America Competes Reauthorization Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania. Mr. Chairman, my amendment increases the authorized funding for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership by $5 million and it offsets it by decreasing the authorized funding for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy by $5 million, for level funding.

If our goal is to create and retain more American jobs, there is no better program to fund that than the Manufacturing Extension Partnership. Administered by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, with centers in every single State, for every $1 of Federal investment, this public-private partnership generates nearly $21 in new sales. As a result, this translates into $2.5 billion annually. For every $2,001 of Federal investment, MEP creates or retains one American manufacturing job.

The MEP programs provides our Nation's nearly 350,000 small manufacturers with services and access to resources that enhance growth, improve productivity, and expand capacity. This program is a win-win for our hard-working American taxpayers. Few, if any, other Federal programs can claim such a good return on our taxpayers' investment.

Considering this amendment authorizes the program at $130 million that helps small American manufacturers directly and at a 50 percent cost share, this gives taxpayers more bang for their buck.

The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy has a total budget of over $1 billion, so moving $5 million to this valuable program for small businesses is simply good economic policy.

This program is not a government handout. Instead, it requires small manufacturers who partner with their local MEP to have skin in the game with a 50 percent cost share. That is good for our taxpayers; it is good for manufacturing sectors, and it is good for American jobs.

Since 1988, MEP has worked with nearly 80,000 American manufacturers, leading to $88 billion in sales and 14 billion in cost savings. It has helped create more than 729,000 American jobs.

Last year alone, MEP projects created or retained nearly 64,000 American jobs, generated more than $6.7 billion in new and retained sales, and provided cost savings of more than $1.1 billion to small American manufacturers.

With the average small- and mid-size American manufacturing employee earning more than $77,000 a year in pay and benefits, these are exactly the types of jobs that policymakers need to be encouraging. And at a time when our economy is starting to recover, the MEP's work is crucial in helping America's small manufacturers be stronger long-term competitors, both domestically and internationally.

In turn, this will allow them to create good-paying, high-skilled jobs for America's workers across the country. A growing manufacturing sector in America means more well-paying jobs for low- to moderate-income American families, reduced trade deficit and a robust economy, and a flourishing innovation sector which can drive future growth.

By supporting this amendment, Congress will be sending a clear signal to our small American manufacturers and our job creators that they will continue to play a vital role in the reinvigoration of our economy.

MEP is currently appropriated at $130 million, and this amendment would simply ensure that this popular, bipartisan program continues to be authorized at its current funding level.

Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania. Mr. Chairman, I would just remark that if we are really trying to create jobs, if we are really trying to boost our economy, if we are really trying to do all these things, if we are really trying to help small manufacturers, I don't think that asking to transfer $15 million out of a $1 billion allotment is going to really have that much effect on that.

This is not turning our back on some of the issues that you have, but this is looking forward to the future and saying we have got to help these people move forward.

This is not a government handout. This is not a free amount of money. This is a 50 percent match. There are very few programs in our government that require that.

This is something that just makes sense for America. It makes sense for all those folks that I represent and you represent back home.

I have got to tell you something. Back in Western Pennsylvania, where I live, in Pennsylvania's Third District, every morning, moms and dads get up and they throw their feet out over their bed and they go to work so that they can put a roof over the head for their children, food on their table, clothes on their back, and a promise for the future.

This is a small investment. All we are doing is keeping it at $130 million. And in a government that spends trillions of dollars every year, I don't know why we would quibble over $5 million because it is going to help job creation and job retention. It allows us to compete in a global market in a way that we actually win.

We don't have to get political about this. What I want to do is, I want to think about all the people we represent and where those dollars go because every single dollar belongs to the American taxpayer.

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