Critical Need for a US Manufacturing Renaissance

The Reagan Institute has issued the final report of its bipartisan Task Force on National Security and U.S. Manufacturing Competitiveness--- “A Manufacturing Renaissance: Bolstering U.S. Production for National Security and Economic Prosperity” The bi-partisan Task Force is co-chaired by Marillyn Hewson, former Chairman, President, and CEO of the Lockheed Martin Corporation, and David McCormick, CEO of Bridgewater Associates and former Undersecretary of the Treasury for International Affairs,

The report identified six critical challenges that need solutions:

1.?????Significant workforce technical skills gap

2.?????Unsatisfactory productivity gains

3.?????Inadequate capital investment

4.?????Fragile domestic supplier ecosystems

5.?????Lack of coordination within government

6.?????Insufficient architecture for international partnerships

?To address these challenges, the Task Force proposed four signature policy recommendations:

1.?????Scale-up workforce development programs to credential more workers for high-demand trades

2.?????Stand up a public-private capability to finance investments in domestic manufacturing sectors critical to national security

3.?????Modernize the Defense Production Act for the 21st Century

4.?????Establish a new forum of G7 + Quad countries to coordinate on geoeconomic issues

?To measure progress across all these challenges and recommendations, the Task Force suggested the following goals:

1.?????Bring two million new or retrained workers into strategic manufacturing sectors by 2030 to address the critical skills gap in the current workforce, prepare for future manufacturing needs, and ensure a broad base of inclusive economic growth.

2.?????Improve American productivity growth in critical industries to 3.9 percent, which would represent a return to the historic average for manufacturing growth.

3.?????Invest $100 billion annually in plants, infrastructure, and related capabilities to accelerate the adoption of Industry 4.0 digital technologies and processes—the investment level needed to reach full potential output levels.

4.?????Add 35,000 new small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) manufacturers in critical subsectors by 2030 to strengthen the core of the American supplier base and replace half of the small business capacity lost since the late 1990s.

5.?????Demonstrate improved coordination on geoeconomic issues among major democracies on topics such as global tech standards, data governance, and supply chains resiliency.

Here is a handy link for a one-page matrix summarizing the report