The U.S. House of Representatives today passed the America COMPETES Act. The bill makes various investments aimed at onshoring American manufacturing, creating jobs, and lowering industrial emissions. For example, the bill authorizes $3 billion dollars in grants to bolster the nation’s solar manufacturing industry through the creation of new manufacturing facilities or retooling existing facilities to produce necessary components of the solar supply chain. The provision also includes high-road labor standards, such as prevailing wage and apprenticeship utilization, which is a requirement that a percentage of labor hours within each separate craft or trade be performed by apprentices of that craft or trade. Additionally, COMPETES authorizes significant investments in filling critical supply chain gaps—including in semiconductors—as well as funding for the deployment of critical industrial emissions reduction technologies.

In response to the House passage of the bill, the BlueGreen Alliance released the following statement from Executive Director Jason Walsh:

“The America COMPETES Act takes important steps to reverse decades of offshoring that have left working communities across the nation devastated as manufacturing facility after manufacturing facility shuttered. The investments in this bill can help bolster existing and emerging industries here at home, while growing critical domestic supply chains and safeguarding and uplifting workers’ rights.”