News

Nearly 100 veterans attended a manufacturing career fair at Fort Riley, Kansas, last week, including many who had prepared for their new careers via the Heroes MAKE America program (Kansas Biz News).

What’s going on: “The career fair and other events held by Heroes MAKE America and Manufacturing Institute [the NAM’s 501(c)3 workforce development and education affiliate] aim to grow the manufacturing industry’s workers for the advancement of modern manufacturing and offer programs, including informational sessions, career fairs, networking, career readiness, placement support and manufacturing tours.”

• More than 30 regional and national manufacturers had booths at the event.

How it helps: HMA—an MI program with a 90% graduate placement rate—offers career help to job seekers transitioning out of the military and into the civilian workforce. The aid is in the form of training and introductions to manufacturing leaders seeking employees.

• One military member who attended the fair said “she’s received help with resume writing, interviewing for jobs and how to translate military experience into tools you can use in the civilian world.”
• HMA, which hosts virtual career fairs throughout the year, also offers resources to employers. These include online training, courses and access to the research of the Society of Human Resource Management Foundation.

Why it’s important: The industry could create about 3.8 million new manufacturing jobs on net between this year and 2033, according to a new study by Deloitte and the MI.

• However, if the current manufacturing employee deficit is not shored up, approximately half of these jobs—or 1.9 million—could go unfilled.

What’s next: Interested employers can participate in an information session to be held later this month, where they can learn more about attracting, hiring and retaining military talent through upcoming career fairs and virtual hiring events.

The last word: “Members of the military community often possess valuable skills and qualities—such as discipline, teamwork, leadership and problem-solving abilities—that are in demand for manufacturing careers,” said MI President and Executive Director Carolyn Lee.

• “That’s why manufacturers are increasingly connecting with this top talent through an array of resources provided by the MI’s Heroes MAKE America initiative.”

Manufacturers face a tax cliff in 2025, but there is still time for Congress to prevent devastating tax increases. By acting before the end of next year, legislators can preserve the 2017 tax reform and ensure manufacturers can continue creating jobs and driving economic growth across the country.

What’s going on: As part of Manufacturing Wins, the NAM’s 2025 tax campaign, the NAM asked Rep. Lloyd Smucker (R-PA) for a download on what Congress is doing to prevent “Tax Armageddon” for manufacturers.

• Smucker, chair of the House Committee on Ways and Means’ recently formed Main Street Tax Team, is a champion of the Section 199A pass-through deduction, one of the manufacturing-critical provisions set to expire at the end of 2025.
• Pass-throughs are companies whose owners pay tax on the business’s income on their personal tax returns—and most small and medium-sized manufacturers are organized as pass-through entities.
• The loss of the pass-through deduction and an accompanying increase in individual tax rates—both scheduled for the end of 2025—would be a one-two punch for small manufacturers.

Below is the written interview.

NAM: Congress is facing a Tax Armageddon next year, as crucial provisions from 2017’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act are set to expire. As the leader of the Ways and Means Main Street Tax Team, what is your focus moving into next year’s debate?

Smucker: The Main Street Tax Team is tasked with examining the areas of the tax code that impact main street businesses. Looking ahead to what parts of the code are set to expire in 2025, one of the most important provisions our team is focused on is extending the Section 199A deduction for pass-through businesses. This 20% deduction was enacted as a part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and helped create tax parity for millions of American businesses with their larger corporate competitors while incentivizing reinvestment back into their business and employees.

If Congress does not act, Section 199A will expire at the end of 2025, and main street businesses could face a 43.4% tax rate. Our tax team is working to build awareness of the pending tax hike if Section 199A expires, while laying the groundwork for making this important provision permanent by hearing directly from businesses on the impact this deduction has had on their ability to grow and increase productivity. 

NAM: Most small manufacturers are organized as pass-throughs, which means that they pay tax on their owners’ returns. The scheduled increase in individual tax rates combined with the loss of the pass-through deduction—a 20% deduction that lowers these companies’ tax obligations—will mean that these businesses are the hardest hit by the 2025 tax cliff. What is Congress doing to protect small businesses from tax hikes? 

