The White House released its proposed federal budget for 2018 today, and a number of manufacturing programs would either face drastic cuts or see their federal budgets eliminated entirely.
Most notably, in the Department of Commerce budget, the $124 million outlay for Manufacturing Extension Partnerships would be eliminated entirely. MEP, which has been in existence in 1988, is a public-private network of centers assisting small and medium-sized manufacturing firms with research and development, process improvement and job creation and retention.
