Members of Congress are in their home districts / states until September 10 for the August recess period.  This is a perfect opportunity to contact your legislators and give them your input on how they can help grow the economy and create jobs.  Tell them that pending tax increases, sequestration and overly burdensome regulations are creating an uncertain future for our nation’s manufacturers.  We simply cannot have Congress punt on key pieces of legislation that directly impacts manufacturers until after the elections, or worse, the start of the new year.  It is also critical that lawmakers’ policies and agendas support a strong manufacturing base.

  Tell Congress that Manufacturing Means Jobs!

It is critical that Congress quickly consider Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) with Russia when the House and Senate return to Capitol Hill in September. PNTR would open Russia’s $300 billion export market to manufacturers in the United States. Russia officially joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) yesterday (Wednesday, August 22). Unfortunately, the United States will be the only country in the WTO that will not automatically benefit from Russia’s WTO accession agreement because it has not yet extended PNTR with Russia, placing US manufacturers at a global disadvantage. US goods accounted for only 4 percent of the $310 billion of Russian imports in 2011.