U.S. 

MANUFACTURING

Federal Programs 

Reported Providing 

Support and 

Addressing Trends

Report to Congressional Requesters

March 2017

GAO-17-240

United States Government Accountability Office
United States Government Accountability Office

Highlights of GAO-17-240, a report to 

congressional requesters

March 2017

U.S. MANUFACTURING

Federal Programs Reported Providing Support 

and Addressing Trends

What GAO Found

GAO identified 58 programs in 11 federal agencies that reported providing

support to U.S. manufacturing by fostering innovation through research and 

development, assisting with trade in the global marketplace, helping job seekers 

enhance skills and obtain employment, and providing general financing or 

business assistance. Twenty-one of these programs reported using all of their 

obligations in fiscal year 2015 to support U.S. manufacturing. For these 21

programs, obligations of each program ranged from $750,000 to $204 million in 

fiscal year 2015, the most recent full year of data. Twenty-six other programs

reported using funding to support manufacturing—in addition to other sectors—

and provided ranges of estimates for the obligations directly supporting 

manufacturing. The remaining 11 programs either did not provide an estimate of 

their support to manufacturing or reported no program obligations in fiscal year 

2015. GAO also identified nine tax expenditures that can provide benefits to 

manufacturers, amounting to billions of dollars in incentives for both the 

manufacturing sector and other sectors of the economy. 

Most (51) of the 58 programs reported addressing trends toward an increase in 

advanced manufacturing (e.g. activities using automation, software, or cutting 

edge materials), the need for a higher-skilled workforce, and more global trade 

competition for U.S. manufacturers by providing funds and resources, sharing 

information, and promoting coordination. Survey responses from the 58 

programs indicated that more than two-thirds of them are addressing the shift 

toward advanced manufacturing, approximately half are taking steps to address 

increased globalization and competition, and fewer than half are addressing the 

need for a higher skilled workforce.

Forty-four of the 58 programs reported having performance goals or measures 

related to the support of manufacturing, but agencies that comprise an 

interagency group have not identified the information they will collect from 

agencies and use to report progress in supporting advanced manufacturing. Ten

of the 11 agencies that administer programs GAO reviewed participate in a 

federal interagency initiative to coordinate activities and report on progress in the 

area of advanced manufacturing. The Subcommittee on Advanced 

Manufacturing—co-chaired by the Office of Science and Technology Policy 

(OSTP) and that coordinates advanced manufacturing efforts—supports the

updating and reporting on a National Strategic Plan for Advanced Manufacturing. 

The plan, which was published in 2012, identifies objectives and potential 

measures that could be used to assess progress. The subcommittee plans to 

report in 2018 on progress in achieving the strategic plan’s objectives, as 

required by the Revitalize American Manufacturing and Innovation Act of 2014. 

However, OSTP has not worked with the subcommittee member agencies to 

identify the information needed to report progress in achieving the strategic 

objectives, such as what measures will be used. While subcommittee officials

said the subcommittee does not provide top-down direction to federal agencies 

on how to measure effectiveness, specifying the information it will collect from 

federal agencies would better position it to report consistent and comprehensive 

information on the progress in achieving the plan’s objectives.

View GAO-17-240. For more information, 

contact Andrew Sherrill at (202) 512-7215 or 

sherrilla@gao.gov, or John Neumann at (202) 

512-3841 or neumannj@gao.gov.

Why GAO Did This Study

The U.S. manufacturing sector—

representing about 12 percent of the 

economy and employing 12 million 

workers in 2015—has undergone 

changes over the last several decades. 

With increased productivity and 

technological innovation, the sector 

experienced a decreasing number of 

jobs and share of the economy. GAO 

was asked to examine how the federal 

government supports manufacturing.

This report examines (1) how selected 

federal programs and tax expenditures 

provide support to U.S. manufacturing;

(2) how programs are addressing 

manufacturing trends; and (3) the 

extent to which agencies measure 

performance and assess effectiveness 

in support of manufacturing generally, 

and advanced manufacturing 

specifically. GAO reviewed selected

programs with a focus on 

manufacturing, among other criteria, 

and conducted a survey of these 

selected programs to collect data on 

their budget, activities, and effects. 

GAO also reviewed reports and 

interviewed agency officials and 

experts.

What GAO Recommends

OSTP should identify the information it

will collect from agencies to determine 

their progress in achieving the 

objectives of the National Strategic 

Plan for Advanced Manufacturing. In 

commenting on a draft of this report, 

OSTP neither agreed nor disagreed 

with the recommendation and 

suggested alternative language. In 

response, GAO revised the 

recommendation to focus on the 

identification of information, as 

discussed in the report.
Page i GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Letter 1

Background 5

Selected Federal Programs Reported Supporting U.S. 

Manufacturing by Fostering Innovation, Strengthening 

Competitiveness in the Global Marketplace, and Assisting 

Workers 11

Selected Federal Tax Expenditures Can Provide Benefits to 

Manufacturers but Their Overall Effects Are Difficult to Quantify 29

Programs Reported Addressing Manufacturing Trends in Different 

Ways, and Some Face Challenges in Doing So 34

Most Programs Reported Goals or Measures Related to Support 

of Manufacturing, and an Interagency Group Has Not Identified 

the Information It Needs to Report on Progress in Supporting 

Advanced Manufacturing 42

Conclusions 52

Recommendation for Executive Action 52

Agency Comments and Our Evaluation 52

Appendix I Objectives, Scope, and Methodology 57

Appendix II Additional Information Reported by Programs We Identified 

That Support U.S. Manufacturing 65

Bioenergy Program for Advanced Biofuels 65

Business and Industry Guaranteed Loan Program 66

Advocacy Center 67

Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Operations 69

Domestic Field 70

Foreign-Trade Zones in the United States 72

Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership 74

Industry Trade Policy and Analysis 75

International Field 77

Investing in Manufacturing Communities Partnership 78

Manufacturing 79

Manufacturing USA 80

Textiles, Consumer Goods, and Materials 81

Trade Adjustment Assistance for Firms 83

Trade Enforcement and Compliance Policy and Negotiations 84

Basic, Applied, and Advanced Research in Science and 

Engineering 86

Contents
Page ii GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Commercial Technologies for Maintenance Activities 87

Defense Production Act Title III 88

Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment Program 90

Manufacturing Applied Research 91

Manufacturing Experimentation and Outreach Two (MENTOR2) 92

Manufacturing Technology Program 93

Navy Manufacturing Science 94

Prototype Integration Facilities 95

Career and Technical Education—Basic Grants to States 96

Career and Technical Education—National Programs 97

Advanced Manufacturing Office 98

Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program 100

Bioenergy Technologies Office 101

Clean Energy Manufacturing Initiative 103

Concentrating Solar Power 104

Photovoltaics 105

Solid State Lighting Program 106

Tech-to-Market 108

Windows and Building Envelope 109

Centers for Innovation in Advanced Development and 

Manufacturing 110

Fill Finish Manufacturing Network 111

National Occupational Research Agenda Manufacturing Sector 113

H-1B Jobs Training Grants 114

Registered Apprenticeship Program 115

Trade Adjustment Assistance 116

Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career 

Training Grant 118

E3 - Economy, Energy and Environment 120

Export-Import Bank of the United States 121

Advanced Technological Education Program 122

Biotechnology and Biochemical Engineering 123

Design of Engineering Materials Systems 124

Engineering and Systems Design 126

Industry/University Cooperative Research Centers Program 127

Manufacturing Machines and Equipment 128

Materials Engineering and Processing 129

Nanomanufacturing 130

National Robotics Initiative 131

Service, Manufacturing, and Operations Research 132

7(a) loan program 133

Certified Development Company (CDC)/504 loan program 134
Page iii GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Small Business Innovation Research 135

Small Business Technology Transfer 136

Appendix III GAO Contacts and Staff Acknowledgments 138

Tables

Table 1: Programs GAO Identified That Reported They Support 

U.S. Manufacturing, by Agency 12

Table 2: Reported Fiscal Year 2015 Obligations for 58 Programs 

That Reported Supporting U.S. Manufacturing 15

Table 3: Reported Fiscal Year 2015 Obligations for 30 Programs 

GAO Identified That Help Foster Innovation 16

Table 4: Reported Fiscal Year 2015 Obligations for 11 Programs 

That Assist Manufacturers with Trade in the Global 

Marketplace 20

Table 5: Reported Fiscal Year 2015 Obligations for Eight 

Programs That Help Job Seekers Enhance Skills and 

Obtain Employment 23

Table 6: Reported Fiscal Year 2015 Obligations for Nine 

Programs That Support Manufacturing by Providing 

General Financing or General Business Assistance or by 

Developing Manufactured Products 25

Table 7: Selected Federal Tax Expenditures That Can Support 

Manufacturing 29

Table 8: Number of Federal Programs That Reported Addressing 

Each of the Manufacturing Trends 35

Table 9: Number of Programs That Reported Providing Funding 

and Resources to Address Each Manufacturing Trend 35

Table 10: Number of Programs That Reported Sharing Information 

to Address Each Manufacturing Trend 37

Table 11: Number of Programs That Reported Promoting 

Coordination to Address Each Manufacturing Trend 38

Table 12: Types of Challenges Programs Reported Facing in 

Supporting Advanced Manufacturing 40

Table 13: Types of Challenges Programs Reported Facing in 

Building a Higher Skilled Workforce 40

Table 14: Types of Challenges Programs Reported Facing 

Related to Increased Globalization and Competition 41

Table 15: Examples of Reported Program Performance Goals or 

Measures Related to Advancing Scientific Knowledge or 

Improving Technologies 43
Page iv GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Table 16: Examples of Reported Program Performance Goals or 

Measures Related to Providing Technical Assistance to 

Manufacturers 44

Table 17: Examples of Reported Program Performance Goals or 

Measures Related to National Security or Medical 

Countermeasures Preparedness 45

Table 18: Examples of Reported Program Performance Goals or 

Measures Related to Promoting U.S. Exports or Open 

Trade

Table 19: Examples of Reported Program Performance Goals or

Measures Related to Developing the Workforce 47

Table 20: Organizations and Agencies We Visited 62

Table 21: Analysis of Selected President’s Council of Advisors on 

Science and Technology (PCAST) and National Science 

and Technology Council (NSTC) Reports to Identify 

Manufacturing Trends 63

Figures

Figure 1: Number of U.S. Manufacturing Employees 1997-2015 6

Figure 2: Manufacturing Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as a 

Percentage Share of National GDP, 1997-2015 7

Figure 3: 3D Printer Used in Advanced Manufacturing 19

Figure 4: Welding Machine Used For Training 28

Abbreviations

3D three dimensional

BETO Bioenergy Technologies Office

BLS Bureau of Labor Statistics

CDC Certified Development Company

CES Center for Economic Studies

CFDA Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance

COMPETES Act America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010

CRS Congressional Research Service

46
Page v GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

DOC Department of Commerce

DOD Department of Defense

DOE Department of Energy

DOL Department of Labor

Education Department of Education

GDP Gross Domestic Product

HHS Department of Health and Human Services

IMCP Investing in Manufacturing Communities 

Partnership

IRS Internal Revenue Service

ITA International Trade Administration 

JCT Joint Committee on Taxation

MEP Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership

MME Manufacturing Machines and Equipment

NAE National Academy of Engineering

NIST National Institute of Standards and Technology

NSF National Science Foundation

NSTC National Science and Technology Council

OSTP Office of Science and Technology Policy

PCAST President’s Council of Advisors on Science and 

Technology

RAMI Act Revitalize American Manufacturing and Innovation 

Act of 2014

R&D research and development

R&E research and experimentation

SAM Subcommittee on Advanced Manufacturing

SBA Small Business Administration 

SBIR Small Business Innovation Research

STTR Small Business Technology Transfer

TAA Trade Adjustment Assistance

TAACCCT Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College 

and Career Training Grant 

TAAF Trade Adjustment Assistance for Firms

Treasury Department of the Treasury

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Page 1 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

441 G St. N.W.

Washington, DC 20548

March 28, 2017

Congressional Requesters

Manufacturing provides important benefits to the nation, such as 

employing 12.3 million U.S. workers and generating $2.2 trillion in 

economic activity in 2015.1 U.S. manufacturing is comprised of 

businesses engaged in the mechanical, physical, or chemical 

transformation of materials, substances, or components into new 

products, and includes various sectors of the economy, such as 

machinery, textiles, apparel, food production, and chemicals. Over the 

last several decades, U.S. manufacturing has undergone changes 

marked by increased productivity and technological innovation. However, 

these changes have been accompanied by a decline in the number of 

jobs in manufacturing and increased competition from other countries.

The federal government employs a broad range of programs and tax 

expenditures that can influence the manufacturing sector by helping 

businesses improve their efficiency, update their technologies, export 

their products, train their workers, and that can offer financial support in 

the form of loans or loan guarantees, among other things. These 

programs and tax expenditures are administered and overseen by a 

variety of federal agencies, and there is limited information on how they 

support manufacturing.

You asked us to provide information on how the federal government 

supports manufacturing. This report examines the following four 

questions:

1. How do selected federal programs provide support to U.S.

manufacturing?

2. How do selected federal tax expenditures provide support to U.S.

manufacturing?

3. How, if at all, do selected federal programs address manufacturing

trends, and what, if any, challenges do they face?

1

Bureau of Labor Statistics, Manufacturing, NAICS 31-33: Employment, all employees 

(seasonally adjusted), 1945-2016; and Bureau of Economic Analysis, GDP by Industry,

1947-2015.

Letter
Page 2 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

4. To what extent do federal agencies measure performance and assess

effectiveness in support of manufacturing generally, and advanced

manufacturing specifically?2

To answer these questions, we identified selected manufacturing-related 

federal programs and tax expenditures, surveyed program officials, 

reviewed relevant reports, interviewed selected experts and agency 

officials, and conducted two site visits. To select programs and tax 

expenditures, we reviewed relevant GAO and Congressional Research 

Service (CRS) reports and the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance,3

and we identified federal agencies that, according to those sources, 

administered programs that supported manufacturing.4 We then 

contacted each of these agencies to obtain input about their programs. 

Programs included in our analysis met the following criteria: The program 

(1) was operational in fiscal year 2014 and at the time of selection in 

2015, (2) had an identifiable focus on manufacturing,5 and (3) was not 

part of a larger manufacturing program.6 Next we contacted each agency 

again and requested that they confirm the programs we identified support 

manufacturing.

2

According to a report by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology 

(PCAST), advanced manufacturing represents activities that (1) depend on the use and 

coordination of information, automation, computation, software, sensing, and networking 

and/or (2) make use of cutting edge materials and emerging capabilities enabled by the 

physical and biological sciences. It involves both new ways to manufacture existing 

products, and the manufacture of new products emerging from new advanced 

technologies. PCAST, Report to the President on Ensuring American Leadership in 

Advanced Manufacturing (June 2011).

3

The Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance contains detailed program descriptions for 

more than 2,000 federal assistance programs.

4

In this report, we defined federal agencies broadly to refer to any federal organization 

that supports manufacturing. 

5

We determined that a program had an identifiable focus on manufacturing if it met one or 

more of the following criteria: (1) the program was called a manufacturing program in the 

program title; (2) the program’s description, objectives, or eligibility criteria included that it 

specifically supports manufacturing; (3) agency officials stated that they could identify the 

number of participants or beneficiaries that are in manufacturing (e.g. manufacturing firms 

or workers trained in manufacturing); (4) agency officials could identify the amount of the 

program’s budget that benefits manufacturing; (5) the program’s goals, performance 

measures, or performance metrics include a specific focus on manufacturing; or (6) the 

program has been evaluated on its effect on the manufacturing sector.

6

For example, each of the military branches has their own Manufacturing Technology 

Program; however, for this report, we counted only the program that oversees each of 

those programs and is administered by the Department of Defense’s Office of 

Manufacturing and Industrial Base Policy.
Page 3 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

In addition, we administered a web-based survey to the identified 

program officials and collected, among other data, descriptive program 

information, budget and participation data, information on efforts to 

address manufacturing trends, and performance and evaluation 

information. All of the categorizations of the programs in this report are 

based on our review of program descriptions and programs officials’ 

responses to our survey. In developing this report, we did not conduct a 

legal analysis to confirm the various descriptions of the programs, 

including information on their budgetary obligations, program goals, or 

intent. Further, we did not review or analyze agencies’ financial data or 

materials prepared by the agencies in connection with the annual budget 

and appropriations process.

To gather further insight into federal programs that support 

manufacturing, we conducted site visits to Chicago, IL and Knoxville, TN, 

interviewed local program officials, and visited manufacturers who 

participate in some of these programs. We selected these cities because 

several of the manufacturing programs we identified were operating there.

To identify tax expenditures that provide support to manufacturing, we 

reviewed relevant reports from CRS and estimates from the Department 

of the Treasury (Treasury) and the U.S. Congress Joint Committee on 

Taxation to characterize the scope and cost of tax code provisions related 

to manufacturing.

