Make It In America
In 2022, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and House Democrats unveiled the new Make It In America plan to create jobs and expand economic opportunity. With too many Americans only getting by instead of getting ahead, the plan focuses on four key areas where Congress can be a partner in creating the best conditions for the growth of jobs and opportunities. They are: education, entrepreneurship, infrastructure, and supply chain resilience. Twenty-two bipartisan Make It In America bills have now been enacted into law, including the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law in 2021 and the CHIPS and Science Act in 2022.
To read Leader Hoyer’s remarks on the updated Make It In America plan, click here. For more information on the goals and policy recommendations included in the Make It In America plan, click here.
First launched by Leader Hoyer in 2010 when our economic recovery from the 2008 global financial crisis was just beginning, the Make It In America plan has been focused on gathering the best ideas and transforming them into policies that Congress can enact to help workers and businesses succeed. The plan has brought together bipartisan policies and legislation aimed at promoting economic growth, the creation of jobs that won’t be outsourced, and building a competitive workforce that can access opportunities in today’s changing global economy.
Recognizing the many changes that took place during our recovery, House Democrats held a series of hearings in 2015 called “Make It In America: What’s Next?” to explore new challenges and new opportunities in our economy. During the hearing series, seventy-seven House Democrats heard testimony from innovators, entrepreneurs, economists, Members of Congress, and others about how the Make It In America plan should be updated to address new challenges and take advantage of new opportunities. Click here for a look at testimony from the hearings. It was in these hearings that House Democrats identified the three original areas on which Congress ought to focus: education, entrepreneurship, and infrastructure.
Understanding that the best ideas would come from outside of Washington, Leader Hoyer and House Democrats embarked on the Make It In America Listening Tour starting in 2017, visiting nine cities across the country to hear directly from Americans about the challenges they face and identifying best practices in meeting them. The ideas shared on this tour informed the 2018 update to the Make It In America plan.
As we continue our financial recovery from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Make It In America agenda is responding to the challenges of today’s economy with the inclusion of a fourth pillar, supply chain resilience, which joins MIIA’s existing pillars of education, entrepreneurship, and infrastructure to serve as an effective playbook to expand American families’ and businesses’ access to the tools they need to succeed in our twenty-first century global economy
When Republicans took the House majority, they pledged to focus on creating jobs and growing the economy. But after six months, they still haven’t put forward a comprehensive jobs agenda. While Democrats are focused on the Make It In America agenda, a plan to support job creation and boost working families, Republicans are pursuing a partisan agenda that has the wrong priorities.
I rise in support of this legislation. I am a strong supporter, as many of you know, of what we call it our Make It In America agenda. Make It In America simply means we are going to provide jobs, we are going to provide opportunities, and we are going to build the manufacturing sector of our economy. In order to do that we also need to enhance the inventive, innovative, and development phases of our economy. This bill, I think, will facilitate this.
American manufacturing helped make this the most prosperous country on earth—and it helped build a strong middle class. As we continue to focus on job creation and economic growth, I believe a key part of that effort must be rebuilding our manufacturing strength. That’s why House Democrats have created the Make It In America agenda: it’s about creating the conditions for American businesses to innovate here, create jobs here, make products here, and sell them to the world—and about making sure we have a workforce qualified for well-paying jobs. I believe strongly that when we make more products in America, more families will be able to Make It In America, as well.
Despite Republican claims that they have been “laser-focused” on job creation, their actions have not lived up to their rhetoric. Republicans have been in the majority for six months and have not presented a comprehensive strategy to create jobs. Instead, the bills they have brought to the Floor are more focused on their partisan agenda than actually helping create jobs and grow the economy. These ideological bills have little chance of becoming law.
Today, the Joint Economic Committee held an important hearing, titled 'Manufacturing in the USA: Why We Need a National Manufacturing Strategy.' I strongly agree about the importance of manufacturing to the American economy, and I thank the JEC for calling attention to this issue. Manufacturing is crucial to our economic competitiveness, our leadership in innovation, and the future of our middle class. That's why it is essential that America develop a manufacturing strategy, just as competitors like China and Germany have. I am a strong supporter of the Make It In America agenda, which includes the National Manufacturing Strategy Act--a bill introduced by Congressman Dan Lipinski that directs the president to develop a national manufacturing strategy. I hope that both Republicans and Democrats can come together to implement this agenda and create manufacturing jobs.
Today’s long-term budget outlook shows the urgent need to get our nation’s deficit under control. Without action, our debt will grow to be larger than the economy within the next decade: publicly held debt is projected to increase from 69% of GDP today to 101% in 2021, and twice as large by 2037. CBO described the path of debt as ‘unsustainable,’ and the longer we wait to act, the worse the problem becomes. That’s why I hope the Biden group will produce a balanced approach to start reducing the deficit now, while putting in place a process to get our budget back on track over the long-term.
House Republicans argue that they have been “laser focused” on jobs but after six months in the majority, Republicans have not brought a single jobs bill to the Floor. Here’s a look at what they have pursued since taking the majority—a divisive agenda that has not lived up to the Republican pledge that job creation would be a top priority.
A little more than two years after General Motors and Chrysler were forced through bankruptcy proceedings in return for government cash, the time has come to acknowledge the unlikely success of the auto bailout.
Factories produced more goods in May, bouncing back from supply disruptions caused by the Japan crises and tornadoes in the southern U.S. In April, those factors led to the first drop in output in 10 months.