One of the Biden Administration’s first acts in office was the announcement of the ambitious Investing in America agenda. This agenda covers many things, but one of the main goals is to increase the amount of manufacturing in the US and invest in the workforce in the US.
Below, I break down the Investing in America agenda, Invest.gov, the acts passed to support it, and how the agenda plans to improve the American manufacturing industry.
Main Takeaways
- Invest.gov is a website created by the US government to help the public learn about and track the Investing in America agenda.
- The government is investing billions of dollars into high-tech semiconductor research and manufacturing in an attempt to produce them domestically.
- One of the main focuses of the Investing in America agenda is improving American infrastructure, especially roads, rail, and the power grid.
- The federal government has also announced tariffs on some Chinese imports to try and boost domestic production.
What Is Invest.gov?
Invest.gov is a website that acts as the database for the Investing in America Act, which was passed in 2021. The site allows the public to view the private and public investments made across the United States, the amount of funding the projects receive, how many jobs they are estimated to create, and more. The Investing in America Agenda has released more than 850 billion dollars in investment across the country, primarily in infrastructure, clean energy, and manufacturing. The agenda has given birth to more than 51,000 projects and is estimated to create more than 800,000 manufacturing jobs.
This ambitious government initiative, if successful, could transform the US manufacturing industry and significantly reduce the amount of imported products we use.
Why the US Government Passed the Investing in America Act
The Investing in America Agenda aims to overhaul US infrastructure simultaneously and create a massive number of new jobs.
1. US Manufacturing Has Been Declining for Decades
Over the past few decades, more and more American companies have started manufacturing overseas, which has caused a sharp decline in US manufacturing jobs. China has dominated the manufacturing industry since the 1980s, surpassing US manufacturing in 2010. As competition between the two nations increases, the government wants to minimize imports and bring manufacturing back to America.
2. US Infrastructure in Dire Need of an Overhaul
American infrastructure has also lagged behind other countries in recent years. The government aims to invest billions of dollars in US transit, airports, ports, bridges, trains, and more. This will improve the safety and reliability of US infrastructure and make it more capable of handling increased domestic manufacturing.
3. More Investment in Clean Energy Is Needed
With climate change always on the horizon, the government has also decided to invest hundreds of billions of dollars into clean energy manufacturing, electric vehicles, and other environmentally-friendly initiatives.
How the Investing in America Agenda Plans to Increase USA Manufacturing
The Investing in America agenda proposes a whole string of actions to bring more manufacturing to the United States and steer companies away from making products abroad. This obviously won’t happen overnight, but the government has announced some of the plans they are putting into place to help make this dream a reality.
Massive Investment in High-tech Industries
The US lags far behind other companies in producing high-tech electronics, especially advanced microchips. Interestingly, US companies design most of the world’s most cutting-edge microchips, but none are produced in the USA. Currently, 90% of the world’s advanced microchips are produced in Taiwan. These microchips enable technologies like AI, virtual reality, advanced algorithms, and more.
Tensions between the US and China surrounding Taiwan’s sovereignty have only grown in recent years, so investing heavily in US microchip manufacturing has become more crucial.
As part of the Investing in America agenda, the government passed the CHIPS Act, which allocates 280 billion dollars in spending to new research, development, and manufacturing of advanced semiconductor microchips on US soil.
Improving Manufacturing Infrastructure
The US manufacturing industry has declined since the early 2000s as many companies started shifting to outsourcing and imports. One major hurdle for manufacturers in the US has been the declining infrastructure. Roads, bridges, train systems, ports, and the energy grid are all areas that need major improvements, especially when planning to increase domestic manufacturing.
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act was passed in 2021 as one of the first stepping stones of the Investing In America Agenda. This act allocates more than $1 trillion in spending to fix infrastructure and transportation across the United States. These investments will greatly improve the transportation of energy systems, make US roads and rails safer and more efficient, and improve the power grid.
Investing in the US Workforce
Factory workers are the backbone of the manufacturing industry, so creating new industrial and manufacturing jobs for Americans is a pivotal part of the Investing in America agenda.
As part of the agenda, more than 800,000 jobs have been created, and the number of new factories being built has doubled. Many jobs created by the initiative don’t require college degrees or even provide skilled training. The federal government has also invested nearly half a billion dollars in apprenticeships across the country. This initiative has helped train over 1 million new apprentices who will contribute to the increase in manufacturing.
Tariffs on Chinese Products
One way that many world leaders make domestic goods more attractive is by creating tariffs on certain imported products. As producing products in China tends to be cheaper, enacting tariffs on some Chinese goods can help convince more companies to move to manufacturing in the USA. In May 2024, Joe Biden announced new tariffs on $18 billion of Chinese imports, including steel, semiconductors, batteries, medical products, solar cells, cranes, electric vehicles and more.