To identify manufacturing trends, we reviewed reports from the 

President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) and 

the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC), and we spoke to 

seven experts about the manufacturing sector. These experts were 

selected for their knowledge of the manufacturing sector, and they came 

from nonprofit institutions such as the National Academy of Engineering, 

federal agencies such as the Department of Commerce (DOC) and 

National Science Foundation, private companies such as Palo Alto 

Research Center, and think tanks such as the Information Technology 

and Innovation Foundation. We also collected data through our survey 

about how federal programs are responding to trends in the 

manufacturing sector.

To examine the extent to which federal agencies measure their 

performance and assess their effectiveness in support of manufacturing 

generally and advanced manufacturing specifically, we asked program 

officials in our survey what manufacturing-related performance goals and 

metrics they used and what program evaluations had been conducted or 
Page 4 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

planned in the past 5 years to assess any impact that the program had on 

the U.S. manufacturing sector. We also analyzed efforts to coordinate 

federal advanced manufacturing support by reviewing relevant federal 

legislation, prior GAO reports on interagency collaboration, and by 

interviewing officials with the Office of Science and Technology Policy 

(OSTP). Appendix I contains additional information about our scope and 

methodology.

We conducted this performance audit from March 2015 to March 2017 in 

accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards. 

Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain 

sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for our 

findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. We believe that 

the evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for our findings and 

conclusions based on our audit objectives.
Page 5 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Manufacturing plays a key role in creating high-wage jobs, fueling 

exports, and driving innovation. In 2015, according to the Bureau of Labor 

Statistics (BLS), manufacturing employees earned on average $74,785 

annually, including pay and benefits, while workers in all U.S. industries 

earned on average $63,045.7 Manufacturing companies have also 

traditionally hired more employees with lower levels of education than 

other parts of the economy, according to the Economic Policy Institute,8

making these companies an option for individuals whose job choices may 

be limited by higher education degree requirements.

Also in 2015, manufacturing firms shipped $1.3 trillion of goods abroad, 

according to DOC. In addition, the sector supported the development of 

new technologies in the United States by performing 75 percent of private 

sector research and development (R&D) and issuing the vast majority of 

new patents, despite the fact that manufacturing made up 12 percent of 

U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2014, according to the Executive 

Office of the President.9 The influence of the manufacturing sector 

reaches many industries, as demonstrated by the automobile industry, 

which can be viewed as a barometer and beneficiary of American growth 

and economic achievement, according to BLS (see text box).

The size of the workforce in U.S. manufacturing decreased from more 

than 17 million employees in 1997 to approximately 12 million in 2015, 

according to BLS data (see fig. 1). The recent decline in manufacturing 

employment included sectors such as apparel, computers and 

electronics, and furniture, according to CRS.

 7

The comparison of average earnings may vary across the two groups depending on 

hours worked per week and weeks worked per year.

8

The Economic Policy Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank that was created in 

1986 that undertakes research addressing the economic needs of low- and middle-income 

workers.

9

The Executive Office of the President, “Making in America: U.S. Manufacturing 

Entrepreneurship and Innovation,” (June 2014). 

Background

The United States 

Manufacturing Sector

The Automobile Industry

The automobile industry affects industries that 

manufacture steel, glass, plastics, and rubber. 

The sector also supports the refining and 

selling of gasoline and road construction, as 

well as maintaining, repairing, and selling 

motor vehicles. In 2008, the automobile sector 

employed 1.7 million people in the United 

States, according to the Center for Automotive 

Research. Employment in the automobile 

sector reaches beyond manufacturing, 

including 686,000 people employed by the 

automotive parts sector and 737,000 

salespeople and service repair professionals 

at auto dealers. Further, the 1.7 million direct 

jobs contributed to an estimated 8 million total 

private sector jobs accounting for more than 

$500 billion in annual compensation and more 

than $70 billion in personal tax revenues, 

according to the Center for Automotive 

Research.

Source: GAO summary of information from the Department of 

Commerce, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Case Western 

Reserve University, and the Center for Automotive Research. 

Ɩ GAO-17-240

Manufacturing Economic 

Performance
Page 6 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Figure 1: Number of U.S. Manufacturing Employees 1997-2015

Note: Data used in calculations are the average monthly employment numbers for each year.

Manufacturing’s share of U.S. economic output has decreased over the 

last decade as well, according to Bureau of Economic Analysis data. As a 

fraction of U.S. GDP, manufacturing declined from 16.1 percent in 1997 

to 12.1 percent by 2015 (see fig. 2).
Page 7 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Figure 2: Manufacturing Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as a Percentage Share of National GDP, 1997-2015

Note: The figure uses nominal manufacturing value added as a percentage of nominal GDP. If real 

values were used, it would result in a smaller decline over the same period of time. The difference 

between these two perspectives is due to the rapid fall in the quality-adjusted relative price of 

manufacturing output, which in turn is almost entirely driven by the fall in the quality-adjusted prices of 

computers and electronic products, according to Martin Neil Baily and Barry P. Bosworth, “US 

Manufacturing: Understanding Its Past and Its Potential Future,” Journal of Economic Perspectives, 

vol. 28, no. 1 (2014).

There are a number of roles that the federal government plays and a 

variety of tools that it uses to influence the manufacturing sector and the 

broader economy, including:

• Providing funds. The federal government funds programs that 

support manufacturing in different ways, such as by providing grants 

or awarding contracts.

Role of the Federal 

Government
Page 8 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

• Assuming risk. The federal government assumes risk (and potential 

costs associated with risk) by making direct loans, guaranteeing 

loans, and providing insurance.

• Collecting or forgoing revenue from taxes. The federal government 

collects revenues through the tax system, and forgoes revenues 

through tax expenditures such as exemptions, deductions, credits, 

and deferrals, as well as preferential tax rates.

• Directly procuring goods and providing services. The federal 

government procures manufactured products, such as weapons 

systems, and provides services, such as technical assistance, directly 

through government agencies.

• Setting standards and requirements. Federal laws and regulations 

also set standards and requirements that can influence manufacturing 

activities. Standards, like energy, environmental, and workplace 

safety standards, can help to enhance the societal benefits of 

manufacturing, but they may also affect the costs related to 

manufacturing.

In some cases, the tools the federal government uses to influence the 

manufacturing sector are applied directly, such as in the case of a grant 

provided to a specific company. In other cases, the federal government 

influences the manufacturing sector in a more indirect way. For example, 

the federal government delivers tools and technical assistance that 

manufacturers use to help invent, innovate, and create new products and 

services. Specifically, the mission of DOC’s National Institute of 

Standards and Technology (NIST) is to promote U.S. innovation and 

industrial competitiveness by advancing measurement science, 

standards, and technology in ways that enhance economic security and 

improve quality of life. As part of this mission, NIST administers 

measurement science research programs across five laboratories and 

two national user facilities, which provide industry with precision 

measurement technologies, tests, protocols, and scientific and 

engineering knowledge, according to NIST officials. The outputs of the 

NIST laboratories include scientific data and methods that are used in the 

processes, products, and services of nearly every U.S. manufacturing 
Page 9 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

industry, as well as the national service sector, according to agency 

officials.10

The federal government established advisory groups and an office that 

promote coordination across federal agencies and programs to better 

support manufacturers. In recent years, these groups have made 

recommendations, formed partnerships, and developed a strategic plan 

for advanced manufacturing. For example:

• The Manufacturing Council, established in 2004, serves as the 

principal private sector advisory committee to the Secretary of 

Commerce on the U.S. manufacturing sector. It typically meets 

several times a year and develops recommendations for the Secretary 

of Commerce.

• The America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010 (COMPETES 

Act) called for a committee to plan and coordinate federal programs 

and activities in advanced manufacturing R&D, and NSTC designated 

the Committee on Technology to take on this task.11 The COMPETES 

Act required this committee to (1) develop a strategic plan for 

advanced manufacturing, (2) update the plan every 5 years, and (3) 

specify and prioritize near-term and long-term R&D objectives, the 

anticipated time frame for achieving the objectives, and the metrics for 

use in assessing progress toward the objectives, among other things.

• In 2011, PCAST recommended that the federal government work to 

better coordinate efforts to support advanced manufacturing, among 

 10While the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) work is particularly 

important to manufacturers who may rely on NIST-backed measurements to ensure their 

products meet specific standards, we did not include NIST’s laboratory research efforts in 

the scope of our review because it did not meet our criteria as a program with a specific 

focus on manufacturing. 

11The National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) was established by executive 

order on November 23, 1993. Exec. Order No. 12,881, 58 Fed. Reg. 62,491 (Nov. 26,

1993). This cabinet-level council is the principal means within the executive branch to 

coordinate science and technology policy across the diverse entities that make up the 

federal research and development enterprise. A primary objective of the NSTC is 

establishing clear national goals for federal science and technology investments spanning 

virtually all the mission areas of the executive branch. The NSTC’s work is organized 

under five committees: (1) Environment, Natural Resources, and Sustainability; (2) 

Homeland and National Security; (3) Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math 

Education; (4) Science; and (5) Technology. Each of these committees oversees 

subcommittees and working groups focused on different aspects of science and 

technology. 
Page 10 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

other things.12 In general, advanced manufacturing includes activities 

that depend on the use and coordination of information, automation, 

computation, software, sensing, and networking. Or advanced 

manufacturing can use cutting edge materials and emerging 

capabilities enabled by the physical and biological sciences.

• In 2011, DOC established the Advanced Manufacturing National 

Program Office, which is designed to support public-private 

partnerships to increase advanced manufacturing.13

• In 2012, OSTP published the National Strategic Plan for Advanced 

Manufacturing with five objectives: (1) accelerating investment in 

advanced manufacturing technology; (2) expanding the number of 

workers with the skills needed by a growing advanced manufacturing 

sector and making education and training systems more responsive; 

(3) creating and supporting national and regional public-private 

partnerships among government, academia, and the private sector; 

(4) taking a portfolio perspective and coordinating investments across 

agencies; and (5) increasing total U.S. public and private investment 

in advanced manufacturing R&D.14

• In 2014, the Revitalize American Manufacturing and Innovation Act of 

2014 (RAMI Act) was enacted as part of the Consolidated and Further 

Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015. The RAMI Act amended the 

requirements for the strategic plan for advanced manufacturing to say 

that the Committee on Technology shall develop, and update as 

required, a strategic plan to improve government coordination and 

provide long-term guidance for federal programs and activities in 

support of U.S. manufacturing competitiveness, including advanced 

manufacturing R&D. The RAMI Act also requires that the strategic 

plan describe the progress made in achieving the objectives from prior 

strategic plans, including a discussion of why specific objectives were 

not met. The next update of the strategic plan is due by May 1, 2018.

 12PCAST is an advisory group of scientists and engineers, appointed by the President to 

make policy recommendations on science, technology, and innovation to the White 

House. 

13This office is also referred to as the National Program Office.

14The strategic plan was developed by an NSTC interagency working group. According to 

the plan, it responded to the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010 

requirement to develop a strategic plan to guide federal programs and activities in support 

of advanced manufacturing research and development.
Page 11 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

• In 2015, NSTC’s Committee on Technology reestablished a 

Subcommittee on Advanced Manufacturing (SAM) to identify gaps in 

the federal advanced manufacturing R&D portfolio and policies, 

identify and evaluate policies and programs that support technology 

commercialization, and identify and promote opportunities for publicprivate collaboration, among other things. The SAM’s scope includes 

support for implementation of recommendations from PCAST as well 

as support for implementation of and updates to the national strategic 

plan for advanced manufacturing. According to the SAM’s charter, it 

was previously known as the Advanced Manufacturing Subcommittee. 

The SAM’s charter expired on March 1, 2017, and has not been

renewed by the Chair of the Committee on Technology.15

We identified 58 programs in 11 federal agencies that reported they 

support U.S. manufacturing. Based on our review of survey responses, 

these programs support manufacturing by fostering innovation, helping 

manufacturers compete in the global marketplace, helping workers 

enhance skills and obtain employment, and providing general financing or 

general business assistance. All of the categorizations of the programs in 

this report are based on our review of program officials’ responses to our 

 15According to OSTP’s General Counsel, as of mid-March 2017, OSTP was working on 

extending the charter. For that reason, we continue to refer to the Subcommittee on 

Advanced Manufacturing (SAM) and its previous charter throughout the report.

Selected Federal 

Programs Reported 

Supporting U.S. 

Manufacturing by 

Fostering Innovation, 

Strengthening 

Competitiveness in 

the Global 

Marketplace, and 

Assisting Workers

Federal Programs We 

Identified Reported 

Supporting U.S. 

Manufacturing
Page 12 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

survey.16 Most of the manufacturing-related programs we identified are 

administered by the Departments of Commerce, Defense, Energy, or the 

National Science Foundation (see table 1).

Table 1: Programs GAO Identified That Reported They Support U.S. Manufacturing, by Agency 

Department of Agriculture Department of Health and Human Services

Bioenergy Program for Advanced Biofuels Centers for Innovation in Advanced Development and 

Manufacturing

Business and Industry Guaranteed Loan Program Fill Finish Manufacturing Network

National Occupational Research Agenda Manufacturing Sector 

Program

Department of Commerce

Advocacy Center Department of Labor

Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Operations H-1B Technical Skills Training Grant Program

Domestic Field Registered Apprenticeship Program

Foreign-Trade Zones in the United States Trade Adjustment Assistance

Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career 

Training Grant

Industry Trade Policy and Analysis

International Field Environmental Protection Agency

Investing in Manufacturing Communities Partnership E3-Economy, Energy, and Environment

Manufacturing

Manufacturing USAa Export-Import Bank

Textiles, Consumer Goods, and Materials Export-Import Bank of the United States

Trade Adjustment Assistance for Firms

Trade Enforcement and Compliance Policy and Negotiations National Science Foundation

Advanced Technological Education Program

Department of Defense Biotechnology and Biochemical Engineering

Basic, Applied, and Advanced Research in Science and 

Engineering

Design of Engineering Materials Systems

Commercial Technologies for Maintenance Activities Engineering and Systems Design

Defense Production Act Title III Industry/University Cooperative Research Centers Program

Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment Program Manufacturing Machines and Equipment

 16We did not conduct a legal analysis to confirm the various descriptions of the programs 

in this report, including information on their budgetary obligations, program goals, or 

intent. Further, we did not review or analyze agencies’ financial data or materials prepared 

by the agencies in connection with the annual budget and appropriations process.
Page 13 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Manufacturing Applied Research Materials Engineering and Processing

Manufacturing Experimentation and Outreach Two Nanomanufacturing

Manufacturing Technology Program National Robotics Initiative

Navy Manufacturing Science Service, Manufacturing and Operations Research

Prototype Integration Facilities

Small Business Administration

Department of Education 7(a) Loan Program

Career and Technical Education – Basic Grants to States Certified Development Company (CDC)/504 Loan Program

Career and Technical Education – National Programs Small Business Innovation Research

Small Business Technology Transfer

Department of Energy

Advanced Manufacturing Office

Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program

Bioenergy Technologies Office

Clean Energy Manufacturing Initiative

Concentrating Solar Power

Photovoltaics

Solid State Lighting Program

Tech-to-Market

Windows & Building Envelope

Source: GAO survey of agency officials. | GAO-17-240

a

Manufacturing USA is also known as the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation program. 

On September 12, 2016, the Secretary of Commerce announced Manufacturing USA as the new 

public name for the program.

The 58 programs we identified that support manufacturing obligate 

varying amounts of funds. (See app. II for a full list and description of 

these programs, including obligation amounts for 2014-16 and estimated 

proportions of these obligations used to support U.S. manufacturing.)17 In 

some cases, agency officials were able to estimate for our survey the 

amount of funds that supported manufacturing because they considered 

the entire program to be supporting manufacturing. In other cases, 

officials did not estimate the amount their programs obligated to support 

U.S. manufacturing, and instead they provided us with a range. Officials 

with 21 programs reported that 100 percent of their program’s obligations 

 17Additional programs may support U.S. manufacturing in other ways, but if we did not 

identify any specific focus on manufacturing through our review of program descriptions 

and interviews with agency officials, we did not select them. See appendix I for a 

description of our methodology for selecting these programs.
Page 14 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

were used to support manufacturing. Reported obligations for these 

programs ranged from $750,000 to $203,568,000 in fiscal year 2015.18

For example, the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) 

Nanomanufacturing program provides grants that support fundamental 

research that may lead to the production of useful nano-scale materials, 

structures, devices, and systems. According to our survey, the program 

obligated $8,912,533 in fiscal year 2015, and agency officials estimated 

that all of the obligations supported U.S. manufacturing.

