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As America celebrates its semiquincentennial, manufacturers are looking ahead to the next 250 years, according to 51�Թ��� President and CEO Jay Timmons.

What’s going on: “Manufacturing made America what it is,” Timmons said during a recent  with Pennsylvania Manufacturers’ Association President and CEO David Taylor, which aired last week on that organization’s “PMA Perspective” news program.

• “The greatness of America has been really embedded in the ability of our people to create, to build. … As we set the stage for the next 250 years … we want to make sure that our federal legislators are focused on a comprehensive manufacturing strategy.”
• The interview, which took place during the 51�Թ���’s recent 2026 State of Manufacturing Tour, was held at historic Carpenters’ Hall in Philadelphia, the site of the First Continental Congress in 1774.

Four pillars of success: The tour stop in Philadelphia, the United States’ first capital, “pointed out how important our foundational ideas are to creating the environment for success for manufacturing in the years to come,” Timmons said.

• “And that’s why we want to renew that commitment with our Manufacturers’ Accord for the Next 250 Years to focus on those four pillars that made America exceptional: free enterprise, competitiveness, individual liberty and equal opportunity.”

What manufacturers need: To continue its success for at least another 250 years, American manufacturing needs several things, Timmons told Taylor, some of which the administration has delivered already. These include the following:

• A favorable tax environment: The “strengthening of [tax] reforms in 2025 was really the rocket fuel that manufacturers needed to give us a boost in terms of investment, job creation and wage growth.”
• Permitting reform: “[W]hile we have a commitment to energy dominance, we still have an issue with getting projects off the ground.”
• Immigration reform: “We … need to look at a credible system of [legal] immigration” to help fill open manufacturing jobs.
• Workforce development: “We have an obligation to make sure that our workers are trained appropriately in [new] skills,” such as interacting with artificial intelligence.

The last word: “[E]very single person has a voice in this choir,” Timmons concluded.

• “And we need citizens, business leaders [and] everyday folks to call their members of Congress … to say, ‘We want this country to come together for the good of the American people and work on policies that will reduce the cost of doing business in the United States and make us more competitive.’”