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The Nationwide Affiliation of Producers is placing its muscle behind advancing laws supposed to spur the event of waterway infrastructure initiatives.
NAM known as on the highest lawmakers on the Home Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to get the Water Sources Improvement Act out of committee and onto the Home ground.
The WRDA, which comes up for reauthorization each two years and has vital bipartisan assist, permits the U.S. Military Corps of Engineers to shore up U.S. ports, harbors and inland waterways.
NAM’s Christopher Phalen and Kirbie Ferrell made the case for the invoice in letters to the committee’s chairman, GOP Rep. Sam Graves of Missouri, and the rating Democrat, Rep. Rick Larsen of Washington.
They argued that ports, inland waterways and flood management programs are usually not simply water administration points, however core financial infrastructure: they hold American manufacturing operating, assist dependable provide chains, assist the U.S. keep aggressive globally, and even issue into nationwide safety.
The underlying message is that these infrastructure initiatives want continued funding and modernization to maintain tempo with their function within the broader economic system.
This yr’s invoice “represents an essential funding in America’s long-term financial competitiveness via enhancements to navigation infrastructure, flood danger administration and venture supply,” they informed the committee forward of a scheduled markup of the laws. The markup was later postponed resulting from different Home exercise.
Congress has adopted a bipartisan WRDA each different yr since 2014.
The laws this yr highlights reinforcing ports and inland waterways and making extra instruments out there to nonfederal venture sponsors, bettering venture supply and making the USACE simpler and environment friendly.
“These investments are crucial to sustaining the reliability of the nation’s freight transportation community and supporting the motion of uncooked supplies, vitality merchandise, agricultural commodities and manufactured items,” Mr. Phalen and Mr. Kirbie mentioned.
Report takes on AI jobs doomsday fears
A latest report from the Aggressive Enterprise Institute mentioned fears of AI inflicting mass job loss throughout the nation are traditionally unfounded.
Lawmakers corresponding to socialist icon Sen. Bernard Sanders of Vermont, Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia and GOP Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri have sounded the alarm about AI creeping into totally different industries and wiping out jobs. However CEI, a Washington-based libertarian suppose tank, mentioned historical past exhibits innovation creates jobs, not simply destroys them.
In a single instance, the group cited the 1913 transferring meeting line created by industrialist Henry Ford to construct his Mannequin T vehicles, which decreased labor wants per automotive, although U.S. automotive manufacturing jobs rose from 175,000 in 1917 to 1 million in 1979.
“Expertise advances like synthetic intelligence can breed concern that ’progress’ will destroy jobs and livelihoods,” mentioned Sean Higgins, CEI analysis fellow in labor research and writer of the report, “Don’t Panic! A Skeptic’s Information to the AI Jobs Doomsday.”
“Historical past teaches us labor-related expertise fears are normally misplaced,” he mentioned. “Innovation has not, traditionally, prompted widespread unemployment within the broader economic system. The truth is, labor-saving improvements in a single business, like manufacturing, can create new alternatives and jobs in associated industries, like service or hospitality.”
The report famous that US unemployment fell barely (from 5.9% to five.3%) between 1979 and 1989 regardless of manufacturing automation and a rising labor pressure.
Moreover, it described how earlier predictions of AI changing expert jobs have been flawed, together with a Nobel-winning scientist’s 2016 prediction that AI would substitute radiologists, which by no means occurred, as radiologists stay in demand and are nonetheless well-paid.
Companies name for employment-based visa reform
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce pressed Congress to start out fixing the authorized immigration system now that border safety has been strengthened beneath the Trump administration.
“President Trump’s dedication of unmatched assets and a spotlight to securing the border has laid the muse for the crucial subsequent step: securing our economic system by rising our workforce,” the open letter said.
The Chamber made the plea on behalf of a coalition of enterprise organizations throughout sectors often known as the “American Alliance for Workforce and Border Safety.”
The group of over 300 members mentioned that the nation is dealing with a shrinking workforce demographic actuality and that, in keeping with the Congressional Funds Workplace, inhabitants development has slowed within the U.S. to a mean of simply 0.2% per yr.
“That’s lower than one-fifth the speed our nation sustained from 1975 to 2024. By 2031, annual deaths within the U.S. will exceed annual births for the primary time in America’s historical past,” the letter mentioned. “The U.S. inhabitants might be 4.5 million individuals smaller by 2035 and 5.4 million smaller by 2055 than beforehand projected.”
The alliance mentioned that there are tens of millions of open jobs throughout almost each sector and there’s a shrinking pipeline of employees to fill them, so Congress must go a “modernized immigration system that may meet workforce wants and maintain development.”
This could occur, they mentioned, by first sustaining border safety and treating it as the muse however not the end line.
The Chamber urged Congress to construct a cross-sector visa system by amending the Immigration and Nationality Act to create employment-based visas for industries that at present lack authorized pathways, whereas defending American employees from displacement.
The group additionally recommended establishing a sensible course of to retain employees who’ve been contributing to the U.S. economic system, for long-contributing employees, particularly these beforehand licensed to work within the U.S.
• The Advocates column is a weekly have a look at the political motion gamers who drive the controversy and form coverage outcomes in Washington. Ship tricks to theadvocates@washingtontimes.com. Click on right here to obtain The Advocates in your inbox every week.
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