Twenty-six other programs reported using funding to support 

manufacturing—in additional to other sectors—and provided ranges of 

estimates for the obligations directly supporting manufacturing.19 For 

example, agency officials told us the Department of Labor’s (DOL) 

Registered Apprenticeship Program prepares American workers to 

compete in a global 21st century economy by training millions of them 

through a network of 21,000 Registered Apprenticeship programs 

consisting of over 150,000 employers. Also according to agency officials, 

the program obligated $34,000,000 in fiscal year 2015, and because

manufacturing programs make up approximately 20 percent of all 

Registered Apprenticeship programs managed by federal staff, they 

estimated that between 10 and 20 percent of federal staff resources are 

used to assist with the establishment of new manufacturing programs and 

to support existing manufacturing programs. The remaining 11 programs 

either did not provide an estimate of their support to manufacturing or 

reported zero program obligations in fiscal year 2015. Table 2 indicates 

the obligations, by agency, for the 58 programs reported by agency 

officials.

 18Three of these 21 programs did not report the amount of their obligations for fiscal year 

2015. In some cases, agency officials may have estimated or rounded their program’s 

obligations for our survey. See appendix I for the steps we took to assess the reliability of 

these data. 

19Two of these programs reported zero percent of their obligations in fiscal year 2015 to 

support U.S. manufacturing. 
Page 15 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Table 2: Reported Fiscal Year 2015 Obligations for 58 Programs That Reported 

Supporting U.S. Manufacturing

Agency

Programs that 

reported supporting 

U.S. manufacturing

Reported total 

program obligations, 

in millionsa

Small Business Administration 4 $2,549

Department of Education 2 $1,123

Department of Agriculture 2 $1,059

Department of Labor 4 $791

Department of Energy 9 $452b

Department of Defense 9 $411c

Department of Commerce 13 $377c

Department of Health and Human 

Services

3 $330

National Science Foundation 10 $180

Export-Import Bank 1 $107d

Environmental Protection Agency 1 $4

Source: GAO survey of agency officials. | GAO-17-240

a

These numbers are the total obligations reported for these programs, and include activities that 

support manufacturing as well as all other activities.

b

Department of Energy officials reported $17 million in additional obligations in fiscal year 2015 on 

Space Conditioning and Refrigeration research and development. We did not survey that program as 

a part of this review.

c

This number does not include obligations for some of these programs because agency officials did 

not provide this information.

d

This amount represents the amount obligated by the Export-Import Bank for administrative costs, 

which according to the Bank were paid by the fees charged to the foreign buyers of U.S. exports.

Among the 58 programs we identified, 30 fostered innovation through 

their support for basic and applied R&D, based on our analysis of survey 

responses.20 (See table 3.) Advocates of targeted innovation policy argue 

that it is important because the manufacturing sector depends on 

continually creating new ideas for products and strategies.

 20In addition to these programs, Department of Commerce (DOC) officials noted that NIST 

supports advanced manufacturing research and development (R&D) through its national 

laboratories. According to DOC officials, NIST spent $139 million in fiscal year 2015 on 

measurement science R&D supporting advanced manufacturing. We did not survey these 

national laboratories as a part of this review. 

Thirty Programs We 

Identified Reported They 

Help Foster Innovation by 

Supporting Basic and 

Applied Research and 

Development
Page 16 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Table 3: Reported Fiscal Year 2015 Obligations for 30 Programs GAO Identified That 

Help Foster Innovation 

Agency

Programs that help 

foster innovation

Reported total 

program obligations, 

in millionsa

Small Business Administration 2 $2,549

Department of Energy 8 $449b

Department of Health and Human 

Services 

1 $297

Department of Defense 7 $207c

Department of Commerce 2 $145

National Science Foundation 9 $115

Environmental Protection Agency 1 $4

Source: GAO survey of agency officials. | GAO-17-240

a

These numbers are the total obligations reported for these programs, and include activities that 

support manufacturing as well as all other activities.

b

Department of Energy officials reported $17 million in additional obligations in fiscal year 2015 on 

Space Conditioning and Refrigeration research and development. We did not survey that program as 

a part of this review.

c

This number does not include obligations for some programs because agency officials did not 

provide this information.

Supporting basic R&D by providing grants to educational institutions and 

others. Ten of the 30 programs support basic R&D—that is, research that 

is conducted without a specific commercial application but which may 

spur private sector innovation—based on our analysis of survey 

responses. The public sector, through government scientific agencies, 

public universities, and other research institutions, may be well-suited to 

support basic R&D, as we reported in our July 2013 report on global 

manufacturing.21 Basic R&D supports innovation by creating opportunities 

for technological advances, according to the National Strategic Plan for 

Advanced Manufacturing.22

• Eight of the 10 programs that seek to support basic R&D are directed 

by NSF. For example, the Design of Engineering Material Systems 

program seeks to support research to inform the accelerated design 

 21GAO, Global Manufacturing: Foreign Government Programs Differ in Some Key 

Respects from Those in the United States, GAO-13-365 (Washington, D.C.: July 25, 

2013). 

22Executive Office of the President, NSTC, A National Strategic Plan for Advanced 

Manufacturing, (Washington D.C.: February 2012).
Page 17 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

and development of materials that can be used in manufacturing 

processes. In fiscal year 2015, this program obligated $3,223,434, 

according to agency officials, and provided grants to approximately 12 

educational institutions, which supported about 140 students and 

other individuals conducting research.

• Another NSF program, the Manufacturing Machines and Equipment 

program, aims to support basic research in engineering and science 

that enables the development of new manufacturing machines and 

equipment, among other things. These machines and equipment are 

used to manufacture mechanical and electromechanical products. 

According to our survey data, in fiscal year 2015, this program 

obligated $10,461,608 and supported approximately 45 educational 

institutions and 440 students and other individuals.

Supporting applied R&D. Twenty of the 30 programs fostered innovation 

by supporting applied R&D—that is, research designed to solve practical 

problems or develop and commercialize new products—based on our 

analysis of survey responses. Applied R&D helps to bridge the gap 

between new ideas and commercially viable products or processes.23 We 

visited locations where two of these programs—the Hollings 

Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) program and the 

Manufacturing USA program—were operating to obtain more specific 

information on how they were supporting manufacturing:

• The MEP program, with reported obligations of $144,556,000 in fiscal 

year 2015, consists of a national network of centers located in all 50 

states and Puerto Rico that seeks to help small- and medium-sized 

manufacturers adopt new technologies and commercialize their 

products. The centers are funded through a cost-sharing 

arrangement. In addition to federal funding from NIST, the centers 

receive funding from state and local governments, and from fees 

charged to manufacturers. Officials from the Illinois center reported 

they observed production processes at a local manufacturer and 

made suggestions to improve efficiency. For example, they identified 

an instance where equipment could be used to free up a worker for 

other purposes. Center officials also said they had plans to support 

local manufacturers by providing “market intelligence” or estimating 

how much the market would value a particular product or feature.

• The Manufacturing USA program aims to support manufacturing 

through applied R&D by coordinating a network of institutes where 

 23GAO-13-365. 
Page 18 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

public and private sector stakeholders work together to, among other 

things, resolve technical barriers to innovative manufacturing 

technologies or processes. As of 2016, the program supported nine 

institutes, and five or six additional institutes will be announced in 

fiscal year 2017, according to agency officials. The Manufacturing 

USA program is overseen by DOC, and as of 2016, each institute was 

funded by either the Department of Defense or the Department of 

Energy, with other agencies planning to fund additional institutes, 

according to Commerce officials. The Manufacturing USA institute we 

visited in Knoxville, Tennessee, conducts research related to 

advanced composites and utilizes a manufacturing demonstration 

facility that conducts research on additive manufacturing (also known 

as three dimensional (3D) printing).24 Officials at the institute told us 

that private companies may find it difficult to purchase manufacturing 

machines, such as 3D printers, due to their size and cost. They said 

that the combination of resources available through the institute and 

the Manufacturing Demonstration Facility allows members to use 

these machines at a fraction of the normal purchase cost to test or 

demonstrate new manufacturing technologies. (See fig. 3.) Similarly, 

the Manufacturing USA institute we visited in Chicago, Illinois, allows 

its members to use its advanced technology machines to demonstrate 

the benefits of digital manufacturing, which involves using an 

integrated computer-based system to improve manufacturing.25 An 

institute official noted that allowing its members to use machines at 

the institute may increase the pace of R&D by allowing manufacturers 

to quickly create prototypes to test designs.

 243D printing is a layer-by-layer process of producing 3D objects directly from a digital 

model. Unlike conventional manufacturing processes, 3D printing creates a finished piece 

in successive layers, generally without using molds, casts, or patterns. As 3D printing has 

become more widespread, it has been used to develop tools and casts for conventional 

manufacturing, among other things. Additionally, 3D printing could be used to produce 

parts and products in fields such as medicine and aerospace. For more information, see 

GAO, Highlights of a Forum: 3D Printing: Opportunities, Challenges, and Policy 

Implications of Additive Manufacturing, GAO-15-505SP (Washington, D.C.: June 24, 

2015). 

25According to officials working in digital manufacturing, this technology involves use of an 

integrated, computer-based system comprised of simulation, three-dimensional 

visualization, analytics, and various collaboration tools to create product and 

manufacturing process definitions simultaneously. 
Page 19 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Figure 3: 3D Printer Used in Advanced Manufacturing

Eleven of the 58 programs assist manufacturers to trade in the global 

marketplace, based on our analysis of survey responses. These 

programs engage in activities like promoting U.S. exports and open trade,

providing financial support, providing technical assistance, and enforcing 

trade laws and supporting policy formulation (see table 4). According to 

our survey data, DOC administers all but one of these programs, and they 

devote a majority of their resources and activities to manufacturing.

Eleven Programs We 

Identified Reported They 

Assist Manufacturers with 

Trade in the Global 

Marketplace
Page 20 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Table 4: Reported Fiscal Year 2015 Obligations for 11 Programs That Assist 

Manufacturers with Trade in the Global Marketplace 

Agency

Programs that assist 

manufacturers with 

trade in the global 

marketplace

Reported total 

program obligations, 

in millionsa

Department of Commerce 10 $233b

Export-Import Bank 1 $107c

Source: GAO survey of agency officials. | GAO-17-240

a

These numbers are the total obligations reported for these programs, and include activities that 

support manufacturing as well as all other activities.

b

This number does not include obligations for some programs because agency officials did not 

provide this information.

c

This represents the amount obligated by the Export-Import Bank for administrative costs, which 

according to the Bank were paid by the fees charged to the foreign buyers of U.S. exports.

Promoting U.S. exports. Export promotion programs can assist U.S. 

companies with trade in the global marketplace by helping them 

overcome barriers to entry in foreign markets, as we have previously 

reported.26 Of the 11 programs we identified that help manufacturers with 

trade in the global marketplace, 6 reported promoting U.S. exports. For 

example, 1 of these 6 programs, DOC’s Domestic Field program, 

reported providing services in partnership with the Export-Import Bank 

and the Small Business Administration (SBA), through a network of U.S. 

Export Assistance Centers. These centers seek to provide customized 

assistance to local small-and medium-sized companies, including 

manufacturers, by helping to identify relevant partners and markets and 

by assisting with export mechanics and financing options, according to 

program officials. With 108 offices in 48 states and Puerto Rico, these 

centers served about 25,000 businesses in fiscal year 2015, according to 

agency officials. We visited a center located in Knoxville, Tennessee, 

which, according to local officials, worked with a company to create an 

outreach seminar and develop an invitation list for it in Mexico. According 

to local officials, the seminar helped increase the company’s sales of 

manufactured medical products to Mexico. The Knoxville center also 

seeks to assist local companies with the export process by helping to 

locate distributors for their products, according to local officials.

 26GAO, International Trade: Observations on U.S. and Foreign Countries’ Export 

Promotion Activities, GAO-10-310T (Washington, D.C.: Dec. 9, 2009).
Page 21 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Providing financial support. Based on our survey, 2 of the 11 programs 

we identified provide various types of financial support to companies or 

their customers that are unable to obtain financing from the private sector 

or have been affected by import competition. For example, according to 

the Export-Import Bank, it supports companies by using three main types 

of financial products:

• fixed-rate loans directly to foreign buyers of U.S. goods and services;

• loan guarantees to commercial lenders to cover repayment risks on 

foreign buyers’ debt obligations incurred to purchase U.S. exports; 

and

• export credit insurance, which supports U.S. exporters selling goods 

overseas by protecting them against the risk of foreign buyer or other 

foreign debtor default.

According to the Export-Import Bank’s fiscal year 2015 annual report, the 

Bank authorized 41 loans and 344 loan guarantees, in a range of sectors, 

including, but not limited to, manufacturing. In one instance, the ExportImport Bank guaranteed commercial loans to support the export of 

bridges manufactured by a U.S.-based company. According to the 

Export-Import Bank, these guarantees allowed the manufacturer to gain 

entry into foreign markets, and they also supported jobs in the United 

States.

Another program we surveyed that seeks to provide financial support, 

among other things, is the Trade Adjustment Assistance for Firms 

program, which is administered by DOC. According to our survey, the 

program supports a network of trade adjustment assistance centers that 

work with manufacturers that have been affected by competition from 

imported products. These centers aim to help manufacturers develop and 

implement business recovery plans, among other things, and provide 

matching funds for consultants to work with manufacturers to implement 

projects in business recovery plans, according to agency officials.

Enforcing trade laws and agreements and supporting policy formulation. 

Based on our analysis of survey responses, DOC administers three 

programs that enforce trade agreements and support policy formulation 

and negotiations. One of the three programs, the Industry Trade Policy 

and Analysis program, seeks to provide analysis and expertise to conduct 

policy formulation or represent industry members in trade negotiations. 

These activities aim to help expand exports and bolster foreign direct 

investments in the United States, which can assist many industries, 
Page 22 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

including manufacturing. Another program, the Trade Enforcement and 

Compliance Policy and Negotiations program, oversees policies and 

programs related to the negotiation of and pursuing foreign compliance 

with trade and investment disciplines in international agreements, the 

administration of U.S. antidumping and countervailing duty laws, and the 

negotiation and administration of suspension agreements of U.S. 

antidumping and countervailing duty investigations. The Antidumping and 

Countervailing Duty Operations program investigates if petitions provide 

sufficient evidence that dumping or unfair subsidization is occurring.27

Generally, if the results of an investigation indicate that goods are being 

dumped or unfairly subsidized, and the U.S. International Trade 

Commission determines that U.S. industry is being injured, DOC will 

issue an order requiring importers subject to the order to make cash 

deposits equal to the amount of dumping and/or subsidization found. 

Later, Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Operations program officials 

might conduct an administrative review to determine the actual amount of 

dumping or subsidization and calculate a final duty rate.28 According to 

our analysis of the survey, these activities help manufacturers by 

promoting fair competition in the marketplace, and by ensuring that U.S. 

firms are not adversely affected by actions of foreign producers and 

governments. The Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Operations 

program reported that it assisted at least 440 U.S. companies and unions 

in fiscal year 2015. According to agency officials we surveyed, other U.S. 

manufacturing companies also may have benefited from actions taken by 

the program. For example, as we found in 2013, trade remedy duties, 

such as those determined by the Antidumping and Countervailing Duty 

Operations program, add to the price of foreign products imported into the 

United States, and they can benefit domestic producers of these products 

regardless of whether the producers file a petition.29

 27Under U.S. law, firms can file a petition to request the U.S. government investigate when 

they believe they have been adversely affected by dumping or exports subsidized by a 

countervailable subsidy from other countries into the United States. 

28U.S. Customs and Border Protection collects the duty amount owed. For more 

information, see GAO, Antidumping and Countervailing Duties: CBP Action Needed to 

Reduce Duty Processing Errors and Mitigate Nonpayment Risk, GAO-16-542 

(Washington, D.C.: July 14, 2016).

29GAO, Antidumping and Countervailing Duties: Key Challenges to Small and MediumSized Enterprises’ Pursuit of the Imposition of Trade Remedies, GAO-13-575 

(Washington, D.C.: June 25, 2013).
Page 23 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Of the 58 programs, we identified 8 in the training policy area that help job 

seekers enhance skills and obtain employment, based on our analysis of 

survey responses. (See table 5). Some of these programs help job 

seekers bolster their skills in response to technological advances in the 

manufacturing sector, while others help job seekers find reemployment 

when laid off from their manufacturing jobs. Most training programs we 

identified are administered by the Departments of Labor and Education, 

and while manufacturing workers may be eligible for such training, the 

programs generally address workforce changes across many sectors of 

the economy.

Table 5: Reported Fiscal Year 2015 Obligations for Eight Programs That Help Job 

Seekers Enhance Skills and Obtain Employment 

Agency

Programs that help job 

seekers enhance skills and 

obtain employment

Reported total 

program 

obligations, in 

millionsa

Department of Education 2 $1,123

Department of Labor 4 $791

National Science Foundation 1 $65

Department of Defense 1 Not reportedb

Source: GAO survey of agency officials. | GAO-17-240

a

These numbers are the total obligations reported for these programs, and include activities that 

support manufacturing as well as all other activities.

b

Agency officials did not provide obligations information.

