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.