News & Insights

Washington, D.C. – National Association of Manufacturers President and CEO Jay Timmons released the following statement in response to today’s White House announcement seeking to impose price controls on biopharmaceutical manufacturers:

“Manufacturers support the Trump administration’s commitment to lowering health care costs and ensuring American patients can access life-saving medicines. But European-style price controls will stifle innovation—undermining R&D and limiting future access to breakthrough treatments. 

“Manufacturers are working to reduce health care costs across the industry—for companies and for workers. That’s why the NAM supported expansions of telehealth coverage and increases to HSA amounts in H.R. 1, and it’s why policymakers should target the real drivers of cost—pharmacy benefit managers, and abuse of the 340B program—instead of imposing mandates on innovators.

“Manufacturers and manufacturing workers are facing rising health care costs because of underregulated middlemen like PBMs and the 340B program, both of which have increased prices for patients without producing a single treatment. Rather than punishing the innovators who develop life-saving and life-changing medicines, policymakers should focus on the real inefficiencies and distortions in the system.

“Manufacturers have long championed patient-first solutions that lower costs, strengthen American competitiveness and drive innovation. As we have underscored, there is a better way forward. Manufacturers remain committed to working with the administration and Congress on solutions that bring down prices while preserving our global leadership in innovation.”

-NAM-

Alongside the president’s AI Action Plan and subsequent directive encouraging the buildout of AI data centers, President Trump signed another executive order aimed at exporting American AI technology.

• The NAM is seeking manufacturers’ opinions on how this EO should be implemented.

The big picture: The goal of the EO is to “preserve and extend American leadership in AI and decrease international dependence on AI technologies developed by our adversaries by supporting the global deployment of United States–origin AI technologies.”

• It orders the creation of an American AI Exports Program, which allows AI companies to seek federal support in competing for business deals abroad.
• An interagency body called the Economic Diplomacy Action Group, chaired by the Secretary of State, will help facilitate foreign commercial deals, using both diplomacy and financing tools.

Full-stack: Most notably, the EO mandates that any “consortium” seeking federal support must be exporting “full-stack AI technology packages,” not just individual products or services (hence the assumption that many companies will band together to make one proposal).

• “AI-optimized computer hardware (e.g., chips, servers and accelerators), data center storage, cloud services and networking, as well as a description of whether and to what extent such items are manufactured in the United States”
• “Data pipelines and labeling systems”
• “AI models and systems”
• “Measures to ensure the security and cybersecurity of AI models and systems”
• “AI applications for specific use cases (e.g., software engineering, education, health care, agriculture or transportation)”

Preference for U.S. sources: The EO says that proposals whose hardware, storage, cloud and networking components are “manufactured in the United States” will receive preferential treatment, though this is not a hard requirement.

• However, other components of the “stack,” from data pipelines to cybersecurity, don’t carry this proviso.

Feedback wanted: Please contact NAM Senior Director of Technology Policy Franck Journoud ([email protected]) or NAM Manager of International Policy Ellie Leontis ([email protected]) to provide your thoughts on this EO.

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin on Tuesday announced that the agency is proposing to rescind its 2009 “endangerment finding” that concluded that greenhouse gas emissions endanger public health and welfare. The finding underpins most U.S. regulations to address climate change.

• The proposed rule, if finalized, would result in there being no greenhouse gas standards for any vehicle of any model year.

The background: The EPA administrator is proposing to withdraw the finding by asserting the EPA lacks the authority under Section 202 of the Clean Air Act to do so, that the Supreme Court case that precipitated the finding has been superseded by recent court cases, such as West Virginia v. EPA and Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, and that the EPA is acting in accordance with President Trump’s “ Unleashing American Energy” Executive Order, which called for a reexamination of the 2009 standard, among other actions.

• The EPA is basing this announcement on an updated study of climate science by the Department of Energy.
• In a press release, the EPA claimed that this endangerment finding “has been used to justify more than $1 trillion in regulations. …”

Other actions: As part of the EPA’s announcement, the agency is also proposing to rescind the Biden administration’s vehicle tailpipe regulations for light, medium- and heavy-duty vehicles.

