II 

115TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 701 

To improve the competitiveness of United States manufacturing by 

designating and supporting manufacturing communities. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MARCH 22, 2017 

Mrs. GILLIBRAND (for herself, Mr. BLUMENTHAL, Mr. MORAN, Mrs. CAPITO, 

Mr. KING, and Ms. COLLINS) introduced the following bill; which was 

read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and 

Transportation 

A BILL 

To improve the competitiveness of United States manufacturing by designating and supporting manufacturing 

communities. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Made in America Man5 ufacturing Communities Act of 2017’’. 

6 SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 

7 In this Act: 

8 (1) MANUFACTURING COMMUNITY SUPPORT

9 PROGRAM.—The term ‘‘Manufacturing Community 


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1 Support Program’’ means the program established 

2 under section 3(a). 

3 (2) PARTICIPATING AGENCY.—The term ‘‘par4 ticipating agency’’ means a Federal agency that 

5 elects to participate in the Manufacturing Commu6 nity Support Program. 

7 (3) PARTICIPATING PROGRAM.—The term ‘‘par8 ticipating program’’ means a program identified by 

9 a participating agency under section 3(c)(1)(C). 

10 (4) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 

11 the Secretary of Commerce. 

12 SEC. 3. PROGRAM TO DESIGNATE AND SUPPORT MANUFAC13 TURING COMMUNITIES. 

14 (a) PROGRAM AUTHORIZED.—The Secretary shall es15 tablish a program to improve the competitiveness of 

16 United States manufacturing— 

17 (1) by designating consortiums as manufac18 turing communities under subsection (b); and 

19 (2) by supporting manufacturing communities, 

20 as so designated, under subsection (c). 

21 (b) DESIGNATION OF MANUFACTURING COMMU22 NITIES.— 

23 (1) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in para24 graph (7), for purposes of the Manufacturing Com25 munity Support Program, the Secretary shall desVerDate Sep 11 2014 04:32 Mar 24, 2017 Jkt 069200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S701.IS S701

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1 ignate eligible consortiums as manufacturing com2 munities through a competitive process. 

3 (2) ELIGIBLE CONSORTIUMS.— 

4 (A) IN GENERAL.—An eligible consortium 

5 is a consortium that— 

6 (i) represents a region defined by the 

7 consortium in accordance with subpara8 graph (B); 

9 (ii) includes at least one— 

10 (I) institution of higher edu11 cation; 

12 (II) a private sector entity; and 

13 (III) a government entity; 

14 (iii) may include one or more— 

15 (I) private sector partners; 

16 (II) institutions of higher edu17 cation; 

18 (III) government entities; 

19 (IV) economic development and 

20 other community and labor groups; 

21 (V) financial institutions; or 

22 (VI) utilities; 

23 (iv) has, as a lead applicant— 

24 (I) a district organization (as de25 fined in section 300.3 of title 13, 


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1 Code of Federal Regulations, or suc2 cessor regulation); 

3 (II) an Indian tribe (as defined 

4 in section 4 of the Indian Self-Deter5 mination and Education Assistance 

6 Act (25 U.S.C. 450b)) or a consor7 tium of Indian tribes; 

8 (III) a State or a political sub9 division of a State, including a special 

10 purpose unit of a State or local gov11 ernment engaged in economic or in12 frastructure development activities, or 

13 a consortium of political subdivisions; 

14 (IV) an institution of higher edu15 cation or a consortium of institutions 

16 of higher education; or 

17 (V) a public or private nonprofit 

18 organization or association that has 

19 an application that is supported by a 

20 State, a political subdivision of a 

21 State, or a native community. 

22 (B) REGIONS.—Subject to approval by the 

23 Secretary, a consortium may define the region 

24 that it represents if the region— 


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1 (i) is large enough to contain critical 

2 elements of the key technologies or supply 

3 chain prioritized by the consortium; and 

4 (ii) is small enough to enable close 

5 collaboration among members of the con6 sortium. 

7 (3) DURATION.—Each designation under para8 graph (1) shall be for a period of two years. 

9 (4) RENEWAL.— 

10 (A) IN GENERAL.—Upon receipt of an ap11 plication submitted under subparagraph (B), 

12 the Secretary may renew a designation made 

13 under paragraph (1) for up to two additional 

14 two-year periods. Any designation as a manu15 facturing community or renewal of such des16 ignation that is in effect before the date of the 

17 enactment of this Act shall count toward the 

18 limit set forth in this subparagraph. 

