WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) announced that the Cleveland-based N.E.O. Foundation was awarded new federal funds from the Department of Labor’s Make it in America Challenge. The Challenge works to create and retain manufacturing jobs by encouraging U.S. businesses to re-shore manufacturing activity, train workers to meet future manufacturing needs, and foster direct foreign investment.
“This is great news for Cleveland,” said Brown. “This is about retaining our edge in manufacturing innovation and ensuring that American workers and business can out-compete and out-innovate the rest of the world. Groups like the N.E.O. Foundation are working to ensure these jobs stay in Ohio and that Ohio stays at the forefront of innovation.”
The N.E.O. Foundation was awarded $1,796,867 from the Department of Labor’s Make it in America Challenge. Federal funding partners for the Make it in America Challenge include the U.S. Department of Commerce’s (DOC) Economic Development Administration (EDA), National Institute of Standards and Technology Manufacturing Extension Partnership (NIST-MEP), the Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration (DOL-ETA), and the Delta Regional Authority (DRA).
In August, Brown and Roy Blunt (R-MO) introduced the Revitalize American Manufacturing and Innovation Act of 2013, bipartisan legislation which would establish a Network for Manufacturing Innovation (NMI) to position the United States once again as the global leader in advanced manufacturing. The bill would ensure that the U.S. can out-innovate the rest of the world while creating thousands of high-paying, high-tech manufacturing jobs. Brown and Blunt worked together to pass a bipartisan amendment to the Senate Budget for Fiscal Year (FY) 2014 aimed at supporting the creation of a network of manufacturing innovation hubs.
Described as “Congress' leading proponent of American Manufacturing,” Brown—a member of the Senate Manufacturing Caucus—has introduced a package of key legislative proposals aimed at bolstering the competiveness of U.S. manufacturers and boosting domestic manufacturing. Last congress, legislation sponsored by Brown and U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL), the National Manufacturing Strategy Act of 2011, passed the House. This bipartisan legislation requires the Commerce Secretary to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the nation’s manufacturing sector and submit to Congress a National Manufacturing Strategy (NMS). The goals of the NMS are to increase manufacturing jobs, identify emerging technologies to strengthen U.S. competitiveness, and strengthen the manufacturing sectors in which the U.S. is most competitive.
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