Supporting the enhancement of job seekers’ skills. Seven of the eight 

programs help job seekers enhance job skills, based on our analysis of 

survey responses. For example, one program, the Trade Adjustment 

Assistance Community College and Career Training Grant (TAACCCT) 

program, provided multi-year grants to universities and community 

colleges to support education and career training programs that aim to 

help job seekers bolster their skills and obtain employment in higher 

skilled jobs. This program is administered by the Department of Labor 

(DOL) and implemented in partnership with the Department of Education

(Education), and while it currently oversees existing grants, it has stopped 

providing new grant funding. In fiscal year 2014, the program obligated 

$463,994,493, according to agency officials. Community colleges use 

these grants to develop workforce training programs that are aligned with 

the needs of local industry. The grants are also used to develop 

workforce training programs that prepare job seekers for employment in a 

range of industries, and many community colleges identified 

Eight Programs We 

Identified Reported They 

Help Job Seekers 

Enhance Skills and Obtain 

Employment
Page 24 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

manufacturing as a significant industry in their area, according to 

responses made by agency officials in our survey. For example, an 

official from a network of community colleges we visited in Illinois that 

received a TAACCCT grant said that the grant served as a catalyst for 

discussions between local manufacturers and community colleges. 

According to this official, these discussions helped community colleges 

identify topics to include in their curriculum and the skillsets required in 

the manufacturing sector, and as a result, the grant aimed to ensure that 

job seekers are adequately prepared for employment in the 

manufacturing sector.

Providing support for job seekers who have been laid off from their job in 

the manufacturing sector. One of the eight programs, the Trade 

Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program, administered by DOL, provides 

benefits and employment services for job seekers who have lost their jobs 

due to global trade, based on our analysis of the survey. According to 

information provided by agency officials in our survey, job seekers are 

eligible to participate in the TAA program if they have been adversely 

affected by increased imports or a shift in production to other countries, 

among other factors. Job seekers in the TAA program can receive a skills 

assessment, training, and individual career counseling, among other 

things, to help train them for new jobs in fields that may require advanced 

skills. In fiscal year 2015, states obligated $507 million to serve TAAeligible workers in all industry sectors, according to DOL. Although 

funding was not targeted specifically for the manufacturing sector, agency 

officials estimated that approximately 86 percent of certified workers in 

fiscal year 2015 were from the manufacturing sector. Although most job 

seekers obtain employment in other sectors after participating in the TAA 

program, DOL officials reported that about 4,500 job seekers were 

reemployed in the manufacturing sector after participating in the TAA 

program in fiscal year 2015.
Page 25 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

We identified nine programs that provide general financing or general 

business assistance that cuts across all three policy areas (innovation, 

trade, and training) or that support the manufacturing of public health 

products, based on our analysis of survey responses (see table 6). Some 

of these programs provide general financing through loans or loan 

guarantees to businesses in all sectors, including manufacturing, or 

provide direct payments to specific manufacturing industries, such as 

defense and bioenergy.30 A few programs also assist the health care 

sector by supporting the manufacturing of public health products.

Table 6: Reported Fiscal Year 2015 Obligations for Nine Programs That Support 

Manufacturing by Providing General Financing or General Business Assistance or 

by Developing Manufactured Products

Agency

Programs that support 

manufacturing by providing 

general financing, general 

business assistance, or 

developing specific 

manufactured products

Reported total program 

obligations, in millionsa

Department of Agriculture 2 $1,059

Department of Defense 1 $204

Department of Health and 

Human Services

2 $33

Department of Energy 1 $4

Department of Commerce 1 Not reportedb

Small Business 

Administration 

2 Not reportedb

Source: GAO survey of agency officials. | GAO-17-240

a

These numbers are the total obligations reported for these programs, and include activities that 

support manufacturing as well as all other activities.

b

Agency officials did not provide obligations information.

Providing general financing. Six of the nine programs we identified 

support manufacturing by providing various types of general financing, 

including loans, loan guarantees, or direct payments, based on our 

analysis of survey responses. For example, according to the survey, the 

Department of Agriculture’s Business and Industry Guaranteed Loan 

Program, the SBA’s 7(a) and Certified Development Company (CDC)/504 

 30According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, bioenergy is a type of renewable 

energy that is derived from biological sources. Bioenergy can be used for a variety of 

purposes, including heat, electricity, or vehicle fuel. 

Nine Programs We 

Identified Reported They 

Support Manufacturing by 

Providing General 

Financing or General 

Business Assistance or by 

Developing Manufactured 

Products
Page 26 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Loan programs, and the Department of Energy’s Advanced Technology 

Vehicles Manufacturing Loan program provide loans or loan guarantees 

but each agency targets different types of manufacturers and has 

different eligibility requirements. The Business and Industry Guaranteed 

Loan Program generally supports rural businesses by issuing loan 

guarantees, while both SBA programs generally provide loan guarantees 

to eligible small businesses to finance a wide range of needs, including 

working capital, revolving credit, asset acquisition, and re-financing.

Further, the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan program 

supports the manufacturing of advanced technology vehicles by providing 

direct loans to automotive and component manufacturers.

In addition to providing loans or loan guarantees to assist manufacturers, 

the Defense Production Act Title III program, for example, provides direct 

payments to manufacturers by purchasing advanced materials and 

technologies that develop their production capabilities. According to our 

survey, the program obligated $203,568,000 in fiscal year 2015, all of 

which supported U.S. manufacturing. Another program, the Bioenergy 

Program for Advanced Biofuels, supports the production of advanced 

biofuels by providing payments to advanced biofuel producers.31 In fiscal 

year 2015, the program provided payments to 225 manufacturers, 

according to our survey data.

Providing general support to manufacturing across the areas of 

innovation, trade, and training. We identified one program—the Investing 

in Manufacturing Communities Partnership (IMCP) program—that 

supports manufacturing by cutting across all three policy areas. Based on 

our survey, as of calendar year 2015, the IMCP program had designated 

24 locations across the country as manufacturing communities through a 

competitive selection process.32 As part of the IMCP program, locations 

designated as manufacturing communities receive technical assistance 

from 12 federal agencies—in addition to DOC—and are eligible for 

preferential consideration for funding consistent with each agency’s 

program eligibility requirements and evaluation criteria, according to 

DOC. According to program officials we met with in Knoxville, an 

advantage of being designated a manufacturing community is the 

 31Advanced biofuels are fuels produced from renewable biomass excluding corn kernel 

starch.

32According to agency officials we surveyed, manufacturing communities may include 

multiple counties and cross state borders. 
Page 27 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

increased level of collaboration among federal, state, and regional 

stakeholders, which has helped create new business opportunities, attract 

businesses to the region, and provide manufacturing training to workers. 

The IMCP community we visited in Chicago focuses on metal 

manufacturing, and its members collaborate with other organizations to 

provide such training to workers.33 For instance, the Jane Addams 

Resource Corporation, a training provider, administers a training 

curriculum that addresses the specific skills required for employment in 

the manufacturing sector. Officials told us that they provide students with 

hands-on training and adjusted their training curriculum to match industry 

trends. For instance, they said that they acquired a robotic welder and 

used it to train their students on this new, automated technology (see fig. 

4).

 33One of the members of the Investing in Manufacturing Communities Partnership (IMCP) 

in Chicago, IL, is the Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership. According to local program 

officials, this partnership works with a variety of organizations to provide training to 

workers, including the Jane Addams Resource Corporation, which is funded by programs 

authorized by the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. 
Page 28 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Figure 4: Welding Machine Used For Training

Supporting the manufacturing of public health products. Two of the nine 

programs we identified support the development, acquisition, and testing 

of public health supplies, according to our analysis of survey responses. 

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) awarded contracts 

to establish the Centers for Innovation in Advanced Development and 

Manufacturing, which is composed of three manufacturing organizations. 

These organizations develop and manufacture medical countermeasures, 

such as influenza vaccines and protections against chemical, biological, 

radiological and nuclear threats. Contractors for another program, the Fill 

Finish Manufacturing Network, provide packaging support for medical 

countermeasure products. Among other things, HHS has engaged with 

the Fill Finish Manufacturing Network to transfer sterile drug products that 

would be required in a public health emergency, according to our survey 

data.
Page 29 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Nine tax expenditures provide benefits to manufacturers, according to a 

CRS report and Treasury officials.34 These tax expenditures provide 

incentives to manufacturers through tax deductions, deferral, credits, and 

other methods. These tax expenditures are available to manufacturers, as 

well as other corporations or individual taxpayers that meet the qualifying 

requirements. (See table 7.)

Table 7: Selected Federal Tax Expenditures That Can Support Manufacturing

Tax expenditures

Estimated forgone revenue, including 

manufacturing and other sectors 

(millions) FY 2015

Deferral of active income of controlled foreign 

corporations

$99,300 

Accelerated depreciation for certain capital 

assets, including bonus depreciation

$90,600 (FY 2016 estimate)a

Deduction for qualified domestic production 

activities 

$16,200

Research and experimentation tax credit $8,300 (FY 2016 estimate)a

Expensing of research and experimental 

expenditures

$4,800

Option to claim a refundable accelerated 

alternative minimum tax credit in lieu of 

bonus depreciation allowance

$2,500 (FY 2016 estimate)a

Inventory accounting: use of the last-in, firstout method$1,800

Inventory property sales source rule 

exception

$1,700

Partial exclusion on gains from the sale or 

exchange of qualified small business stock

$900

Source: Joint Committee on Taxation

 34These tax expenditures and their descriptions were compiled by the Congressional 

Research Service in the 2013 report, Federal Tax Benefits for Manufacturing: Current 

Law, Legislation in the 113th Congress, and Arguments For and Against Federal 

Assistance. We conferred with officials from the Department of the Treasury (Treasury), 

who agreed that these expenditures have an impact on the manufacturing sector. 

However, these expenditures are not necessarily a comprehensive representation of tax 

incentives that support the manufacturing sector because other tax incentives that benefit 

businesses in general may also benefit manufacturers to some degree. 

Selected Federal Tax 

Expenditures Can 

Provide Benefits to 

Manufacturers but 

Their Overall Effects 

Are Difficult to 

Quantify

Tax Expenditures

Tax expenditures are reductions in an 

individual or corporate taxpayer’s tax liability 

that are the result of special exemptions and 

exclusions from taxation, deductions, credits, 

deferrals of tax liability, or preferential tax 

rates. They often aim to achieve policy goals 

similar to those of federal spending 

programs.

Source: GAO-13-167SP. | GAO-17-240
Page 30 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

a

The Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) report did not estimate forgone revenue for these tax 

expenditures for FY 2015 because, according to that report, they were scheduled to expire that year. 

However, the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act of 2015 extended these tax expenditures, and 

JCT provided estimates for FY 2016.

Note: These forgone revenue amounts are not solely for manufacturing. They are for all corporations 

or individuals that used the tax expenditures, including those in other sectors of the economy. Tax 

expenditures’ revenue loss estimates do not necessarily represent the exact amount of revenue that 

would be gained if a specific tax expenditure was repealed because repeal of the tax expenditure 

could change taxpayer and economic behavior in some way that would affect revenue. The repeal 

could also affect economic activities related to other tax provisions or government programs, 

according to Treasury officials.

The overall effects of these nine tax expenditures across the 

manufacturing sector are difficult to quantify. DOC officials told us that tax 

expenditures are important, but they do not measure or analyze their 

effects. Treasury officials told us that these tax expenditures support 

manufacturing, but they do not measure or analyze their effects either. To 

understand the expenditures’ effects, Treasury officials said they would 

have to identify which corporations are involved in manufacturing and 

how they used the tax expenditure. They also told us that many of the tax 

expenditures do not directly impact manufacturing activity, which also 

makes them difficult to measure. In a 2016 report, we found that federal 

agencies did not identify how a large proportion of tax expenditures 

contributed to agency goals, including the nine tax expenditures we 

selected that support manufacturing.35 We also noted in that report that 

agencies may not assess the effectiveness of tax expenditures because 

of a reported lack of clarity about their roles and challenges with 

performance measurement. We found in 2013 that there is a lack of 

sufficient data available to estimate the degree to which some tax 

expenditures are used because tax forms do not collect specific data on 

them.36 To help address these issues, we recommended that federal 

agencies identify which tax expenditures contribute to their goals. As of 

November 2016, this recommendation remained open.

Deferral of the Active Income of Controlled Foreign Corporations. This tax 

expenditure defers taxes for U.S.-based firms that own foreign 

subsidiaries. The Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) estimated the 

forgone revenue for this expenditure to be $99.3 billion for fiscal year 

2015. We previously reported that the federal government taxes the 

 35GAO, Tax Expenditures: Opportunities Exist to Use Budgeting and Agency Performance 

Processes to Increase Oversight, GAO-16-622 (Washington, D.C.: July 7, 2016).

36GAO, Tax Expenditures: IRS Data Available for Evaluations Are Limited, GAO-13-479 

(Washington, D.C.: Apr. 30, 2013).
Page 31 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

worldwide income of U.S. corporations, whether earned domestically or 

abroad, and that this tax expenditure allows firms to defer paying taxes on 

income earned by foreign subsidiaries until it is distributed to the U.S. 

parent corporation or other U.S. shareholders. Although the distribution 

and ultimate beneficiaries of this expenditure are unknown, there is some 

evidence that companies in the manufacturing sector may benefit more 

from deferral than others, according to our prior work.37 An Internal 

Revenue Service (IRS) study found that during the one-time U.S. 

repatriation tax holiday, which allowed U.S. corporations to bring income 

back to the United States tax-free, in 2004, certain industries, such as 

companies involved in pharmaceutical manufacturing and computer and 

electronic equipment manufacturing, benefited disproportionately, as they 

repatriated significantly more income that year in the form of dividends 

relative to the size of the tax filers.38

Accelerated depreciation for certain capital assets, including bonus 

depreciation. This tax expenditure boosts the cash flow of firms because 

it allows them to consider assets as tax deductible expenses more 

quickly, thereby reducing the amount of income that is taxed. JCT 

estimated forgone revenue for this accelerated depreciation tax 

expenditure to be $90.6 billion for fiscal year 2016.

Deduction for qualified domestic production activities. This tax 

expenditure is a tax incentive for businesses to invest or expand their 

manufacturing in the United States. JCT estimated the forgone revenue 

for this tax expenditure to be $16.2 billion for fiscal year 2015. According 

to the JCT report, it was intended to lower the tax burden on domestic 

manufacturers as well as to attract new investments in domestic 

manufacturing facilities.39 For this provision, taxpayers can deduct 9 

percent of taxable income derived from eligible activities, according to the 

JCT report. The eligible activities relate primarily to manufacturers, but 

other types of firms may also qualify, according to CRS. Manufacturing 

accounted for an estimated two-thirds of the total value of claims for the 

domestic production activities deduction by taxpayers in 2009, according 

to a 2012 report from JCT.

 37GAO, Corporate Tax Expenditures: Evaluations of Tax Deferrals and Graduated Tax 

Rates, GAO-13-789 (Washington, D.C.: Sept. 16, 2013).

38See IRS, The One-Time Received Dividend Deduction, SOI Bulletin (Spring 2008). 

39Joint Committee on Taxation, Background and Present Law Relating to Manufacturing 

Activities Within the United States, JCX-61-12, (July 17, 2012).
Page 32 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Research and Experimentation (R&E) tax credit. This tax expenditure 

provides incentives for R&E. JCT estimated the forgone revenue for the 

R&E tax expenditure to be $8.3 billion for fiscal year 2016. The R&E tax 

credit can encourage business investment in research intended to foster 

innovation and promote long-term economic growth. This credit lowers 

the cost of qualified research, which can encourage more investment for 

that purpose. Manufacturing accounted for 64 percent of the value of 

claims for the credit by corporations in 2011, according to a report from 

the Committee on the Budget, U.S. Senate.40

Expensing of Research and Experimental Expenditures. This tax 

deduction also provides incentives for R&E. JCT estimated the forgone 

revenue for this deduction to be $4.8 billion for fiscal year 2015. The 

deduction gives corporations investing in R&D the option to recover a 

portion of the expenses they incur or pay in undertaking those 

investments. According to data published by the National Science 

Foundation, manufacturing firms performed or funded 68 percent of 

domestic R&D paid for by companies in all industries in 2013, suggesting 

that the manufacturing sector may be a significant beneficiary of this 

expenditure.

Option to claim a refundable accelerated Alternative Minimum Tax credit 

in lieu of bonus depreciation allowance. This tax expenditure enables 

firms who have an operating loss in the current year and have unused 

Alternative Minimum Tax credits to increase their cash flow by claiming 

the optional refundable credit instead of a bonus depreciation allowance 

that would only boost their net operating loss in the current tax year. JCT 

estimated forgone revenue for the option to claim a refundable 

accelerated Alternative Minimum Tax credit to be $2.5 billion for fiscal 

year 2016.

