Transportation and Infrastructure

“There are good things coming from [the Biden] administration”—including the CHIPS and Science Act and historic infrastructure investment—but there are also several trends that spell trouble for manufacturing in the U.S., NAM President and CEO Jay Timmons said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Monday.

A three-fold issue: “On the one hand we have a manufacturing strategy that Congress and the administration have been putting forward, which is … to prioritize growing manufacturing here in the United States,” Timmons told CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin.

• “But … you’re compounding that with three things. One is the [number] of regulations coming down. … [Two is] slow permitting, which is making it difficult for manufacturers to build those facilities they’re willing to invest in. Thirdly, [in] some of the provisions that have been enacted, there’s been confusing guidance or no guidance when it comes to accessing the funds and credits that are available for manufacturing. All three of those things together are making it very difficult for manufacturers to compete and succeed in our global economy.”
• The NAM is engaging on approximately 100 different regulations coming from 30 different government agencies, Timmons added. 

Make regulation smart, achievable: Manufacturers are in favor of reasonable regulations that enable them to succeed, Timmons continued. “We’re not saying ‘No regulation’; we’ve never said that. What we’re saying is, ‘Let’s make these regulations essential, smart and achievable.’”

• He cited the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s new Corporate Average Fuel Economy Standards—which the NAM has told the administration are unworkably stringent and will drive up costs for manufacturers—as well as the Environmental Protection Agency’s new standards for ambient air quality, which a NAM-commissioned study found would threaten billions in economic activity and cost hundreds of thousands of jobs.

NAM in action: The NAM recently joined forces with members of its Council of Manufacturing Associations and the Conference of State Manufacturing Associations to launch Manufacturers for Sensible Regulations, a coalition created to address the negative effects of these federal regulations.