Input Stories

NAM President and CEO Jay Timmons spoke about manufacturers’ outlook on policy on the Schwab Network program “Market on Close” last week.

Optimistic: “The good news, I think, for manufacturers—and it was a real shot in the arm—was the extension of the 2017 tax reforms,” Timmons said. “And manufacturers were very, very bullish about that, very optimistic about that.”

• “We have some other issues on the table: regulatory modernization for one, energy dominance for another. Those two things are going in the right direction. We’re waiting to see what the impact of tariff policy is—and also on workforce policy as it relates to immigration policy.”

Tax victory: “What the 2025 legislation did is it made [a number of pro-growth tax] provisions permanent,” Timmons explained.

• “It made some of them even more generous, and it provided that certainty that manufacturers needed to know that we would have one of the most competitive tax structures in the entire world—and that the United States [is] a very positive place to invest and hire manufacturing workers.”

Looking ahead: Regarding the outlook for other policy changes, Timmons noted that the NAM “provided a list of 44 … key regulations that needed to be improved, [and] many of those are on track right now.”

• These include “improvements in energy dominance in this country, making sure that we have reliable and affordable energy supply, because manufacturers use 20% of this nation’s energy supply.”

Tariffs: Timmons also addressed the ongoing uncertainty manufacturers in the U.S. are facing.

• “Manufacturers really don’t know what’s going to happen ultimately when it comes to tariff policy here in the United States—and not just tariff policy broadly, but specifically country by country where manufacturing inputs are critical.”
• Timmons noted that a particular concern is the ability for manufacturers to import “very critical technical machinery” not made in the U.S. “If those are tariffed, that makes them obviously that much more expensive, and it makes it more difficult to build manufacturing capacity here in the United States,” he added.
• “And we agree with the president and the administration on their objective in terms of increasing manufacturing output and capacity here in the United States. But in order to do that, we have to have certain things to build those factories and those facilities.”

Workforce: Timmons also emphasized manufacturers’ need for more skilled workers, and he highlighted the work done by the Manufacturing Institute, the NAM’s workforce development and education affiliate.

• “We’ve been working for well over a decade to upskill the manufacturing workforce to future-proof the jobs that exist in the sector right now,” Timmons said.
• That’s both a challenge and a necessity as “technology changes, as we add AI into the sector and use that technology to make manufacturing more efficient, more productive,” he added.

The last word: “Ultimately, folks need to know that [their jobs are] secure and stable, and that’s why we need predictability and certainty with federal policy,” Timmons concluded.