National Association of Manufacturers CEO & President Jay Timmons joins Yahoo Finance’s On The Move to discuss how they are supplying PPE, medical supplies and ventilators from manufacturers across America.

Video Transcript

JULIE HYMAN: I want to give it to folks who are making stuff here in the United States to help this whole effort. We are joined now by the CEO and president of the National Association of Manufacturers. That is Jay Timmons. Jay is joining us from Virginia. Thank you for being here.

JAY TIMMONS: Good to be with you.

JULIE HYMAN: Some of the nation's manufacturers have said that they have shifted their production from the stuff they usually make, to things to help with the efforts to fight this pandemic. What is their flexibility and longevity in being able to do this? Some of them have told us already they're doing this on no margin. They're selling this stuff at cost. And so, it's a great charitable thing for them to be doing, I just wonder how long they can keep it up.

JAY TIMMONS: Well, that-- that remains to be seen. We need to know how long this-- this crisis is going to last, obviously. But I will say this, manufacturers did step up in a very big way early on. We just completed a survey in conjunction with the Business Roundtable. So the National Association of Manufacturers and the Business Roundtable completed a survey of manufacturers all across the country.

And to your point, we've seen a great number of them stepping up and offering this personal protective equipment, as well as medical supplies, and very much at cost and in most cases. And we've been working with the White House, and FEMA, and HHS, and DHS to move that product out of their facilities and into the hot zones across this country.

MELODY HAHM: Hey, Jay, Melody here. When you think about having a seat at the table, as I understand it you just mentioned really teaming up with the Business Roundtable to have those conversations with the administration, is President Trump being receptive, and responsive, and really kind of aggregating the data that you have collected and taking it to heart? What is the response here, and what does the funnel look like going forward?

JAY TIMMONS: So this is an ongoing process-- and I think that's a great question. It's an ongoing process, and it's a process where we're trying to perfect it every single day. So in our last-- I should say in our very first survey that the NAM conducted about three weeks ago, we had about 1,600 companies step up. And we were able to refine that information down further to get the most viable-- most viable offers out to-- to FEMA and to other parts of the government.

And in this last survey that we just conducted, the one that you just mentioned, several hundred others have stepped up as well. And we're starting to see a great amount of product, and, of course, that's welcome news not only from the administration, but quite frankly, from the governors as well. So governors are also able to take this information and try to procure product for their states directly.

But FEMA has been great to work. Admiral Polachek has been fantastic. We've worked with Peter Navarro and the White House, we've worked with Alex Azar at HHS, and we certainly have had a very welcome reception in doing that. There have been some-- look, there have been some hiccups. I mean, this is just a massive operation. There've been some hiccups, but by and large, it has been an amazing response from manufacturers to be able to step up.

[COUGHS] Pardon me. And to Julie's question, about how long manufacturers can repurpose their lines, that really does remain to be seen. Because we have to remember that we still are producing consumer products, we're still producing food. All of those things have to be made by folks who are taking a real risk. They're frontline workers as well. Frontline responders, first responders, if you will, going to their lines to make these products that will keep us healthy, safe, and fed.

ADAM SHAPIRO: Jay, I am curious, and I'm looking further out once the crisis is passed, do you see a perhaps permanent shift to manufacturing back within our borders because of the way companies have gotten burned by this virus in their, you know, offshore production facilities?

JAY TIMMONS: Well, I think you have to look at that on a case by case basis, Adam. Look, we've got-- we have companies that obviously are manufacturing for the market in which they're-- they're located. So we have them producing here in the United States, but they may also have facilities in Asia or Europe, that are serving those markets as well.

What would I like? I'd like to see every company be able to make everything possible in the United States and export it all over the world. Sometimes, because of logistics and transportation costs, that's just not possible. But as much as we can, sure, we're going to recommend that.

And in fact, not to-- not to take us too far back, but if you look before this crisis hit, and we saw the advances we made with tax policy and regulatory policy, you were already starting to see the next dollar that was invested-- invested here in this country. The next job that was created was created here in this country. We hope to see that really supercharge itself after this crisis is ended.

JULIE HYMAN: So Jay, in the interim, as you talked about-- I imagine many of your constituents, it's pretty uneven, right? There are folks who are making food, which is in high demand right now. Other things not so much in demand. As we debate stimulus, talk about the paycheck protection program and other measures, what do you think will be most effective for your members to help them weather this period?

JAY TIMMONS: Well, we're very pleased with what Congress has already done with the Paycheck Protection Act, with the loan program. I've heard from many of my small manufacturers that they applied on Friday, and that they were accepted. So relative to your last segment, I'm pleased so far with what I'm hearing, but there will clearly be some issues that we will have to help work out. But that was-- that was very important.

Then I think when-- when we start talking about, as Secretary Mnuchin and I guess Marco Rubio has done, you know, how much do we need to fund these programs moving forward? Then we're going to have to talk about, well, what are we going to do to pull the economy out of this? You've heard the President, you've heard Democrats, you've heard Republicans talking about the potential for some massive infrastructure investment.

Obviously, manufacturers would like to see that. We have-- we have a plan called Building to Win. We put it out several years ago. It's as appropriate today as it was then, and that may well help get our economy moving again. I would also say one other thing, before we ended up in this crisis we had over 500,000 open jobs in manufacturing.

Clearly, some of those openings are going to evaporate over the course of the next month or two, but we're still going to have that problem moving forward. And so, that's the strange position manufacturers find ourselves in. We are-- we are highly, highly in demand right now to make the products that we need to keep us healthy, and safe, and fed. But at the same time, we-- we have a skills gap. We have-- we have the need for more highly-skilled and trained employees in the future.

So that's going to be a challenge coming right out of the box, as soon as that-- either that "V" curve or "U" curve hits. I don't know what letter it's going to be, but quite frankly, we're going to need workers in the future.

JULIE HYMAN: Jay, thanks for your time. Stay well. Jay Timmons is the CEO and president of the National Association of Manufacturers. Appreciate it.

JAY TIMMONS: Thanks for having me.