Hoyer Discusses Future of Make It In America

It has been eight years since House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer and House Democrats created the Make It In America plan, working to encourage private sector job creation in the US. Then, in 2015, Whip Hoyer and House Democrats hosted hearings in a series titled “Make It In America: What’s Next?” to explore how the economy has – and hasn’t – changed since the plan was launched. During the series, members asked critical questions about what tools American families and businesses need to succeed in today’s economy.

For the past year, Whip Hoyer and House Democrats have traveled across the country on a Make It In America Listening Tour to speak to Americans on the front lines of economic challenges about how they are dealing with today’s economy. On July 23, Whip Hoyer unveiled the newest Make It In America plan for 2018, based on the input he heard on that listening tour, which aims to help every American get ahead.

The Timeline of Make It In America

2010: Initiative Launched With a Vision for a Better Recovery

Launched July 22, 2010, Whip Hoyer started the Make It In America jobs plan to strengthen a declining domestic manufacturing sector in the midst of the deepest recession in a generation. When it started:

• The unemployment rate was 9.4 percent, more than double when the recession began in 2007.
• Of those unemployed, nearly half – 45 percent – had been without work more than six months.
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 10,322 – still down more than a quarter from its pre-recession high.
• The traditional route into the middle class – manufacturing – had shed 1.8 million jobs during the previous 12 months.

Make It In America was focused – as it is now – on the goal of creating the best conditions for American businesses to create good, secure jobs here at home. Each congressional session, the Make It In America plan has been updated with new legislation and ideas that aim to strengthen the economy and enable Americans to pursue good careers, supporting families in the middle class.

Since 2010, 19 Make It In America bills have been signed into law, including legislation that cuts taxes and provides loans for small businesses, speeds up the process for patents, works to train skilled workers, and closes tax loopholes that encourage companies to ship jobs overseas.

2015: “Make It In America: What’s Next?”

By 2015, the economy was changing dramatically, which began to offer new opportunities while presenting fresh challenges. Considering these changes, Whip Hoyer and House Democrats held hearings discussing bright spots in the economy and how those successes could be built upon, while tackling new challenges.

Called “Make It In America: What’s Next,” the series of hearings allowed 77 House Democrats to hear testimony from economists, innovators, entrepreneurs, colleagues, and others about how the Make It In America plan should be updated to reflect the changing landscape of the economy. During those hearings, important signs of recovery as well as new challenges were being seen. Three core areas stood out as being where congressional action could have the greatest impact on helping people: entrepreneurship, education, and infrastructure.

Make It In America: Listening Tour

Starting with the hearings, Whip Hoyer and House Democrats started a listening tour across the country to speak directly to Americans and hear about their economic challenges and the economic opportunities they see in their communities. Members went to Las Vegas to discuss infrastructure; Kansas City to talk about entrepreneurship; Peoria to talk about education; Pittsburgh to hear about entrepreneurship; Toledo to learn about education; Indianapolis to talk about infrastructure; Madison to discuss entrepreneurship; Eau Claire to talk about education; and Chicago to discuss labor. From the conversations on the road, a new Make It In America plan was developed.

Make It In America: 2018 and Beyond

During the Make It In America Listening Tour, House members were able to hear specific suggestions in the core areas of education, entrepreneurship, and infrastructure; the suggestions helped define goals and the policy recommendations for each area:

Education

Goals include:

• Promoting pathways to career opportunities
• Making training and education more accessible and affordable

Policy recommendations include:

• Promote stackable credentials for students as they prepare for the workforce, as well as those already in the workforce taking on new career challenges
• Allow Pell grants to cover training programs

Entrepreneurship

Goals include:

• Encouraging entrepreneurs by ensuring access to workplace benefits like health care and retirement security
• Providing better, additional, and stronger tools to grow ideas into successful businesses

Policy recommendations include:

• Providing a framework to promote portability of benefits like health insurance and retirement
• Increasing the availability of capital to smaller firms
• Promoting regional industry clusters

Infrastructure

Goals include:

• Unleashing the economy and creation of jobs by fixing and rebuilding our aging infrastructure
• Building the innovative infrastructure of the future

Policy recommendations include:

• Enacting multiple-year, fully funded authorization bills to tackle the backlog for both transportation networks and water infrastructure
• Building an efficient, reliable, and resilient electrical grid that includes clean energy resources
• Promoting a modern infrastructure for energy to reduce waste and incentivize storage and alternative forms of energy for vehicles
• Expanding affordable high-speed internet access, including the accelerated deployment of 5G wireless infrastructure

To learn about the newest version of the Make It In America plan, visit Whip Hoyer online.

Follow Congressman Hoyer on Facebook and Twitter.

For more information about House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer, visit his Leader Page.