Issue Position: Boosting American Manufacturing

Issue Position

*Manufacturing built America and the middle class, and if we're going to rebuild the middle class we need to boost American manufacturing. That's why I authored the American Manufacturing Competitiveness Act; the passage of this bill into law means that America will have a manufacturing strategy for the first time since Alexander Hamilton. The first plan will be published in Spring 2018, and every four years a revised plan will be created. If we fail to plan, we plan to fail; we cannot fail on manufacturing or else we're failing America's middle class.

*I have also been a leader in promoting Buy American policies, which assure that when the federal government spends taxpayer money it is investing in American-made goods and American workers. I have been successful in adding Buy American provisions to numerous pieces of legislation and have introduced the Buy American Improvement Act to expand made-in-America requirements to more federal programs and to close loopholes in current policy.

*Putting American manufacturing and manufacturing workers on the cutting edge of innovation is vital for our competitiveness. I was a leader in getting the law passed to create the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation, which is the program that led to Chicago's Digital Manufacturing Design Institute, a pioneering center that will help manufacturing in Illinois and the nation innovate and become more efficient, while also training workers in cutting edge technologies.

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