“We need clear answers on how the department intends to support these manufacturers if this program is eliminated.”
Within the first minutes of his opening remarks for the committee’s hearing with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Senator Jerry Moran (R-KS), chair of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee for Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies, suggested the Senate needed to be convinced of the administration’s call to shutdown of NIST’s Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership, “the popular and well-used program that has received bipartisan support and has served many small and medium-sized manufacturers in my home state of Kansas and across the country.”
“For many of these [small and medium-sized] manufacturers, MEP is often the only-on-the ground support available to them to modernize, compete, and keep jobs in their communities.”
Sen. Shelly Moore Capito (R-WV), in her questions, came back to MEP. Secretary Lutnick said, “The issue with the program is the Inspector General’s reports were very, very critical of the way these programs have been run in the past, right? They said that there was, you know, it wasn’t accurate where they said they were using the money for, and it’s a fact that they were overpaying, you know. These hubs were overpaying the executives and there were all sorts of problems. So, we want to clean those problems up.”
The secretary suggested the need to “reimagine the program” since it was created in the late 1980s, and he offered “to sit together and talk about how to reimagine it. I think that would be very effective.”
Sen. Capito asked if the department had begun “to do that now, or is that just something in the future?” Secretary Lutnick responded, “If you appropriated funds, we will do exactly that. So yes. Of course, we have thought about it because you appropriated funds last year, but we need to do it better, and if you appropriate funds to us…we will do it effectively and efficiently and really think about it.”
Hearing the secretary’s remarks about the inspector general report regarding MEP, chairman Sen. Moran recommended the committee “invite the IG to come visit with us and learn about any challenges the inspector general finds in the program. And as those exist, we would fix them because I think there is broad support for getting MEP.”
Also covered in some detail during the hearing is the timeline and Commerce’s intended use of the remaining $21 billion in undeployed broadband funds appropriated for distribution to all 54 states and territories to address unmet broadband need and infrastructure modernization.
The nearly two-hour hearing is available for viewing on the Appropriations Committee website.