In Maine on Friday, President Joe Biden will sign an executive order aimed at boosting domestic manufacturing of new inventions, a White House official said late Thursday.
Auburn will be the setting for Biden’s afternoon remarks on economic policy. The president will tout a “manufacturing boom” of 800,000 jobs nationally since he took office. That subject has resonance in Maine, which lost nearly half of its manufacturing jobs between 1990 and 2021 and has seen only a small recovery of late due to a slow transition from legacy industries.
Among the highlights of the Democrat’s tenure so far are the bipartisan CHIPS Act, which provided funding for domestic semiconductor production, and the Inflation Reduction Act, a Democratic climate bill that includes manufacturing incentives.
The “Invent it Here, Make it Here” order that the president will sign on Friday attempts to build on that by ordering agencies to use existing power to put more government money behind supporting domestic manufacturing of emerging technologies and raising standards for government purchasing of products that cannot be made domestically.
The backdrop for Biden’s remarks will be Auburn Manufacturing, a company that makes heat-resistant textiles and has been fighting a yearslong trade war with China over subsidies to its competitors there. The company has experienced “double-digit growth” due in part to Biden’s policies, the White House said.
Maine has gained 1,200 manufacturing jobs during Biden’s tenure, although that is one of the weakest recoveries among states amid national gains. Over the last year, the state has actually lost jobs that canceled out gains at emerging manufacturers. However, wages rose by 6.6 percent from June 2022 through last month, according to federal data.
While this is an official event, Biden is making the first Maine visit of his presidency to the closely divided 2nd Congressional District, which voted twice for former President Donald Trump. The former Republican president remains the front-runner for his party’s nomination to take on Biden in the 2024 election.