Last-in-first-out inventory accounting method. This method enables 

taxpayers to reduce the tax burden on the difference between the sales 

price and the cost of inventories and creates additional opportunities for 

firms to plan ahead and reduce the amount of taxes they pay. JCT 

 40Committee on the Budget, United States Senate, Tax Expenditures: Compendium of 

Background Material on Individual Provisions, Prepared by the Congressional Research

Service, 91-950cc (Washington, D.C.: December 2014). 
Page 33 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

estimated forgone revenue for the last-in-first-out inventory accounting 

method to be $1.8 billion for fiscal year 2015.41

Inventory property sales source rule exception. This tax expenditure 

provides benefits to businesses when exporting their manufactured 

goods. JCT estimated the forgone revenue for this expenditure to be $1.7 

billion for fiscal year 2015. According to a 2014 Congressional report, it 

exempts a portion of a firm’s export income from U.S. taxation by using 

the tax code’s rules governing the source of inventory sales and 

interacting with the tax code’s foreign tax credit provisions.42 As a result, 

this exception for inventory sales will raise the rate of return from 

investing in exporting. Because manufactured goods account for the 

majority of U.S. exports, manufacturers may be likely to receive notable 

benefits from this tax expenditure.

Partial exclusion on gains from the sale or exchange of qualified small 

business stock. This tax expenditure aims to help increase the flow of 

equity capital to smaller firms that are having difficulty raising capital from 

traditional sources (i.e. owner investment and banks). JCT estimated 

forgone revenue for the partial exclusion for small business stock to be 

$0.9 billion for fiscal year 2015.

 41According to Treasury officials, the Treasury does not consider this accounting method 

to be a tax expenditure. We included it here because both the Congressional Research 

Service (CRS) and Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) included it in their lists, and JCT 

provided an estimate of foregone revenue. While, in general, the tax expenditure lists that 

Treasury and JCT publish annually are similar, they differ somewhat in the number of tax 

expenditures reported and the estimated revenue loss for particular expenditures, for 

various reasons. See GAO, Tax Expenditures: Background and Evaluation Criteria and 

Questions, GAO-13-167SP (Washington, D.C.: Nov. 29, 2012).

42Committee on the Budget, 2014.
Page 34 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

There are three general trends in the manufacturing sector: movement 

toward advanced manufacturing, need for workers with higher skills, and 

more globalization and competition for U.S. manufacturers, according to 

our analysis of selected reports and experts we interviewed.43 The U.S. 

manufacturing sector is changing from a traditional manufacturing sector 

(i.e., one based on assembly lines and large numbers of employees) to 

an advanced manufacturing sector, according to PCAST. PCAST also 

reported that a highly skilled workforce will be critical to the deployment of 

an advanced manufacturing sector in the United States. At the same time, 

the manufacturing sector is becoming more globalized. PCAST reported 

that supporting advanced manufacturing innovation in the United States is 

critical to U.S. global competitiveness. U.S. manufacturers are 

increasingly competing with manufacturers in other countries as supply 

chains are becoming global and other countries are providing support for 

their manufacturing sector to make them more competitive, according to 

an expert we spoke to.

Fifty-one of the 58 federal programs selected for our review are 

addressing one or more of the manufacturing trends in different ways, 

according to our survey of agency officials. Our analysis of survey 

responses shows that more than two thirds of programs are addressing 

the shift toward advanced manufacturing, approximately half of the 

programs are taking steps to address increased globalization and 

competition, and less than half are addressing the need for a higher 

skilled workforce. Table 8 shows how many programs reported 

addressing each of these trends. Programs reported addressing trends in 

 43For more information on how we selected the reports and experts we spoke to and 

identified the trends, see appendix I.

Programs Reported 

Addressing 

Manufacturing Trends 

in Different Ways, and 

Some Face 

Challenges in Doing 

So

Three Trends Are 

Occurring in a Rapidly 

Changing U.S. 

Manufacturing Sector

Most Programs We 

Identified Reported They 

Have Addressed 

Manufacturing Trends in 

Different Ways
Page 35 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

several ways, including providing funding and resources, sharing 

information, and promoting coordination.

Table 8: Number of Federal Programs That Reported Addressing Each of the 

Manufacturing Trends

Source: GAO analysis of survey data. | GAO-17-240

Note: There are three general trends in the manufacturing sector: movement toward advanced 

manufacturing, a need for workers with higher skills, and more globalization and competition for U.S. 

manufacturers, according to our analysis of selected reports and experts we interviewed. Of the 51 

programs that reported addressing manufacturing trends, some reported addressing more than one.

Programs Reported Providing Funding and Resources

Programs have provided funding and resources to address trends in the 

manufacturing sector, according to agency officials surveyed. Funding 

and resources include providing grants for R&D or training programs, 

targeting research funding through public-private partnerships, or 

supporting the development and testing of training tools related to new 

manufacturing technologies. Providing funding and resources was used 

to address all three of our identified manufacturing trends, though it was 

most commonly used to address advanced manufacturing, based on our 

survey results, as shown in table 9.

Table 9: Number of Programs That Reported Providing Funding and Resources to 

Address Each Manufacturing Trend

Trend

Number of programs that 

reported providing funding 

and resources 

Advanced Manufacturing 31

Globalization and Competition 20

Higher Skilled Workforce 18

Source: GAO analysis of survey data. | GAO-17-240

Note: Some programs reported providing funding and resources to address more than one trend.

Advanced Manufacturing

Higher Skilled 

Workforce

Globalization 

and 

Competition

Number of programs 

that reported 

addressing each 

trend

42 24 31
Page 36 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Examples of programs that reported providing funding and resources, 

according to officials:

• The Manufacturing USA program was identified by multiple experts 

we spoke to as a prominent federal effort addressing the advanced 

manufacturing trend. Federal agencies funded nine innovation 

institutes through a public-private partnership model to support R&D 

projects and workforce development in advanced technologies such 

as additive manufacturing and digital manufacturing, among others.

• The Department of Defense’s (DOD) Mentor2 program seeks to 

ensure that training remains relevant to workforce needs by funding 

training programs in digital manufacturing that can also be accessed 

by a wider cross-section of the DOD workforce.

• The Department of Energy’s (DOE) Concentrating Solar Power and 

Photovoltaics programs fund research, development, and 

demonstration of innovation technologies that have largely moved 

overseas.44 According to DOE officials, applicants to these programs 

must demonstrate a commitment to promoting domestic 

manufacturing to receive grant funding. More specifically, funding 

applicants must develop a U.S. manufacturing plan that commits to, 

among other things, investing in new or existing U.S. manufacturing 

facilities, keeping certain activities such as final assembly in the U.S., 

and supporting a specific number of manufacturing jobs in the United 

States, according to DOE officials.

Programs Reported Sharing Information

Programs reported sharing information to address trends in the 

manufacturing sector, including developing training materials and 

preparing industry sector reports, among other things. Programs are 

sharing information to address all three trends, with the largest number 

addressing advanced manufacturing, based on our survey results, as 

shown in table 10.

 44According to officials at the Department of Energy (DOE), Photovoltaics is the direct 

conversion of sunlight into electricity by a semiconductor.
Page 37 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Table 10: Number of Programs That Reported Sharing Information to Address Each 

Manufacturing Trend 

Trend

Number of programs that 

reported sharing information 

Advanced Manufacturing 13

Globalization and Competition 9

Higher Skilled Workforce 4

Source: GAO analysis of survey data. | GAO-17-240

Note: Some programs reported sharing information to address more than one trend.

Examples of programs that reported sharing information, according to 

agency officials:

• Officials with the MEP program told us that they developed training 

materials on new technologies and created a community of practice to 

promote information sharing across the national network of MEP 

Centers.45 MEP also collaborated with the NIST Engineering Lab to 

hold a regional workshop for clients to share information about 

advances in emerging advanced manufacturing technologies such as 

collaborative robotics.46

• As part of the IMCP program, officials told us that the Department of 

Commerce (DOC) has worked with the Departments of Education and 

Labor to build working groups to prepare panels and content for 

annual IMCP summits. These groups focused on addressing the 

workforce skills gap and identifying successful models for skill 

development, providing technical assistance, and sharing federal 

funding opportunities to help communities build a workforce with the 

skills that their employers need.

• Officials from the International Trade Administration’s Manufacturing 

program told us that they developed the Top Markets Report series—

a collection of sector-specific reports designed to help U.S. exporters 

compare markets across borders. The reports highlight future export 

 45The Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) program has centers in all 50 

states and Puerto Rico. 

46Collaborative robotics involves integrating the use of robotic systems into manufacturing 

processes to operate in collaboration with humans and other machines. 
Page 38 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

opportunities for advanced manufacturing technologies such as in 

additive manufacturing and smart grid products.47

Programs Reported Promoting Coordination

Some agency officials reported that their programs promote coordination 

among stakeholders in the manufacturing community by convening 

representatives from industry and academia to address manufacturing 

issues, and reaching out to communities to stimulate manufacturing in a 

specific region, among other activities. Coordination was used to address 

all three manufacturing trends, based on our survey results, as shown in 

table 11.

Table 11: Number of Programs That Reported Promoting Coordination to Address 

Each Manufacturing Trend 

Trend

Number of programs that reported 

promoting coordination

Advanced Manufacturing 8

Higher Skilled Workforce 7

Globalization and Competition 5

Source: GAO analysis of survey data. | GAO-17-240

Note: Some programs reported promoting coordination to address more than one trend.

Examples of programs that reported promoting coordination, according to 

agency officials:

• DOE’s Clean Energy Manufacturing Initiative has convened 

stakeholders from industry, academia, and leadership from DOE 

national laboratories and DOE to discuss how public and private 

entities can partner to boost manufacturing competitiveness, train the 

advanced manufacturing workforce, and promote innovative energy 

technologies. It has also partnered with DOE’s Clean Energy 

Manufacturing Analysis Center, which works with industry and 

academia to provide research and analyses of factors driving 

manufacturing strategy in the United States.

 47The smart grid refers to a class of technology being used to modernize utility electricity 

delivery systems using computer-based remote control and automation. These 

technologies are being used in electricity networks, including power plants, wind farms, 

homes and businesses.
Page 39 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

• DOL’s H-1B Technical Skills Training Grant Program has 

implemented several cross-sector initiatives to promote a higher 

skilled workforce. For example, DOL has facilitated a partnership 

among its Employment and Training Administration, DOE, and 

Oklahoma State University, among others, to provide training in 

advanced manufacturing and design tools related to working in the oil 

and gas industry. The agency has also partnered with the Peralta 

Community College District’s Laney College to create the Advanced 

Manufacturing Medical/Biosciences Pipeline for Economic 

Development, which promotes technology transfer, economic 

development, and workforce development in medical device and 

bioscience manufacturing.

• DOC’s IMCP program has established collaboration among different 

public and private entities within identified communities to stimulate 

manufacturing and attract investment from global manufacturers. In 

particular, the program focuses on regions working across the public, 

private, and academic sectors to address issues related to workforce 

development, trade and international investment, and access to 

capital, among other things.

According to our survey, 28 of the 51 programs that reported addressing 

manufacturing trends also reported facing challenges in addressing the 

changing manufacturing sector. Most of the challenges reported by these 

programs related to the trends we identified—advanced manufacturing, 

higher-skilled workforce, and globalization and competition—with some 

reporting multiple challenges related to a single trend. As shown in table 

12, the most frequently-mentioned challenge for programs that are 

addressing the advanced manufacturing sector was a lack of resources 

and funding. For example, most of NSF’s programs, which are primarily 

basic R&D programs, receive many more competitive proposals than can 

be funded by the available budget, according to NSF program officials. 

Challenges mentioned by other programs included a lack of information 

about advanced technologies, technical challenges, and difficulty in 

coordinating across agencies. We have identified technical challenges 

related to advanced manufacturing in our previous work on additive 

manufacturing.48 For example, in 2015 we found there were limited 

materials available with which the technology could be used, and 

technical limitations on the speed of production and the ability to build 

 48GAO-15-505SP.

Some Programs Reported 

Facing Challenges in 

Addressing Trends in the 

Manufacturing Sector
Page 40 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

items of varying sizes. Experts in additive manufacturing told us that 

these challenges could be addressed through additional R&D.

Table 12: Types of Challenges Programs Reported Facing in Supporting Advanced 

Manufacturing

Advanced Manufacturing Challenges Reported

Types of challenges Number of programs

Lack of resources/funding 10

Lack of information 2

Technical challenges 1

Coordination challenges 1

Source: GAO analysis of survey data. | GAO-17-240

As the U.S. manufacturing sector becomes more oriented toward 

advanced manufacturing, the federal government faces challenges in 

helping workers develop the skills for the advanced manufacturing sector, 

according to some experts we interviewed. Program officials who told us 

that they are addressing the need for a higher skilled workforce said that 

they are primarily facing challenges in keeping training relevant to the 

current workforce (see table 13). For example, DOD’s Mentor2 program 

officials reported encountering challenges ensuring not only that training 

for jobs in new manufacturing technologies is continually being updated, 

but also that it remains relevant as requirements change over time.

Table 13: Types of Challenges Programs Reported Facing in Building a Higher 

Skilled Workforce

Higher Skilled Workforce Challenges Reported

Types of challenges Number of programs 

Keeping training relevant to current workforce 4

Coordination challenges 1

Source: GAO analysis of survey data. | GAO-17-240

Program officials told us their programs face a variety of challenges in an 

increasingly globalized and competitive manufacturing sector. As shown 

in table 14, programs addressing the increased globalization trend most 

frequently mentioned challenges related to promoting domestic 

production, while also pointing to limited resources and information, as 

well as issues with supply chain management. Among the programs, 

DOE’s Photovoltaics and Tech-to-Market programs reported encountering 

challenges because manufacturing of key components has largely moved 
Page 41 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

overseas. Program officials said that the globalized nature of photovoltaic 

manufacturing makes it challenging to incentivize companies to produce 

them in the United States when the much larger scale of production for 

these panels overseas results in lower costs. However, as manufacturing 

costs further decline and shipping costs become a larger fraction of the 

total panel cost, there will be opportunities for onshoring of manufacturing 

and implementation of the U.S. manufacturing plan that promotes 

domestic production of renewable technologies, according to program 

officials.49

Table 14: Types of Challenges Programs Reported Facing Related to Increased 

Globalization and Competition

Globalization and Competition Challenges Reported

Types of challenges Number of programs

Promoting domestic production 

when facing challenging market 

conditions

6

Limited resources 2

Lack of information 1

Challenges in supply chain 

management

1

Source: GAO analysis of survey data. | GAO-17-240

 49According to DOE officials, a U.S. manufacturing plan is required to be submitted by 

applicants for all research and development funding opportunities issued by DOE’s Office 

of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, which represents the applicant’s measurable 

commitment to support U.S. manufacturing through the results of its award. A U.S. 

manufacturing plan must include specific and measurable commitments to U.S. 

manufacturing, according to program officials. For example, an applicant may commit 

particular types of products to be manufactured in the United States, may commit to a 

particular investment in a new or existing U.S. manufacturing facility, keep certain 

activities based in the United States, or support a certain number of jobs in the United 

States related to the technology and manufacturing.
Page 42 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Most of the 58 programs reported having performance goals or measures 

related to the support of manufacturing. In addition, 4 programs had 

performance evaluations that specifically examined their effects on 

manufacturing. Apart from agency efforts to assess the performance of 

individual programs, a federal interagency initiative coordinates activities 

and assesses progress in the area of advanced manufacturing. However, 

agencies that comprise an interagency group have not identified the

information needed to determine progress in meeting strategic plan 

objectives.

Forty-four of the 58 programs reported having at least one performance 

goal or measure related to the support of manufacturing. These goals and 

measures cover a range of areas, which reflects differences in each 

program’s mission. Half of the 44 programs reported goals or measures 

related to advancing scientific knowledge or improving technologies.

Fewer programs reported goals or measures in other areas, such as 

providing technical assistance to manufacturers, enhancing national 

security or medical countermeasures preparedness, promoting U.S. 

exports or open trade, or workforce development.50

• Advancing scientific knowledge or improving technologies.

Twenty-two of the 44 programs reported at least one performance 

goal or measure related to supporting fundamental scientific research 

in areas such as nanomanufacturing and robotics. Such research has 

the potential to support manufacturing to the extent that it is 

subsequently applied to products or manufacturing processes. In 

addition, several programs reported performance goals or measures 

related to improving technologies, such as developing an energysaving technology or alternative fuel to the point that it becomes cost-

 50While most programs had goals or measures in just one area, such as advancing 

scientific knowledge, four programs had goals or measures in multiple areas. 

