Bipartisan coalition introduces bill to designate ‘Manufacturing Universities’

WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senators Chris Coons (D-Del.), who leads the Manufacturing Jobs for America campaign, Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) introduced bipartisan legislation to help schools strengthen their engineering programs and meet the growing demands of 21st century manufacturing. The bill would designate 25 universities as ‘Manufacturing Universities’ and provide incentives to better align educational offerings with the needs of modern manufacturers. The incentives would be used to bolster universities’ efforts to focus on manufacturing engineering and curricula specifically related to targeted industries.

The Manufacturing Universities Act of 2015 would establish a program within the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) charged with designating 25 schools as ‘Manufacturing Universities.’ Designated schools would receive $5 million per year for four years to meet specific goals, including focusing engineering programs on manufacturing, building new partnerships with manufacturing firms, growing training opportunities, and fostering manufacturing entrepreneurship. The program would be run by the Director of the NIST, in coordination with the Secretaries of Defense and Energy, and the Director of the National Science Foundation, among others.

“It’s critical that our schools and universities equip students for success in manufacturing and contribute to the research and development that drives advanced manufacturing,” said Senator Coons. “Although our economy has created more than 800,000 manufacturing jobs over the last five years, hundreds of thousands of jobs remain unfilled because we don’t have enough trained workers. We need our engineers to fill the growing demand for manufacturing workers and accelerate manufacturing’s growth. This bipartisan bill would help us meet that challenge. By helping schools focus their engineering programs on advanced manufacturing skills, we can equip our next generation of engineers with the skills they need to thrive in the 21st century.”

“This is an incredibly important issue for our states’ institutions of higher education and manufacturing industries,” said Senator Graham. “I look forward to working with this bipartisan group of senators to explore additional innovative ways to ensure our manufacturing sector thrives.”

“If we want businesses to expand and grow our economy, we need to make sure our workforce has the skills and training to match,” said Senator Gillibrand. “No job should go unfilled and no company’s expansion should ever be inhibited because there aren’t enough trained workers. This legislation will equip more students with the advanced manufacturing skills and experience necessary to meet growing demand and ensure our manufacturing remains innovative and globally competitive.”

"This legislation will help our students acquire the skills they need to meet the demand for the high-paying, manufacturing job opportunities in New Hampshire, while giving our universities more tools to spur innovation and use cutting-edge technology to grow this vibrant sector of our economy," said Senator Ayotte. 

“As the demand for a highly skilled workforce continues to grow, I’m proud to support bipartisan legislation that ensures our universities offer courses that will help prepare students for our 21st century Made in Wisconsin manufacturing economy,” said Senator Baldwin. “In Wisconsin, we can create stronger economic growth and shared prosperity for our state if we make investments in higher education and advanced manufacturing. This bipartisan legislation will give students the ability to carry on our Wisconsin tradition of making things and help us build a stronger middle class in Wisconsin and America.”

Companion legislation will be introduced in the House of Representatives today by U.S. Representatives Elizabeth Esty (D-Conn.), Chris Collins (R-N.Y.), Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.), Rodney Davis (R-Ill.), Patrick Meehan (R-Pa.), and Mike Thompson (D-Calif.).

This bipartisan legislation has been endorsed by Association of American Universities, the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, the Precision Metalforming Association, the National Tooling & Machining Association, the University of Delaware, Delaware State University, Clemson University, University of South Carolina, University of Pennsylvania, Temple University, Drexel University, the University of Missouri System, the University of Illinois, the University of California, Davis, the University of California, Irvine, Boston University, the University of Rochester, the Rochester Institute of Technology, the State University of New York (SUNY) System, Kent State University, the University of Wisconsin, the University of Connecticut, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Clarkson University, Dow, DuPont, and Siemens.