• Additionally, the EPA announced last month that it plans to repeal the previous administration’s power plant regulations, a move that “is a critical and welcome step toward rebalanced regulations and American energy dominance,” NAM President and CEO Jay Timmons said at the time.

Feedback needed: Once the proposed rule is published in the Federal Register, the 45-day public comment period will begin. The NAM will be submitting comments on this proposed action and is seeking feedback from NAM members.

• Please contact NAM Director of Energy and Resources Policy Michael Davin ([email protected]) or NAM Vice President of Domestic Policy Chris Phalen ([email protected]) to provide your thoughts.

President Trump imposed a Section 232 tariff of 50% on semifinished copper and certain derivatives by presidential proclamation yesterday.

The reasoning: The proclamation cites Commerce Department findings that foreign competitors have used “state subsidies and overproduction” to outcompete domestic U.S. suppliers and that dependence on foreign sources has created “strategic vulnerabilities and jeopardizes the U.S. defense industrial base.”

What’s in scope: This proclamation does not list specific products, but a White House fact sheet describes the scope broadly as:

• Semifinished copper products like copper pipes, wires and sheets; and
• Copper-intensive derivative products like pipe fittings, cables and electrical components.

What’s not in scope: According to the White House fact sheet, copper input materials such as copper ores, concentrates, mattes, cathodes and anodes and copper scrap are not subject to 232 “or reciprocal tariffs.” Customs and Border Protection guidance will be critical to understanding this aspect of the proclamation.

Timing: The tariff goes into effect on Friday, Aug. 1.

Going forward: The proclamation directs the Commerce Secretary to establish a process within 90 days to consider adding derivative copper products to the scope of the tariff, similar to the process established for aluminum and steel.

• The Department of Commerce will also monitor imports of copper and derivatives going forward and will “from time to time” inform the president of further necessary action.

Domestic use: This proclamation invokes the Domestic Production Act to authorize the Commerce Secretary to require a certain percentage of U.S.-produced inputs be sold in the U.S. According to the fact sheet, this includes requirements that:

• 25% of high-quality copper scrap produced in the U.S. be sold in the U.S. to “improve access to this important feedstock for domestic fabricators and secondary refiners”; and
• 25% of copper input materials produced in the U.S. be sold in the U.S. by 2027, increasing to 30% in 2028 and 40% in 2029.

Brazil: Meanwhile, the president also released an executive order yesterday imposing an increased International Emergency Economic Powers Act tariff on imports from Brazil, citing concerns about violations of free expression rights and human rights in that country, as well as the “political persecution” of Brazil’s former president.

50%: The July 30 EO imposes an additional 40% tariff to be stacked with the 10% IEEPA “reciprocal” tariff issued on April 2, bringing the IEEPA tariff to 50%.

• This adjustment will go into effect seven days after the EO (not including the day itself).

Exemptions and adjustments: The EO includes a list of products not subject to this increase and also states that if a Section 232 tariff applies to the goods, the IEEPA tariff will not apply.

Going forward: As previewed in the president’s letter, the EO states that should Brazil retaliate, the U.S. tariff will be increased by the same amount.

• This EO directs the Secretary of State to monitor and recommend any additional actions under IEEPA.

The NAM is urging the EPA to move forward with a proposed rulemaking that would allow the Railroad Commission of Texas “to issue and enforce compliance with [Underground Injection Control] Class VI permits for injection wells used for geologic carbon sequestration.”

• Due to manufacturers’ concern for environmental stewardship, the NAM is a strong proponent of measures that will mitigate emissions, NAM Vice President of Domestic Policy Chris Phalen told the agency.
• “Manufacturers view clean energy solutions, such as carbon capture and sequestration/storage technologies, as important parts of our country’s energy present and future, and manufacturers are leading the charge in developing them and scaling them up for widespread use.”

A quick review: The CCS process is made up of three steps: capturing the carbon dioxide; transporting by pipeline, road or ship; and injecting it far below ground for permanent storage.

• “Industries across the United States are investing substantially in CCS to decarbonize their operations and produce more sustainable products. In Texas, these projects have the potential to contribute $1.5 billion to the Texas economy and create 7,500 full-time, high-paying jobs,” the NAM noted.

