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Sen. Brown continues push to create network of manufacturing hubs
youngstown
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown on Wednesday continued to push for passage of a bill he introduced in August that would establish a national network of manufacturing innovation hubs, modeled after the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute in Youngstown.
On a conference call with reporters, Brown said the legislation would bring together private industry, universities, federal agencies and others from across the country to strengthen the kind of research and development efforts that lead to better technology and more commercial applications.
More importantly, Brown said the legislation would strengthen regional economies and provide more manufacturing jobs to make up for the millions lost in recent decades.
Brown is spearheading the bill with U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, a Missouri Republican.
Wednesday’s conference call came just before Brown was scheduled to provide testimony to the Senate Commerce Committee about the benefits of his bill.
Mike Garvey, president and CEO of M-7 Technologies in Youngstown, also was scheduled to deliver testimony at the hearing.
Garvey’s company is a member of NAMII, which was rebranded last month under the name America Makes, to emphasize the 82-member consortium’s nationwide membership of universities, private companies and nonprofit organizations.
Garvey, who also spoke during the call, said it’s too often the case that the research and development conducted at universities nationwide is rarely commercialized because it lacks the additional funding and entrepreneurship of private companies.
A network of manufacturing hubs, he said, would help to strengthen American manufacturing and get more projects off the ground.
In August 2012, when President Barack Obama’s administration announced the creation of NAMII, it envisioned it as a precursor to a national network of similar facilities.
Brown has been vocal in plugging that vision since, and he said Wednesday that it would likely take $600 million of private and public funds to get other hubs off the ground.
If the network is created, Brown said it will only elevate NAMII’s profile nationwide, and he added that the legislation could possibly mean an expansion for the Youngstown-based consortium as well.