SCOOP: On the road with Rep. Lisa McClain for her OBBB bus tour

ALLENTOWN, Pa. —

Rep. Lisa McClain (R., Mich.) took the GOP’s case for the One Big, Beautiful Bill (OBBB) on the road during congressional recess, joining several of her colleagues in their backyards to pitch the Republican Party’s latest landmark legislation.

The Washington Reporter joined her for multiple stops along her tour, which spanned the congressional districts of Reps. Tom Kean (R., N.J.), Rob Bresnahan (R., Pa.), and Ryan Mackenzie (R., Pa.), and placed an emphasis on American manufacturing and national security.

McClain’s tour saw her visit the Alpha Family Restaurant with Kean, i2M with Bresnahan, and both US Metal Powders and a McDonald’s with Mackenzie. The leadership of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) joined along, and told the Reporter that the Republicans’ leadership on the economy and their votes for the OBBB are critical to ensuring American economic dominance.

“We take national security very seriously and the more we can produce in America, the safer we are,” McClain told the Reporter in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley. “If COVID taught us anything, it exposed some of our vulnerabilities, [and] we do need to learn from that.”

“One thing that we learned from that was that we’ve got to begin to onshore a lot more manufacturing and a lot of the critical materials that are used in manufacturing…and that’s what the One Big, Beautiful Bill does,” McClain continued. “It’s a pro-growth, pro-working family, pro-America, pro-defense, Make America First bill.”

The OBBB, McClain said, “incentivizes manufacturing and growth right here in the US of A, and that’s what we’re trying to do.”

“We think we’ve got a lot of great ideas in D.C., but it is so refreshing to see those ideas and that the that we actually put the pen to paper on actually work for companies…especially the national security component,” she said.

Following the tour, McClain told the Reporter that “the One Big Beautiful Tour was an overwhelming success.”

“We wanted to bring our policies directly to the people that will benefit, and the tour reaffirmed that the American people are incredibly excited about the One Big Beautiful Bill. At every stop, we saw firsthand how this historic legislation is already creating good-paying jobs, helping grow our economy, and strengthening our national security. It's truly inspiring to hear directly from the same hardworking families and manufacturers who are benefiting, and it reinforces our commitment to delivering real results for Americans across the country.”

NAM’s leadership echoed McClain’s remarks to the Reporter, following the marathon tour. NAM will be hosting more Republican lawmakers at similar events in the coming days.

“Manufacturing is the backbone of the American economy, and with the leadership of Chairwoman McClain, Reps. Kean, Bresnahan, Mackenzie and their colleagues in Congress, that foundation is stronger than ever,” Erin Streeter, Executive Vice President of the National Association of Manufacturers and joined the lawmakers for the tour, told the Reporter. “By championing the Manufacturing Law, Congress has protected nearly 6 million jobs and more than $500 billion in wages for hardworking Americans. We thank them for their leadership.”

NAM calculates that the OBBB protects 13,000 jobs in Mackenzie’s district, 12,000 jobs in Bresnahan’s, and 15,000 jobs in Kean’s.

McClain, the House GOP’s Conference Chair, is unlikely to end her district tours after this trip; while she was at McDonald’s with Mackenzie in Emmaus, the Trump administration announced similar plans to dispatch Cabinet secretaries across America to sell Americans on the bill’s merits.