Smucker: To protect businesses from devastating tax hikes, the Ways and Means Committee has gone on the road holding field hearings throughout the nation to hear directly from small business owners about how the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act improved their ability to compete and grow. During these field hearings, we’ve heard from many businesses, including manufacturers, how the TCJA helped improve the quality of life of hardworking Americans. We’re continuing to use this model by having each tax team host at least one field event to reach more communities.

The Main Street Tax Team will be heading to my district in the coming weeks to hear from Pennsylvania businesses about the importance of preserving Section 199A. I also encourage NAM members across the U.S. to share with their representatives what this provision, and other parts of the tax code, mean for their business. The public can share information on the impact of higher taxes directly with my colleagues on the Ways and Means Committee too by visiting our public comment portal.

NAM: Pass-through manufacturers generally pay tax at the top individual tax rate—currently 37%—but this bracket is scheduled to increase to 39.6% next year. Is your team examining how these rates impact pass-through businesses? 

Smucker: Yes, in addition to the field event, my team members and I will be meeting with stakeholders in each of our districts throughout the rest of this year to discuss the impact higher taxes will have on our constituent’s families, businesses and communities. My team will also be hosting several D.C.-based roundtables with tax experts and economists to examine the impact of changes to the code.

NAM: Thank you for being a champion for manufacturing pass-throughs across the country. What can our members do to stay involved and be a resource for your tax team’s work? 

Smucker: Continue to share your stories about how Section 199A has helped your businesses, and how tax hikes would be harmful. I strongly encourage NAM members to invite their representatives for site visits to your businesses so they can see firsthand the benefits of a competitive tax code. Finally, I’d close with a request to have NAM members ask their representatives to cosponsor H.R. 4721, the Main Street Tax Certainty Act, my legislation to make Section 199A permanent. I am working to build as much backing as possible for the bill heading into our tax reform discussions next year to send a signal that preserving this deduction is important. 

The Supreme Court’s ruling in the closely watched Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo is a watershed decision for administrative law with significant implications for the business community. The NAM Legal Center provided us with an overview.

What’s going on: Late last month, the Supreme Court overturned the “Chevron doctrine,” which since 1984 had required federal courts to defer to an administrative agency’s interpretation of an ambiguous statute—so long as the interpretation was reasonable.

What it means: The end of the doctrine means less power for federal agencies, potentially fewer regulations and a guaranteed surge in regulatory litigation, according to the Legal Center.

• When Congress leaves ambiguities or gaps in statutes, agencies can no longer exploit those gaps to enact overreaching rules or regulations (read the NAM’s statement on the decision here).

• Although Chevron had not been cited by the Supreme Court since 2016, it is the basis for 70 Supreme Court opinions and approximately 17,000 lower court decisions. Those holdings remain intact for now but could be challenged anew by litigants under the new standard. 

The majority opinion: Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts relied on a plain-text reading of the Administrative Procedure Act, which directs courts—not agencies—“to decide all questions of law.”

• “The APA, in short, incorporates the traditional understanding of the judicial function, under which courts must exercise independent judgment in determining the meaning of statutory provisions,” he wrote.

• Absent an explicit delegation by Congress, agency interpretations can guide or inform courts, but in keeping with the APA, they cannot be given binding deference. According to the court, all statutes “have a single, best meaning,” and “courts use every tool at their disposal to determine the best reading of the statute and resolve the ambiguity.” 

The dissent: Writing for the liberal justices in dissent, Justice Elena Kagan expressed concerns with overturning this “cornerstone” of regulatory law by shifting interpretative authority from “expert, experienced and politically accountable agenc[ies]” to courts that have “no special competence.”

In sum: The decision will result in a broad reduction in the power of executive branch agencies, with that power shifting to federal courts.

• Thus, regardless of the party in power or its pro- or anti-regulatory leaning, much less regulatory discretion will be afforded to the agencies.

The NAM predicts: Looking forward, the NAM sees Congress and regulators turning to industry for input as policies are adopted and statutes are interpreted, giving manufacturers an opportunity to play a more significant role in shaping outcomes.

