More Manufacturing USA? Yes, Please.

Haley Stevens’ bill to reauthorize and improve R&D network passes House.

Breakin’! We’ve got some breakin’ news: The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a bill.

And no, it wasn’t about renaming a Post Office, and it didn’t have anything to do with selective interpretations of the Mueller report: It was about manufacturing policy. In fact, manufacturing policy will be improved by this bill. That’s pretty cool!

Haley Stevens, a congresswoman from the Detroit burbs, offered this legislation to reauthorize the Revitalize American Manufacturing and Innovation (RAMI) Act, which passed in 2014 and formalized the Manufacturing USA network of 14 public-private industrial R&D centers. Manufacturing USA has proven quite adept at fostering research in emerging manufacturing industries, and the legislation Stevens proposed – called the American Manufacturing Leadership Act – would basically widen Manufacturing USA’s scope of work and strengthen its underpinnings that are laid out in RAMI.

Among other tweaks the Stevens' legislation makes to RAMI, it:

A) improves coordination between it and the Manufacturing Extension Partnership – another network, this one of business incubators for small- and medium-sized manufacturers – and

B) authorizes federal funding for Manufacturing USA on an ongoing basis – instead of requiring it for it to be re-approved periodically – and even increases that funding.

This is good stuff. The Alliance for American Manufacturing likes it. Shout out to Rep. Stevens for her efforts to get this through the House. We hope this legislation continues to move forward.