EXCLUSIVE: ‘Made in America’: Rep. Andy Barr hails Ford’s $1 billion Kentucky expansion as Working Families Tax Cut win

Ford is pouring another $1 billion into its massive Kentucky manufacturing operations, and Rep. Andy Barr (R., Ky.) says the investment shows how Republicans’ Working Families Tax Cut is encouraging companies to build in America.

Ford announced Wednesday that it will invest $1 billion to build a new state-of-the-art paint shop at its Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville, further modernizing what Ford calls its largest and highest-revenue U.S. manufacturing plant.

“Made in America, right here in Kentucky,” Barr told the Washington Reporter exclusively.

“Ford’s announcement is the latest major manufacturing expansion since the Working Families Tax Cut that I voted became law,” Barr continued. “The 100% bonus depreciation and the Made in America Tax Credit in the Working Families Tax Cut are helping us boost production right here in Kentucky.”

The tax law made 100 percent first-year depreciation permanent for most qualifying business property acquired after Jan. 19, 2025, allowing manufacturers to immediately deduct qualifying investments in equipment and machinery rather than depreciating those costs over several years.

The investment lands at the center of one of Kentucky’s largest manufacturing footprints.

Kentucky Truck Plant produces F-Series Super Duty pickups, the Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator, with a vehicle rolling off the assembly line every 45 seconds. Ford employs more than 11,500 people across Kentucky, according to a Ford press release.

Ford estimates its total economic impact in Kentucky exceeds $33 billion annually. A Boston Consulting Group study cited by Ford found the company contributes $11.7 billion annually to Kentucky’s GDP and that nearly 120,000 people in the state are employed by Ford, its suppliers and dealers.

The announcement is also the latest in a string of major manufacturing investments in Kentucky.

Last week, GE Appliances announced a $1 billion expansion of Louisville’s Appliance Park that will establish it as the largest home appliance manufacturing site in the United States. The project includes moving high-output dryer production from Mexico to Kentucky.

The latest investment adds to a broader shift toward U.S. manufacturing that the Washington Reporter has tracked during President Donald Trump’s second term.

The Reporter previously reported that 83 percent of Ford vehicles sold in the United States were built domestically, with Ford producing more U.S.-built vehicles than any other automaker.

Last week, Acting Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling also praised Ford’s decision to phase out U.S. imports of Lincoln vehicles from China and expand domestic production, telling the Reporter the move was “exactly what we want to see.”

Barr said the tax provisions Republicans enacted are helping give manufacturers another incentive to invest and produce in the United States.

“For more than a century, Ford and Kentucky have grown together,” Ford CEO Jim Farley said in announcing the investment, adding that the company believes “the future of mobility and energy will be built right here in the United States.”