Last week, the manufacturing companies and employees across the nation celebrated National Manufacturing Day. With that date in mind, I set off in my car to visit a couple of leading manufacturers in the 3rd Congressional District.
My first stop was the General Motors plant in Wentzville. I was fortunate enough to be invited to participate in the launch of two new mid-size cars this plant will start building. The growth at the Wentzville GM has been increasing over the years and it was recently announced that there will be a new shift added which will only create more jobs.
Next, I traveled to nearby St. Peters to visit another facility. SunEdison Semiconductor is a manufacturing plant that employs 536 people and has been in operation since 1959. It was remarkable to tour the sprawling facility and to talk to the workers who are clearly very proud of what they do on a day-to-day basis.
There are many more examples of manufacturers of all sizes here at home and when I travel throughout the district and talk to the employees and the owners, they tell me the effects of overregulation coming from Washington.
Recently, the National Association of Manufacturers released a study that identified the costs of government regulation that are placed on our nation's manufacturers. It showed that regulatory burdens have cost our economy over $2 trillion per year, amounting to 12 percent of the United States gross domestic product. Even more alarming, is that these regulations are costing those manufacturers with less than 50 employees a total of $34-671 per employee each year.
Those numbers are troublesome and the House has been active in passing commonsense pro-growth bills to reverse those trends. One bill in particular that comes to mind that was overwhelmingly passed is the Revitalize American Manufacturing and Innovation Act, which I was a proud cosponsor. This bill is aimed to create a national network of regionally-based hubs to improve the competitiveness of American manufacturing and increase U.S. production.
The hubs are all public-private partnerships among colleges and universities and manufacturers of all sizes designed to bridge the nation's skills gap and bring research and development and commercialization back to American manufacturing.
In addition, I am a proud member of the House Manufacturing Caucus. The caucus was created to examine and promote policies to help American manufacturers find trained, educated workers, continue to lead the world in developing new industrial technologies, operate on a level playing field with their foreign competitors, and obtain the capital they need to thrive.
I have always been a champion in supporting manufacturing and just recently I was awarded the National Association of Manufacturing award for Manufacturing Legislative Excellence. I am honored to be a recipient of the award and I will continue to support bills like the Northern Route Approval Act, the Stop Targeting of Political Beliefs by the IRS Act, and the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act which all promote a pro-growth, pro-manufacturing policy.
U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-Mo., represents the state's 3rd District, which includes Jefferson City. His local office can be reached at 573-635-7232.
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