What we’re doing: The NAM Legal Center is currently leading regulatory challenges against the Environmental Protection Agency, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Securities and Exchange Commission. It will continue to push back on overreaching agency actions that threaten manufacturing competitiveness—now on a more even playing field.

Requirements proposed earlier this year by the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency are overbroad and would prove burdensome to manufacturers if adopted, the NAM told the Biden administration last week.

What’s going on: In April, CISA published draft rulemaking under the Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act of 2022—scheduled to go into effect next year—that would require “covered entities” in “critical infrastructure sector[s]” to report major cyber incidents to CISA within 72 hours. It also mandated that any ransomware payments be reported within just 24 hours.

Why it’s a problem: The proposed rulemaking could affect more than 300,000 entities, according to CISA’s own estimate (JD Supra). Many of these organizations are either not truly “critical infrastructure” or too small to have the resources to undertake the outlined actions in the specified time, the NAM told CISA.

• Furthermore, the regulations themselves are too expansive, mandating the reporting of incidents that do not even affect the operation of critical infrastructure.
• They also require huge amounts of information in a short period—from companies in the throes of recovery from devastating cyberattacks.

The NAM says: “[T]he NAM respectfully encourages the agency to drastically reduce the number of entities required to report, and the number of incidents they have to report,” NAM Vice President of Domestic Policy Charles Crain told the agency during the public comment period on the proposed regulation, which ended last week.

• “Doing so will ensure that CISA receives useful information about cybersecurity incidents—without overburdening manufacturers with overbroad and unworkable disclosure requirements.”

What to do: In addition to narrowing the scope of “covered entities,” CISA should revise several aspects of the rulemaking before implementing it, the NAM said. Changes should include:

• Limiting the volume of reported cyber-incident information;
• Narrowing the scope of reportable cyber incidents; and
• Lightening and safeguarding the contents of cyber-incident reports.

The NAM recently launched “Manufacturing Wins,” the manufacturing industry’s campaign to preserve the benefits of the 2017 tax reforms that are currently scheduled to disappear in 2025—particularly those tax incentives that make it easier for small manufacturers to hire employees and raise wages, invest in equipment, grow their businesses and contribute more to their communities.

NAM Vice President of Domestic Policy Charles Crain explains what’s at stake in 2025 and how manufacturers can get involved in the effort to prevent tax increases.

Q: Manufacturers are facing “tax Armageddon” at the end of 2025. Can you explain what’s happening?

Crain: Tax reform in 2017 was rocket fuel for manufacturers, leading to record job creation, capital investment and economic growth. For example, manufacturing production grew 2.7% in 2018, with December 2018 being the best month for manufacturing output since May 2008. Manufacturing capital spending grew 4.5% and 5.7% in 2018 and 2019, respectively—this shows the direct impact of pro-growth tax incentives on manufacturers investing in new equipment and facilities. But many of tax reform’s pro-manufacturing provisions will expire at the end of 2025. If these provisions are allowed to expire, virtually every manufacturer will face devastating tax increases.

Q: What policies will sunset in 2025, and how will their expiration impact SMMs?

Crain: For small manufacturers organized as pass-throughs—meaning the business’s owners pay tax on the business’s income on their personal returns—two key changes are coming down the pike. First, their tax rate will increase, from 37% to 39.6%. Second, they will lose the pass-through deduction, which provides a tax deduction equal to 20% of the business’s income. In combination, these tax hikes will increase pass-throughs’ effective tax rate by at least 10 percentage points (from 29.6% to 39.6%), resulting in significantly less capital available for equipment purchases, job creation and community investment.

For small manufacturers organized as corporations, the NAM is fighting to prevent any increases in the corporate tax rate. The corporate rate decreased from 35% to 21% in 2017 and is not scheduled to expire—but President Joe Biden has proposed increasing the rate to 28%. The NAM remains staunchly opposed to corporate tax rate increases that punish manufacturers for investing and creating jobs here in America.

