Lawmakers and community leaders gathered at D’Addario & Company guitar string manufacturer in Farmingdale on Monday to announce new legislation aimed at bringing back local manufacturing jobs that have been outsourced.
The “Bring the Jobs Home Loan Act” will allow the Small Business Administration (SBA) to offer loans to businesses that want to bring production from overseas back to the United States to “reshore” more jobs for Americans.
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“With the economic crisis it’s hard to get a conventional loan from any bank if you’re a small-sized business or even a larger business, and almost impossible to get financing to reshore jobs.” Rep. Steve Israel (D-Huntington) said when he introduced the bill.
The bill will not use any taxpayer money, according to Israel, and will provide manufacturers with capital needed to redesign the facilities and provide training to new employees.
The idea for the bill came from Long Islander Jim D’Addario, CEO of D’Addario & Company, who co-chairs Israel’s local manufacturing task force. D’Addario has been reshoring previously outsourced jobs over the past few years.
While there was a time were it was more economically sensible to outsource, he said that bringing the jobs back helped with quality control and reduced distribution costs.
“In the middle of recession we looked at what we were importing, and said ‘what can we make here?’” D’Addario said as his factory employees stood behind him smiling. “We were really happy to see that we can actually make a lot of those products here efficiently.”
“We control the quality and are creating American jobs, and that’s something that I think is our responsibility,” he added.
If a business receives a loan from the SBA, they are required to report back within two years with what facility or equipment changes have been made and which products that were previously produced abroad are now being produced in the country.
Source Article from http://www.longislandpress.com/2012/02/28/bill-would-bring-back-outsourced-li-jobs/
