The nation moved one step closer to developing a true national manufacturing strategy Tuesday after the House Energy and Commerce Committee passed the National Manufacturing Strategy Act, paving the way for a full House vote by next week.

Recognizing the importance of rebuilding the nation’s floundering manufacturing base, create jobs and revive the economy, Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-IL) introduced the bill that has gained 60 bipartisan co-sponsors.

“Over the last decade, America has lost one-third of all its manufacturing jobs,” Lipinski said in a press release. “Contrary to what some seem to believe, these job losses were not inevitable, and I do not accept the notion that there is nothing we can do.”

Under the legislation, the president would be required to create a Manufacturing Strategy Board housed in the Commerce Department. The board would be comprised of federal officials, two governors of each party and nine private sector leaders.

The group would be charged with analyzing everything in the manufacturing sector from “trade issues to financing to the defense industrial base.” Based on that analysis, the board would then develop a national manufacturing strategy complete with clear and concise short and long-term goals and recommendations on how to achieve those goals.

The first strategy would be scheduled to be presented one year after the legislation is passed and every four years thereafter.

A vibrant manufacturing sector is vital to the nation’s economy. The sector directly employs 12 million Americans and indirectly supports another eight million jobs domestically. The industry is responsible for 70 percent of the nation’s Research & Development and 90 percent of new patent filings. And manufacturing represents 12 percent of gross domestic product and produces 60 percent of the nation’s exports.

America’s failed trade policies, however, have been slowly but surely chipping away at the nation’s manufacturing base as jobs, factories and technologies are shipped to low wage nations with little to no environmental or labor standards. In 1980, around the time that globalization exploded and free trade agreements became more prevalent, the U.S. had 19.2 million manufacturing jobs. Since then, the sector’s total employment has fallen to just 11.6 million.

“Our economy has become totally imbalanced due to outsourcing and an overemphasis on financial services. Congressman Lipinski’s National Manufacturing Strategy Act will ensure America has a real debate about how to help Main Street provide jobs to our citizens and get away from taxpayer-funded bailouts for Wall Street,” William M. Hickey Jr., president of Chicago-based Lapham-Hickey Steel Corp., said in a press release.

Although no similar legislation has been introduced in the Senate yet, Lipinski is currently working with a senator in each party to craft legislation that he says could pass in the upper chamber by the end of the year.

Despite the hyper-partisan nature in Washington right now, passing the bill should not be a typical political mudslinging match given the widespread support among American voters for such a measure. Although The Wall Street Journal does report that some conservatives oppose the measure because of the fact that it “denies progress by giving an unfair advantage to an industry that is no longer the future of the American economy.”

That is certainly not how the American people feel. Eight-three percent of Democrats, 74 percent of Republicans and 78 percent of independents believe that a national manufacturing strategy is necessary. Even 74 percent of Tea Party supporters, who are not known for supporting government intervention into the economy, agree that a national manufacturing strategy is essential, according to a survey conducted by the Mellman Group and Ayres McHenry Associates for the Alliance for American Manufacturing. The issue obviously goes well beyond party lines.

“We can disagree over such issues as the impact of America’s trade agreements and our failure to address China’s mercantilist policies, but I believe that there is broad support for developing and implementing a manufacturing strategy,” Lipinski said. “Passage of this bill would finally put American manufacturing on Washington’s agenda and make it impossible to continue to ignore the industry’s importance or gloss over its difficulties.”

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