The Trump administration will walk back its decision to pull nearly $13 million in funding from the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) program. The public-private partnership supports small and medium-sized manufacturers, which make up about 98% of firms in the U.S.
Funding will now continue “through the end of the fiscal year,” according to an announcement by U.S. Representative Sharice Davids (D-KS-03).
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On April 1, the Trump administration initially decided to cease funding for MEP centers with contracts up for renewal in 10 states. A statement by U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) identified the affected states as Hawaii, Delaware, Kansas, Iowa, Mississippi, Maine, New Mexico, Nevada, Wyoming and North Dakota.
Davids called the Trump administration’s reversal a temporary solution and pointed to her recently introduced Defend American Manufacturing Act as a way to provide long-term certainty for state manufacturing offices.
The legislation would mandate that the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST), which oversees the MEP program, renew and award MEP centers’ contracts annually. Davids said the measure would free the program’s funding from “politically motivated decisions.”
Funding will continue for now, but the national network of 51 MEP centers still faces an uncertain future as further cuts loom in the Trump administration’s proposed fiscal year 2026 budget.
A letter to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick co-signed by Baldwin and 14 other senators said dismantling the MEP program “undermine decades of federal investment in domestic manufacturing resilience,” including $175 million in fiscal year 2025.
The letter also referenced a report from the Upjohn Institute and Summit Consulting, which found that the MEP program delivered a financial return of more than 17:1 on the $175 million in federal funding it received in fiscal year 2023.
Authorized by President Ronald Reagan in 1988, the MEP program has contributed to $34.2 billion in cost savings, $152.2 billion in new sales and supported the creation and retention of over 1.7 million jobs.
The Department of Commerce section of Project 2025 mentions cutting funding for the MEP program. Thomas F. Gilman, who held two positions in the Commerce Department during President Donald Trump’s first term, wrote the section.
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