WILMINGTON, Del. – U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.), who leads the Manufacturing Jobs for America campaign in the Senate, praised President Obama’s announcement Monday of new executive actions aimed at strengthening U.S. advanced manufacturing and spurring innovation. 

“President Obama’s new actions to strengthen American manufacturing are important steps for our nation’s economic growth and competitiveness,” Senator Coons said. “American manufacturing is experiencing a revival, but we can and must do more to invest in our workforce, enable innovation, and create the environment for businesses to thrive. The new initiatives announced by President Obama today will introduce new ways to train manufacturing workers, make new tools available to businesses to research and innovate, and focus investments on promising new technologies that are central to our future.”

Among the actions announced Monday is:

  • More than $300 million in investments in three emerging technologies the AMP identified as critical to U.S. competitiveness: advanced materials including composites and bio-based materials, advanced sensors for manufacturing, and digital manufacturing.
  • A set of steps taken by the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, and NASA to connect industry and universities on research and development and develop ‘technology testbeds’ within federal research facilities where companies can design, prototype, and test a new product or process.
  • A new $100 million American Apprenticeships Grant Competition to spur new apprenticeship models and scale effective ones in high-growth fields like advanced manufacturing.  
  • A pilot competition within the Manufacturing Extension Partnership for $130M over five years across ten states to help small manufacturers adopt new technologies and bring new products to market.

“Congress should build on these efforts and come together to focus on America’s manufacturing workers,” Senator Coons said. “The Administration rightly recognizes that we can do more to connect the capacities of our national labs with the private sector and announced a strong initiative today to open our state-of-the-art lab facilities to manufacturers. The bipartisan America INNOVATES Act, which I introduced with Senator Rubio earlier this year, would take additional steps to reform the labs and build new partnerships with the private sector along every stage of the research and development pipeline.

“Additionally, competitive grants to spur new apprenticeship programs will be a great way to ensure our workers can thrive in manufacturing,” Senator Coons said. “The bipartisan Manufacturing Skills Act, which I introduced with Senator Ayotte last month, would take this new competition a step further to encourage wholesale job training reforms in cities and states across the country.”

“We can and must do more to strengthen American manufacturing and invest in our workers,” Senator Coons said. “The President’s actions today are strong steps, and I look forward to working with my colleagues to continue manufacturing’s momentum and lay the foundation for growth for our future.”

Led by Senator Coons, more than 25 senators have contributed more than 30 bills to the Senate’s Manufacturing Jobs for America initiative since its launch last October. Seven provisions from the campaign have become law.