Press Releases

   

(Left: Bill Willis, Owner, Willis Chevrolet; Mary Jane Willis, Wife of Bill Willis; Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester; Isaac Willis, General Manager, Willis Chevrolet; David Regan, Executive Vice President of Legislative Affairs, National Automobile Dealers Association)

(Right: Mike Rasmussen, Founder, Painted Stave; Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester; Ron Gomes, Founder, Painted Stave)

SMYRNA, Del.  — Today, Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.) visited two businesses in Kent County — Willis Chevrolet and Painted Stave — to discuss the inventory and product challenges Delaware businesses are facing due to supply chain disruptions. Blunt Rochester was joined by Willis Chevrolet owner, Bill Willis, and the dealership’s General Manager, Isaac Willis, as well as Painted Stave owners, Mike Rasmussen and Ron Gomes, at their respective businesses. Willis Chevrolet, a family-owned, Smyrna-based dealership, is facing a car inventory shortage caused by the ongoing lack of availability of semiconductor chips. Painted Stave, a Smyrna-based distillery, is facing packaging issues caused by supply chain disruptions hindering the businesses from being able to purchase glass bottles and cardboard packaging materials. 

“Unfortunately, the challenges Willis Chevrolet and Painted Stave are facing are a common refrain among businesses in Delaware and across the country right now – higher costs and more difficulty meeting demand because of supply chain disruptions. That’s why if we can make it here in America, we should,” said Rep. Blunt Rochester. “As a member of the conference committee to negotiate the House-passed America COMPETES Act and the Senate-passed companion bill, I’m working across the aisle to address our supply chain challenges impacting Delawareans – that means increasing our domestic manufacturing of critical goods here in the U.S. to drive down inflation and allow Delaware businesses to get the products they need without long waiting periods.”

Blunt Rochester, a member of the bipartisan conference committee to reconcile the House-passed America COMPETES Act and the Senate-passed United States Innovation and Competition Act (USICA), highlighted the investments at today’s visits that could come from a final combined package which includes investments in our domestic manufacturing sector – chief among them being is to make more critical goods in the United States. Currently, Blunt Rochester is leading the supply chain resiliency subtitle, which includes investments in domestic manufacturing, within the America COMPETES Act, alongside Representatives Tom Malinowski (D-NJ-7), Adam Kinzinger (R-IL-16), Carolyn Bordeaux (D-GA-7), Robin Kelly (D-IL-2), and Susan Wild (D-PA-7). These provisions would:

• Establish the Office of Manufacturing Security and Resilience (Office) within the Department of Commerce responsible for leading a government-wide effort to strengthen supply chains critical to the nation’s economic vitality and national security. 

• Commission the Office to map and monitor supply chains, identify supply chain gaps and vulnerabilities, and identify opportunities to address supply chain risk.

• Provide financial assistance for domestic manufacturers to expand their capacity within the United States to pull manufacturing out of foreign countries.

• Equip the private sector with the best practices and guidelines needed to proactively identify and mitigate supply chain vulnerabilities.

In February, Blunt Rochester voted to pass the America COMPETES Act through the House of Representatives. In March, Blunt Rochester hosted a virtual conversation with Delaware stakeholders on America COMPETES and her supply chain resiliency legislation included in the House-passed package. Currently, the America COMPETES Act has over 150 industry sponsors – from labor unions to the private sector. In April, Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif) named Members of the House, including Blunt Rochester, to go to conference with the Senate over the House’s America COMPETES Act of 2022. Blunt Rochester’s remarks at the first conference committee hearing can be found here.

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