Made in the USA: Igniting the Industrial Renaissance of the United States
Commerce, Consumer, and Monetary Affairs
2025-04-29
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Source: Congress.gov
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Okay. This hearing on the Subcommittee of Economic Growth, Energy Policy, and Regulatory Affairs will come to order. Welcome everyone to this meeting. Without objection, the chair may declare a recess at any time. I recognize myself for the purpose of making an opening statement. We are here today to discuss an issue that is becoming increasingly urgent, the future of US manufacturing. The United States is facing a need that it has never faced before, the need to shake off and reverse its fall as the global leader in manufacturing. We won the Second World War not just because our generals were great leaders and strategists, and not just because we put so many heroic men and women on the field of battle and in support, but because we manufactured our enemies into oblivion. The United States held approximately 40% of the globe's manufacturing in 1941. After Pearl Harbor, that vast manufacturing power became the free world's arsenal for democracy. For every German tank manufactured, we produced four tanks. For every merchant ship tonnage that the Japanese built, we produced eight. For every aircraft carrier the Japanese deployed, we launched three. For every plane that combined Axis powers built, we by ourselves manufactured one and a half planes. Before the war, the U.S. manufactured less than 3,000 planes, but by the end, we had a force of 300,000 planes. Overwhelming material was pivotal to our winning the war, and the United States left World War II as the most wealthy and powerful nation on Earth in very large part because of our manufacturing prowess. Yet, as time marched on and the good post-war times rolled, we began to forget how important our capacity to manufacture and innovate was to making and keeping America great.
And as the Cold War ended and we entered the end of history era, unprecedented globalization took hold. And in that moment, instead of embracing new technologies or innovating in the manufacturing industry, we sold off our manufacturing birthright to other countries. A vast amount of what was once American manufacturing was shipped off to foreign manufacturing. In the end, we lost our manufacturing base. And that was not just because the US leaders supported globalization, it was also because we over-regulated existing manufacturing and imposed enormous obstacles to the permitting of new manufacturing. This strangled possibilities for new growth and further encouraged US manufacturers to move their manufacturing overseas. In the end, the United States share of global manufacturing fell from 40% that it was in 1950s to 16% as a share that we hold today. We lost millions of skilled labor jobs. The middle class has shrank and communities across America have been harmed. Filling the void of the US was China. China's share of global manufacturing increased at an exponential rate. China leaned in heavily on cheap labor, slave labor, and suicide-inducing labor conditions to achieve the manufacturing share that it possesses today. And China's position as the current world leader in manufacturing poses economic, military, and national security threats to the United States. Nevertheless, there is hope. that we are approaching an American industrial renaissance. Under President Trump, the United States has the technology, the capital, and the political will to reshore manufacturing stateside. Congressional and executive branch efforts to decrease unnecessary regulatory burdens and streamline permitting processes will encourage reshoring. And by adopting automation and artificial intelligence, the United States can and will multiply the economic output of the average American worker exponentially.
Salaries will rise as costs of goods stay low. Skilled labor and manufacturing employment that was extinguished due to globalization will return. The middle class will expand again, and we can and will bring manufacturing back to the United States. And with that, I yield to Ranking Member Frost for his opening statement. Thank you so much, Mr. Chair, and thank you to the witnesses for being here this morning.
1980s, the United States has faced a decline in manufacturing jobs that has left many workers feeling forgotten and turned away by many once-thriving communities into ghost towns. Democrats are united in wanting to bring more good, high-paying manufacturing jobs to these communities and making sure America is leading the way in strategically significant manufacturing sectors of the future. But President Trump's disaster tariff plan, which is estimated to increase costs to American households by $4,900 a year, is not the solution. During the Biden administration, the Democrats' Made in America agenda resulted in legislation like the Chips and Science Act, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and Democrats drafted this legislation with Republicans in a bipartisan way. and with the vital input of manufacturing workers, employers, and impacted communities. This legislation jump-started industry, helping to create more than 700,000 manufacturing jobs in the United States and secure over $1 trillion in planned investments. Our country has not seen this much new factory construction in half a century. This legislation and these investments created during the Biden administration should continue to pay off, creating over 200,000 more jobs each year going forward, assuming no new policies stifle that growth.
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