This story appears in the
July 2002 issue of
Entrepreneur.
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Small manufacturers struggling for profits may no longer be able
to count on inexpensive consulting from about 400 technical
assistance centers nationwide. Those centers receive about
one-third of their budget from the Manufacturing Extension
Partnership (MEP), a federal program run by the National Institutes
of Standards and Technology (NIST). President Bush wants to pull
federal funding from nearly all the centers.
The centers consult on process improvement, quality management
systems, business management systems and other areas. Besides
federal funds, they depend on state and local funding for another
third of their budget and client fees for the remaining third. In
at least 34 states, state funding is linked to federal funding,
according to Michael Wojcicki, president of the Modernization
Forum, the trade association for MEP centers. As a result,
President Bush's proposal to slash federal funding from $106.5
million to $12.9 million in fiscal 2003 could seriously impair the
centers' ability to operate.
Showing a Bias
Sen. John F. Kerry (D-MA), chairman of the Committee on Small
Business and Entrepreneurship, has introduced a bill (S. 1994) that
would give 8(a) firms located in HubZones "priority
preference" over non-8(a) HubZone companies, as was originally
intended when Congress enacted the bill in 1997. Kerry's bill
also increases the sole-source contract ceiling by $1 million in
both programs to $4 million for goods and services and $6 million
for manufacturing.
Stephen Barlas is a freelance business reporter who covers
the Washington beat for 15 magazines.