A Rochester-based program helping small- to mid-sized manufacturers be more competitive is facing an uncertain future.
And that is raising lots of questions.
The Manufacturing Extension Partnership operates in all 50 states and Puerto Rico, assisting manufacturers with fewer than 500 employees. The program relies heavily on federal funding — some $200 million nationwide; nearly $7 million funds 10 centers across New York state.
"It’s just trying to help them improve their competitiveness," said James Senall, president of NextCorps, which operates the center serving the nine-county Finger Lakes region.
But the Trump administration has begun notifying states coming up for funding renewals that the money is being cut.
"It was a surprise for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that the administration is talking about trying to re-shore (manufacturing), build more things in the U.S.," Senall said. "And so for the administration to then say supporting manufacturing is not aligned with national priorities kind of doesn't make a whole lot of sense."
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., criticized the administration and the Department of Government Efficiency for "threatening to defund a main federal support program for growing Upstate NY manufacturing."
“From Buffalo to Albany, MEP Centers have proven to be one of the best bangs for your buck investments the federal government can make (in growing manufacturing)," Schumer said in a statement, adding: "Trump can’t be ushering in the Golden Age of American manufacturing while simultaneously decimating the program that helps American manufacturers thrive.”
NextCorps is best known for the tech startup business incubator it operates in Sibley Square. The manufacturing program, meanwhile, works with 50 to 70 companies each year on upward of 100 different projects. Things like improving production efficiency, sales and marketing or cybersecurity.
"Which a lot of small manufacturers don't really know where to go for that assistance," Senall said, "or how to go about some of these projects, and that's what the MEP centers help them do."
The first states to have funding discontinued are Iowa, Delaware, Mississippi, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico, Kansas, North Dakota, Maine and Wyoming. Some of those affected programs already have begun cutting staff. And there is fear the same fate awaits the rest of the programs.
"We expect when the next 10 or 12 states are up for renewal in a few months, they're going to get the same letter, and so all 51 centers will be defunded within the next year," Senall said, "... And the concern being that all the support that's been helping small, mid-sized manufacturers for all these years is no longer available to them."
New York's funding renewal date is Jan. 1.
NextCorps' share of the money is $560,000 annually, which is a fraction of the organization's overall $14 million-plus budget but Senall said it accounts for about 15% of the workload.
"So it's a significant amount of what we do," Senall said. "And the other benefit is the synergies across our program. So for example, if we have a startup company that's building some new kind of product or technology, and they have to figure out how they're going to make prototypes, and they're going to have to figure out how they're going to build these things when they get orders? We have ... the MEP program that knows every manufacturer, contract manufacturer, in the region, and we can make those connections. So there's also a huge benefit for the startup companies we work with."
This isn’t the first time these programs have drawn scrutiny. Trump sought to defund the programs through the budget process during his first term, but Congress restored funding. The nationwide effort is managed by the National Institute for Standards and Technology, within the U.S. Department of Commerce.
“The Department of Commerce is evaluating how it can best use the resources provided by Congress to most effectively advance U.S. manufacturing capabilities in alignment with statute and the President’s priorities for U.S. leadership in critical and emerging technologies,” a NIST spokesman told IndustryWeek, an online trade publication focused on the manufacturing industry.
Lawmakers, including Schumer, are pushing to get the funding reinstated and avoid further cuts.
| Recipient | Region | MEP federal investment per year |
| Alliance for Manufacturing and Technology | Southern Tier | $380,000 |
| Center for Economic Growth | Capital Region | $380,000 |
| CITEC | North Country | $380,000 |
| Center New York Technology Development Organization | Central New York | $380,000 |
| Insyte | Western New York | $560,000 |
| NextCorps | Rochester-FLX | $560,000 |
| Manufacturing and Technology Enterprise Center | Hudson Valley | $560,000 |
| Industrial and Technology Enterprise Center | New York City | $635,000 |
| Stony Brook | Long Island | $635,000 |
| Mohawk Valley Community College | Mohawk Valley | $380,000 |
| FuzeHub | Statewide | $1,135,194 |
| Empire State Development | Statewide | $892,766 |
| TOTAL: | $6,877,960 | |
| (Source: Office of Sen. Chuck Schumer) |
