by Mike Hall, May 11, 2011
The nation “must dig in and redouble our efforts to ‘Make It In America‘,” said Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) at Senate hearing this afternoon on reviving the nation’s manufacturing base.
Testifying on behalf of the AFL-CIO, United Steelworkers (USW) President Leo W. Gerard told the Commerce, Science and Transportation committee:
American manufacturing is in dire circumstances and its future is in jeopardy. Our economic and national security is at risk. Despite the small uptick in manufacturing employment and production, it occurs against a backdrop of long-term decline and devastation.
He outlined several steps that must be taken to rebuild manufacturing and create jobs including:
•Aggressively enforce our trade laws and addressing China’s trade violations;
•Invest in infrastructure from roads to rail to clean energy technology, along with strong Buy American requirements;
•Eliminate tax breaks and loopholes that encourage companies to offshore and outsource jobs and enact tax incentives that encourage domestic manufacturing;
•Maintain strong intellectual property protections so that innovations and research and development breakthroughs result in American manufacturing jobs; and
•Increase training and education funds for worker so they will be equipped to be part of a high-skills workforce protected by strong labor laws
Click here for Gerard’s full testimony.
Rockefeller warned that calls for drastic federal budget cuts “have broad, and often troubling, implications for some of the hardest working Americans.”
Infrastructure investment is essential to promoting growth and creating jobs. There is no substitute for education and workforce training programs, or for helping small manufacturers and exporters find new markets.
Indiscriminate and unthinking budget cuts seeking a short term improvement in our deficit will leave our country’s economy at the mercy of the rest of the world’s economic power. It will hurt this country for years to come.
