March 28, 2024

Series Focuses on ‘Make It In America’

Flag Day
Posted for Congressman Steny Hoyer

House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer and House Democrats are hosting a series of hearings this summer and fall, titled “Make It In America: What’s Next?”

The series will explore how the economy has, and hasn’t, changed over the past five years, and what families and businesses need to succeed in today’s economy.

The “Make It In America: What’s Next?” series will hear from Members of Congress, innovators, entrepreneurs, economists, and others about how the Make It In America plan needs to be updated to address the challenges we face in 2015.

 

Make It In America Overview of the Past Five Years

The Make It In America jobs plan launchedJuly 22, 2010. The US economy was recovering from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

  • The unemployment rate was 9.4 percent, having more than doubled since the recession began in 2007. [Bureau of Labor Statistics]
  • Of those unemployed, nearly half – 45 percent – had gone without work for more than 6 months. [BLS]
  • The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 10,322 – still down more than a quarter from its pre-recession high. [Yahoo Finance, 7/22/15]
  • Credit card delinquencies were peaking, with more than 13 percent of card balances over 90 days overdue. [New York Fed]

The Make It In America plan seeks to create the best conditions for American businesses to manufacture their products, innovate, and create jobs here. Each Congress has updated the Make It In America plan with new legislation and ideas to strengthen the economy.

Since 2010, 16 Make It In America bills have been signed into law:

Protecting American Patents
Export-Import Bank Reauthorization Act
Preventing Outsourcing
Surface Transportation Reauthorization
U.S. Manufacturing Enhancement Act
Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act
Small Business Jobs Act
American Manufacturing Efficiency & Retraining Investment Collaboration (AMERICA Works) Act
Energy Jobs and Training for Veterans Act
Strengthening Employment Clusters to Organize Regional Success (SECTORS) Act
America COMPETES Reauthorization Act
The On-The-Job Training Act
Reauthorization of Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs
Adult Education and Economic Growth Act
Leahy-Smith America Invents Act
American Manufacturing Competitiveness Act of 2013

Signs of Recovery:

The unemployment rate is 5.3 percent – the lowest point since May 2008. [BLS]
June 2015 marked the sixty-fourth consecutive month of private-sector job growth.
2014 was America’s best year of job growth since 1999.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 17,977. [Yahoo Finance, 7/13/15]

What’s Next?

Today, the economy is very different than it was in 2010. The “Make It In America: What’s Next?” series will discuss bright spots in the economy and how to build on those successes, look at the new challenges facing the economy, and explore ways to address them. The benefits of recovery have not been felt equally.

The unemployment rate for African Americans remains at 9.5%, near the level the broader population experienced during the worst of the recession. [BLS]
New business startups, booming in parts of the West and Southwest, has lagged in many Northern and Midwestern cities. [Kauffman Foundation]
Real wages fell sharply during the recession, and for at least 70% of the workforce wages have yet to return to pre-recession levels. [EPI]

The “Make It In America: What’s Next?” hearing series started with a Member Day on July 9, where twenty-one House Democrats testified and shared thoughts on how to address the new economic challenges and introduce new ideas to keep our economy competitive. Four separate panels addressed American Innovation, Skills Training for the Future, The Future of Manufacturing, and “Making It” Across the Economy.

The ideas include:

  • Support Fab Labs: A set of digitally controlled machine tools, including 3D printers, laser cutters, routers, and computer-aided design tool, that enable participants to build just about anything.
  • Develop Maker Spaces: Communal work spaces that operate on a gym membership type business model and provide members with access to millions of dollars’ worth of advanced manufacturing equipment
  • Harness job opportunities created by Internet of Things: A concept of connecting any device with an on and off switch to the internet.
  • Examine economic opportunities generated by the Sharing Economy. Collaboration using 21st century technology to exchange information, sell goods and services, use equipment, find spaces for innovation, and develop capital
  • Promote STEAM education: STEAM education that that incorporates arts to prepare workers who have advanced technical skills as well as an aptitude for problem solving and creative thinking
  • Expand needed career training to address skills shortages: Support and expand efforts to provide needed skills training to meet the needs of employers in today’s economy
  • Focus on the “suburban office economy”: The middle class Americans who work for businesses in which their own economic success is linked to that of their employer
  • Assist small agriculture: Help young farmers access land to farm, partner with organizations to provide beginning farmers with the training they need, and invest in developing local food infrastructure

Over the next few months, House Democrats will hear from more individuals on what families and businesses need to Make It In America today.

Comments
One Response to “Series Focuses on ‘Make It In America’”
  1. Carolyn Egeli says:

    This is very forward looking and seems to me to be the basis of an emerging economy based on smaller, more individual initiatives. The reason for it is in my opinion, is linked to the availability of renewable energy. This is the foundation of our new economy and a revival of democratic principles. It would break up the monopolistic tendencies of energy companies and all of the structure that now supports it. While some claim Germany’s grid is causing an explosion of expensive energy I’ve read it is just the opposite. With solar etc dispersed on individual homes and businesses, the wires are flooded with CHEAP energy and the utilities have been forced to turn to consulting as the basis of their business. Scotland has 50% renwewable energy now and is on target to have 100% by 2020, and they own oil fields. The UK has just announced they intend to be world leaders in renewable energy. We are not talking ethanol or Monsanto here. I’ve become a fan of Jeremy Rifkin’s writings. In Zero Marginal Cost Society and the The Third Industrial Revolution, he outlines the development of an economy based on what appears to be a very similar plan as Make It In America. It only makes sense, and I applaud these efforts. Except there was no mention of renewable energy as a basis. Without renewables, we are stuck in the carbon malaise of endless wars and the control by a banking system hell bent on keeping the control of the money in a game of keep away from the general public. The corporate system itself is imploding under the weight of its own success. 3D printers and free software is a big step in the right direction of freeing ourselves of top down hierarchal control, the antithesis of democratic governance and world peace. Corporations no longer need massive staffs of administrators or thousands of workers to create goods. The connection of the world’s capital moving upward to the coffers of a few thousand people in a world of 7 billion, has never been more obvious. As the corporate world suffers from where to put all of this money (Spain and gold in the 17th century), their value becomes more questionable. Renewable energy owned not by utilities but by individuals and communities, spread the economic and democratic power back to the people. Maybe Jefferson’s ideals of what an American community should look like, might finally prevail. Solar is the most likely candidate at this time as a basis for this new growth, but wind turbines like Archidemes (which is turbine and small) also can be easily installed in individual homes and businesses to operate until better energy storage comes on line. Batteries are improving by leaps and bounds. It is all very hopeful. The last on the list of farming is key to all of those listed above. Feeding ourselves locally and not dependent on the model of the most “efficient” place to produce food according to the globalists, is the extremely important. Healthy alive soil has been proven to be a carbon sequester of enormous proportions. Organic and sustainable farming is key not only to feed ourselves more efficiently, but for the safety of our planet.

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