MTI Regulatory Impact Task Force Update

MTI is a Member of the Council of Manufacturing Associations, a network of over 250 trade associations in the world of manufacturing. Through CMA’s affiliation with the National Association of Manufacturers, MTI is able to help impact key issues in manufacturing. Here are some of the latest developments:

Jay Timmons: Renew Tax Cuts to Give Manufacturers Certainty

Congress must immediately renew President Trump’s signature 2017 tax reform law, the NAM said Tuesday.
 
What’s going on: “Manufacturing is a capital-intensive industry—and we must plan months and often years in advance to grow and compete,” NAM President and CEO Jay Timmons said.

• “We cannot afford to wait on action, especially with additional cost pressures from the renewal and extension of tariffs. Manufacturers are calling on Congress to act now to renew the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.”
• The remarks came following President Trump’s Tuesday imposition of 25% tariffs on imports of steel and certain steel derivatives and on aluminum and aluminum derivatives.  

Why it’s important:  Failure to renew the pro-growth tax measures in the TCJA “will put 6 million jobs at risk and make it even harder for manufacturers to drive growth and strengthen supply chains,” Timmons continued, referencing a data point from a recent, widely cited NAM study.

• “We cannot risk giving our competitors an edge while jeopardizing American jobs and economic strength.”

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The State of the Manufacturing Workforce in 2025

The NAM kept up a breakneck pace on the third day of its 2025 Competing to Win Tour, with the Manufacturing Institute delivering the first-ever State of the Manufacturing Workforce Address at Drake State Community and Technical College in Huntsville, Alabama, before an audience of students, faculty, manufacturers, and local and state officials. 
 
Opportunity—for all: Taking the stage to give the MI’s assessment of the manufacturing worker base in 2025, Carolyn Lee, president of the Manufacturing Institute, the NAM’s 501(c)3 workforce development and education affiliate, honed in on the theme of opportunity.

• “Manufacturing is not just about innovation and economic growth; it’s about opportunity. It’s about ensuring that every community, every aspiring maker, builder, and creator—no matter their background—can have access to the skills, training, and careers that will define the future.” 
• But because the industry stands at a crossroads, part of that opportunity today is to help manufacturing maintain its momentum, Lee said, echoing a theme of NAM President and CEO Jay Timmons’ 2025 State of Manufacturing Address on Tuesday.  

Finest hours ahead: Lee was joined at the event by Rep. Dale Strong (R-AL), who spoke about the strength of Alabama’s manufacturing sector. 

• “I think we’ve proven here in Alabama, and North Alabama especially, advanced manufacturing is part of our DNA,” he said. “You look at the jobs that we’ve brought in the last 10 or 15 years. You start with GE Aviation, Polaris, Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Mazda Toyota. We’ve proven that the Alabama workforce has the ability. I think our finest hours are still ahead.”

A world-changing job: Timmons echoed that sentiment. “You’re stepping into one of the most important and innovative fields in the world,” he told the Drake State students.

• “The products, the materials, the technologies that you will help create, they won’t just be used in your hometown or even all across our country. They’re going to help change economies … They’re going to strengthen the very foundation of America’s security and prosperity.”  

A shortfall: But manufacturing today faces an immense challenge, Lee told the crowd: “a structural workforce deficit.” 

• “[I]f we don’t act boldly, the U.S. faces a shortfall of 1.9 million manufacturing workers by 2033; 3.8 million positions will open up, but nearly half could go unfilled. That’s not just a workforce issue—it’s an economic and national security issue.” 
• That’s despite the average annual earnings—including pay and benefits—for a manufacturing employee coming in at more than $102,000.  
• The dearth of workers in the sector is driven by both retirements and growth. 

How to overcome it: “[W]e have to inspire more Americans to see themselves in manufacturing,” Lee said. “That starts early, with programs that spark curiosity and excitement for careers in our industry. And when I say early, I mean as young as 9 or 10 years old—because today’s 4th graders will graduate in 2033 and may be our future team members.” 

• To this end, the MI partners each year with manufacturers on MFG Day, which kicks off a full month of events at which companies show young people, students, and job seekers what a modern manufacturing career looks like.  
• The MI, with the support of Honda, has also created a new interactive experience to interest youngsters in the industry: “Innovators Quest,” which combines elements of board games and popular fantasy and storytelling activities.   

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Trump Signs Order to Review or Eliminate Past Regulations

President Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order beginning the process of reviewing past regulations for revision or elimination. 
 
What’s going on: The order, “Ensuring Lawful Governance and Implementing the President’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ Deregulatory Initiative,” directs federal agencies to identify for the White House’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Administration within 60 days any past rules that: 

• Raise “serious constitutional difficulties, such as exceeding the scope of the power vested in the federal government by the Constitution.” 
• Are “based on unlawful delegation of legislative power.” 
• “[H]arm the national interest by significantly and unjustifiably impeding technological innovation, infrastructure development, disaster response, inflation reduction, research and development, economic development, energy production, land use, and foreign policy objectives.”
• Impose on private parties significant costs “not outweighed by public benefits.” 
• Place “undue burdens on small business and impede private enterprise and entrepreneurship.”  

Its aim: The executive order “[f]ocuses on rules lacking clear statutory authority, imposing considerable costs, or hindering innovation and economic development,” according to law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld. 
 
What it authorizes: It also gives agency heads the discretion to end enforcement proceedings they believe to be noncompliant with the law or the Trump administration’s authority. 
 
The NAM’s actions: The EO aligns with recommendations that the NAM and more than 100 other manufacturing associations made to President Trump in December regarding the need to address the regulatory onslaught. 

• The NAM-led group called for a “regulatory reset” to “stop the trend of overreaching regulations that seek to expand agencies’ authority.” 
• “You have the opportunity to tackle this challenge [of overregulation] by addressing burdensome regulations that are stifling investment, making us less competitive in the world, limiting innovation and threatening the very jobs we are all working to create right here in America,” the NAM-led coalition told the president. “Let’s get to work and make America’s manufacturing sector unstoppable.” 

Each month, MTI’s Regulatory Impact Task Force will keep Members advised of the key issues moving in Congress and Regulations that impact the heat treating and manufacturing industry.