U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio and Sen. John Fetterman have outlined a pro-worker agenda that they say will encourage more domestic manufacturing.
Deluzio explained the details of their “Make Stuff Here” agenda Tuesday at a carpenters union training facility. The choice, he said, was between “very different visions” of a domestic manufacturing policy: “the one that [Fetterman] and I are outlining today, or some Wall Street-approved rubbish that's going to continue to put profits in free trade over everything else.
“I think the American people are with us,” Deluzio added.
The policies were a departure from previous trade agreements — including the North American Free Trade Agreement once supported by Democrats and Republicans alike — but also differed from the protectionist policies of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
Trump has proposed putting a minimum 10% tariff on all imported goods, a proposal Democrats decry as a tax on consumers that would raise prices just as inflation has fallen to levels targeted by the Federal Reserve.
By contrast, Deluzio backed a proposed Import Security and Fairness Act, which would impose tariffs on countries without market economies, like Russia and China.
“There's tariffs that we support that make sense — things like steel and shipbuilding where we've seen aggressive, egregious misbehavior by the Chinese, for example,” Deluzio said.
Deluzio didn’t say what effect the more limited tariff, or other proposals in the agenda, might have on prices. But he said the package “is not some across-the-board response. This is about smart and fair trade.”
The tariff proposal was one of several key bills before Congress that Deluzio said would level the playing field with foreign competitors, make it easier to join unions, and provide incentives for additional manufacturing.
“Most economists think that allowing our foreign trading partners to pollute the earth and treat their workers like crap isn't good for the economy or for prices,” Deluzio said. “I think most Americans would rather have us have jobs and get to work, be able to afford goods, than to import cheap goods on the backs of slave labor and poisoning the planet.”
The “make stuff here” agenda includes:
- The Import Security and Fairness Act: Places tariffs on all products from countries without free market economies, like China and Russia, and would include products less than $800.
- The Leveling the Play Field 2.0 Act: Enacts measures to prevent foreign countries from dumping their goods in another country (so-called “country hopping”) before sending them into the U.S.
- The Fighting Trade Cheats Act: Increases penalties and enforcement for people who break customs laws.
- The PRO Act: Makes it easier to join unions and initiate strikes, expands who can be eligible for union membership.
- The National Apprenticeship Act: Expands worker projections to people in apprentice programs.
- The Use Strong American Steel Act: Adds new incentives to use union-made, domestic steel for projects financed by the Inflation Reduction Act.
- The Rare Earth Magnet Manufacturing Production Tax Credit: Creates incentives for domestic producers who mine rare-earth materials used in electronics.
Deluzio said he and Fetterman would attempt to try to get other legislative leaders to support these measures, some of which he said might draw bipartisan support.
“The Senator and I have been working on this with our teams for quite some time and now our work continues down in Washington to add folks to [support] this agenda,” Deluzio said. He added that more bills could be added to it in the future, “But we've laid out the framework.”
Fetterman, who largely confined his own remarks to expressing broad support for labor, left before taking any questions. But he said that opposition from Western Pennsylvania Democrats to the sale of U.S. Steel to Nippon Steel had helped “jam that up.” The sale has yet to receive final approval.
Fetterman also said Nippon had committed to make a $1.5 billion investment in the Edgar Thomson steel plant in Braddock.
“And now, coincidentally … they happen to find an extra $1.5 billion now to do more upgrades now at Edgar Thompson across from where I live,” he said. “It's amazing now it continues to get more and more.”
Fetterman’s media team didn’t immediately respond to queries about the commitment, or whether it was a new proposal.