Monday, July 28, 2014
Floor Speech: Unveiling bill to designate “Manufacturing Universities”
As Delivered on the Senate Floor
Madam President, I come to the floor today to talk about jobs, about manufacturing jobs in particular.
As we in the Senate get ready to leave Washington and return home to our States for August, it has become popular in the media to say our legislative work is done; that it is mostly about campaigning from here on out, for the weeks, the months remaining until the election in November. After all, we hear reported this is a body so divided, so riven by gridlock and partisanship that we haven't gotten a lot done, and the prospect for getting more done is even less.
Although I have certainly been frustrated by the pace of progress at times, this story not only gets a lot of things wrong, it is counterproductive and at times even self-fulfilling.
Let me start with the fact that we can, and we have, gotten important things done for manufacturing and for our economy and for our states as a whole.
Last year 26 of my Democratic colleagues, including the Presiding Officer, joined an initiative called Manufacturing Jobs for America, or MJA. The goal of Manufacturing Jobs for America has been simple: put together a collection of our best ideas – our best ideas – to spur manufacturing job creation, to work with Republicans to find common ground, and to get these bills passed.
We are focusing on manufacturing as a group of Senators because it is the foundation of our economy. It is the foundation of the pathway toward a middle class. Manufacturing jobs pay more in benefits and contribute more to the local economy than any other sector, fueling growth in other sectors. Manufacturing is also incredibly innovative. Manufacturers invest the most in research and development of any industrial sector.
We have focused on four different broad areas in the MJA initiative: training a 21st century workforce; expanding access to capital for businesses looking to expand and invest in growth; leveling the global trade playing field and opening markets abroad; and focusing our government behind a national manufacturing strategy.
These are the four main areas of focus for Manufacturing Jobs for America, and together we have introduced over 30 bills, nearly half of which are bipartisan bills, with Republicans joining us in advancing these ideas.
Together, we have made real progress in moving the ball forward.
Already, five of these bills have passed out of committee. Three of them would take further steps to give startups and small businesses access to the research and development tax credit, which came out of the Finance Committee. Two others passed as part of a single package to create a national manufacturing strategy and improve STEM education in our high schools and colleges that came out of the Commerce Committee. There is no reason that, working together, we can't get these bipartisan bills passed through the full Senate before the end of this Congress.
This isn't just wishful thinking. We have already seen seven provisions from Manufacturing Jobs for America bills enacted into law as well. In last year's Defense Authorization Act we included an MJA amendment that streamlines regulations and makes it easier for small businesses to do work with the Federal Government. Recently, as a result of our work to ensure innovative small businesses and startups can access the research and development tax credit, the Administration took executive action to implement another MJA provision, and just last week the House and Senate came together to pass the broad bipartisan Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act to reform and streamline our nation's job training programs – a bill that ultimately included five separate MJA provisions within it, and a bill that has now been signed into law by our President.
The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act was years in the making, and its success is in no small part due to the relentless efforts of my colleagues Senators Murray and Isakson – Democrat and Republican – as well as Senators Harkin and Alexander, who have worked for years to get this over the finish line. Their success in crafting this bill and in building bipartisan support for it is a lesson for all of us, and it is a large example of what we have tried to do, bit by bit, for other manufacturing bills.
To me, it is really about determination. We have shown it is possible to get things done if we relentlessly seek common ground, if we engage outside groups, if we strengthen the quality of the ideas, and if we build bipartisan paths toward success.
One of our country's biggest challenges is the rapid pace of change in our globally interconnected economy. The middle-class jobs of today and tomorrow require higher skill levels than ever before as the economy continues to evolve. America needs a system that emphasizes lifelong learning, learning on the job, and constant adjustment.
This is a challenge that Members of both parties are well aware of and are dedicated to stepping up and meeting. That is what the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act is all about.
To put it in some context, by 2022 we are projected to have 11 million fewer workers with postsecondary education than our economy will need. But by consolidating 15 outdated or redundant federal job training programs, by creating new across-the-board accountability standards, and by giving cities and states the flexibility to meet their economies’ unique local needs, the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act will help us make up that shortfall.
I was at the bill signing last week at the White House, along with the Senators whom I cited who led the charge on this, and it was uplifting to see the positive impact that came out of uniting in such a broadly bipartisan way on such an important issue as job skills for the modern manufacturing workforce for America.
On a week when Congress came together to improve our investment in America's workers, Vice President Biden also released a critical report that had great contributions from the Secretaries of Commerce, Education, and Labor – a critical report that details a number of other steps the administration is taking as a complement to that new law, the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, to equip our workers for the 21st century economy.
As we get ready this week to return to our home states and to hear from our constituents in August, there is no reason to stop legislating this week and when we return in September. That is why I am introducing another bill as part of Manufacturing Jobs for America, a bill called the Manufacturing Universities Act of 2014.
This bill will take on a simple but important challenge. Because today's manufacturing jobs require higher skill levels than ever – higher skill levels than yesterday's assembly line jobs, our schools and in particular universities need to be equipping students with those skills. Since innovation and research and development keep leading to new materials and new technologies that are critical to keeping American manufacturing at the cutting edge of the global economy, we also need to connect our universities with our manufacturers.
The manufacturing universities bill would create a competitive grant program that would ultimately designate 25 American universities as manufacturing universities. The competition would incentivize schools to build engineering programs that are targeted, that are focused on 21st century manufacturing and the skills our workers need to thrive. This would allow the cycle of innovation that can begin in the laboratory, that can mature in a factory, and that can produce more competitive products of the market to be fully harnessed around the challenge of meeting the demands of the 21st century manufacturing environment. That would build on important work that is already being done to link universities all the way to the shop floor, but where we are not doing as much as we can and should with Federal grant funds that go to universities for research, to make them relevant and to make them current and to make them competitive.
For example, in my home state of Delaware, this bill, if enacted into law, could help the University of Delaware bolster its work with the private sector, focus its work with the Delaware Manufacturing Extension Partnership, focus the partnership between Delaware Technical and Community College, Delaware State University, and our manufacturing community in Delaware, to ensure that manufacturing becomes a larger part of the University of Delaware's engineering curriculum and the training and research and outreach conducted by Del State and Del Tech.
The competitive challenges of the 21st century are big, but we have every reason to be united around meeting them. Manufacturing Jobs for America, like the Manufacturing Universities Act, takes simple steps to invest in America's workers so they can drive our innovation and growth today and tomorrow, and takes simple steps to make sure we are being as competitive as possible, that we are growing the best jobs possible for our home states and for our whole country.
Let's come together in a bipartisan way. Let's build on the success we have already seen across the different skills initiatives I have discussed. Just because elections are coming up this fall doesn't mean we can't continue to get behind great ideas – whether Democrat or Republican, whether from the House or the Senate – to move our nation forward, and to create great jobs for all our States and all our communities.