QUINCY (WGEM) – When you sit down to order at your favorite restaurant, you might notice they don’t have the same menu items as they used to.
Illinois Congressman Rodney Davis and Missouri Congressman Sam Graves visited the Kohl Wholesale Distribution Center in Quincy on Tuesday with an incentive plan they said could help improve supply chain and workforce issues.
Getting product out requires having a workforce and supplies, two key components Kohl Wholesale President Matt Ehrhart said this industry is low on.
“The supply chain right now is a big issue for everyone. Which includes transportation and truck driving,” Ehrhart said.
Congressman Davis said there’s a pilot program helping people under age 21 get their Commercial Driver’s Licenses.
“It’s working with companies like kohls who do a lot of in-house training to figure out how we can get more younger drivers in the seats to be able to participate in a long-term investment in being a driver for facilities like Kohl,” Davis said.
“Through community colleges or other training programs would be really beneficial to help the supply chain and help our company,” Ehrhart said.
Davis said he has a resolution that passed the US House and is waiting on the US Senate.
“It would allow the department of commerce to do a study to identify all of the supply chain shortage products that are not being produced here in the US, that we need to bring back home,” Davis said.
The next step, he said, is the Rural Investment in America Act he introduced.
“What we’re hoping to do is incentives for companies that will manufacture these short supply chain products in the US to be able to expand or invest in our communities,” Davis said.
Davis said once those companies reach a certain level of production and employment, they would be eligible for loan forgiveness.
“To me it’s a great way to incentivize domestic rural manufacturing of the supply chain shortage products,” he said.
“Hopefully it will allow us to be able to expand the business, by having more workers and then of course we could always share that with wages and benefits,” Ehrhart said.
Ehrhart said they also discussed the food safety modernization act and how those policies down the road might affect business here.
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