21. Department of Commerce · Notable · Needs Congress
Zero out and privatize the Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership
Printed page 686 21. Department of Commerce
“Privatize the Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership. … The next Administration should propose legislation to zero out this $150 million program and fully privatize existing MEP centers.”
What has happened
- Attempted
The FY2027 Budget asked Congress to eliminate the Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership as part of a $993 million cut to NIST, calling MEP 'an underperforming and unnecessary program'. Under §3b a President's Budget request is a formal administration request, so this is `attempted`. Congress has not zeroed the program, and privatization was not proposed at all: NIST went on running MEP through the window and expanded it, opening a competitive MEP Pilot Program on 2026-05-20 for additive manufacturing in aerospace and a domestic critical-minerals supply chain, and renewing the MEP Client Impact Survey on 2026-08-28. The only MEP bill in the 119th Congress, S. 4957 (2026-07-13), would improve the program's administration rather than end it, and was referred to committee.
Research log
What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence
Research notes
Requires Congress, and the §3b ladder puts the Budget request at attempted. The FY2026 discretionary request did not name MEP; the FY2027 Budget did, and its words were read in the text-extracted PDF at line 377.
The privatization half of the Quote — “fully privatize existing MEP centers” — has no instrument at all: no legislative proposal, no transition plan, no Federal Register notice. The MEP Pilot Program notice is attached to the same event because it is the dated Primary record that the program is being run and extended by NIST rather than handed to anyone, which is what makes this attempted rather than partial.
- Action
- eliminate
- Object
- Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership
- ID
- 1908