Most Programs 

Reported Goals or 

Measures Related to 

Support of 

Manufacturing, and 

an Interagency Group 

Has Not Identified the 

Information It Needs 

to Report on Progress 

in Supporting 

Advanced 

Manufacturing

Most Programs Reported 

Having Performance 

Goals or Measures 

Related to Supporting 

Manufacturing
Page 43 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

competitive with existing technologies. Table 15 provides examples of 

reported performance goals and measures in this area.

Table 15: Examples of Reported Program Performance Goals or Measures Related to Advancing Scientific Knowledge or 

Improving Technologies 

Program Agency Reported purpose/description

Reported performance goals or 

measures

Biotechnology and Biochemical 

Engineering Program

National Science 

Foundation (NSF)

To support innovative research and 

education in the fields of 

biopharmaceuticals, biotechnology, 

and bioenergy

• Support of fundamental 

engineering research that 

advances the understanding 

of cellular and biomolecular 

processes in engineering 

biology to enable technology 

for advanced manufacturing

Nanomanufacturing Program NSF To explore transformative 

approaches to nanomanufacturing, 

including but not limited to: microreactor and micro-fluidics enabled 

nanosynthesis, bio-inspired 

nanomanufacturing, and 

manufacturing by nanomachines

• Support fundamental 

research that ultimately 

leads to the manufacture of 

useful nano-scale materials, 

structures, devices, and 

systems

National Robotics Initiative NSF To accelerate the development and 

use of robots in the United States 

that work beside or cooperatively 

with people

• Support fundamental 

research that furthers 

knowledge in the area of 

robotics without specifically 

targeting an individual 

application

Concentrating Solar Power 

Program

Department of Energy To provide competitive awards to 

industry, national laboratories, and 

universities with the goal of making 

large-scale solar energy systems 

cost competitive by the end of the 

decade

• Achieve a levelized cost of 

solar-generated electricity of 

6 cents per kilowatt hour by 

the year 2020.

Source: GAO survey of agency officials | GAO-17-240

• Providing technical assistance to manufacturers. Four of the 44 

programs reported at least one performance goal or measure related 

to providing technical assistance to manufacturers. These include 

goals and measures that quantify how assistance provided to 

manufacturing firms helped them. Table 16 provides examples of 

reported performance goals and measures in this area.
Page 44 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Table 16: Examples of Reported Program Performance Goals or Measures Related to Providing Technical Assistance to 

Manufacturers 

Program Agency Reported purpose/description

Reported performance goals or 

measures

Hollings Manufacturing 

Extension Partnership (MEP)

Department of 

Commerce (DOC)

To provide U.S. manufacturers with 

access to technologies, resources, 

and industry experts through a 

federal-state-industry partnership

• Number of firms that receive indepth technical assistance from 

MEP centers

• Number of firms receiving services 

from MEP centers where those 

services were substantial and could 

be assumed to have led to positive 

impacts

• Percentage of MEP clients 

receiving technical assistance that 

reported increasing sales, reducing 

costs, or making new investments 

in the services received

Trade Adjustment Assistance 

for Firms (TAAF)

DOC To provide technical assistance to 

help U.S. firms experiencing a decline 

in sales and employment—resulting in 

part from the increase in imports of 

like or directly competitive articles—to 

become more competitive in the 

global marketplace

• The extent to which client firms 

increased their sales, employment 

levels, and productivity following the 

implementation of TAAF-supported 

projects to increase their global 

competitiveness

Source: GAO survey of agency officials. | GAO-17-240

• Maintaining national security or medical countermeasures 

preparedness. Six of the 44 programs reported performance goals or 

measures pertaining to the maintenance of production and 

manufacturing capabilities for national defense, or medical 

countermeasure preparedness for emerging infectious diseases and 

other threats. Table 17 provides examples of reported performance 

goals and measures in this area.
Page 45 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Table 17: Examples of Reported Program Performance Goals or Measures Related to National Security or Medical 

Countermeasures Preparedness

Program Agency Reported purpose/description

Reported performance goals or 

measures

Industrial Base Analysis and 

Sustainment Program

Department of Defense 

(DOD)

To maintain or improve the health of 

essential parts of the defense 

industry by avoiding reconstitution 

costs for capability after a Defense 

procurement hiatus; and to monitor 

and assess the industrial base, to 

address critical issues relating to 

urgent operational needs and 

industrial base vulnerabilities

• Address critical issues in the 

industrial base relating to urgent 

operational needs

• Support the monitoring and 

assessment of the industrial base

• Address supply chain 

vulnerabilities

Defense Production Act, 

Title III

DOD To create assured, affordable, and 

commercially viable production 

capabilities and capacities for items 

essential for national defense. 

Enables the government to apply 

financial incentives to encourage 

private industry to create new 

domestic sources of supply for key 

advanced materials and technology

• Respond to actions taken outside 

of the United States that could 

result in reduced supplies of 

strategic and critical materials 

necessary for national defense 

and the general economic wellbeing of the United States

Centers for Innovation in 

Advanced Development and 

Manufacturing

Department of Health 

and Human Services 

(HHS)

To provide advanced development 

and manufacturing capabilities for 

medical countermeasure 

development for emerging infectious 

diseases; chemical, biological, 

radiological, and nuclear threats; as 

well as the manufacturing of 

pandemic influenza vaccine. 

• Establish public-private 

partnerships to construct or retrofit 

U.S.-based, commercial-scale, 

biopharmaceutical facilities that 

support advanced development 

and manufacturing of medical 

countermeasures

• Provide, in an emergency, a U.S.-

based surge capacity to respond 

to an emerging infectious disease, 

pandemic influenza, and currently 

known or unknown threatsa

Source: GAO survey of agency officials. | GAO-17-240

a

Besides having goals supporting medical countermeasures preparedness, the Centers for Innovation 

in Advanced Development and Manufacturing program has a workforce development goal to provide 

biopharmaceutical-oriented workforce development through training programs.

• Promoting U.S. exports or open trade. Six of the 44 programs 

reported performance goals or measures related to promoting U.S. 

exports or open trade. Such goals and measures include removing, 

reducing, and preventing trade barriers. Table 18 provides examples 

of reported performance goals and measures in this area.
Page 46 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Table 18: Examples of Reported Program Performance Goals or Measures Related to Promoting U.S. Exports or Open Trade

Program Agency Reported purpose/description

Reported performance goals or 

Measures)

Industry Trade Policy and 

Analysis

Department of Commerce 

(DOC)

To support U.S. government trade 

policy formulation and negotiations by 

providing the trade and economic 

analysis and issue expertise needed 

to expand exports and foreign direct 

investment in the United States

• Remove, reduce, and prevent 

trade barriers

• Number of clients assisted

Manufacturing Program DOC To support exports and foreign direct 

investment in the United States by 

using industry expertise and an 

understanding of the dynamics of 

global competition to develop and 

implement policies and improve U.S. 

business competitiveness globally 

• Number of clients served

• Number of trade barriers 

removed 

Trade Enforcement and 

Compliance Policy and 

Negotiations

DOC To oversee policies and programs 

related to the negotiation of and 

pursuing foreign compliance with 

trade and investment disciplines in 

international agreements; the 

administration of U.S. antidumping 

and countervailing duty laws; the 

negotiation and administration of 

suspension agreements of U.S. 

antidumping and countervailing duty 

investigations

• Remove, reduce, and prevent 

trade barriers

• Number of clients assisted

Source: GAO survey of agency officials | GAO-17-240

• Developing the workforce. Seven of the 44 programs reported 

performance goals or measures related to workforce development, 

such as developing occupational profiles and obtaining and retaining 

employment. Table 19 provides examples of reported performance 

goals and measures in this area.
Page 47 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Table 19: Examples of Reported Program Performance Goals or Measures Related to Developing the Workforce

Program Agency Reported purpose/description

Reported performance goals or 

measures

Registered Apprenticeship Department of Labor 

(DOL)

To train workers through a network of 

21,000 programs consisting of over 

150,000 employers. Apprenticeships 

prepare a skilled workforce for 

expanding industries like health care, 

information technology, 

transportation, telecommunications, 

and advanced manufacturing, as well 

as in industries like construction 

where apprenticeships have a long 

history.

• Develop at least three national 

apprenticeship programs with 

new employers

• Develop occupational profiles 

for targeted occupations 

identified in each of the sectors 

of excellence in apprenticeship

Trade Adjustment Assistance DOL To fund employment and training 

services to manufacturing and other 

eligible workers who lose their jobs as 

a result of the negative impacts of 

global trade.

• Entered employment rate: the 

percentage of participants who 

were employed in the first 

quarter after exiting the program

• Employment retention rate: the 

percentage of participants who 

remain employed in the third 

quarter after exiting the program

• Average earnings: the average 

earnings in the second and third 

quarters for participants after 

exiting the program

Source: GAO survey of agency officials. | GAO-17-240

• Other areas. Three of the 44 programs reported performance goals 

or measures in other areas, such as holding successful 

manufacturing-related events and tracking the amount of loans 

provided for manufacturing.
Page 48 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Of the 58 programs in our survey, 4 specifically estimated their effects on 

manufacturing with an independent performance evaluation that met our 

definition of a program evaluation.51

• Trade Adjustment Assistance for Firms (TAAF, DOC)—In 2012, 

we examined, among other things, the program’s data and 

performance measures and what they indicated about the program’s 

effectiveness.52 The review found that although the program provides 

limited data about outcomes, manufacturing firms that have 

participated in the program have experienced small, positive, and 

statistically significant increases in sales.

• Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP, DOC)—

There have been three evaluations of the program, all conducted by 

independent groups. Two of the evaluations, conducted in 2012 and 

2015 by the Center for Economic Studies (CES) at the U.S. Census 

Bureau, examined how manufacturing establishments have been 

affected by MEP’s assistance.53 In 2013, the National Research 

Council conducted a meta-analysis of previous program evaluations 

of MEP going back to the early 1990s. Each of the three evaluations 

found that MEP had some positive effects, such as increased 

establishment productivity and productivity per worker.

• Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO, DOE)—This program, 

which supports the manufacturing of bioproducts, has received 

biennial peer reviews that assess BETO’s individual projects and the 

 51Program evaluations are systematic studies using objective measures and research 

methods to assess how well a program is working and why. Evaluations answer specific 

questions about program performance—either operations or results—and may apply to a 

program, project, activity, or policy. Evaluations may be conducted to provide 

accountability or to learn how to improve program performance. See GAO, Performance 

Measurement and Evaluation: Definitions and Relationships, GAO-11-646SP 

(Washington, D.C.: May 2011).

52GAO, Trade Adjustment Assistance: Commerce Program Has Helped Manufacturing 

and Services Firms, but Measures, Data, and Funding Formula Could Improve, 

GAO-12-930 (Washington, D.C.: September 2012). 

53Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau, Clifford A. Lipscomb, et al., 

“Evaluating the Long-Term Effect of NIST MEP Services on Establishment Performance,” 

CES 15-09, (Washington, D.C.: March 2015); Jan Youtie, Board on Science, Technology, 

and Economic Policy, National Research Council, National Academy of Science, “21st 

Century Manufacturing: The Role of the Manufacturing Extension Partnership Program,” 

Appendix B, An Evaluation of the MEP: A Cross Study Analysis, (Washington, D.C.: 

2013). SRI International, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau, Christopher 

Ordowich, et al., “Evaluating the Impact of MEP Services on Establishment Performance: 

A Preliminary Empirical Investigation,” CES 12-15, (Washington D.C.: July 2012).

Four Programs Reported 

Having Evaluations That 

Examined Their Impact on 

Manufacturing
Page 49 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

overall management, performance, and strategic direction of the 

Office. In 2013 and 2015 peer reviews, external reviewers delivered a 

positive overall assessment of BETO and validated much of the 

office’s current approach and technical strategy. The reviews noted 

that BETO is funding high-impact projects that have the potential to 

significantly advance the state of technology for the industry and 

made recommendations for further improvement.54

• Manufacturing Machines and Equipment (MME, NSF)—The 

program was evaluated in 2013 by the independent Science and 

Technology Research Institute.55 The study concluded that, among 

other things, the NSF, through the MME program, has positively 

“contributed to the emergence of additive manufacturing over the last 

25 years.”

Apart from these efforts to assess the performance of individual 

programs, there is an interagency subcommittee—the Subcommittee on 

Advanced Manufacturing (SAM)—which was tasked by the NSTC’s 

Committee on Technology with, among other things, coordinating federal 

agencies’ activities and reporting on the federal government’s progress in 

a particular area—advanced manufacturing. SAM is co-chaired by OSTP. 

Ten of the 11 agencies that administer programs in this review are 

represented on the SAM and, as we discussed earlier regarding 

agencies’ actions to address manufacturing trends, 42 of the 58 programs 

in this review reported addressing advanced manufacturing. SAM 

provides support for implementation of the National Strategic Plan for 

Advanced Manufacturing, a plan developed in 2012 in response to the 

America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010. The strategic plan 

included five objectives (see sidebar). The strategic plan also included 

suggested indicators or metrics for tracking progress over the short-term 

and long-term and identified the federal agencies that should implement 

actions to achieve them.

 54U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Biotechnology 

Energies Office, 2013 Peer Review Report: Review Panel Summary Report and Project 

Results, DOE/EE-1014, (February 2014) and 2015 Peer Review Report: Review Panel 

Summary Report and Project Results, DOE/EE-1386, (March 2016). According to DOE 

officials, the Advanced Manufacturing Office also conducts peer reviews that are similar to 

those done at the Bioenergy Technologies Office. We did not review these evaluations.

55Science & Technology Policy Institute, Christopher L. Weber et al., “The Role of the 

National Science Foundation in the Origin and Evolution of Additive Manufacturing in the 

United States”, IDA Paper P-5091, (November 2013). 

An Interagency 

Subcommittee 

Coordinates Agencies’ 

Advanced Manufacturing 

Efforts but Has Not 

Identified the Information 

Needed to Report 

Progress toward Achieving

Strategic Objectives
Page 50 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Federal agencies identified in the strategic plan are to implement actions 

to achieve one or more of the plan’s objectives. For example, the fourth 

objective of the plan is to optimize the federal government’s advanced 

manufacturing investment by taking a portfolio perspective across 

agencies and adjusting accordingly. To achieve this objective, the plan 

lists actions that agencies can take, including: (1) coordinating federal 

agency investments in the knowledge and capabilities shared across the 

manufacturing sector and (2) targeting and balancing investments in 

advanced materials, broad production technology platforms, advanced 

manufacturing processes, and design and data infrastructure. The 

strategic plan then identifies the Departments of Commerce, Defense, 

Energy, and the National Science Foundation as the agencies 

responsible for implementing these actions. The plan notes that the 

federal government has current investments in advanced manufacturing 

R&D as well as plants and equipment that help to position promising 

technologies for broad adoption and commercialization or to meet certain 

essential national security needs. By coordinating the federal 

government’s portfolio of these investments, the plan envisions that these 

investments will increase the global competitiveness of U.S. 

manufacturing and help to create a fertile domestic environment for 

innovation.

The strategic plan identifies potential measures that could be used to 

measure progress toward these objectives but does not specify what 

information should be submitted by agencies. For example, the plan 

identifies short-term measures for achieving objective four: (1) 

development and implementation of a framework for managing the wholeof-government portfolio, and (2) number and scale of multi-agency 

advanced manufacturing funding solicitations. Long-term measures 

include: (1) balance of federal advanced manufacturing R&D investment 

across portfolio dimensions, including basic research, applied research, 

demonstration facilities, and others and (2) accelerated time-to-market of 

new advanced manufacturing processes and products. While the plan 

identifies these short and long-term metrics, it does not include reporting 

requirements for agencies on these metrics to measure their progress 

toward the objective.

The RAMI Act requires NSTC’s Committee on Technology to periodically 

update the strategic plan for advanced manufacturing and to describe the 

progress made in achieving the objectives from prior strategic plans, 

including a discussion of why specific objectives were not met. Under its 

charter, one of the SAM’s purposes is to provide support for 

implementation of and updates to the strategic plan for advanced 

Objectives of the National Strategic Plan 

for Advanced Manufacturing

1. Accelerate investment in advanced 

manufacturing technology, especially by 

small and medium-sized manufacturing 

enterprises, by fostering more effective 

use of federal capabilities and facilities, 

including early procurement by federal 

agencies of cutting-edge products.

2. Expand the number of workers who have 

the skills needed by a growing advanced 

manufacturing sector and make the 

education and training system more 

responsive to the demand for skills.

3. Create and support national and regional 

public-private, government-industryacademic partnerships to accelerate 

investment in and deployment of 

advanced manufacturing technologies.

4. Optimize the federal government’s 

advanced manufacturing investment by 

taking a portfolio perspective across 

agencies and adjusting accordingly.

5. Increase total U.S. public and private 

investments in advanced manufacturing 

R&D.

