Last week, Rep. Betty Sutton (D-OH) took to the House floor to sound off on companies who are shipping jobs overseas and to criticize some of her colleagues for refusing to support legislation that will improve the U.S. manufacturing sector.

"Every day in the United States, we are losing 15 factories,” said Rep. Sutton.

PolitiFact Ohio ran this shocking figure through their “Truth-O-Meter” and discovered that it is, in fact, true.

According to PolitiFact:

“Sutton spokesman Anthony DeAngelo told PolitiFact that her office used databases from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages to compute the statistic.

The data shows there were 398,887 private manufacturing establishments of all sizes in the United States during the first quarter of 2001. By the end of 2010, the number declined to 342,647, a loss of 56,190 facilities. Over 10 years, that works out to an average yearly loss of 5,619 factories. Dividing that by the 365 days in a year produces a 15.39 average daily number of factories lost.”

What’s more, BLS data show that the average losses per day experienced over the past two years are even more dramatic: In 2010 the nation lost 8,660 factories, which averages to about 23 per day, and 2009 data reflect a similar average.

It’s no wonder PolitiFact was skeptical of Rep. Sutton’s statement—the fact that an average of 15 factories closed per day over the past 10 years is truly shocking. We hope this figure serves as a wakeup call for Members of Congress who have been dragging their heels when it comes to supporting legislation such as H.R. 639, the Currency Reform for Fair Trade Act, that will create manufacturing jobs and level the playing field for American companies.

Click HERE to tell your representative that their top job-creation priority should be to ensure that American manufacturing is not undercut by the illegal trade practices of China and other nations.