Monday, April 28, 2014YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- Legislation that would fund the ambitious National Network for Manufacturing Innovation program proposed by President Barack Obama is today much thinner than its original, beefed-up form.
The Revitalize American Manufacturing and Innovation Act, or RAMI, a bipartisan bill co-written by U.S. Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Roy Blunt, R-Mo., sought $600 million over 10 years to help fund advanced manufacturing hubs across the country.
The first of these hubs is America Makes, the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute in Youngstown.
Three weeks ago, the bill was moved out of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, but not before amendments significantly reduced its collective punch.
"What I think this legislation does is create some guidelines, some congressional oversight. It requires a 50% private match. It sets a cap of 15 on these high-tech collaborative efforts around the country and makes a few other changes," Blunt said during the markup hearing of the bill April 9.
Among those markups is an appropriation of $300 million over 10 years, not the $600 million Brown and Blunt proposed.
Also, a bipartisan agreement would require another $300 million in offsets to cover the costs of the program before it could advance to the Senate floor for a full vote, noted the committee ranking minority member, John Thune, R-S.D.
"We jointly agree that it's critical that this legislation have an offset that would cover the full cost of the bill before floor consideration," Thune said at the hearing. That could be a challenge, the senator added, the result of "various committee jurisdictions."
Brown's office says that such give-and-take is standard in the legislative process, and RAMI is no exception. It was agreed that offsets would be sought after the committee deliberated, but before a Senate floor vote. What’s important, his office says, is that the Brown was successful in negotiating bipartisan support for the bill and obtaining funding as a first step in building a larger network.
Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., agreed that such offsets are necessary before it could be considered for a full vote. "It's one thing to pass a bill out of committee, it's another thing to get it considered on the floor, much less over in the House," he said. "We do have to come up with $300 million. That's not a ton of money, but it's a bunch of money."
Without a bipartisan agreement on an offset, Rockefeller predicted that the bill "probably wouldn't do very well on the floor here."
The substitute amendment delivered to the committee, to which Brown and Blunt agreed, reflects weeks of bipartisan negotiations, Thune noted.
Aside from reducing the authorization by half and creating a sunset period for the bill's funding authority, the amended version of the legislation "includes additional changes to enhance transparency and improve oversight, and ensure the contemplated manufacturing centers can stand on their own in a reasonable time period without ongoing federal assistance," Thune said.
These changes include consolidating programs such as the Advanced Manufacturing Technology Consortia into NNMI and formally eliminating the Technology Innovation Program. And although the new bill includes a sunset provision, it keeps a federal funding option on the table after the end of the decade, subject to available appropriations, should the U.S. secretary of commerce determine that the objectives of the program are being met.
Still, Thune said, he held "continued reservations" about the legislation.
"While I do support increasing advanced manufacturing in the United States, I do remain skeptical about whether additional federal involvement and federal funding is really the missing ingredient needed to spur that innovation," Thune said.
Instead, regulatory reform, tax reform and trade promotion authority would prove more helpful to manufacturers rather than the additional federal money and benefits they would receive under RAMI, Thune told the committee. Thune also reminded members that Christina Romer, former chairman of President Obama's Council of Economic Advisors, said earlier that the president's advanced manufacturing initiatives would "probably have a small effect on job creation."
As such, Thune said he would "reserve final judgment until suitable offsets have been identified." Were a roll-call vote held today with the bill in its present form, Thune said he would vote against it. However, the senator agreed to move the bill to a voice vote "in recognition of the good-faith negotiations that have occurred."
The bill was then discharged from committee.
Alterations to the legislation would not hurt America Makes, the pilot institute in Youngstown, Yianni Varonis, a spokesman for Brown's office, said in an emailed statement. In fact, should the bill become law, America Makes would benefit through additional collaboration throughout a larger network.
Passage of RAMI would codify what the Obama Administration has already started, Varonis says, and the creation of a NNMI should be a priority of Democrats and Republicans alike.
"A national network would enable America Makes to collaborate and learn from other institutes, ultimately strengthening its own process and output," Varonis says. "That is the point: for every institution to improve from the existence of the other while ultimately advancing U.S. manufacturing and competitiveness overall."
All three received votes in excess of 90% of the 14.62 million shares that voted. Common shares outstanding total 18.78 million.
Copyright 2014 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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