Source: A National Strategic Plan for Advanced 

Manufacturing, Executive Office of the President, National 

Science and Technology Council, February 2012. Ɩ 

GAO-17-240
Page 51 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

manufacturing. As required by the RAMI Act, the SAM plans to update the 

strategic plan on May 1, 2018, including reporting on the progress made 

in achieving the objectives from prior strategic plans. However, it has not 

identified the information it will collect from federal agencies to determine 

the extent to which the strategic plan objectives are being achieved.

One of the key practices for enhancing and sustaining interagency 

collaborative efforts is developing mechanisms to monitor, evaluate, and 

report results. As we previously reported, federal agencies engaged in 

collaborative efforts need to create the means to monitor and evaluate 

their efforts to enable them to identify areas for improvement.56 As a part 

of this effort, agencies should consider whether there is a way to track 

and monitor progress toward the short and long-term outcomes.57

According to SAM officials, the information to be collected to evaluate 

progress in achieving the objectives of the strategic plan has not yet been 

determined. The SAM’s role, according to its charter, is to serve as a 

forum for information sharing, collaboration, and consensus-building 

among agencies regarding federal policy, programs, and budget guidance 

for advanced manufacturing. The SAM generally holds two to three 

meetings per year with between 30 and 50 officials across 13 different 

agencies, where officials have conversations about their programs and 

investments, and the SAM helps to put these efforts into a broader 

context, according to SAM officials. While these discussions include 

leading practices regarding measuring program effectiveness, according 

to SAM officials, the SAM’s role is not to provide top-down direction to 

agencies regarding how to measure effectiveness.58 While the SAM’s role 

under its charter includes collaboration and consensus-building among 

agencies, OSTP, as a co-chair of the subcommittee, has not worked with 

SAM member agencies to specify the information needed to report 

progress in meeting strategic plan objectives, which is inconsistent with a 

key practice for interagency collaboration. Without specifying the 

information it will collect from federal agencies, SAM may lack consistent, 

comprehensive information that would help it fully report on the progress 

 56GAO, Results-Oriented Government: Practices That Can Help Enhance and Sustain 

Collaboration among Federal Agencies, GAO-06-15 (Washington, D.C.: October 2005).

57GAO, Managing For Results: Key Considerations for Implementing Interagency 

Collaborative Mechanisms, GAO-12-1022 (Washington, D.C.: September 2012).

58The SAM was involved in helping developing metrics for the manufacturing institutes 

under the Manufacturing USA program, according to SAM officials. 
Page 52 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

in achieving the objectives of the National Strategic Plan for Advanced 

Manufacturing.

The health of the U.S. manufacturing sector has long been a concern, 

and the vast majority of the 58 programs we identified that support 

manufacturing reported taking steps to address trends in the sector, most 

prominently the movement toward advanced manufacturing. Federal law 

requires a government-wide strategic plan for advanced manufacturing to 

improve government coordination and provide long term guidance in 

support of manufacturing competitiveness. The next update of the 

strategic plan, which is required by 2018, must describe the progress 

made in achieving the objectives of the plan and include a discussion of 

why specific objectives were not met. SAM has worked to facilitate federal 

agency collaboration on advanced manufacturing and plans to report in 

2018 on progress in achieving the strategic objectives. However, OSTP 

has not worked with SAM member agencies to identify the information it 

will collect from federal agencies to determine the extent to which the 

strategic objectives are being achieved. Consistent with a key practice for 

interagency collaboration, identifying the information needed from federal 

agencies would better position the federal government to report 

consistent, comprehensive information on the progress in achieving the 

objectives of the National Strategic Plan for Advanced Manufacturing.

To enhance the ability of the Executive Office of the President to 

implement RAMI Act requirements related to reporting on advanced 

manufacturing, we recommend that the Director of the Office of Science 

and Technology Policy, working through the National Science and 

Technology Council and agency leadership, as appropriate, identify the 

information they will collect from federal agencies to determine the extent 

to which the objectives outlined in the National Strategic Plan for 

Advanced Manufacturing are being achieved.

We provided a draft of this report to USDA, DOC, DOD, DOE, DOL, 

Education, EPA, the Export-Import Bank, HHS, NSF, OSTP, SBA, and

the Treasury for review and comment. We received the following 

comments:

• USDA did not provide any comments.

Conclusions

Recommendation for 

Executive Action

Agency Comments

and Our Evaluation
Page 53 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

• DOC provided technical comments, which we incorporated as 

appropriate.

• DOD’s GAO Liaison stated via e-mail that it concurred and had no 

comments on the report.

• DOE, DOL, and Education provided technical comments, which 

we incorporated as appropriate.

• EPA stated that it had no comments on the report. 

• The Export-Import Bank, HHS, and NSF provided technical 

comments, which we incorporated as appropriate.

• OSTP’s General Counsel provided comments via e-mail, which 

we discuss below.

• SBA provided technical comments, which we incorporated as 

appropriate.

• The Treasury stated that it had no comments on the report. 

OSTP did not state whether it agreed or disagreed with the

recommendation in our draft report but raised an issue related to the 

recommendation and suggested several revisions to its wording. Our draft 

report had recommended that OSTP, working through relevant agencies, 

develop a mechanism to collect information from federal agencies needed 

to determine the extent to which the objectives in the National Strategic 

Plan for Advanced Manufacturing are being achieved. OSTP stated that 

there is such a mechanism. According to OSTP, NSTC’s subcommittees 

coordinate and agree on how to measure progress toward strategic plan 

goals and establish mechanisms to monitor, evaluate, and report results. 

OSTP cited the SAM’s charter, which specifies that a function of the SAM 

is to provide periodic updates on the implementation of the strategic plan, 

among other things, to the Committee on Technology and the Assistant to 

the President for Science and Technology. 

While we agree that the SAM charter provides for periodic updates on the 

implementation of the strategic plan, the focus of the draft

recommendation was on the need to identify the specific information to be 

collected from federal agencies to report on progress made in achieving 

the objectives of the 2012 strategic plan. Without identifying such 
Page 54 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

information, the federal government may not be prepared to report

consistent and comprehensive information on progress in meeting 

strategic plan goals. In response to OSTP’s comments, we modified the 

report and the wording of our recommendation to be more precise by 

deleting the reference to developing a “mechanism” for collecting 

information and focusing on the need to identify the information to be 

collected. 

OSTP also suggested several revisions to the wording of the 

recommendation, which we are not making for the following reasons:

• OSTP suggested directing the recommendation to the Assistant to 

the President for Science and Technology rather than the Director 

of the Office of Science and Technology Policy. We directed the 

recommendation to the Director of the Office of Science and 

Technology Policy because that is the office responsible under 

federal law for establishing the Committee on Technology, which 

is required to update the strategic plan. 

• OSTP also suggested revising the recommendation to specifically 

mention the SAM. We did not specifically mention the SAM 

because its charter expired March 1, 2017, and the legal 

requirement to update the strategic plan is the responsibility of the 

Committee on Technology, established by the Director of OSTP. 

Also, while OSTP’s General Counsel indicated that, as of March 

2017, an extension to the charter was being considered, it was not 

clear whether any extension would include the period of time in 

which the update to the strategic plan is required to be completed 

under the RAMI Act.

• OSTP also suggested revising the recommendation to focus on 

the extent to which the objectives of the Advanced Manufacturing 

Partnership (AMP) recommendations are being achieved in 

periodic updates to the implementation of the National Strategic 

Plan for Advanced Manufacturing. The AMP recommendations 

are sets of recommendations proposed in a series of reports by 

PCAST. These recommendations were not all covered in the 

scope of our report. Instead, the focus of our recommendation

was on reporting on the progress in achieving the objectives of the 

strategic plan, as required by the RAMI Act.

As agreed with your offices, unless you publicly announce the contents of 

this report earlier, we plan no further distribution until 30 days from the 
Page 55 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

report date. At that time, we will send copies to the appropriate 

congressional committees; the Director of the Office of Science and 

Technology Policy; the Secretaries of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, 

Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Labor, and the Treasury; 

the Director of the National Science Foundation; the Administrators of the 

Environmental Protection Agency and the Small Business Administration; 

the Acting Chairman of the U.S. Export-Import Bank; and other interested 

parties. In addition, the report will be available at no charge on the GAO 

web site at http://www.gao.gov.

If you or your staff have any questions about this report, please contact 

Andrew Sherrill at (202) 512-7215 or sherrilla@gao.gov or John 

Neumann at (202) 512-3841 or neumannj@gao.gov. Contact points for 

our Offices of Congressional Relations and Public Affairs are on the last 

page of this report. GAO staff who made major contributions to this report 

are listed in appendix III.

Andrew Sherrill

Director, Education, Workforce

and Income Security

John Neumann

Director, Natural Resources,

and Environment
Page 56 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

List of Requesters

The Honorable Christopher A. Coons

Ranking Member, Subcommittee on Financial Services and General 

Government

Committee on Appropriations

United States Senate

The Honorable Roy Blunt

United States Senate

The Honorable Lindsey O. Graham

United States Senate

The Honorable Brian Schatz

United States Senate

The Honorable Mark R. Warner

United States Senate
Appendix I: Objectives, Scope, and 

Methodology

Page 57 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Our objectives were to examine (1) how selected federal programs 

provide support to U.S. manufacturing; (2) how selected federal tax 

expenditures provide support to U.S. manufacturing; (3) how, if at all, 

selected federal programs address manufacturing trends and what, if any, 

challenges they face; and (4) the extent to which federal agencies 

measure performance and assess effectiveness in supporting 

manufacturing generally, and advanced manufacturing specifically.

To address these objectives, we first identified federal agencies (i.e. any 

federal organization) that administered programs that support the 

manufacturing sector. We defined “support the manufacturing sector” 

broadly, including support for U.S. and foreign manufacturers that 

manufacture in the United States; programs that support U.S. 

manufacturers who manufacture or export their goods overseas, and 

programs that train workers who lose their jobs in manufacturing, whether 

they are being trained for other jobs in manufacturing or in another sector 

of the economy. To identify these agencies, we reviewed prior GAO and 

Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports, the President’s 2016 

budget, and the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA). We 

identified 11 agencies that administered programs that support the 

manufacturing sector. We initially met with officials with the Departments 

of Commerce, Defense, and Energy. In our meetings with these three 

agencies, and in our interviews with experts at CRS and the Information 

Technology and Innovation Foundation, we asked officials if these 11 

agencies were the main agencies that administer programs to support 

U.S. manufacturing, and if there were any other agencies that did so. 

After considering their input, we added 4 more agencies, bringing the total 

to 15 agencies that we contacted: The Departments of Agriculture, 

Commerce, Defense, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, 

Housing and Urban Development, Labor, Transportation, and the 

Treasury; the National Aeronautics and Space Administration; the 

National Science Foundation; the Environmental Protection Agency; the 

Export-Import Bank; and the Small Business Administration.1 After 

contacting Department of Housing and Urban Development officials, we 

 1 We identified an additional five agencies that administered programs that support 

businesses in general, which may include support for manufacturing to some degree, but 

we did not collect additional information from them because of the low likelihood that their 

programs would have an identifiable focus on manufacturing. These agencies were the 

Departments of Homeland Security, the Interior, and Veterans Affairs; the Appalachian 

Regional Commission; and the National Technology Transfer Center.

Appendix I: Objectives, Scope, and 

Methodology

Identifying Federal 

Agencies
Appendix I: Objectives, Scope, and 

Methodology

Page 58 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

eliminated the agency from consideration because the officials informed 

us that the sole manufacturing program that the team had identified no 

longer existed.

We then developed a list of programs administered by the 14 agencies on 

our list that appeared to directly target or indirectly support U.S. 

manufacturing. To identify programs, we searched prior GAO and CRS 

reports and program inventories developed by agencies, CFDA, 

www.manufacturing.gov, as well as agency web sites. We conducted 

keyword searches using words such as “manufacturing” and 

“manufacturers” to compile the initial list of programs. We then contacted 

each of the 14 agencies with an initial list of potential programs 

administered by their agency. We asked the officials if any programs 

administered by their agency should be added or removed from the list. 

We reviewed the agencies’ input and determined whether the programs

should be included in this review. To be selected as a program that 

supports manufacturing, the program had to meet the following criteria: 

(1) have an identifiable focus on manufacturing,2 (2) be operational in 

fiscal year 2014 and at the time of selection in 2015, and (3) not be part of 

a larger program that was selected.3 We then confirmed with each of the 

agencies the programs identified for their agency. Based on the agencies’ 

input and our application of the criteria, we identified 58 programs 

administered by 11 agencies that met the criteria.

To identify tax expenditures, we reviewed a 2013 CRS report titled 

“Federal Tax Benefits for Manufacturing: Current Law, Legislation in the 

113th Congress, and Arguments For and Against Federal Assistance” 

 2

We determined that a program had an identifiable focus on manufacturing if one or more 

of the following criteria were met: the program was called a manufacturing program in the 

program title; the program’s description, objectives, or eligibility criteria included that it 

specifically supports manufacturing; agency officials stated that they could identify the 

number of participants or beneficiaries that are in manufacturing (e.g., manufacturing firms 

or workers trained in manufacturing); that they could identify the amount of the program’s 

budget that benefits manufacturing; that the program’s goals, performance measures, or 

performance metrics include a specific focus on manufacturing; or that the program has 

had a program evaluation conducted that focused on its effect on the manufacturing 

sector.

3

For example, each of the military branches has their own Manufacturing Technology 

Program; however, for this report, we counted only the program that oversees each of 

those programs and is administered by the Department of Defense’s Office of 

Manufacturing and Industrial Base Policy.

Identifying Programs

Identifying Tax 

Expenditures
Appendix I: Objectives, Scope, and 

Methodology

Page 59 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

and spoke with experts from CRS and officials from the Department of the 

Treasury (Treasury). We asked Treasury officials if any tax expenditures 

should be added or removed from the list. The team then reviewed the 

agencies’ input and determined whether the tax expenditure should be 

included in this review. To be selected as a tax expenditure that supports 

manufacturing, it had to meet the following criteria: (1) have a benefit for 

manufacturing, and (2) be operational in fiscal year 2014 and at the time 

of selection in 2015. Based on the agency’s input and internal 

discussions, we selected nine tax expenditures that met the criteria. We 

then reviewed reports from the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) to 

obtain estimates of federal revenue forgone for each of the tax 

expenditures.4 We reviewed, but did not verify, the procedures reported 

by JCT to estimate the magnitude of revenues forgone through tax 

expenditures.

We administered a web-based survey to agency officials for these 

programs to collect, among other data, descriptive information, budget 

and participation data, and information on efforts to address trends in 

manufacturing. To minimize errors arising from differences in how 

questions might be interpreted and to reduce variability in responses that 

should be qualitatively the same, we conducted pretests with six 

programs at six agencies, and we revised the survey based on pretest 

feedback. We conducted an additional pretest with two of the programs to 

ensure that revised questions used in the survey were understandable.

In February 2016, we notified agency officials that the survey was 

available online. We also made telephone calls to officials and sent them 

reminder messages, as necessary, to ensure their survey response. We 

analyzed and grouped the data we collected to describe the 58 programs 

and provide information on their size and scope. We did not conduct a 

legal analysis to confirm the various descriptions of the programs in this 

report, including information on their budgetary obligations, program 

goals, or intent. Further, we did not review or analyze agencies’ financial 

data or materials prepared by the agencies in connection with the annual 

budget and appropriations process in developing this report. We used 

standard descriptive statistics to analyze responses to the survey. 

 4

Joint Committee on Taxation, Estimates of Federal Tax Expenditures for Fiscal Years 

2015-2019, JCX-141R-15, (Dec. 7, 2015) and Estimated Budget Effects of Division Q of 

Amendment #2 to the Senate Amendment to H.R. 2029 (Rules Committee Print 114-40), 

the “Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act of 2015,” JCX-143-15, (Dec. 16, 2015). 

Program Survey
Appendix I: Objectives, Scope, and 

Methodology

Page 60 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Because this was not a sample survey, there are no sampling errors. To 

minimize other types of errors, commonly referred to as nonsampling 

errors, and to enhance data quality, we employed recognized survey 

design practices in the development of the survey and in the collection, 

processing, and analysis of the survey data. On the basis of our 

application of recognized survey design practices and follow-up 

procedures, we determined that the data were of sufficient quality for our 

purposes.