For family-owned small manufacturers, their estate tax obligations are scheduled to increase. Tax reform doubled the value of assets that can be passed on without incurring the estate tax; at the end of 2025, the estate tax exemption threshold is scheduled to be reduced by half. The NAM is calling on Congress to maintain the increased exemption—or to repeal the estate tax entirely, preventing family-owned businesses from being sold for parts to pay a tax bill when a loved one passes away.

Q: What else is at stake in 2025?

Crain: Manufacturers of all sizes continue to face uncertainty about the tax code’s treatment of R&D expenses, capital equipment purchases and interest on business loans. Immediate R&D expensing—which allows manufacturers to write off the entire cost of R&D spending in the year incurred—expired in 2022. So did a tax reform provision that allowed businesses to deduct more of the interest they pay on loans when they debt finance a project. And in 2023, 100% accelerated depreciation—which reduces the cost of capital equipment purchases—began to phase down. These expired provisions are vital to manufacturing growth, and the NAM is working to restore and extend them as Congress prepares for the 2025 tax fight.

Q: How can SMMs learn more?

Crain: The NAM recently published “What’s At Stake: Manufacturers Face Devastating Tax Increases in 2025,” which highlights the tax reform provisions that will expire at the end of 2025. The NAM calls on Congress to act to prevent these expirations from stunting manufacturing job creation, growth and innovation.

Q: How can SMMs get involved?

Crain: Manufacturing voices are crucial to the 2025 tax fight. NAM members with a story to tell about the impact of 2017 tax reform on their business—or the damage that the 2025 expirations could inflict—are encouraged to reach out to their NAM membership advisor or to the NAM tax team.

You can also take a few minutes to record a video testimonial calling on Congress to prevent devastating tax hikes on manufacturers. Instructions for submitting a video testimonial are available here—it’s as easy as having a coworker use a smartphone to film a video of you on your shop floor! Completed testimonials can be emailed to the Manufacturing Wins team to be posted to our campaign site: NAM.org/MfgWins

A labor strike on the U.S. East and Gulf Coast strike would have dire consequences for the maritime supply chain, the NAM and partner organizations told the Biden administration this week—which is why it’s vital the administration intervene now to restart stalled labor negotiations between dockworkers and an alliance of port operators and ocean carriers.

What’s going on: “Earlier this month, contract negotiations broke down between the International Longshoremen’s Association and the US Maritime Alliance,” Bloomberg Government (subscription) reports. “The current agreement, which covers about 45,000 dockworkers at facilities including six of the 10 busiest US ports, expires Sept. 30.”

• The NAM and more than 150 other industry organizations on Wednesday urged the administration to “immediately work with both parties to resume contract negotiations and ensure there is no disruption to port operations and cargo fluidity.”

Why it’s important: Other global shipping-related setbacks and threats mean the U.S. cannot withstand another challenge, the groups said. Continued Houthi terrorist attacks on commercial ships in the Middle East have resulted in “congestion and lack of equipment at overseas ports, carrier capacity issues as they continue to divert vessels away from the Red Sea and increased freight rates.”

Precedent set: Last September, after 14 months of negotiations and several work stoppages and walkouts, West Coast dockworkers reached a labor agreement with the Pacific Maritime Association—following NAM-urged intervention by the Biden administration.

• “We witnessed a significant shift of cargo from the West Coast to the East Coast and Gulf Coast ports because of the challenges and uncertainty during the last West Coast port labor negotiations,” said the groups. “While much of that business has remained at the East Coast and Gulf Coast ports, we are starting to see a shift back to West Coast gateways, where a long-term contract is in place, especially as we enter the busy peak shipping season.”

Raising taxes on manufacturers would damage the industry and the U.S. economy as a whole, the NAM told the House Ways and Means Committee this week. That’s why it’s crucial that Congress preserve set-to-expire tax reform provisions.

What’s going on: In a continuation of its Manufacturing Wins campaign, the NAM conveyed a clear message to six of the committee’s specialized “Tax Teams”: act now to protect manufacturers from tax increases.

Why it’s important: Failure to act before the end of next year, when key provisions from 2017 tax reform are set to expire, would result in higher taxes on virtually all manufacturers—which “will cost millions of jobs and put the American manufacturing sector at a severe disadvantage globally,” the NAM wrote.

