Today in Wisconsin, Vice President Kamala Harris will visit Nokia and Sanmina Corporation in Pleasant Prairie, Kenosha County, Wisconsin to highlight the Biden-Harris Administration's efforts to invest in high-speed internet, boost domestic manufacturing, and create good jobs. Vice President Harris' visit coincides with Nokia announcing the manufacturing of broadband network electronics products for the BEAD program in the U.S. that will add up to 200 new jobs at Sanmina Corporation's state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Pleasant Prairie, Kenosha County, Wisconsin. The announcement will make Nokia the first telecom company to begin manufacturing broadband electronics products in the United States in 2024. The Vice President will be joined by Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Senator Tammy Baldwin.
The announcement is the latest in a string of domestic manufacturing announcements that have been spurred by the Biden-Harris Administration's high-speed internet investments and Made-in-America policies, part of the President's Investing in America agenda and a clear sign that Bidenomics is working. Across the high-speed internet industry, most electronics products are not currently manufactured in the U.S., but Buy America provisions in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law are driving the onshoring of new manufacturing, particularly ahead of implementation of the $42.45 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program.
Just as Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Rural Electrification Act brought electricity to nearly every home and farm in America, President Biden and Vice President Harris are delivering on their historic commitment to connect everyone in America to affordable, reliable high-speed internet by the end of the decade. The Biden-Harris Administration's historic Internet For All initiative is investing $90 billion to bring affordable, reliable high-speed internet service to every community in America is creating good-paying manufacturing jobs and revitalizing the domestic broadband manufacturing industry.
Other recent private sector domestic manufacturing announcements include:
- Corning, a producer of optical fiber and cable, celebrated the expansion of its U.S. manufacturing capacity with the opening of a new manufacturing campus near Hickory, North Carolina. The more than $500 million investment to build fiber in the U.S. adds hundreds of manufacturing jobs to Corning's more than 5,000 employees in the state.
- CommScope, a provider of broadband network equipment, recently announced a $60 million investment towards expanding its U.S. fiber optic cable manufacturing at its facility in Catawba, North Carolina. This investment will create more than 250 new jobs over the next five years, and create a fiber optic cable, "HeliARC" which is specifically designed for rural fiber network architecture.
- Prysmian, a manufacturer of optical fiber and fiber optic cable, announced a $30 million investment to convert its Jackson, Tennessee, copper cable facility into a state-of-the-art fiber optic cable manufacturing plant. As part of this plant retrofitting, Prysmian transitioned their workforce, retraining and retaining nearly 90% of employees. Prysmian has made a significant effort to hire and train female manufacturing workers, who make up 42% of plant employees compared to an industry average of about 25%.
Buy Americarequirements are key to ensuring we maximize the economic potential of the Internet for All initiative. Manufacturing the iron, steel, fiber, and construction materials needed to deliver affordable, reliable high-speed internet service to millions of Americans is an opportunity to create jobs right here at home. Funds for the BEAD program will be used to purchase items manufactured in the U.S., such as iron, steel, and fiber. Additional specific rules for spending BEAD program funds are forthcoming.
As President Biden said in his State of the Union address, "We're making sure that every community - every community in America has access to affordable, high-speed Internet… I'm also announcing new standards to require all construction materials used in federal infrastructure projects to be made in America. Made in America. I mean it. Lumber, glass, drywall, fiber-optic cable."
Today's announcement is part of President Biden's Investing in America Agenda, which includes the historic investments from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Inflation Reduction Act, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the American Rescue Plan. Together, these investments are unleashing a manufacturing boom, helping rebuild our infrastructure and bring back supply chains, lowering costs for hardworking families, and creating jobs that don't require a four-year degree across the country. The private sector has already invested more than $500 billion in new manufacturing here in America, including for semiconductors, electric batteries, EV charging, rail manufacturing, water parts and more.
