05/30/2023

IME Announces 2023 Public Policy Priorities

WASHINGTON – At the conclusion of its 2023 Spring Meeting, the IME Board of Governors approved the IME 2023 Public Policy Priorities focused on the following areas: Safety, Security, Supply Chain, Transportation and Infrastructure, Energy and the Environment, Workforce, and Innovation. 

 “Safety and security are always the highest priorities of the commercial explosives industry,” said Tim O’Brien, President of Detotec North America, and Chairman of IME’s Board of Governors. “IME’s policy priorities reflect a commonsense approach to ensuring our industry continues to operate safely and securely while maintaining a positive business environment.”  

Manufacturers of commercial explosives employ nearly 10,000 workers and contribute $4 billion annually to the U.S. economy. Without commercial explosives, infrastructure projects from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act couldn’t be started, critical minerals to produce the technology products envisioned in the CHIPs Act couldn’t be sourced, and America’s energy portfolio couldn’t be diversified.  

 “IME and our members look forward to working with members of the 118th Congress and the Biden Administration to promote legislation and regulations that help achieve our mission: the safe and secure manufacture, transport, distribution, and use of commercial explosives,” said IME President Clark Mica. “Commercial explosives are essential to our nation’s economy, and as the first link in many of America’s supply chains, we play an often-unrecognized role in ensuring Americans have access to modern technology like mobile phones and electric vehicles, affordable energy sources and everyday goods and services that we use or consume every day. Simply put, if you use or consume it, explosives make it possible.”