19 (B) APPLICATION FOR RENEWAL.—An eli20 gible consortium seeking a renewal under sub21 paragraph (A) shall submit an application to 

22 the Secretary at such time, in such manner, 

23 and containing such information as the Sec24 retary may require. 


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1 (C) MODIFICATIONS AUTHORIZED.—The 

2 Secretary may renew a designation under sub3 paragraph (A) for an eligible consortium that— 

4 (i) has changed its composition, either 

5 by adding or removing members; or 

6 (ii) as part of its application under 

7 subparagraph (B), submits a revision to 

8 the plan submitted under paragraph 

9 (5)(B)(iv) or the strategy submitted under 

10 paragraph (5)(B)(v). 

11 (D) EVALUATION FOR RENEWAL.—In de12 termining whether to renew a designation of an 

13 eligible consortium under paragraph (1), the 

14 Secretary shall assess the eligible consortium 

15 based upon— 

16 (i) the performance of the consortium 

17 against the terms of the consortium’s most 

18 recent designation under paragraph (1) 

19 and any post-designation awards the con20 sortium may have received; 

21 (ii) the progress the consortium has 

22 made with respect to project-specific 

23 metrics the consortium proposed in the 

24 consortium’s application for the most re25 cent designation under paragraph (1), parVerDate Sep 11 2014 04:32 Mar 24, 2017 Jkt 069200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S701.IS S701

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1 ticularly with respect to those metrics that 

2 were designed to help communities track 

3 their own progress; 

4 (iii) whether any changes to the com5 position of the eligible consortium or revi6 sions to the plan or strategy described in 

7 subparagraph (C)(ii) would improve the 

8 competitiveness of United States manufac9 turing; and 

10 (iv) such other criteria as the Sec11 retary considers appropriate. 

12 (5) APPLICATION FOR DESIGNATION.— 

13 (A) IN GENERAL.—An eligible consortium 

14 seeking a designation under paragraph (1) shall 

15 submit an application to the Secretary at such 

16 time and in such manner as the Secretary may 

17 require. 

18 (B) CONTENTS.—Each application sub19 mitted to the Secretary under subparagraph (A) 

20 include— 

21 (i) a description of the regional 

22 boundaries of the consortium; 

23 (ii) a description of the manufacturing 

24 concentration of the consortium, including 

25 an assessment of how the manufacturing 


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1 concentration of the consortium competi2 tively ranks nationally according to meas3 ures relating to employment, sales, location 

4 quotients for an industry’s level of con5 centration, or such other measures as the 

6 Secretary considers appropriate; 

7 (iii) an integrated assessment of the 

8 local industrial ecosystem of the region of 

9 the consortium, which may include assess10 ment of workforce and training, supplier 

11 network, research and innovation, infra12 structure or site development, trade and 

13 international investment, operational im14 provements, and capital access components 

15 needed for manufacturing activities in such 

16 region; 

17 (iv) an evidence-based plan for devel18 oping components of such ecosystem (se19 lected by the consortium)— 

20 (I) by making specific invest21 ments to address gaps in such eco22 system; and 

23 (II) by making the manufac24 turing of the region of the consortium 

25 uniquely competitive; 


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1 (v) a description of the investments 

2 the consortium proposes and the imple3 mentation strategy the consortium intends 

4 to use to address gaps in such ecosystem; 

5 (vi) a description of the outcome6 based metrics, benchmarks, and milestones 

7 that the consortium will track and the 

8 evaluation methods the consortium will use 

9 while designated as a manufacturing com10 munity to gauge performance of the strat11 egy of the consortium to improve the man12 ufacturing in the region of the consortium; 

13 and 

14 (vii) such other matters as the Sec15 retary considers appropriate. 

16 (6) EVALUATION OF APPLICATIONS.—The Sec17 retary shall evaluate each application received under 

18 paragraph (5) to determine— 

19 (A) whether the applicant demonstrates a 

20 significant level of regional cooperation in their 

21 proposal; and 

22 (B) how the manufacturing concentration 

23 of the applicant competitively ranks nationally 

24 according to measures described in paragraph 

25 (5)(B)(ii). 


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1 (7) CERTAIN COMMUNITIES PREVIOUSLY REC2 OGNIZED.—Each consortium that was designated as 

3 a manufacturing community by the Secretary in car4 rying out the Investing in Manufacturing Commu5 nities Partnership initiative of the Department of 

6 Commerce before the date of the enactment of this 

7 Act shall be deemed a manufacturing community 

8 designated under this subsection if such consortium 

9 is still designated as a manufacturing community by 

10 the Secretary as part of such initiative. 

