Congress pushes for manufacturing czar at Biden White House
29 March 2021
Senators in both parties plan to push the White House to create a "chief manufacturing officer" who would report directly to President Biden, mirroring representation now enjoyed by science and technology.
- The idea has endorsements from a whole host of trade groups, representing both industry and labor.
Why it matters: Every modern White House talks about its desire to elevate manufacturing, particularly as America's economy has become more services-oriented.
- The goal of this bill is to put more meat on the rhetorical bones, including coordination with Congress on lessons learned from the pandemic.
Driving the news: A bipartisan group of federal legislators today will introduce a 43-page bill to create the Office of Manufacturing and Industrial Innovation Policy (OMII).
- This would be the manufacturing equivalent to the Office of Science and Technology Policy, which works alongside (but not under) the National Economic Council.
- It would initially have five direct employees, although expectations would be to build out the office.
Bill sponsors include Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn), Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio).
- It also has endorsements from a whole host of trade groups, representing both industry and labor.
By the numbers: U.S. manufacturing has increased in each of the past nine months, with February's PMI hitting its highest mark since August 2018. March manufacturing data will be released this Thursday.
- U.S. manufacturing employment also has been rebounding from its pandemic lows, but is still over half a million jobs shy of where it was in February 2020.
The bottom line: This bill has bipartisan, bicameral support. But, as we've learned so many times before, its fate may be determined not by its merits or sponsorships, but by what larger piece of legislation it gets tied to.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.