State empowerment: Allowing states to permit permanent sequestration via the EPA’s Class VI injection well program would be a huge step forward for CCS across the country, as states are far more aware of their own geologies than is the federal government.

• State primacy in permitting would represent a victory for the Trump administration’s (and the NAM’s) push to streamline permitting across the federal government and jumpstart much-needed energy, infrastructure and related projects.

The last word: “Granting state primacy to Texas and other states will help create jobs, grow investment in manufacturing and pave the way for energy solutions that will support the United States’ 21st-century economy,” concluded Phalen.

To secure the stable, diversified critical materials supply chains that the U.S. needs to remain globally competitive and achieve energy dominance, changes must be made to the 2026 Energy Critical Materials Assessment, the NAM said today.

What’s going on: “Manufacturers in America utilize critical materials and minerals extensively, deploying them in a wide array of manufactured products throughout the U.S. economy,” NAM Vice President of Domestic Policy Chris Phalen told the Department of Energy in response to a request for information seeking public input on the assessment.

• The NAM recommended the DOE take certain steps regarding the assessment, including adding certain materials to its list and ensuring others remain on it. It also urged the DOE to collaborate with other agencies and Congress to “streamline permitting processes to ensure greater domestic access to these materials.”

Other actions: The NAM also urged the DOE to:

• Maintain “the critical materials that are currently listed within the DOE’s Energy Critical Materials Assessment,” including aluminum, cobalt, copper, electrical steel, lithium and graphite;
• Add iron nitride and zirconium to the assessment;
• Remove permitting barriers that are “restricting the United States from being able to mine, process and access domestic resources, modernize infrastructure and shore up supply chains”;
• Offer financial tools—including investment tax credits, production tax credits and grants—to help “de-risk technological advancement”;
• Align the DOE’s critical materials list with the U.S. Geological Survey’s separate critical minerals list; and
• Add fluorine to the USGS list.

The final say: These recommendations will “ensure [that] manufacturers of all sizes and in all segments of the industry have access to the materials necessary for modern, innovative manufactured products,” Phalen continued.

• They will also allow manufacturers to do what they “do best—put more Americans to work, more factories into motion, more innovation into the marketplace and more investments into our communities while strengthening the hand of the United States on the world stage.”

The federal government has agreed to fast-track some power project requests by U.S. grid operators, potentially staving off electricity shortfalls from an overloaded grid (POLITICO Pro, subscription).

What’s going on: Last week, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued unanimous orders “conditionally authorizing requests from the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) and Southwest Power Pool (SPP).”

• The move follows a similar approval for an expedited interconnection process for PJM Interconnection, the largest power grid in the U.S.
• It also comes just months after FERC rejected a similar request from MISO.

Why it’s important: The MISO and SPP plans seek to get new projects online quickly as some traditional power plants are closed “and replacements are stuck awaiting studies for approval to plug into the bulk power grid.”

• Utilities have signaled that they need more generation to account for growing power appetite, much of it stemming from the rapid construction of capacity-hungry data centers.

What’s new this time: Although FERC said in May that MISO’s expedited resource adequacy study process was too broad and therefore risked worsening the “existing interconnection queue delays,” the revised proposal, submitted in June, caps at 68 the number of ERAS endeavors in coming years.

• The revised proposal also adds new eligibility requirements.
• And “projects seeking expedited grid studies must have approval of the appropriate local regulator, control the site for the project and have a contracted buyer as well as pay a $100,000 application fee and meet other conditions.”

Two manufacturing leaders testified at House Ways and Means Committee field hearings in Nevada and California this past weekend.

• Click Bond Director of Manufacturing Austin Robinson testified on Friday in Las Vegas, focusing on the impacts of the One Big Beautiful Bill’s tax provisions for the manufacturing workforce.
• On Saturday, Robinson Helicopter Company Vice President of Business Development Will Fulton testified alongside NAM President and CEO Jay Timmons at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, where they discussed the impacts of the tax provisions for manufacturers. (In case you missed it, here is our article from yesterday on Timmons’ testimony.).

Click Bond: Austin has spent his career in manufacturing. He now manages the 80% of employees who make up the manufacturing workforce at Click Bond, which designs, manufactures and supports adhesive bonded fasteners that are used in space, aviation, marine and other applications, both civil and defense.

