Sen. Richard Blumenthal, and U.S. Rep. Chris Murphy, D-5th District, spoke in Waterbury Thursday about the work they're doing to try to preserve industry in Connecticut to an audience of about 50 people — executives from small manufacturers, consultants, and officials from agencies that support them.

"This is as fundamental to the health and growth of our economy as anything we talk about in government," Murphy said at the Manufacturing Alliance of Connecticut event. "We can't survive as an economy unless we have a manufacturing component. We can't just be bankers to the world."

Murphy has made federal Buy American laws a signature issue. There has been a law for years that Pentagon purchases — from uniforms to fighter jets — contain at least 50 percent U.S.-made content. But the Pentagon has allowed many exemptions, and Murphy wants to end some of them.

"It's time we put some teeth back into the Buy America law," he said.

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He said he succeeded in getting two amendments passed in the House last year to seek bids from American suppliers even when equipment will only be used in foreign wars, and to ask the Pentagon to consider U.S. jobs in choosing winning bidders. But those amendments did not get a vote in the Senate, so Murphy has to start over this year.

Audience member David Monson of AlliedBarton Securities Services, which has offices in Hartford and Bridgeport, asked Murphy, "Why wouldn't we do that?"

"I think a lot of our defense procurement in Washington is set by large international companies," Murphy said.

Those companies make higher profits when they move work to lower-cost countries overseas, he said.

Erik Jungk, general manager of steel supplier COILPLUS Connecticut, said he was upset that when the state buys rail cars from Kawasaki's Nebraska plant, they don't require that the cars use Connecticut steel. Buy America does require that those cars be built in the U.S., and that 60 percent of the components come from domestic sources.

An official of Waterbury's Albert Brothers, Inc. said he wants the federal government to spend more on rail freight lines.

Murphy said Republican leadership in the House is planning to spend far less on transportation infrastructure than in the past.

"The rub here is paying for it," Murphy said. He said spending more on rail and roads would likely mean a higher gas tax.

"It's politically explosive, but necessary to keep up with other countries," Malloy said.

The politicians held the talk to announce the launch of a survey at http://svy.mk/ik9yGk. It's not a scientific survey, but Murphy said that if many people respond, it will be useful.

After the talk, Murphy responded to the news that Hamilton Sundstrand is moving more than 200 jobs to Poland and Singapore, with more to come.

"We bleed Pratt & Whitney and Hamilton and Sikorsky in Washington," he said. "It hurts to have worked so hard to get billions of dollars of work and see them continue to walk away from Connecticut."