News

The NAM’s comprehensive manufacturing strategy will be fundamental in “igniting the Industrial Renaissance of the United States,” the NAM told a House committee today ahead of a hearing of the same name.
 
What’s going on: “Manufacturers call on President Trump and Congress to implement a comprehensive manufacturing strategy that would create predictability and certainty to invest, plan and hire in America,” the NAM told the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

• The purpose of the hearing was to examine how “cheap labor abroad, combined with overregulation and obstacles to permitting in the United States, contributed to the offshoring of American manufacturing and an overreliance on China to fulfill manufacturing needs.” It also emphasized “the importance of bringing manufacturing back to the United States.”   

What we’re saying: The NAM has been advocating that the administration adopt a multipoint plan to see the manufacturing sector flourish. Today it urged President Trump and Congress to take the following actions from that strategy as soon as possible:

• Make 2017 tax reform permanent: Make permanent the pro-manufacturing tax measures scheduled to sunset at the end of 2025 and bring back already expired provisions. Failure to do so will put almost 6 million U.S. jobs at risk, according to a recent EY–NAM study.
• Rebalance federal regulations: Manufacturers now spend $350 billion a year to comply with federal regulations. That’s money that could be spent on factory expansions, hiring and/or wage raises, as NAM President and CEO Jay Timmons has pointed out. The NAM also recently urged 10 key federal agencies to revise or rescind dozens of onerous, anachronistic regulations.
• Expedite permitting reform: “America should be the undisputed leader in energy production and innovation, but we will not reach our full potential without permitting reform.” This must include expediting judicial review, accelerating the permitting process, creating enforceable deadlines and more.
• Implement commonsense trade policies: “Building things in America only works if we can sell them around the world,” the NAM told the House members. “That is why manufacturers urge President Trump and Congress to provide greater predictability and a clear runway to allow them to adjust to new trade realities, while also making way for exemptions for critical inputs, enabling reciprocity in manufacturing trade.”