CLEVELAND, OH – Today, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) hosted a virtual roundtable with leaders from the Ohio State Building Trades & Construction Trades Council to discuss the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the job opportunities the investment will create for workers in the skilled trades across Ohio. The historic, bipartisan infrastructure law includes Brown’s Bridge Investment Act, which will put Ohioans to work repairing, replacing and upgrading outdated infrastructure throughout the state. It also includes Brown’s Build America Buy America Act, and will ensure American labor, iron, and steel are used for these publicly funded projects. Brown recently announced that the Ohio Department of Transportation received nearly $100 million in bridge formula funding, and will receive nearly $500 million in bridge formula funding over the next five years.
 
“The infrastructure bill is an Ohio building trades jobs bill.  Between the bipartisan infrastructure package and the Intel investment, we are bringing thousands of union construction jobs to our state – jobs that cannot be sent overseas. I will always fight for your members,” said Brown at the roundtable.
 
The Ohio State Building Trades & Construction Trades Council provides members with education and training to better their skills and maintain productive and safe working environments. The Ohio State Building Trades & Construction Trades Council represents 14 member councils made up of 144 affiliated unions, representing 100,000 workers and 10,500 apprentices throughout the state. 
 
“The Ohio State Building and Construction Trades Council wishes to thank Senator Brown for all his hard work to pass the Infrastructure Bill including his outreach and collaboration with the affiliates at today’s statewide virtual meeting that he hosted,” said Mike Knisley, Executive Secretary – Treasurer Ohio State Building and Construction Trades Council. “Better roads, bridges, railroads, public transit, water systems and internet connectivity will energize the United States’ economy and help us be more industrially competitive in the world marketplace. This work will generate thousands of new union construction jobs for the building trade’s skilled craftspeople all the while creating pathways to outstanding careers for those in our world class apprenticeship programs.”
 
During the roundtable, Brown and Building Trades leaders discussed the announcement that Intel is building a $20 billion semiconductor plant in New Albany which is expected to create 10,000 jobs, including 7,000 union construction jobs. The plant will establish a long-term, reliable source of semiconductors, which are essential to U.S. economic competitiveness and national security. It also will support critical Ohio industries, like the auto industry and high-tech manufacturing. Brown worked with local and state leaders and other members of Ohio’s Congressional delegation to ensure that Intel chose Ohio for what will be its most advanced manufacturing facility in the world. This project will help reverse decades of offshoring of American manufacturing and American jobs. Currently 75 percent of chip manufacturing capacity is overseas – mainly in Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, and China, but with this facility, chips will become a major Ohio export.
 
Brown has worked for decades to build an economy that encourages investment in the United States, especially the expansion of domestic manufacturing. To spur domestic semiconductor production, Brown supported the creation of the CHIPS for America programs and helped write the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act, which would provide $52 billion for the CHIPS Act.
 
Brown fought to include the Bridge Investment Act and the Build America Buy America Act in the larger bipartisan infrastructure law.
 
The Bridge Investment Act will ensure Ohioans are safer, will create and support jobs in communities, and will make local economies more competitive. More than 3,200 bridges across Ohio are in need of repairs and according to a report from the American Road and Transportation Builders Association, more than 1,300 of those are classified as structurally deficient.
 
The Build America Buy America Act will apply the strongest Buy America rules to all taxpayer-funded infrastructure and public works projects. Currently, Buy America rules have not been fully implemented with respect to all federal programs that provide grants for infrastructure construction. When Chinese- or Russian-made steel and other products are used instead of American products, it steals jobs from U.S. workers, and often costs taxpayers more.
 

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