• After Austin thanked policymakers for passing the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, he explained what it means for his company. “2017 tax reform was tremendously impactful for both our business and our workers,” he said. “It allowed us to increase wages, scale up our engineering and development workforce, invest in next-generation equipment and create a new employee academic assistance program.”
• “[By] making permanent a pro-growth tax code, the One Big Beautiful Bill will empower us to continue and expand these investments, to purchase more equipment and conduct more research and to further increase pay and benefits for our employees.”

Investing in workers: Austin emphasized that the bill will allow manufacturers to keep investing in workers, building on the pay increases Click Bond was able to provide to their hourly employees following the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

• “My first employer paid for my education, and I am proud to say that Click Bond does the same for any employees who want to go back to school and develop their skill,” he said. “Our workforce at Click Bond is the most precious resource, and that is reflected in the investments that we make in them. Those investments are actually enabled by a pro-growth tax policy.”

Robinson Helicopter: Will also thanked policymakers for this legislation.

• Robinson “specializes in helicopter design, assembly, inspection, flight testing, manufacturing and production. … Our Torrance, California, manufacturing facility is the world’s leading commercial helicopter manufacturer, period,” he told policymakers.
• “The One Big Beautiful Bill Act supports [Robinson] by driving our ability to accelerate domestic investment expansion and growth. … This legislation helps accelerate our ambitions into a more near-term reality.”

R&D support: “These tax provisions help us to invest both in the design of new technology and its production processes,” Will added. “We recently launched our newest helicopter, the R88, which offers more robust first responder capabilities.”

• “Our R&D efforts for the R88 include the ability to fit that helicopter with more advanced technology and equipment for firefighting, disaster response and emergency medical services. That helicopter will act as an operational control center to a fleet of fire surveillance drones to better scan for any signs of ignition, ensure faster response times and expand the capacity of fire departments to contain fires earlier.”
• “Thanks to your leadership, Congress and the administration have empowered Robinson Helicopter to create jobs, invest in equipment, innovate through R&D and drive economic growth faster,” he concluded.

The litigation of the Biden administration’s limits on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in drinking water will resume this fall (POLITICO’s GREENWIRE, subscription). The NAM and other industry groups are leading the challenge against these standards, contending that they are unachievable and rely on invalid cost-benefit analyses.

What’s going on: In a court filing last week, the Environmental Protection Agency “said it and the … industry groups challenging the standards need until Aug. 1 to come up with a schedule for additional briefing, which was suspended earlier this year while EPA considered what to do.”

• In May, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced that the agency would rescind and rework the standards for some substances while continuing to defend the equally unworkable standards for PFOA and PFOS.

A two-pronged strategy: While the NAM and its allies are awaiting the resumption of the court case, the NAM’s experts are pressing the administration to reconsider the standards for all six substances, including PFOA and PFOS. This week, they urged the EPA and the National Drinking Water Advisory Council to revise the PFAS National Primary Drinking Water Regulation.

• “The NAM supports health-protective and science-based safe drinking water standards. Manufacturers continue to innovate ways to protect the environment and our communities,” said NAM Managing Vice President of Policy Charles Crain. “The EPA’s [maximum contamination level] standards should encourage such innovation while setting attainable limits that water systems can realistically finance and meet. ”
• “Manufacturers support rational regulation of PFAS that allows manufacturers to continue supporting critical industries, while developing new chemistries and minimizing any potential environmental and public health impacts.”
• “Certain PFAS uses remain essential to the functionality and safety of products that underpin modern life, from semiconductor fabrication and advanced energy storage to lifesaving medical devices and aerospace systems, where no technically viable substitutes exist and are estimated to be decades out. PFAS regulations require a measured and evidence-based approach that the 2024 Final PFAS NPDWR lacks.”

In-person appearance: The NAM also reiterated manufacturers’ concerns to the EPA and the National Drinking Water Advisory Council in a public meeting on Monday.

