Made in America Jobs Act of 2026

Floor Speech

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Mr. HURD of Colorado. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 7342, the Made in America Jobs Act of 2026, which I am proud to lead with my colleague from Alabama, Congressman Shomari Figures.

This is a straightforward, practical bill. It ensures that Economic Development Administration funds can be used to support projects that help bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States, especially in communities that need them the most, all without creating new programs or increasing spending.

Now, manufacturing does not move one factory at a time. It moves in ecosystems. It requires roads, utilities, workforce, and sites that are ready for investment. Too often, rural communities have the land, the workforce, and certainly the work ethic, but they lose out because they don't have the infrastructure in place when an opportunity comes along. In western and southern Colorado, I see that every day.

We have communities that can support things like agricultural processing facilities, equipment repair, and fabrication shops, small- scale energy manufacturing, and value-added production for the crops and resources that we already produce.

When a company looks at a site and sees that the water, sewer, or access roads aren't ready, the project goes somewhere else. That means fewer good-paying jobs, and it means more young people leaving our communities to find opportunity elsewhere.

This legislation helps fix that. It gives communities the tools to get sites ready, to compete for investment, and to keep more of that economic activity right here at home. It strengthens our industrial base, it supports rural economies, and it does it in a targeted and fiscally responsible way.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Graves and Congressman Figures as well as our staffs for their work on this bill. I urge my colleagues to support it.

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