WASHINGTON, D.C., Aug. 20, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Bluegreen Alliance today released a new report, Then and Now: US Manufacturing Under the Trump and Biden-Harris Administrations, which compares the success and failures of the last two administrations’ manufacturing agendas.
Since President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris took office in January 2021, more than 775,000 manufacturing jobs have been added to the economy. The growth is expected to continue, with the Biden-Harris Inflation Reduction Act, Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and CHIPS and Science Act estimated to create 336,000 manufacturing jobs a year until 2035.
In contrast, more than 200,000 manufacturing jobs were lost during former President Donald Trump’s single term. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic manufacturing job growth had all but plateaued under the Trump administration.
“The Inflation Reduction Act is a huge boost to the U.S. manufacturing sector,” said BlueGreen Alliance Vice President of Manufacturing and Industrial Policy Ted Fertik. “On several key metrics—including job creation, investment in manufacturing, investment in cleaning up industrial emissions, and domestic momentum in growing industries—we see that the Biden-Harris administration outperformed the Trump administration.”
The report also examines how Project 2025, a policy framework developed by the Heritage Foundation—a think tank funded by conservative megadonors and staffed by many former Trump administration officials—lays out a plan to restructure the U.S. government to fit a conservative agenda. Newly released research from Energy Innovation estimates our country will lose 1.7 million jobs in 2030 if Project 2025 is implemented.
“The bottom line is that the folks behind Project 2025 want to roll back manufacturing investments creating good-paying jobs across the country and return to the failed policies that did so much harm to manufacturing communities,” said Fertik.
The new report builds on a report released earlier this year by the BlueGreen Alliance, Then and Now: Worker Safety Under Trump and Biden, which revisited policy actions related to worker health and safety under Trump and sets them alongside actions from the Biden-Harris administration. The report examined capacity at the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and how policies rated in protecting miners from black lung-causing silica dust; regulation of hazardous chemical facilities; worker injury reporting requirements; and COVID-19 response.
The BlueGreen Alliance unifies labor unions and environmental organizations into a powerful force to fight climate change, protect the health of people and the environment, stand against economic and racial inequality, and create and maintain good-paying, union jobs in communities across the country.