• “[R]ules that are not feasible, cost effective or adequately supported by robust scientific analysis don’t just strain water systems, they cascade through water rates, capital plans, liability frameworks and ultimately the competitiveness of U.S. manufacturing,” NAM Director of Chemicals Policy Reagan Giesenschlag said.
• “In a time of fragile supply chains, regulations that unintentionally push manufacturing offshore or stall investments in innovation are devasting and at odds with the President’s America First priorities.”

What to watch: The NAM will continue its advocacy directed at the federal agencies, while appearing again in court once those proceedings resume. There it will argue that the government’s cost-benefit and feasibility analyses are irretrievably flawed and violate both the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Administrative Procedure Act.

Watch Jay Timmons’ House Ways and Means Testimony

Over the course of two days, manufacturers praised the pro-growth tax provisions of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act during field hearings hosted by the House Ways and Means Committee. On Friday, Click Bond Director of Manufacturing Austin Robinson testified in Las Vegas, Nevada. On Saturday, National Association of Manufacturers President and CEO Jay Timmons and Robinson Helicopter Company Vice President of Business Development William Fulton testified at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California. Timmons also joined NewsNation ahead of the hearing to discuss the passage of historic tax legislation.

NAM’s Timmons: Manufacturing Law Will Help to Drive Another American Century

“This is a manufacturers’ law, through and through. By making immediate R&D expensing, full expensing of capital equipment and interest deductibility permanent, this Manufacturing Law delivers for investment and innovation.

…

“Through the pass-through deduction, reduced individual tax rates and estate tax protections for family-owned businesses, this Manufacturing Law delivers for the small businesses that power our economy.

…

“Through protecting the 21% corporate tax rate—and through strengthening the international tax system that incentivizes companies to invest here, build here [and] hire here—this Manufacturing Law will help to deliver another American century.”

Robinson Helicopter: OBBBA Accelerates Domestic Investment, Expansion and Growth

“Many of our employees come from families who have worked at Robinson Helicopter across multiple generations, and we are proud of the work we do, which the One Big Beautiful Bill Act supports by driving our ability to accelerate domestic investment, expansion and growth.

….

“The One Big Beautiful Bill retained a 21% corporate tax rate that underpins the baseline for our global competitiveness, and included critical provisions to reduce the cost of investment that will facilitate our product and job growth plans. Manufacturers are innovators, and one of the most important provisions of H.R. 1 is the restoration of immediate R&D expensing. Though manufacturing accounts for only 10% of the country’s GDP, we make up 53% of all private-sector research spending. These tax provisions help us to invest both in the design of new technology and its production processes.

…

“Thanks to your leadership, Congress and the administration have empowered Robinson Helicopter to create jobs, invest in equipment, innovate through R&D and drive economic growth faster.”

Click Bond: OBBBA Bolsters Family-Supporting Careers

“The One Big Beautiful Bill’s impacts on manufacturing workers [are] substantial. It protects them from tax hikes, provides further cuts via no tax on overtime and frees up capital for businesses like Click Bond to hire more workers [and] increase wages and benefits. By recognizing the importance of innovation, investment and workers, this bill gives manufacturers in Nevada and across the country the tools they need to succeed and grow. This means more jobs and higher wages and more lifelong family-supporting careers for manufacturing workers across this great country.”

NAM’s Timmons: Tax Law Is a Once-in-a-Lifetime Investment

“Manufacturers have been given an incredible opportunity with this tax law … I think this is once in the lifetime of the country that we’ve seen something that is this competition-focused—allowing us to attract investment to our shores. So Chairman Jason Smith … he understands that when you create the economic conditions, then businesses, and specifically manufacturers in our case, can help provide opportunities to folks all across this country … So we’re pretty excited about the ability to do that, and we’ve been given the tools to do that, and I can assure you that manufacturers will live up to that promise.”

-NAM-

The National Association of Manufacturers is the largest manufacturing association in the United States, representing small and large manufacturers in every industrial sector and in all 50 states. Manufacturing employs nearly 13 million men and women, contributes $2.90 trillion to the U.S. economy annually and accounts for 53% of private-sector research and development. The NAM is the powerful voice of the manufacturing community and the leading advocate for a policy agenda that helps manufacturers compete in the global economy and create jobs across the United States. For more information about the NAM or to follow us on Twitter and Facebook, please visit www.nam.org.