BUTLER COUNTY, Ohio – Today, Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Senator Rob Portman (R-OH) joined President Joe Biden at United Performance Metals in Butler County to announce a new initiative to improve the competitiveness of America’s small-and-medium-sized manufacturers, create good-paying jobs, and make more in America.
Brown and Biden also pushed for Congress to pass legislation that would boost American production and help U.S. manufacturers compete with China. Brown was recently appointed to serve as a conferee on the committee that will reconcile the differences between the Senate’s U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (USICA) and the House’s America Creating Opportunities for Manufacturing, Pre-Eminence in Technology, and Economic Strength (COMPETES) Act of 2022. U.S. Senator Rob Portman (R-OH) also spoke at the event.
“For the first time in decades, we have a president and an Administration that understand the damage corporate outsourcing has done to our state. We need to make more in America,” said Brown. “It’s why we passed the strongest ever Buy America protections into law – to ensure American tax dollars support American jobs. And it’s why today we are launching this plan to facilitate partnership between Ohio suppliers and America’s premier manufacturers, like GE Aviation.”
“Folks at home might wonder why it matters if we make more things here in America,” said President Biden. “It matters a great deal because the pandemic and the war in Ukraine show the vulnerability when we become too reliant on things made overseas – we learned the hard way that we can’t fight inflation when supply chains buckle and send prices through the roof. We know that one of the best ways to fight inflation and bring prices down is to strengthen the resilience of our supply chains. And that means making more things here in America.”
Last June, the Senate passed the United States Innovation and Competition Act of 2021 (USICA), which invests in American workers and our nation’s long-term competitiveness by shoring up critical industries like semiconductors, which are facing a global shortage. In February, the House of Representatives passed the America Creating Opportunities for Manufacturing, Pre-Eminence in Technology and Economic Strength (COMPETES) Act of 2022, the House version of USICA.
Brown has been pushing for action to support American semiconductor production, which is key to supporting investments in Ohio’s manufacturing. In January, Intel announced a $20 billion investment to build a semiconductor plant in New Albany, which is expected to create 10,000 jobs. USICA will boost Intel’s initial investment to create thousands of additional jobs in Ohio.
Following the passage of the House version of USICA, Brown and four of his Senate colleagues sent a letter to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer urging them to prioritize the pro-worker, pro-environment trade provisions bill as the two chambers begin to conference the legislation.
The America COMPETES Act contains Brown’s Leveling the Playing Field 2.0 Act as well as the CHIPS for America Act. The package will make a once-in-a-generation investment in American science, technology, and innovation to help the U.S. preserve its competitive edge.
In 2021, Brown made several stops around Ohio to discuss the benefits of USICA. Brown visited America Makes, a manufacturing hub in Youngstown, the Wright Brothers Institute in Dayton, a part of the Air Force Research Lab (AFRL), and the Cleveland-based Manufacturing Advocacy and Growth Network (MAGNET) with Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh, to discuss how USICA would create a tech hub and support and expand manufacturing partnerships.
USICA includes Brown’s bill that builds on the success of his bipartisan 2014 legislation, the Revitalize American Manufacturing, and Innovation Act, which created a network of 15manufacturing innovation hubs around the country. This network was modeled after the first manufacturing institute, “America Makes,” in Youngstown, which President Obama directed the Department of Defense to create in 2012. This effort was one of the biggest steps the U.S. had taken to make our manufacturing industry more competitive. America Makes is the nation’s leading public-private partnership for additive manufacturing – also called 3D printing- technology and education.
