DeFazio: “If implemented correctly, this is exactly how we put millions of people to work and Build Back Better” WASHINGTON—Rep. Peter DeFazio, Chair of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, today released the following statement after President Joe Biden announced a new executive order to bolster American manufacturing and job creation by strengthening Buy America requirements, among other things.
“With today’s White House order to support American workers and boost American manufacturing, President Biden is turning a campaign slogan into the action we need to spur an economic recovery, rebuild the middle class, and drive our clean energy future. I am especially encouraged to see that President Biden’s order not only reiterates support for the Jones Act, which is important due to expected growth in offshore renewable energy projects, but it also recognizes the importance of making sure all businesses across our country—including small, midsized, minority-owned, and women-owned businesses—benefit from the hundreds of billions of dollars in annual government contracting and procurement. By using his authority as president and focusing on the most egregious procurement waivers that past presidents have failed to close, the Federal government is poised to finally do more than pay lip service when it comes to patronizing American business and ensuring U.S. tax dollars are going right back into the U.S. economy.
“As I said when I introduced my transformational infrastructure bill last year, we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to simultaneously tackle our infrastructure crisis and address the existential threat of climate change by using materials made in America with jobs that cannot be exported. If implemented correctly, this is exactly how we put millions of people to work and Build Back Better. I am thrilled to aid the administration’s effort and help turn our transformational infrastructure bill into a game-changer for American jobs and manufacturing.”
A link to the White House Fact Sheet on today’s executive order is here.
Additional Background:
For decades, Chair DeFazio has led congressional efforts fighting so-called “free” trade agreements that have led to massive job losses and the withering of the U.S. manufacturing base. He authored legislation to amend the Buy American Act to include services, and more recently, DeFazio’s transformational infrastructure legislation, H.R. 2, the Moving Forward Act, included some of the strongest Buy America provisions ever passed in the U.S. House of Representatives.
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