NAM Drives Conversation on Innovation and Competition
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The NAM is urging Congress to bolster American innovation and make the U.S. more competitive with China.
The big picture: NAM Senior Vice President of Policy and Government Relations Aric Newhouse wrote to Congress, “we urge the completion of a strong, bipartisan agreement that strengthens domestic manufacturing, increases our global competitiveness and provides opportunities for the more than 12.7 million people who make things in America.” The NAM’s recommendations include the following:
- Semiconductor manufacturing: Newhouse emphasized the NAM’s support for the $52 billion provided to bolster domestic semiconductor manufacturing in both the Senate’s United States Innovation and Competition Act (USICA) and the House’s America COMPETES Act.
- Supply chain resilience: 88.1% of manufacturers report supply chain issues as their primary business challenge, which is why the NAM supports the creation of the Manufacturing Security and Resilience Program and the $45 billion investment to support supply chain resilience included in the America COMPETES Act.
- Shipping: The Ocean Shipping Reform Act, which has passed both chambers of Congress in some form, is aimed at increasing port efficiency, reducing shipping delays and decreasing transportation costs through the improvement of ocean shipping standards and implementation of better oversight mechanisms.
- R&D: The NAM recommends reversing a new provision in the tax code that requires companies to deduct research and development expenses over a period of years rather than the year the costs are incurred—a provision that effectively makes R&D and innovation more expensive and more difficult for American companies.
- Eliminating card check: “Manufacturers are strongly opposed to the labor and card check provisions included in the America COMPETES Act,” wrote Newhouse. “Implementing ill-considered labor and card check provisions would upend decades of labor precedent with an anti-competitive, anti-democratic process that abolishes the secret ballot and eliminates appropriate oversight.”
Other recommendations: Newhouse also expressed the NAM’s support for policies that reduce emissions and promote sustainability to make the U.S. a global leader in energy efficiency. The letter recommends the reauthorization of the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill, the implementation of strong anti-counterfeiting legislation to protect consumers and small businesses and federal investment to improve the domestic critical mineral supply chain.
Take action on these issues and more at Manufacturers United.
Related
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
