Pelosi: 'Our Manufacturing Sector is Critical, But After Three Years of President Bush, it is in Crisis'

April 27, 2004

Washington, D.C. -- House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle and other Members of Congress held a roundtable discussion today with Governors Jennifer Granholm (D-MI), Ed Rendell (D-PA), and Jim Doyle (D-WI) on the U.S. manufacturing crisis. Below are her remarks:

"Our manufacturing sector is vital to our future prosperity and security. Manufacturing is critical for the financial security of millions of families -- every manufacturing job creates at least four other jobs. It is critical for our country’s economic security -- manufacturing accounts for approximately 17 percent of gross domestic product and represents 71 percent of our exports abroad. And manufacturing is critical for our national security. We cannot ensure a strong military and protect the American homeland without a strong industrial and manufacturing base.

"Our manufacturing sector is critical, but after three years of President Bush, it is in crisis.

"Our country is hemorrhaging manufacturing jobs. Since taking office, President Bush has lost 2.8 million good-paying manufacturing jobs, and continues to lose more every month. 1 million jobs have been shipped overseas. And manufacturing employment is at a 53-year low.

"For President Bush and the Republican Congress, however, manufacturing is not a priority. Republicans have no plan to bring back good-paying jobs that have been lost or to create new ones.

"The Republican leadership in the House refuses to schedule a vote on the bipartisan Crane-Rangel manufacturing bill, which would lower taxes for American manufacturers and keep good paying jobs in the United States. Democrats have launched a discharge petition to force a vote on this bill.

"Unbelievably, the Administration has actively disadvantaged struggling manufacturers by gutting key programs such as the Manufacturing Extension Partnership.

"In the House, instead of putting forward a jobs plan, Republicans have renamed their special interest agenda with a name that sounds like a jobs plan -- Hire Our Workers or HOW. But their agenda never says how it will create jobs because it won’t. It only repackages their warmed over stew of special interest goodies - allowing increased environmental pollution, restricting access to the courts, and increasing health care costs for American workers.

"Republicans need to get serious about job creation. They need to give our manufacturers the tax relief they deserve, and they need to reward companies that create jobs here in America, rather than sending them overseas."

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