manufacturing Strategy Act of 2011 would require the Commerce Secretary to, within 180 days, conduct a comprehensive analysis of the nation’s manufacturing sector and submit to Congress a National Manufacturing Strategy.  The report should include an assessment of U.S. manufacturing capacity, including what goods are produced, where they are produced, and in which sectors the U.S. is most competitive. The goals of the Strategy are to increase U.S. manufacturing jobs, identify emerging technologies to strengthen U.S. competitiveness, and strengthen the manufacturing sectors in which the U.S. is most competitive.

The Commerce Department will coordinate manufacturing assessment and recommendations with other federal agencies, including the Department of Defense, Department of Energy, Department of Labor, Department of the Treasury, the Small Business Administration, the Office of Management and Budget, the Office of Science and Technology, and the Office of United States Trade Representative among others. In addition, the report must include at least two public listening sessions that include witnesses from manufacturing sectors, as well as a database of information derived from surveys of private manufacturers in order to understand how public policies can be tailored to promote manufacturing competitiveness.

“Other countries take a far more aggressive and coordinated approach to bolstering their manufacturing sectors, while America has allowed our manufacturing base to wither,” Rep. Lipinski said. “We need to change that right now and adopt a strategy for revitalizing American manufacturing that creates jobs and helps make us the leading producer of high-value goods for decades to come. Leaving manufacturing to other countries and becoming an entirely service-based economy is clearly not the way to keep America strong. Losing manufacturing means losing your competitive edge, especially in high-tech industries where process innovation is key to product innovation. Ignorance of that fact and a blind trust in globalization helped bring us stagnating middle-class incomes and the rampant speculation by big banks that precipitated the 2008 financial crisis.”

The America COMPETES Act, passed last December, includes a National Economic Competitiveness Strategy that echoes Rep. Lipinski’s NMSA. It also includes his NSF reauthorization, which authorizes a high-tech manufacturing research program, and as called for by Lipinski requires better access to government supercomputers for manufacturers, and provides loan guarantees for manufacturers producing innovative technologies. In the 111^th Congress, Rep. Lipinski introduced the Buy American Improvement Act with Sen. Russ Feingold to close loopholes in existing Buy American laws.

(April 6, 2011)

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