WASHINGTON – Maine’s ailing manufacturing industry could get a boost from legislation that U.S. Sen. Susan Collins introduced last week, but lawmakers say the state will need a broad mix of solutions to help businesses rebound in the long term.

Several pieces of legislation introduced by the state’s four-member delegation are under consideration in Congress, including U.S. Rep. Michael Michaud’s bills to repeal trade agreements like the North American Free Trade Act and an act signed by President Bush that limits debate in Congress over trade agreements.

Rep. Tom Allen has lobbied for federal grants to manufacturing companies.

Maine lawmakers are also pushing for passage of a transportation bill that would fund highway construction to energize the state’s manufacturing industry.

While the bills offer various solutions to the problem, a common thread runs through all: keeping the work and therefore the jobs inside the United States.

“Few issues are more important to the American people than the availability of good jobs in their communities,” Collins said in a speech last week. “Nowhere is the reality of job losses in the manufacturing sector more acute than in Maine.”

It is estimated that in the past three years alone, Maine lost 22 percent of its manufacturing jobs. The Maine Department of Labor points to manufacturing sectors such as paper, wood products, computers and electronic products as the biggest losers.

A report commissioned by the Maine Legislature on the effects of NAFTA on Maine’s economy found earlier this year that the trade agreement was responsible for 4,400 jobs lost in the state in the decade ending 2003.

Foreign economic pressures, including U.S. companies moving production overseas and low-priced imports from foreign countries, led to further job losses, the report said.

Collins’ bill would address this concern by giving tax incentives to domestic rather than overseas manufacturers. It also gives tax breaks to manufacturing companies that hire laid-off workers.

Aides later said Collins’ bill would particularly benefit Maine because it gives incentives to help the forest products industry, which provides more manufacturing jobs in the state than any other sector.

A spokeswoman for Michaud said he was considering introducing similar legislation in the House. The congressman, who held a paper mill job before entering Congress last year, has also been ardently lobbying for passage of his bill that would overturn the Trade Promotion Authority Act of 2002. The act, commonly referred to as “Fast Track,” gives the administration the power to negotiate trade agreements, limiting Congress’ involvement to 20 hours of debate and an up or down vote on the final bill with no amendments allowed.

Michaud has also co-sponsored legislation to repeal the decade-old North American Free Trade Agreement between the United States, Canada and Mexico.

“Ten years after it passed, we are now seeing the effects of NAFTA,” said Michaud spokeswoman Monica Castellanos, adding the act had cost the country and Maine thousands of jobs.

“These jobs are critical to this area and this is definitely a hot-button issue,” she said.

Snowe, who last fall introduced legislation designed to save manufacturing companies, said helping the country’s small businesses survive would require an investment in new resources “and a delicate balance of trade policies and initiatives to ensure that foreign competitors do not have unfair advantage.”

Her bill would create a position in the Department of Commerce to identify and address small manufacturers’ concerns, among other things, and attempts to create outreach and training programs for both manufacturers and small business employees.

Lawmakers say helping manufacturers cut costs is also an essential part of saving manufacturing jobs.