2014 -- H 7785

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LC005085

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     STATE OF RHODE ISLAND

IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

JANUARY SESSION, A.D. 2014

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H O U S E   R E S O L U T I O N

SUPPORTING PRESIDENT OBAMA'S VISION FOR 21ST CENTURY MANUFACTURING

AND TRADE IN AMERICA AND THE DESIGNATION OF RHODE ISLAND AS A

"MANUFACTURING COMMUNITY"

     Introduced By: Representatives Marshall, Mattiello, Serpa, Costantino, and DeSimone

     Date Introduced: March 04, 2014

     Referred To: House read and passed

     WHEREAS, Rhode Island has among the oldest and most deeply ingrained

manufacturing cultures in America, beginning in 1793, when Samuel Slater opened the first

successful factory in the United States in the City of Pawtucket; and

     WHEREAS, Rhode Island is uniquely and strategically positioned to take advantage of

both transatlantic trade and the resurgence in manufacturing; and

     WHEREAS, Rhode Island is geographically positioned 150 miles east of the Port of New

York, providing for shorter and less expensive transatlantic shipping from Europe; and

      WHEREAS, Rhode Island hosts two major ports, the Port of Providence, and the Port of

Davisville at Quonset, which was a former Navy Base, now a successful Business Park; and

     WHEREAS, The Rhode Island Commerce Corporation seeks to secure funding to

implement a Design and Manufacturing Center that will accelerate the resurgence in

manufacturing and trade in Rhode Island; and

     WHEREAS, The Rhode Island Design and Manufacturing Center will consist of three

primary components: Manufacturing Design and Engineering and Market Analysis; Technology

Development and Applications; and Workforce Training; and

     WHEREAS, Center Partners include manufacturers, entrepreneurs, institutions of higher

education, state agencies, and federal research and development centers in the region; and

     WHEREAS, This collaboration aims to bring together partners knowledgeable in the

existing manufacturing and supply line landscape, the workforce needs of business, curriculum

development, workforce training, product design, entrepreneurship, R&D, and the maritime

infrastructure of the region in order to ensure that the various actors in the public and private

sectors that are engaged in manufacturing and trade are consistently on the same page; and

     WHEREAS, With the creation of the Rhode Island Design and Manufacturing Center, for

the first time, private investors, entrepreneurs, and the general public will have a single voice that

can speak and act with confidence and clarity as to exactly what manufacturing opportunities

exist in the region, and what efforts are ongoing to expand them; and

     WHEREAS, The Rhode Island Commerce Corporation is preparing a Phase II Grant

proposal to the United States Economic Development Administration under a program that would

designate Rhode Island as a "Manufacturing Community," thereby providing for priority funding

from over thirteen federal agencies with the combined financial resource of over $1.3 billion;

now, therefore be it

     RESOLVED, That this House of Representatives of the State of Rhode Island and

Providence Plantations hereby supports the Rhode Island Commerce Corporation's Phase II Grant

proposal to the United States Economic Development Administration that would designate Rhode

Island as a "Manufacturing Community"; and be it further

     RESOLVED, That this House hereby respectfully requests our state's Congressional

Delegation to pursue and endorse Rhode Island being designated as a "Manufacturing

Community"; and be it further

     RESOLVED, That the Secretary of State be and hereby is authorized and directed to

transmit a duly certified copy of this resolution to the President of the United States, members of

Rhode Island's Congressional Delegation, the Majority Leader of the United States Senate, the

Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, and the Director of the Rhode Island

Commerce Corporation.

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LC005085

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