What’s at stake: The NAM highlighted manufacturers’ top tax priorities for the Tax Teams, discussing why preserving pro-growth tax policy is vital for manufacturers in the United States:

• In communication with the Main Street Tax Team, the NAM called on Congress to preserve tax reform’s reduced individual income tax rates and maintain the 20% pass-through deduction. It emphasized for the Supply Chain Tax Team the importance of tax reform’s reduction in the corporate tax rate, which brought the U.S. from one of the highest rates in the world to a globally competitive 21%. The Global Competitiveness Tax Team received a similar message.
• The NAM detailed for the Rural America Tax Team the damage the estate tax imposes on family-owned manufacturers, and why Congress should not allow more family-owned businesses’ assets to be subject to the estate tax at the end of 2025.
• The NAM continued to push for pro-growth, pro-innovation R&D tax incentives with the U.S. Innovation Tax Team, and it enumerated for the Manufacturing Tax Team the full range of policies that will impact manufacturers at the end of 2025—and called for urgent congressional action to protect manufacturers from tax hikes.

The final word: “Manufacturers of all sizes, throughout the supply chain, are calling on Congress to preserve tax reform in its entirety,” said NAM Vice President of Domestic Policy Charles Crain. “Manufacturers and manufacturing families simply cannot afford the devastating tax increases scheduled for the end of 2025 if Congress fails to act.”

The NAM achieved a significant victory in court Wednesday in a case that sought to bring needed oversight to proxy advisory firms—and, more broadly, to ensure regulatory certainty for manufacturers.

The background: Proxy firms make recommendations regarding the way shareholders should vote on proxy ballot proposals that come before public companies.

• These firms operate with minimal oversight despite their outsized influence and even though their decisions can have significant and sometimes harmful impacts.

The fight: In 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission finalized an NAM-backed rule that included a range of modest but critical reforms to proxy firms’ business models.

• In particular, the 2020 rule ensured that companies had more information about the firms’ voting recommendations and provided investors with companies’ responses to those recommendations.
• But in 2022, the SEC rescinded critical portions of that rule.
• The NAM sued the SEC, asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to strike down this arbitrary and capricious agency action.

The victory: This week—in news covered by Reuters, POLITICO Pro (subscription), Law360 (subscription), Pensions & Investments (subscription) and Bloomberg (subscription)—the Fifth Circuit ruled in the NAM’s favor, deciding that the SEC acted unlawfully in rescinding the 2020 rule. In particular, the court made two critical points:

• The court held that the SEC’s stated justification for its decisions to rescind NAM-supported proxy firm reforms didn’t pass muster and called the agency’s reasoning “facially irrational” and not “reasonable [or] reasonably explained.”
• The court also ruled that a government agency reversing course despite no change in its underlying factual findings must “explain its about-face” by “giv[ing] a more detailed explanation” than the SEC provided.
• This ruling builds on existing case law that prevents agencies from arbitrarily reversing policies after administrations change, thus encouraging regulatory certainty for manufacturers.

Our take: “This decision confirms that federal agencies are bound by the rule of law, even as administrations change,” said NAM Chief Legal Officer Linda Kelly.

• “Manufacturers depend on the SEC to be a steady regulatory hand at the wheel of America’s world-leading capital markets—an obligation the agency abandoned in rescinding the commonsense, compromise 2020 proxy advisory firm rule. … We will continue to fight in court to uphold the 2020 rule—and to work with the SEC and with Congress to ensure appropriate oversight of these powerful actors.”

Manufacturers across the U.S. strive to make their operations more sustainable. Many are also laser-focused on the equipment they produce and how it can support their customers’ sustainability endeavors.

At Hillenbrand—a global industrial company that provides highly engineered, mission-critical processing equipment and solutions for markets including durable plastics, food and recycling—sustainability is at the core of everything it does.

The intention: Hillenbrand President and CEO Kim Ryan shared that the company doesn’t have a stand-alone sustainability strategy, but rather has made sustainability “the way we do business.”

