Manufacturers Delivered on Tax Reform—now Congress must preserve it

As manufacturers call on policymakers to preserve tax reform by passing the tax bill, they’re reflecting on everything the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act made possible for the industry.

Back in 2017 and 2018, the NAM told manufacturers’ stories of hiring more workers and increasing wages, making new investments and buying new equipment, expanding facilities and strengthening R&D, in an influential series of articles called “Keeping Our Promises.” Today, the NAM released a report showing where those companies are now because of the TCJA—and how much they have grown and succeeded in the eight years since the landmark legislation.

Their stories: The report features many small manufacturers that found tax reform to be transformative, including Westminster Tool, Click Bond, Ketchie, Gentex, Winton Machine, Jamison Door Company and more.

To take one example, Westminster Tool, a small Connecticut company that designs and creates plastic injection molds for the medical, aerospace and consumer products industries, was able to hire more than a dozen workers, growing its workforce by nearly 30%.
Click Bond, a small manufacturer of aerospace and defense assembly solutions, was able to review its pay scales and increase both hourly and supervisory workers’ wages, which has helped it compete better in the labor market and keep pace with inflation.

The NAM says: “The evidence is clear: manufacturing had its best job creation in more than two decades, the strongest wage growth in 15 years and significant investment in capital equipment after the passage of the TCJA in 2017,” said NAM Executive Vice President Erin Streeter.

“But several of these tax provisions have expired already—and the rest are scheduled to sunset at the end of this year—putting at risk 6 million American jobs, more than $500 billion in wages and benefits and more than $1 trillion in GDP.”

The bottom line: “Tax reform worked,” Streeter emphasized.

“Congress faces a straightforward choice to make the TCJA’s manufacturing-empowering provisions permanent, or risk undermining the foundation of our economic competitiveness.”

NAM in the news: POLITICO Pro’s Morning Tax newsletter (subscription) covered the report this morning.

Later, the White House’s rapid response account on X (formerly Twitter) promoted the report and the NAM’s tax policy priorities multiple times.