President Trump’s Jobs Plan for Arizona: All Job Creation is Local

President Trump's Jobs Plan for Arizona: All Job Creation is Local

A Special Report by the White House Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy October 26, 2020

Introduction

The Obama-Biden Administration raised taxes, increased regulations, suppressed development of America's mining resources, slashed the defense budget, left our borders wide open, and failed to crack down on unfair trade practices by countries like Communist China. The Trump-Pence administration has pursued just the opposite policies while following an "all job creation is local" approach to stimulating economic growth. Let's see how this strategy is working in the Great State of Arizona.

President Trump Secures the Arizona Border

During the second term of Obama-Biden, Arizona was left defenseless to an influx of illicit drugs, and often lethal narcotics. Six out of ten of the top cities for drug arrests in the country were in Arizona, and five of these top Arizonan cities contained ports of entry.1

To halt this threat, President Trump directed the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Department of Defense (DoD) to expedite the construction of 32 miles of border wall in Yuma.2 In just 3 years, the violent crime rate in Yuma has dropped a whopping 21 percent.3

President Trump and CBP Commissioner Mark Morgan

Visit Border Wall Steel Producers

President Trump has also placed 5,200 additional CBP agents and National Guard troops4 to secure the Southern Border and protect cities like Tucson. The President's Border Wall is the centerpiece of his commitment to protect American families, commerce, and uphold law and order from the dangers of an open border.

As of October 19, 2020 and since 2017, President Trump has constructed more than 380 miles of new border wall system, made with over half a million tons of steel. 50,000 tons of that steel came from Commercial Metals Company (CMC) right in Mesa. An additional more than 350 miles have been funded and are currently under construction or in pre-construction.

While already providing over 300 good-paying manufacturing jobs in Mesa and Glendale, CMC announced in August a $435 million investment that will more than double the size and output of the Mesa facility, adding 185 jobs.5 Over the next decade, CMC forecasts it will bring $10 billion more to Arizona--provided construction of the wall continues. 6

President Trump's Increased Defense Spending Boosts Arizona's Economy

President Trump's dramatic increase in defense spending has been a boon to Arizona--one of the most important States in America's defense industrial base. Spending is up in the state a full 72 percent in Fiscal Years 2018 and 2019 compared to the last two Fiscal Years of the Obama-Biden administration.7

Tucson could just as well be called the guided missile capital of the country. This past April, Tucson-based Raytheon Missiles & Defense was awarded a $900 million contract by the Trump Administration Air Force to manufacture Long Range Standoff Missiles (LRSO) to replace the outdated 1980's-era Air Launched Cruise Missile.8 These LRSOs can be launched from military aircraft such as the B-52 and B-21.9

Lockheed Martin and Raytheon's Joint Venture: The Javelin Missile System

In July, a Raytheon and Lockheed Martin joint-venture received a $50 million award to scale up production of Javelin missile systems, which are portable, shoulder-mounted anti-tank missile systems. 10 These powerful missiles, which will be Made in Arizona, are "fire and forget" lethal weapons capable of defeating all known tanks up to 2,500 meters away.11

The Trump Administration's additional investments in the Raytheon Tucson facility has resulted in the creation of 1,000 jobs, raising the total amount of employees at the plant to 13,000.12

Moving north to Scottsdale, General Dynamics Mission Systems was awarded a $330 million contract in August 2019 to expand production of its Prophet Enhanced systems. These systems are comprised of sensors and high-performance computers to distill critical battlefield information to troops, commanders, and the intelligence community.13 This investment alone will support 2,000 defense industrial base workers.14

In November of 2019, General Dynamics was also awarded a $730 million award to build nextgeneration satellite communications systems, which provide secure voice and data communications for our warfighters worldwide.15 This Mobile User Objective Systems (MUOS) program has extended the employment of nearly 100 engineers, logisticians, and program management professionals.

The much bigger picture here is that of an administration committed to rebuilding and strengthening America's manufacturing and defense industrial base under the banner of "economic security is national security."

The Blue Angels at the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona

Trump Deregulation Expands Mining in the Copper State

Arizona is home to 380 mines16 which extract over $6 billion in non-fuel minerals every year.17 With its rich lodes of copper, gold, silver, lead, and zinc, Arizona is home to 12,000 miners.18 The Copper State provides a whopping 68 percent of the copper supply in the United States--a critical component of our telecommunications, aerospace, energy, and transportation systems.19

In Greenlee County, the Morenci mine alone holds estimated reserves of 3.2 billion tons of copper ore and produces 225 million pounds of copper each year.20 From Safford and Green Valley to Florence and Globe, these mining jobs are very good-paying jobs, earning on average $83,780.21 And note that Arizona's mining industry also supports an additional 31,000 jobs integral to supplying critical minerals for our Nation's infrastructure.22

President Trump's deregulation efforts are helping to boost copper mining specifically and Arizona mining more broadly. Consider the National Environmental Policy Act of 1970 (NEPA), which requires Federal agencies and communities to weigh environmental impacts prior to project approvals. On August 15, 2017, President Trump issued an Executive Order streamlining NEPA review processes so that reviews of major projects will take no longer than 2 years.23 This regulatory reform will expedite and economize permitting processes for mining operations, and deliver safer infrastructure sooner.24

Additionally, in December of 2017, President Trump's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it would not be finalizing an early January 2017 proposed rule imposing financial assurance requirements on Arizona's key hardrock mining industry. This was one of the ObamaBiden Administration's final regulatory blows to the United States mining sector on its way out the door. Not only would this rule have been costly and burdensome, it was also duplicative as Arizona already maintain state-level financial protections for hardrock mining activities. Governor Ducey, and a handful of other western governors, similarly praised the Trump Administration for "eliminating this costly, duplicative and job-killing proposed rule."

On August 31, 2020, President Trump also updated a Bureau of Land Management rule that now streamlines regulations for non-energy solid mineral leasing25 such as potash, phosphate, and sulfur. A month later, he signed an Executive Order addressing the Threat to the Domestic Supply Chain from Reliance on Critical Minerals from Foreign Adversaries.26 This order is designed to boost the Nation's production of critical minerals like copper and nickel.

The broad goal of these strong executive actions is to reduce our Nation's dependence on foreign sources of minerals critical to our economic and national security. The far-reaching vision is to expand Arizona's copper dominance into uranium dominance and silver dominance while leveraging the extraction of other critical minerals like molybdenum, potash, and zinc crucial to our national defense.27

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