• Hillenbrand is a signatory to the United Nations’ Global Compact, Convention Against Corruption and Women’s Empowerment Principles.

• “Our sustainability journey is guided by our purpose, ‘Shape What Matters For Tomorrow,’ which was collectively established and is embraced by all Hillenbrand associates,” Ryan said. “Our recently released 2023 Sustainability Report demonstrates our continued commitment to this goal as it shows our progress and focuses on our industrial products that positively impact the world around us.”

The progress: Highlights of the 2023 report include a focus on product innovation, continued transparency through additional data related to key environmental metrics such as water and waste, and disclosure of three years of Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions data. They also include 15 Scope 3 categories.

• “With the release of our fifth annual sustainability report, our journey continues to evolve and improve,” Ryan continued. “‘Make It Matter’ is a core value at Hillenbrand, and we’re committed to seeking out innovative solutions that push us toward a more sustainable future.”

The angle: The company’s success in sustainability is driven by its leaders, who ensure that the value is deeply ingrained in day-to-day operations.

• “Secular and global macroeconomic trends are now driving the need to adapt and engage associates, customers and stakeholders more than ever,” Ryan told us. “Taking into account these trends allows us to continue working toward a more sustainable future by providing innovative solutions.”

The value: Ryan sees Hillenbrand’s sustainability efforts—which the company sees as being supported by the three pillars of people, products and partnerships–as a value add for everyone.

• For example, by designing more-efficient systems that produce more sustainable products, Hillenbrand is committed to creating industrial solutions that have a positive impact on the world.
• Whether it’s helping customers reduce energy emissions or using Hillenbrand’s technology to produce more sustainable packaging, customers can reap the benefits of this commitment.
• “For us, there has been great value,” Ryan concluded. “If you approach this as a cost center, that is what it’s going to be for you. If you approach this as something that could actually create value for you and your customers, then I believe that’s what it has the opportunity to become.”

Further reading: Learn more about Hillenbrand’s commitment to sustainability here.

Marvin, a window and door manufacturer based in Warroad, Minnesota, is looking thousands of miles south to fill job openings (The Wall Street Journal, subscription).

What’s going on: Marvin employs about 700 people at its Warroad location. With older-generation workers retiring at the rate of about one employee a week and a town population that hasn’t grown in decades, the company “came up with a recruitment plan called ‘The Path North,’ which aims to find workers in Puerto Rico and Florida willing to uproot their families and settle in a cold northern town”—but it’s proving a difficult sell, even with generous relocation bonuses and temporary housing.

• Unemployment in Puerto Rico and Florida is low, so Marvin is fishing for talent in relatively sparsely populated ponds.
• Of the 115 workers who came from Puerto Rico in the past eight or nine months, just 63 remain at the company.
• Marvin has 10 other locations throughout North America.

Why it’s important: Marvin’s challenge is emblematic of “manufacturing in America today. The U.S. population is barely growing, baby boomers are exiting the workforce,” many young people are unaware of the many advantages of working in manufacturing and “[t]here is little political will for lasting immigration reform that could fill workforce gaps.”

• If current trends continue, the U.S. will have 2.1 million open manufacturing positions by 2030, according to a joint study by Deloitte and the Manufacturing Institute, the NAM’s 501(c)3 workforce development and education affiliate.

Well worth it: Still, for those who come to Marvin, the rewards are significant.

• The company helps employees find permanent housing and is even an investor in a local apartment complex.
• There is job security, too. When orders slowed at one of its factories a few years ago, the company offered cash bonuses to employees willing to relocate to Warroad.
• Marvin has also helped Warroad schools hire Spanish-language translators to assist the children of new hires.

The final say: “Tapping into new talent pools is especially critical in rural areas, whether it’s done via relocation support, engaging second chance populations or participating in initiatives such as the Manufacturing Institute’s Heroes MAKE America program, which is building connections between the military community and the manufacturing industry by bringing in new workers,” said MI President and Executive Director Carolyn Lee. “We need to engage all talent pools to fill the 500,000 jobs in manufacturing today.”