Trump Administration Plans to Defund Manufacturing Extension Partnerships Next Year

President Donald Trump is once again planning to defund Manufacturing Extension Partnerships (MEPs). After drawing swift, bipartisan opposition to that plan in April, he backed down. But since then, the administration has failed to send checks to organizations for 2025 and is warning that all MEPs will be defunded in 2026.

According to our sister brand IndustryWeek, an Oct. 10 letter from Craig Burkhardt, deputy director and acting director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), stated the agency has decided to end the federal Manufacturing Extension Partnership Program because “it is not consistent with the Secretary’s [Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick’s] priorities.”

Congress allocated the 2026 funding for MEPs last September, before the NIST announcement. “When you have congressional intent saying the House and Senate plan to fund the program when the bill is enacted and you’re still continuing to try to shut it down, you’re just ignoring congressional intent,” said Carrie Hines, president of the American Small Manufacturers Coalition, the trade association for MEPs.

The 50 MEPs are nonprofit organizations that provide business development and support to small- and medium-sized manufacturers across the country. Some have cut staff and are not hiring for open positions as they wait for their payments, said Hines.

Read the full story on IndustryWeek.

Our earlier story on Trump's April attempt to shut down the program, which included examples of how some food processors got started through MEP, is here.