11 (c) SUPPORT FOR DESIGNATED MANUFACTURING

12 COMMUNITIES.— 

13 (1) PREFERENTIAL CONSIDERATION.— 

14 (A) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in 

15 subparagraph (D), if a member of a consortium 

16 designated as a manufacturing community 

17 under subsection (b) seeks financial or technical 

18 assistance under a participating program of a 

19 participating agency, the head of such agency 

20 may give preferential consideration to such 

21 member with respect to the awarding of such fi22 nancial or technical assistance if— 

23 (i) such head considers the award of 

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1 sistent with the economic development 

2 strategy of the consortium; and 

3 (ii) the member otherwise meets all 

4 applicable requirements for the financial or 

5 technical assistance. 

6 (B) PARTICIPATING AGENCIES.—The Sec7 retary shall invite other Federal agencies to be8 come participating agencies of the Manufac9 turing Community Support Program. 

10 (C) PARTICIPATING PROGRAMS.—The head 

11 of each participating agency shall identify all 

12 programs administered by such participating 

13 agency that are applicable to the Manufacturing 

14 Community Support Program. 

15 (D) MULTIPLE MEMBERS OF THE SAME

16 CONSORTIUM SEEKING THE SAME FINANCIAL

17 OR TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE.— 

18 (i) IN GENERAL.—If a participating 

19 agency receives applications for the same 

20 financial or technical assistance from more 

21 than one member of the same consortium 

22 designated as a manufacturing community 

23 under subsection (b), the head of such 

24 agency may determine how preference will 

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1 ing by requiring the consortium to select 

2 which of the members should be given 

3 preference. 

4 (ii) COORDINATION.—If the head of a 

5 participating agency determines that more 

6 than one member of a consortium should 

7 be given preference for financial or tech8 nical assistance under subparagraph (A), 

9 he or she may require such members to 

10 demonstrate coordination with each other 

11 in developing their applications for the fi12 nancial or technical assistance. 

13 (E) REPORT.—Not later than 90 days 

14 after the date of the enactment of this Act, the 

15 head of each participating agency shall submit 

16 a report to the Secretary that specifies how the 

17 head will give preferential consideration under 

18 subparagraph (A). 

19 (2) TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE.—The Secretary 

20 may make a Federal point of contact available to 

21 each consortium designated as a manufacturing 

22 community under subsection (b) to help the mem23 bers of the consortium access Federal funds and 

24 technical assistance. 

25 (3) FINANCIAL AND TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE.— 


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1 (A) IN GENERAL.—Under the Manufac2 turing Community Support Program, the head 

3 of a participating agency may award financial 

4 or technical assistance to a member of a consor5 tium designated as a manufacturing community 

6 under subsection (b) as he or she considers ap7 propriate for purposes of such program and 

8 consistent with the economic development strat9 egy of the consortium. 

10 (B) USE OF FUNDS.— 

11 (i) IN GENERAL.—A recipient of fi12 nancial or technical assistance under sub13 paragraph (A) may use such financial or 

14 technical assistance to support an invest15 ment in an ecosystem that will improve the 

16 competitiveness of United States manufac17 turing. 

18 (ii) INVESTMENTS SUPPORTED.—In19 vestments supported under this subpara20 graph may include— 

21 (I) infrastructure; 

22 (II) access to capital; 

23 (III) promotion of exports and 

24 foreign direct investment; 


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1 (IV) equipment or facility up2 grades; 

3 (V) workforce training or retrain4 ing; 

5 (VI) energy or process efficiency; 

6 (VII) business incubators; 

7 (VIII) site preparation; 

8 (IX) advanced research; 

9 (X) supply chain development; 

10 and 

11 (XI) small business assistance. 

12 (4) COORDINATION.— 

13 (A) COORDINATION BY SECRETARY OF

14 COMMERCE.—The Secretary shall coordinate 

15 with the heads of the participating agencies to 

16 identify programs under paragraph (1)(C). 

17 (B) INTER-AGENCY COORDINATION.—The 

18 heads of the participating agencies shall coordi19 nate with each other— 

20 (i) to leverage complementary activi21 ties, including from non-Federal sources, 

22 such as philanthropies; and 

23 (ii) to avoid duplication of efforts. 

24 (d) RECEIPT OF TRANSFERRED FUNDS.—The Sec25 retary may accept amounts transferred to the Secretary 


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1 from the head of another participating agency to carry out 

2 this section. 

Æ 


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