As Infrastructure Week Ends, Policymakers Aim For Change
Ahead of Wednesday's White House meeting, manufacturers are calling on Congress to act.
Last week, across the country more than 500 organizations participated in the 7th annual Infrastructure Week to call for a national infrastructure investment. The timing couldn’t be better, as President Trump and congressional leaders meet for their second round of talks Wednesday at the White House.
At hundreds of events throughout the week business leaders made their case for the urgent need to update our nation’s infrastructure, beginning with a national kickoff hosted in Washington, D.C. that featured dozens of manufacturing leaders, including National Association of Manufacturers board members Barbara Humpton, Siemens CEO, and Jason Andringa, Vermeer president and CEO.
Humpton and Andringa both appeared on a panel discussing upgrading America’s infrastructure to meet 21st century demands.
“Digital has brought an entirely new world to a huge segment of our lives,” Humpton said during a panel live-streamedby the NAM. “My prediction is we’re at the front end of bringing that kind of digitalization to infrastructure.”
“Broadband infrastructure is incredibly important,” Andringa said. “As you think about all the transportation assets that will be increasingly connected and communicating with each other, that’s also a very serious aspect.”
Andringa also pointed to the NAM’s landmark infrastructure investment plan “Building To Win” as a blueprint for policymakers.
Later in the week, NAM President and CEO Jay Timmons headlined an event on Friday in Houston.
“The broad consensus around the urgent need to modernize our nation’s infrastructure is why this event is able to bring together uncommon allies: business and labor, think tanks and coalitions, leaders from the left, right and center,” Timmons said.
Timmons also penned an op-ed in Fox Business Wednesday morning with Sylvester Turner, the mayor of Houston, noting the “status quo is failing” and calling for a bipartisan infrastructure deal.
Manufacturers are hoping the same will be true for policymakers in Washington. Leaders on both sides of the aisle in Washington have begun discussing a potential infrastructure investment package and means of funding it. Wednesday’s much-anticipated meeting between President Trump and congressional leaders is expected to center around funding mechanisms for potential bipartisan infrastructure legislation.
“Manufacturers are calling on Congress to act. Everything from our roads and bridges, ports and waterways, broadband and 5G technologies and more need a robust investment,” said Catie Kawchak, Director, Infrastructure, Innovation and Human Resources Policy at the NAM. “Across the country the message from Infrastructure Week is simple: The infrastructure choices we make today will shape America’s future. Our blueprint “Building to Win” calls for a one trillion dollar investment, but we are more than happy to have that number doubled as President Trump and congressional leaders have suggested. We’re hopeful that this week’s talks continue in good faith and that they agree on an actionable solution.”
Ahead of Wednesday’s meeting, more details about the NAM’s blueprint “Building to Win” can be found here.
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Manufacturers Unveil Competitiveness Agenda Ahead of Midterm Elections
“Competing to Win” offers a path for bringing the country together around policies, shared values and a unified purpose
Washington, D.C. – Ahead of the midterm elections, the National Association of Manufacturers released its policy roadmap, “Competing to Win,” a comprehensive blueprint featuring immediate solutions for bolstering manufacturers’ competitiveness. It is also a roadmap for policymakers on the laws and regulations needed to strengthen the manufacturing industry in the months and years ahead.
With the country facing rising prices, snarled supply chains and geopolitical turmoil, manufacturers are outlining an actionable competitiveness agenda that Americans across the political spectrum can support. “Competing to Win” includes the policies manufacturers in America will need in place to continue driving the country forward.
“‘Competing to Win’ offers a path for bringing our country together around policies, shared values and a unified purpose,” said NAM President and CEO Jay Timmons. “The NAM is putting forward a plan filled with ideas that policymakers could pursue immediately, including solutions to urgent problems, such as energy security, immigration reform, supply chain disruptions, the ongoing workforce shortage and more. Manufacturers have shown incredible resilience through difficult times, employing more workers now than before the pandemic, but continued resilience is not guaranteed without the policies that are critical to the state of manufacturing in America.”
The NAM and its members will leverage “Competing to Win” to shape policy debates ahead of the midterm elections, in the remainder of the 117th Congress and at the start of the 118th Congress—including in direct engagement with lawmakers, for grassroots activity, across traditional and digital media and through events in key states and districts as we did following the initial rollout of the roadmap in 2016.
The document focuses on 12 areas of action, and all policies are rooted in the values that have made America exceptional and keep manufacturing strong: free enterprise, competitiveness, individual liberty and equal opportunity.
Learn more about how manufacturers are leading and about the industry’s competitiveness agenda at nam.org/competing-to-win.
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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 more than 12.8 million men and women, contributes $2.77 trillion to the U.S. economy annually and accounts for 58% 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
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