Mike Honda: “As a cosponsor of this bill, I rise in enthusiastic support of H.R. 2996, the Revitalize American Manufacturing and…”

“As a cosponsor of this bill, I rise in enthusiastic support of H.R. 2996, the Revitalize American Manufacturing and Innovation Act. The public-private partnerships created by this bill will help rebuild our Nation's manufacturing capacity and grow private sector investments in manufacturing. I hail from Silicon Valley, the Nation's epicenter of technology and innovation. Right now, Silicon Valley is experiencing a manufacturing resurgence. Companies see the benefit of locating their manufacturing in areas with R&D and a high-tech workforce. Nearly 18 percent of Silicon Valley jobs are in manufacturing, and these advanced manufacturing jobs are high paying. This bill will replicate some of the important qualities of Silicon Valley across this Nation. It will build partnerships between government, academia, and industry to address targeted manufacturing challenges. I applauded President Obama when he first proposed a network of manufacturing innovation institutes, and I thank the cochairs of the Manufacturing Caucus, Mr. Reed and Mr. Kennedy, for authoring this legislation to authorize such a network. I have worked with my Silicon Valley constituents to help build strong bipartisan backing of this bill, and I am glad we are on the floor considering it tonight. Hopefully, once this bill is enacted, we can win one of these hubs for Silicon Valley to focus on important challenges like developing the next generation of semiconductor manufacturing tools.…”