Via Twitter, we find Rep. Steny Hoyer’s Facebook post announcing his intention to introduce new “Make It In America” legislation.

Here’s that link to the background on his bill. It appears to be more focused on jobs training than last session’s catch-all package of “Make it in America” legislation.

The Senate Commerce Committee holds a hearing at 10 a.m. Wednesday, “The Future of American Manufacturing: Maintaining America’s Competitive Edge.”

Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), the House Democratic whip, makes opening remarks. As majority leader last session, Rep. Hoyer was in charge of the “Make it in America” agenda, which included divers manufacturing-related bills.

The sole witness listed so far is Commerce Secretary Gary Locke.

We hope they both take the opportunity to address the pending free trade agreements with Korea, Panama and Colombia.

One of the best interviews on manufacturing we’ve ever heard was on NPR Tuesday, when Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep spoke with Andrew Liveris, CEO of Dow Chemical Co. Liveris discussed the primary themes in his new book, Make it In America: The Case for Reinventing the Economy, and touched on many of the priorities facing manufacturing in the United States — trade, taxes, innovation, energy.

From the interview (sound, transcript):

INSKEEP: OK. What are some lines there where the United States apparently doesn’t do very well, since you have moved some operations overseas?

Mr. LIVERIS: Well, I not only have high taxes, I have uncertain taxes. Right now, I have more regulations coming at me that are not fact-based, not science-based, not data-based. I actually don’t even know what my costs are going to be in the next five years. And so I’m sitting back waiting for regulatory reform, and the government, of course, is now engaged on that – health care and the uncertainty around the health-care bill, and what’s going to end up happening there. Energy policy – we’ve got lots of uncertainty in the energy policy regimen. I mean, I can keep going, but that’s half a dozen.

INSKEEP: Well, you keep using the word uncertainty. It sounds like you almost don’t care what the rules are as long as you know what they are and what they’re going to be five years from now.

Mr. LIVERIS: The choice – bad policy versus uncertain policy – is a tough choice. I don’t think we have to go there. (continue reading…)

Meant to post this earlier in the week. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) spoke at a manufacturing-oriented program held at the National Press Club on Tuesday, highlighting the House Democrats’ “Make it in America” agenda.

The Hill has posted his remarks online, “Manufacturing is at heart of American economy and character.”

The leader also had an op-ed in the Richmond Times-Dispatch this week, “A Plan to Make It in America.”

The National Association of Manufacturers’ in June released the NAM’s “Manufacturing Strategy for Jobs and Competitive America.” It’s available at: www.nam.org/manufacturingstrategy

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi used her address to the “progressive” activists and bloggers at Netroots Nation in Las Vegas on Friday to promote House Democrats’ manufacturing agenda, “Make it in America.” Judging from the absence of coverage, neither the audience nor reporters seemed all that interested in that segment of her remarks.

The Washington Post story, “Pelosi calls for liberal activists to help keep Democrats in majority,” managed a paragraph:

Pelosi spoke about “Making It in America,” the Democrats’ manufacturing agenda that she said would roll out in coming weeks to help restore and create industrial jobs. “Jobs, jobs, jobs is very important, but we have to get it done,” Pelosi said. “People have to see the difference between what the Republicans want to do about this — nothing — and what we are advocating.”

The McClatchy story did not mention the manufacturing angle.

This isn’t a complaint about sparse coverage. Netroots Nation is populated by political activists and left-wing bloggers. To the convention attendees, as a whole, the more interesting topics are elections, campaigns and the perfidy of Fox News. The convention in Las Vegas was more about seeing the candidates and grousing about the Obama Administration’s passivity than economic policy.

Likewise, even though organized labor was a major funder of the event, there just didn’t seem to be all that much interest paid to the union agenda. The only extensive coverage of the remarks of AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka came from the AFL-CIO blog, a post, “Trumka at Netroots Nation: New Industrial Policy for a Globalized World“:

Speaking as part of a panel on Building a Progressive Economic Vision, Trumka outlined the need for the the nation to invest in infrastructure, implement fair trade policies, change our tax policies, enact comprehensive immigration reform and reform our broken labor laws. The full panel included consumer advocate Elizabeth Warren, progressive Florida Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson, Center for Community Change Executive Director Deepak Bhargava, Green for All’s Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins and National People’s Action Executive Director George Goehl. (Watch it here.)

By “change our tax policies,” he means:

For those who say we can’t afford to make these investments, Trumka explained how we can do it with a financial speculation tax that encourages capital to invest in concrete things and discourages unproductive speculation or paper pushing for a quick buck, all the while raising more than $100 billion. Trumka made it clear that lawmakers must not reduce the federal deficit at the expense of creating jobs.

From what we know of the other speakers, Trumka probably represented the most economically conservative point of view on that panel, amazingly enough. Only $100 billion in new taxes to support manufacturing? Open borders for more immigration? Protectionism to wall off America from global competition? Think bigger, Trumka! Be more progressive!

Speaker of the House Steny Hoyer (D-MD) joined other Democrats Thursday at a news conference to promote next week’s legislative emphasis on manufacturing, the “Make it in America” agenda. Rep. Hoyer issued a statement on next week’s agenda, and majority leader’s website now lists the bills that constitute it. Excerpt from the statement:

“Make it in America” is a new legislative initiative from House Democrats to increase American manufacturing and create new American jobs.  The American public strongly supports a renewed focus on American manufacturing. This effort builds on House Democrats’ actions since the start of the Great Recession to create jobs and lay the foundation for a strong economy.

“Make it in America” bills that have passed the House:  

• U.S. Manufacturing Enhancement Act 
• Strengthening Employment Clusters to Organize Regional Success (SECTORS) Act 

“Make it in America” bills that are scheduled to come to the House Floor the week of July 26th, 2010: 

• National Manufacturing Strategy Act 
• Clean Energy Technology Manufacturing and Export Assistance Act
• End the Trade Deficit Act 

We thought it might be helpful to provide more context on the bills as well as the NAM’s position where applicable. On the already enacted legislation, then:

• The U.S. Manufacturing Enhancement Act is H.R. 4380, the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill, was introduced last December and recently given the new, manufacturing-evoking title. The National Association of Manufacturers supported passage with a “Key Vote” letter and lauded House action with a statement.
•  The SECTORS Act is H.R. 1855, introduced by Rep. Dave Loebsback (D-IA) in April 2009, was referrred to committee, never had a hearing, and then re-emerged earlier this month for the floor vote. The bill authorizes the Department of Labor to award competitive grants for worker training in high-demand and emerging industries. The National Association of Manufacturers supports skills training, generally, but House action on this bill came unexpectedly.

On next week’s bills: (continue reading…)