The Invent Here, Make Here Act passes the Senate, while the House advances legislation to create a trade crimes unit at the Justice Department.
There are just a few weeks to go before the holidays, which means we are entering “let’s circle back after the New Year” season. The sentiment doesn’t just apply to office workers; Members of the 118th Congress also are working to wrap up their business before this session officially ends on Jan. 3, 2025.
That means there’s been movement on a whole lot of legislation over the past few days, including two bipartisan bills we’ve been watching this session.
The Invent Here, Make Here Act
Introduced by Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and Vice President-elect JD Vance (R-Ohio), the Invent Here, Make Here Act passed the Senate on unanimous voice vote on Wednesday. The bipartisan legislation aims to address the problem of taxpayer-funded inventions being manufactured overseas, especially in countries of concern like China, Russia, or Iran.
The bill now heads to the House of Representatives. Should it become law, scrutiny of the waiver process that’s allowed countries of concern to manufacture these American inventions would be strengthened. Meanwhile, the National Institute of Standards and Technology would be required to better coordinate with other federal agencies so that more things that are invented in the United States thanks to taxpayer funding are also manufactured in the United States.
“The Alliance for American Manufacturing applauds Senators Baldwin (D-WI) and Vance (R-OH) for their work to pass the Invent Here, Make Here Act, which adds accountability, transparency, and teeth to a broken waiver process that has been used to outsource our taxpayer funded innovations to China,” said Alliance for American Manufacturing President Scott Paul. “This bill is a step in the right direction, and we look forward to continuing to work with Senator Baldwin to ensure that our breakthrough technologies are made in America.”
Protecting American Industry and Labor from International Trade Crimes Act
Another piece of legislation we’ve been watching that has advanced this week is the Protecting American Industry and Labor from International Trade Crimes Act, which passed the House on Tuesday.
Introduced by Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-Iowa) and Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Chairman John Moolenaar (R-Mich.) and Ranking Member Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) the bill would create a new structure within the Justice Department to investigate and prosecute trade crimes.
“While tariffs are one tool in our toolkit to level the playing field, we also must enforce our trade laws and hold China accountable for repeated violations that have a catastrophic impact on American workers and industry,” Hinson said in a floor speech in support of the bill. “By strengthening the [incoming Trump administration] DOJ’s ability to detect and prosecute international trade crimes, my bipartisan bill will ensure that Communist China and other perpetrators are criminally liable for illicit activity and that penalties are enforced. This will help reshore domestic manufacturing and provide opportunities for American workers.”
We supported this legislation when it was introduced earlier this year, with AAM President Scott Paul noting that it “rightly prioritizes the prosecution of trade crimes and is both sorely needed and long overdue. Customs fraud and other trade crimes are pernicious in their reach, harming domestic industries, destroying jobs, and robbing communities across the country of their economic lifeblood.”
Should the legislation ultimately become law, we hope the new trade crimes unit at the Justice Department will receive the funding and other tools it needs to function effectively and carry out its mission.
In the meantime, we’ll keep an eye on both pieces of legislation in these final weeks of the congressional session and provide additional updates in this space.