Manufacturing

My grandfather and great-grandfather worked in the ball bearing factories of New Britain. Today, though those jobs are gone, manufacturing is coming back in Connecticut, and the federal government can play a leading role in giving this renaissance a boost. 

Here in Connecticut, manufacturing is driven by our defense and aerospace sectors. That’s the main reason I fought for a seat on the Senate Appropriations Committee – the first Connecticut Senator on this powerful committee in over 30 years. During my time in Congress, I have been a strong voice for Connecticut manufacturers and have supported Connecticut companies like Pratt and Whitney (East Hartford and Middletown), Electric Boat (Groton), and Sikorsky (Stratford). In the past few years, these companies have been awarded new contracts for jet engines, helicopters, and submarines, which have created new jobs with those companies as well as new jobs with their thousands of suppliers across the state.

I am one of the Senate’s leading proponents of fixing our Buy American laws, and back in days in the House of Representatives I founded a bipartisan group dedicated to strengthening these laws. My goal has always been to make sure government contracts result in work for the thousands of smaller factories and machine shops in our state. I’ve long been critical of the loopholes that allow federal agencies to skirt the law and give federal contracts to foreign companies instead of U.S. manufacturers. I’ve written multiple bills to help change that, including the American Jobs Matter Act, the 21st Century Buy American Act, and the BuyAmerican.gov Act, which was signed into law in 2021 as a part of the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act.

My bills would make commonsense changes like ensuring all requests for waivers to the Buy American Act are made publicly available, and requiring the Department of Defense to measure, for the first time, U.S. job creation as a factor in awarding a government contract. They would eliminate automatic waivers that allow for U.S. jobs to be outsourced without any way for domestic manufacturers to compete – which the non-partisan Economic Policy Institute estimates would create an estimated 100,000 American jobs. 

Since coming to the Senate, I’ve achieved some victories on my Buy American crusade. The 2016 National Defense Authorization Act included my “Buy American” provision, which requires increased transparency when the Department of Defense buys goods overseas. Also, I am so proud that the BuyAmerican.Gov Act was signed into law as a part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, establishing a central hub to ensure federal agencies prioritize the purchase of American-made goods.  

My other priority for Connecticut manufacturing is increasing the training opportunities for our prospective manufacturing workforce. With all this defense work coming to our state, the only thing that can stop us from adding thousands of new manufacturing jobs is not having the workers ready to fill them. That’s why I have secured several major federal grants for new training programs in Connecticut, including funding for the Eastern Connecticut Manufacturing Pipeline that has helped train and find jobs for 1,000 workers at Electric Boat and submarine suppliers. Federal funding has also helped the state open new manufacturing training programs at almost a dozen community-technical colleges across the state. That’s fantastic news for Connecticut residents looking for a career in manufacturing.