While President Trump says the tariffs fueling a global trade war will jumpstart U.S. manufacturing, he is pulling funding from the Manufacturing Extension Partnership program, the federal centers dedicated to supporting its growth.
The president and director of the New Hampshire MEP expects it to close if the cuts continue.
“Most likely we’re not going to be funded unless the whole program is funded. We’re going to go out,” said Tony Fernandez, who said Thursday he has been in contact with New Hampshire’s congressional delegation.
Tony Fernandez, president and center director for the NH Manufacturing Extension Partnership
On April 1, the day before Trump declared “Liberation Day” by imposing a baseline 10% tariff for all U.S. trading partners, his administration withheld $12.9 million already appropriated by Congress for 10 of the 51 centers that make up the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Manufacturing Extension Partnership. (Some reports said 11 centers were told they would not receive funding.)
“The department is reprioritizing its programmatic activities to ensure that the US secures its position as a leader in critical and emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and quantum,” according to an email seen by WIRED, which reported the cuts April 2. “As such NIST has determined that these cooperative agreements are no longer aligned with the priorities of the department and NIST.”
The MEP centers, which operate in every state and Puerto Rico, provide services to small manufacturers, including access to public and private resources. The program was established in 1988 and was expanded in 1996 to cover all 50 states. The appropriation for this year’s program that Trump aims to eliminate was $175 million.
According to NIST, manufacturing clients of the MEP National Network ” helped manufacturers achieve $15 billion in new and retained sales, $5 billion in new client investments, $2.6 billion in cost savings and over 108,000 jobs created or retained in fiscal year 2024.”
One of the most important roles of the MEP is being a matchmaker and connecting businesses with resources, Fernandez said.
“Our mission itself is really just to coordinate the manufacturing effort and be the conduit,” he said. Among the contacts Fernandez confers with regularly are representatives of the Small Business Administration and the Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute, the Manchester Millyard-based nonprofit spearheading a biofabrication effort expected to create thousands of jobs in the region.
The New Hampshire MEP center, which receives nearly $1 million in funding, was spared this round only because its funding does not renew until July 1, Fernandez said. Not so lucky was Maine, which lost funding along with Delaware, Hawaii, Iowa, Kansas, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota and Wyoming. Massachusetts is among the states to lose funding Oct. 1.
Ned Gordon, senior business leader of the Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute, talks about the Manchester biofabrication effort during a keynote address Oct. 4 at the New Hampshire Manufacturing Extension Partnership’s annual summit in Windham. (Photo by Kendal Bush/ARMI)
Fernandez has spent nearly 40 years in manufacturing and served as a manager or chief executive at companies in several states. Since taking over as NH MEP president in 2023, he has been working with other related agencies in the state, such as the NH Small Business Development Center, to streamline support systems for manufacturing companies.
From 1979 to 2020, when the pandemic caused a spike, manufacturing has been in decline, Fernandez says.
“We what we want to do is support manufacturing. And it isn’t nuts and bolts anymore; we have to develop a workforce. We had 550 high school students at Nashua Community College learning about manufacturing, about machining,” he said, alluding to a recent event.
The MEP also provides resources to help companies embrace new technologies, he said.
“We’re working with AI for manufacturers because one of the things with the defense space is if you want to be a manufacturer, one of the things that you’re going to have to do is have an interactive website, and the interactive website has to be AI based,” he said.
Interest in the New Hampshire MEP’s programs is strong enough to sell out its annual summit, which drew more than 400 people last year to an events center in Windham. Manufacturers, vendors, investors and educators listened to presentations by industry experts while recruiters for Granite State companies talked to prospective employees at a job fair down the hall.
Fernandez, who oversees a staff of eight, said the hint of what was to come came in Jan. 1 when funding for the centers was paused for a day.
“We got involved with Congress, making sure that we were going to be funded, and Congress funded the MEP. We thought we everything was OK,” Fernandez said.
Democrats on a House science committee accused Trump of “gutting American manufacturing.”
“The NIST MEP program has had bipartisan support for decades,” according to a statement posted by Democratic House members on the Subcommittee on Research and Technology. “This network empowers small and medium manufacturers in every single state.”
Fernandez said governors on both sides of the aisle are getting involved to restore funding to the MEP centers. Staff at ones that have already lost their funding are continuing to work without pay, Fernandez said.
He noted that Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine who chairs the Appropriations Committee, represents one of those states whose MEP staff are now working for free.
“She’s the head ranking member who funds the MEP, “Fernandez said. “The funds got pulled out from under her.”
