[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 119 (Wednesday, September 21, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H8217-H8218]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     THE NEED TO PROPERLY FUND THE MANUFACTURING EXTENSION PROGRAM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, the Manufacturing Extension Program 
helps small manufacturers in my State of Ohio and nationwide to improve 
their efficiency, increase their competitiveness, and stay in business.
  With funding of about $111 million in 2003, the Manufacturing 
Extension Program, MEP, helped over 18,000 U.S. manufacturing firms 
increase sales by almost a billion dollars and cut costs by almost $700 
million.
  In Ohio, that meant helping some 2,700 businesses to create or retain 
over 1,100 jobs, increase sales by $20 million, cut costs by over $47 
million, and increase investments by $58 million. But despite that 
track record of success, President Bush, in order to pay for the tax 
cuts that go overwhelmingly to the 1 percent wealthiest people in this 
country, President Bush has repeatedly put the Manufacturing Extension 
Program on the chopping block.
  He proposed another round of MEP funding cuts for next year. The 
President's 2006 budget cuts MEP funding by 56 percent, understanding 
all of the manufacturing jobs lost in State after State after State, 
some 2\1/2\ million jobs in the last 5 years, the President wants to 
cut one of the few programs that works for American manufacturing.
  Today the House passed H.R. 250, legislation which would extend MEP 
by adding a new component that links small manufacturers with academic 
institutions. But this bill should have given us an opportunity to do 
much more for American manufacturers.
  Members of the House Science Committee, the gentleman from Tennessee 
(Mr. Gordon) and the gentleman from California (Mr. Honda), had planned 
to offer amendments that would have strengthened MEP's partner program,

[[Page H8218]]

the Advanced Technology Program, that helps manufacturers improve their 
energy efficiency.
  The Republican-led Congress did not agree to allow that amendment. We 
also missed an opportunity to expand and improve MEP itself. We should 
have used that bill to dramatically increase funding so that we can 
help U.S. manufacturing. Congress chose not to.
  My home State of Ohio has lost one in six, one-sixth of its 
manufacturing jobs since 2001. An improved MEP could have made the 
difference for many small businesses who must fight every day to 
survive, but the Republican leadership used the partisan Rules 
Committee to block even attempts at amendments.
  The problem, Mr. Speaker, is this Congress, this country, this 
government, has no manufacturing policy, no policy to retain 
manufacturing, no policy to expand manufacturing in this country. 
America's trade deficit the year I ran for Congress in 1992 for the 
first time was $38 billion. The trade deficit last year was $618 
billion. From a $38 billion trade deficit, that means we have bought 
$38 billion more than we had sold back in 1992, to a $618 billion trade 
deficit today. That is a result of huge outsourcing of jobs and a major 
loss of U.S. manufacturing jobs.
  Our trade deficit with China was $162 billion, with China alone last 
year. The United States has become the world's largest debtor Nation, 
adding $2.5 trillion to our national debt in 2002 alone.
  Countries like Japan and China are quickly gaining control over our 
economy as they buy up more and more of our debt. These failed trade 
and fiscal policies have hit manufacturers in our country hard.
  So Congress today had an opportunity, a lost opportunity, with the 
Manufacturing Extension Program. We failed in the opportunity to pass 
Crane-Rangel, a bill that would reward manufacturers that stay in the 
United States and manufacture here. Instead, this Congress continues to 
give tax breaks and incentives to those large corporations that 
outsource, that go offshore and produce their jobs there.
  We passed an alternative that gave billions of dollars to these 
multinational corporations. Mr. Speaker, this Congress has been a 
Congress of lost opportunity for American manufacturing. We should 
change the direction of our trade policy. We should change the 
direction of our tax policy.
  We should help these manufacturers in the United States, those small 
companies of 50, 100, and 200 employees that have really built our 
industrial base and built the middle class of this country. We can do 
much better than this.

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