On the recordSeptember 30, 2015
This Friday, October 2, is Manufacturing Day, a day to celebrate the American manufacturing industry that has made our country great and to highlight emerging opportunities in the field of advanced manufacturing. My home State of Rhode Island is the birthplace of the American industrial revolution. It was in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, where Samuel Slater opened our country's first successful cotton spinning factory that marked the beginning of a new era in American innovation. From the textile mills in Woonsocket to the shipyards in Newport, good-paying manufacturing jobs helped build a thriving middle class in Rhode Island and all across our country. Today, advanced manufacturing fields like 3-D printing, medical device production, and renewable energy offer the promise of new opportunities to a new generation of Rhode Island and American workers. It is critical that we seize these opportunities to help our country lead the world in manufacturing. Let's honor the great manufacturing history of America by investing in policies that create good-paying American jobs. I urge my colleagues to stand up for commonsense policies that will enable the American manufacturing industry to lead the world. Let's move forward in a bipartisan way with our Make It In America agenda. ____________________
