Statement by Commerce Secretary Brown: Manufacturing Extension Partnership Highlights the Success of Public-Private Partnerships

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Today's announcement of the competition for new centers in the Manufacturing Extension Partnership network is the beginning of a process that we believe will pay big dividends for business throughout the country. Through these centers, small and medium-sized businesses will be able to adopt modern technologies, thereby increasing their global competitiveness.

The MEP program is a critical part of an integrated economic plan in which industry and the federal government are partners.

Unfortunately, proposals in Congress, including legislation to dismantle the Commerce Department, would stop this program dead in its tracks, just as it is demonstrating how beneficial manufacturing extension is in preserving and creating jobs for workers in small manufacturing companies across the country. The centers that will be selected from among the proposals being solicited now promise tremendous returns on our investment and merit the cost-shared federal support provided by the MEP.