The National Association of Manufacturers called on Congress Wednesday to make a trillion dollar investment in infrastructure, ratify the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade, and pass immigration reform that provides legal status for the so-called Dreamers, people illegally brought into the United States at an early age.
“If you are a Dreamer, or if your friend or family member is a Dreamer, manufacturers stand with you,” NAM President Jay Timmons said Wednesday in a Houston speech laying out the trade group’s agenda for the coming year. This included giving the Dreamers “provisional” legal status and letting them earn citizenship if they passed background checks and educational requirements. “We believe in you. We need to reach a solution so that you have the confidence you deserve to build your future.”
Timmons called for spending to provide to repair roads and bridges and create “modernized ports and waterways, pipes, pipelines, electric grid and airports as well as the next generation communications infrastructure … Without action we are going to lose 5.8 million jobs by 2040. But with an injection of $1 trillion over time in America’s infrastructure, we will create 11 million jobs.”
His infrastructure comments echoed President Trump’s call in his State of the Union address for a similar investment. A spending bill faltered in the previous Congress due to disputes over the size the proposed spending and how it would be allocated. House Transportation Chairman Pete DeFazio, D-Ore., has backed new investments, saying that $2 trillion would be needed to completely fix existing problems. Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., has called for new investments as well.
Timmons also called for Congress to quickly ratify Trump’s U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement and for the White House to come to an agreement with China that resolves the current trade war, but also holds Beijing accountable for its more predatory practices. “China cheats, plain and simple,” he said.
