Senators plan to introduce a bipartisan bill on Thursday that would force the Trump administration to restore a Commerce Department program that helps hundreds of thousands of US manufacturing firms thrive.
The legislation from Sens. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., Jon Husted, R-Ohio, Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, and Andy Kim, D-N.J., shared first with Semafor, comes as Commerce withholds funding for Manufacturing Extension Partnership centers across the country, forcing hiring freezes or layoffs at 90% of them, according to one estimate.
Ohio alone has seen six centers shuttered after officials froze more than $6 million in federal funding.
“In order to help small manufacturers compete in an increasingly small and globalized world, it is important that they have the resources to grow and adapt,” Schiff said, calling the funding “essential to hundreds of thousands of workers and manufacturers.”
President Donald Trump’s most recent budget request has proposed scrapping the program altogether.