Cantwell Announces $41 Million to Protect Aviation Manufacturing Jobs in Washington State

Cantwell-championed program to protect 2,280 jobs in Washington state

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Chair of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, announced that $482 million will be allocated to aviation manufacturers in the first round of Aviation Manufacturing Jobs Protection Program (AMJP) funding. Approximately $41 million will go to 32 Washington state manufacturers and protect an estimated 2,280 aerospace jobs. Senator Cantwell led the effort to secure this funding in the American Rescue Plan which passed in March. 

“This is good news for aviation supply chain manufacturers in Washington. The COVID pandemic caused major slowdowns in the aviation supply chain, and manufacturers had to lay off thousands of workers. With aviation manufacturing not targeted to recover until well into 2022, at the earliest, this aviation protection program will help in hiring back some of those workers and staving off further layoffs at a critical time. In Washington state, an estimated 2,280 jobs will be protected as a result of this funding, from small machine shops to larger suppliers of aircraft components,” said Senator Cantwell.

In February, Cantwell spoke on the Senate floor on the importance of including this funding for the aviation sector to prevent further job loss and emphasized its significance for Washington state’s workforce, “We have to continue to focus on our airline sector, which is basically about 5% of our GDP. We need to focus on aviation manufacturing, where we’ve lost already 100,000 workers, and the potential to lose another 200,000 workers. We can’t afford that.”

The health of the aerospace supply chain is critical to the U.S. aviation industry as a whole. Nationwide, pre-pandemic levels showed the aerospace industry employed about 2.19 million jobs with 58 percent attributed to supply chain jobs. Prior to COIVD-19, Washington state supported 130,000 direct aerospace employees and produced 1,400 aircraft and unmanned aerial systems, accounting for more than $50 billion product exports annually.

The COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted the aviation manufacturing, maintenance, repair and overhaul industries. More than 100,000 supply chain jobs have already been lost since the outbreak of the pandemic, including 30,000 jobs in Washington State.

The Aviation Manufacturing Jobs Protection Program will support this critical workforce through grants to retain, rehire or recall skilled employees. Additional rounds of AMJP funding will further help mitigate these risks to the industry and will support the overall recovery of the aviation sector.

In March, Cantwell wrote Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg asking the agency to quickly implement the program. In June and again in July, Senator Cantwell urged Washington state aerospace manufactures to retain their employees by applying to the AMJP program before the application deadline.

Washington AMJP Awardees:

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