For the obligations data we used in this report, our survey asked program 

officials to provide their program’s total obligations (federal amount only) 

for fiscal years 2014, 2015, and 2016. The survey also asked programs to 

estimate the proportion of obligations the program used to support U.S. 

manufacturing, and it also asked for an explanation of how the 

proportions were determined. To assess the reliability of these data, we 

took the following steps. First, the survey question on the proportion of 

obligations that support U.S. manufacturing allowed programs to provide 

ranges or other approximate percentages if they did not know the precise 

numbers. Second, because we asked the programs to explain how they 

determined the proportion of obligations that supported U.S. 

manufacturing, we were able to understand, in a limited way, the reliability 

and validity of the proportions provided. In general, the programs that 

provided numbers and proportions also provided explanations that 

suggested the numbers were broadly reliable and accurate. Third, we 

checked the obligations data for a number of programs against publicly 

available budget data. The funding amounts provided by programs in our 

survey generally corresponded well. Fourth, we performed common data 

testing steps to assess the reliability of the data, including identifying 

outliers and missing data. Fifth, our questions requesting obligations 

funding were framed in terms of the programs’ overall funding and 

budgets, rather than asking specifically for the amounts related to 

manufacturing. This made it more possible for programs to provide 

accurate numbers based on existing data sources.

We used these data to provide a broad understanding of funding levels 

across the population of 58 programs in this report. More specifically we 

report these numbers in two primary ways. First, in appendix II, we 

provide total obligations and the proportion going to manufacturing for all 

programs reporting these numbers. Second, in tables 2 through 6, we 

provided counts of the numbers of programs and aggregated obligation 
Appendix I: Objectives, Scope, and 

Methodology

Page 61 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

totals for each agency in categories of programs.5 We aggregated by 

summing the totals reported for these programs and categories by 

agency. We reported non-rounded obligations for programs mentioned in 

the text of the report, and we rounded numbers in the tables and in 

appendix II. Based on the data reliability steps described above, we 

determined that these data were sufficiently reliable for the purposes of 

this report.

To observe and obtain information on how selected programs support 

manufacturing, we conducted site visits to two locations: Chicago, IL and 

Knoxville, TN in October and November 2015. We selected these 

locations based on the following criteria: Each was a city where: (1) a 

Manufacturing USA institute was currently operating, (2) an Investing in 

Manufacturing Communities Partnership (IMCP) community was 

designated, and (3) a Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership 

(MEP) Center was currently operating. For variety in administering 

agencies, we determined that one city we selected had to have a 

Manufacturing USA institute that was overseen by the Department of 

Defense (DOD), and the other had to have an institute that was overseen 

by the Department of Energy (DOE). To obtain information across 

multiple policy areas, the IMCP had to have a workforce training and 

international trade component of their program to meet our criteria. At the 

time of our selection, there were six currently operating manufacturing 

institutes each overseen by either DOD or DOE.6 During each site visit, 

we visited and toured the institute, interviewed IMCP and MEP officials, 

visited two manufacturers, and toured their facilities. For additional 

information on programs that train workers in manufacturing, we 

interviewed officials with two other organizations in Chicago, and we 

 5

Table 2 provides aggregate totals by agency for all 58 programs in our review. These 

same programs are then represented in tables 3 through 6 by category of program. 

6

The six institutes were the Department of Defense’s (DOD) National Additive 

Manufacturing Innovation Institute (America Makes) in Youngstown, OH; DOD’s Digital 

Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute in Chicago, IL; DOE’s Institute for 

Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation in Knoxville, TN; DOD’s Lightweight 

Innovations for Tomorrow in Detroit, MI; DOE’s The Next Generation Power Electronics 

Manufacturing Innovation Institute (PowerAmerica) in Raleigh, NC; and DOD’s American 

Institute for Manufacturing Integrated Photonics in Albany, NY. Since the time of our 

selection, three new manufacturing institutes have been established: DOD’s America’s 

Flexible Hybrid Electronics Manufacturing Institute (NextFlex) in San Jose, CA, DOD’s 

Advanced Functional Fabrics of America in Cambridge, MA, and DOE’s Clean Energy 

Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute in Los Angeles, CA.

Site Visits
Appendix I: Objectives, Scope, and 

Methodology

Page 62 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

toured training facilities for one of them: the Jane Addams Resource 

Corporation (see table 20). The information we obtained on our site visits 

was not generalizable to all locations where these programs operated.

Table 20: Organizations and Agencies We Visited 

Chicago, IL Knoxville, TN

Manufacturing USA institute • Digital Manufacturing and Design 

Innovation Institute

• Institute of Advanced Composites 

Manufacturing Innovation

Investing in Manufacturing Communities 

Partnership community

• Chicago Metro Metal Consortium • Drive! for the Future

Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership 

program

• Illinois Manufacturing Excellence 

Center

• Center for Industrial Services, 

University of Tennessee Institute for 

Public Service

Manufacturers • Maxant Technologies

• Ex-Cell Kaiser

• Windrock

• Team Technologies

Export Assistance Centers • Department of Commerce, 

International Trade Administration

• Small Business Administration

• Export-Import Bank

• Department of Commerce, International 

Trade Administration

Other organizations • Cook County Workforce 

Partnership

• Jane Addams Resource 

Corporation

Source: GAO | GAO-17-240

We identified manufacturing trends by reviewing reports addressing 

manufacturing policy in the United States produced by the White House’s 

Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and interviewing experts 

in the manufacturing sector. The reports were produced by the 

President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) and 

National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) and written by experts 

in industry, academia, and government agencies tasked with helping the 

Executive Branch develop manufacturing policy in the United States. 

Specifically, PCAST and NSTC address the future of federal science and 

technology investments and make recommendations to improve policy in 

science, technology, and innovation. As table 21 shows, all of the reports 

we reviewed identified the advanced manufacturing capabilities and 

higher skilled jobs trends, while four of the five reports mentioned the 

increasingly complex and globalized nature of manufacturing. We 

interviewed seven experts in the manufacturing sector, and they agreed 

that these were three manufacturing trends. To select these experts, we 

selected an initial group of experts after we attended the Manufacturing 

Identifying Manufacturing 

Trends
Appendix I: Objectives, Scope, and 

Methodology

Page 63 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

and Innovation: Making Value for America webinar on January 19, 2016. 

The webinar enabled us to identify three experts from the National 

Academy of Engineering (NAE) with specific knowledge regarding 

manufacturing trends. After speaking to the NAE experts, we asked if 

there were other experts in the sector that we should speak to. This 

afforded us the opportunity to identify additional experts from the private 

sector, non-profit organizations, and agency officials from the Department 

of Commerce and the National Science Foundation. The views of these 

experts cannot be generalized, but they provided additional perspectives.

Table 21: Analysis of Selected President’s Council of Advisors on Science and 

Technology (PCAST) and National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) Reports 

to Identify Manufacturing Trends

Report title

Advanced 

manufacturing 

capabilities

Higher skilled 

jobs

Increasingly 

complex and 

globalized 

nature of 

manufacturing

“Accelerating U.S. Advanced 

Manufacturing”, October 2014 

yes yes no

“National Network for 

Manufacturing Innovation: A 

Preliminary Design”, January 

2013

yes yes yes

“Report to the President on 

Capturing Domestic Competitive 

Advantage in Advanced 

Manufacturing”, July 2012

yes yes yes

“A National Strategic Plan for 

Advanced Manufacturing”, 

February 2012 

yes yes yes

“Report to the President on 

Ensuring American Leadership in 

Advanced Manufacturing”, June 

2011 

yes yes yes

Total 5 5 4

Source: GAO analysis of PCAST and NSTC reports. | GAO 17-240

To determine the extent to which programs are addressing manufacturing 

trends, we included survey questions asking which trends programs are 

addressing, steps they have taken to address them within the past 3 

years, and challenges they face in doing so. To analyze programs’ survey 

responses, we categorized program responses based on what trends 

they were addressing, which allowed us to identify how many programs 

are taking steps to address each trend. We further categorized program 
Appendix I: Objectives, Scope, and 

Methodology

Page 64 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

responses by analyzing steps programs are taking to address each trend 

and organized all program responses into three broad strategies: (1) 

providing funding and resources, (2) sharing information, and (3) 

promoting coordination. To determine challenges programs face in 

addressing manufacturing trends, we analyzed program responses to our 

survey questions related to challenges and determined how many 

programs reported challenges related to each of the trends. To further 

categorize the types of challenges programs face, we organized all 

program responses into three broad challenge categories: (1) lack of 

funding and resources, (2) lack of information, and (3) coordination 

challenges. To ensure the consistency and accuracy of this analysis, one 

analyst conducted the primary categorization and a second analyst 

reviewed that categorization and raised questions about particular results. 

The two analysts then discussed and resolved the questions. Additionally, 

a GAO social science methodologist with expertise in qualitative data 

analysis reviewed the underlying documentation for the analysis as a 

broad check on its accuracy and consistency.

To examine the extent to which federal agencies measure the 

performance and assess the effectiveness in support of manufacturing 

generally and advanced manufacturing specifically, we asked agencies in 

our survey what manufacturing-related performance goals and metrics 

they used and what program evaluations had been conducted or planned 

in the past 5 years to assess any impact that the program had on the U.S. 

manufacturing sector. To analyze the evaluations identified by program 

officials, we obtained copies of the evaluations and reviewed them to see 

if they met GAO’s definition of a program evaluation and whether they 

specifically evaluated the program’s effect on manufacturing.7 To analyze 

federal efforts to assess the effectiveness of support for advanced 

manufacturing specifically, we reviewed relevant federal legislation and 

prior GAO reports on interagency collaboration. We also interviewed 

officials with OSTP’s Subcommittee on Advanced Manufacturing about 

their efforts to coordinate advanced manufacturing efforts across the 

federal government and evaluate progress in implementing the National 

Strategic Plan for Advanced Manufacturing.

 7

GAO, Performance Measurement and Evaluation: Definitions and Relationships, 

GAO-11-646SP (Washington, D.C.: May 2011).

Performance and 

Effectiveness
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 65 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

This appendix provides information about the 58 programs that support 

U.S. manufacturing selected for our review. All of the information about 

budgetary obligations, descriptions, and activities (including any 

statements about the program goals or intent) is based on information 

provided by agency officials. In some cases, agency officials may have 

estimated or rounded their program’s obligations for our survey. See 

appendix I for more information about our survey.

We did not conduct an independent analysis of this information. Further, 

we did not review agencies’ financial data or materials prepared by the 

agencies in connection with the annual budget and appropriations 

process in developing this report. The programs are organized by the 

federal agency that administers them, listed alphabetically.

Department of Agriculture, Rural Business-Cooperative Service

Funding for the Bioenergy Program for Advanced Biofuels

Reported 

obligations, in 

millions

Estimated percentage 

of reported obligations 

used to support U.S. 

manufacturing

Fiscal Year 2014 $54 100%

Fiscal Year 2015 $14 100%

Fiscal Year 2016 Not reported N/A

Source: GAO survey of agency officials. | GAO-17-240

Program Information Reported in Survey

Year program created: 2008

Program category: General financing

Program description: The Bioenergy Program for Advanced Biofuels

supports expanded production of advanced biofuels by awarding 

payments to eligible advanced biofuel producers, thereby promoting 

sustainable economic development in rural America. Awards are based 

on producers’ requests and the amount of biofuel they produce. 

Examples of awardees include producers of biodiesel from canola oil, 

greases, and soybean oil; ethanol from milo or sorghum; electricity from 

an on-farm anaerobic digester that uses animal waste as the feedstock; 

and manufacturing facilities that produce wood pellets.

Program activities that support manufacturing:

Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support 

U.S. Manufacturing

Bioenergy Program 

for Advanced Biofuels
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 66 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Payments: The program awards payments to manufacturing facilities that 

produce advanced biofuels.

Manufacturing Trends Addressed by the Program

The Bioenergy Program for Advanced Biofuels did not report it addressed 

GAO’s identified manufacturing trends (advanced manufacturing, move to 

a higher skilled workforce, and increased globalization and competition).

Department of Agriculture, Rural Business-Cooperative Service

Funding for the Business and Industry Guaranteed Loan Program

Reported 

obligations, in 

millions

Estimated percentage 

of reported obligations 

used to support U.S. 

manufacturing

Fiscal Year 2014 $1,084 23%

Fiscal Year 2015 $1,044 25%

Fiscal Year 2016 Not reported N/A

Source: GAO survey of agency officials. | GAO-17-240

Program Information Reported in Survey

Year program created: 1972

Program category: General financing

Program description: The Business and Industry Guaranteed Loan 

Program seeks to improve the economic health of rural communities by 

bolstering the existing private credit structure by guaranteeing loans for 

rural businesses, which enables private lenders to provide more 

affordable financing for businesses in eligible rural areas. Examples 

include loans for purchasing and developing land; purchasing equipment, 

machinery, or other supplies; and business repair, modernization, or 

development.

Program activities that support manufacturing:

Loans: The program issues Loan Note Guarantees to private lenders 

enabling rural businesses, including manufacturers, to obtain loans. The 

loans provide better rates and terms to the businesses that receive them.

Manufacturing Trends Addressed by the Program

The Business and Industry Guaranteed Loan Program did not report it 

addressed GAO’s identified manufacturing trends (advanced 

Business and 

Industry Guaranteed 

Loan Program
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 67 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

manufacturing, move to a higher skilled workforce, and increased 

globalization and competition). The Business and Industry Guaranteed 

Loan Program provides loans but this role does not directly relate to 

manufacturing trends, and the program’s mission is much broader than 

just manufacturing.

Department of Commerce, International Trade Administration, 

Global Markets

Funding for the Advocacy Center Program

Reported 

obligations, in 

millions

Estimated percentage 

of reported obligations 

used to support U.S. 

manufacturing

Fiscal Year 2014 $3 60-80%

Fiscal Year 2015 $3 60-80%

Fiscal Year 2016 $4 60-80%

Source: GAO survey of agency officials. | GAO-17-240

Program Information Reported in Survey

Year program created: 1993

Program category: Trade, Export promotion

Program description: The Advocacy Center serves as the primary 

interagency coordinator across 14 different agencies to execute “whole of 

government” approach to help U.S. exporters win business overseas. 

According to program officials, the center coordinates federal resources

to assist U.S. businesses as they compete against foreign firms for 

specific foreign government contracts. The Center helps support and 

retain U.S. jobs through promoting U.S. exports and is essential in the 

success of initiatives from the International Trade Administration’s (ITA) 

Global Market unit. Global Markets overseas staff counsel companies on 

advocacy, perform and coordinate advocacy efforts overseas, and 

provide key market intelligence that helps determine national interest and 

advocacy campaigns. Global Markets domestic staff reach out to clients 

and counsel companies on advocacy services.

Program activities that support manufacturing:

Advocates: According to program officials, the center offers governmentto-government support for qualified U.S. business interests and acts as a 

counterweight to foreign governments that advocate for their national 

Advocacy Center
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S.

Manufacturing

Page 68 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

businesses. The intent of the advocacy, according to these officials, is to 

promote fairness in foreign markets. Engagement by U.S. government 

officials with overseas governments may take the form of official 

correspondence, focused meetings or in-person meetings, talking points 

in a bilateral meetings or dialogue, and/or press releases or meetings with 

foreign press.

Conducts market intelligence: The company seeking advocacy fills out 

a questionnaire to provide the Center with details of the project 

description, type of assistance requested, foreign government decision 

makers, and timeline. The Advocacy Center then verifies the information 

with the assistance and concurrence of the U.S. mission abroad.

Verifies that the companies adhere to the Foreign Corrupt Practices 

Act: According to program officials, companies seeking advocacy must 

sign the anti-bribery agreement attesting that they adhere to the Foreign 

Corrupt Practices Act.

Conducts due diligence: The Center conducts due diligence on the 

company seeking assistance to confirm that the company can conduct 

the service or provide the products needed to successfully compete for 

and complete the foreign project.

Makes a national interest determination: When the U.S. business 

contribution is less than 50 percent of the total value of the project, the 

following is considered: U.S. materials and equipment content, U.S. labor 

content, contributions to the U.S. technology base, and potential for 

follow-on business benefiting the U.S. economy.

Participates in interagency task force: The Secretary of Commerce 

chairs the interagency task force on commercial advocacy, which 

comprises 15 other federal agencies. The purpose of the task force is to 

provide increased support for U.S. exporters beyond traditional 

commercial advocacy and take a “whole of government” approach.

Manufacturing Trends Addressed by the Program

Advanced manufacturing Higher skilled jobs Globalization

X

Source: GAO analysis of survey data. | GAO-17-240
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 69 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Department of Commerce, International Trade Administration, 

Enforcement and Compliance

Funding for the Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Operations Program

Reported 

obligations, in 

millions

Estimated percentage 

of reported obligations 

used to support U.S. 

manufacturing

Fiscal Year 2014 $35 100%

Fiscal Year 2015 $37 100%

Fiscal Year 2016 $14a 100%

Source: GAO survey of agency officials. | GAO-17-240

a

This amount is the obligations as of February 2016.

Program Information Reported in Survey

Year program created: Not reported

Program category: Trade, Enforce trade laws and agreements and 

support policy formulation

Program description: The Antidumping and Countervailing Duty 

Operations program enforces the U.S. trade laws by conducting 

investigations, administrative reviews, new shipper reviews, sunset 

reviews, changed circumstances reviews, and scope and anticircumvention inquiries. The program also assists in the defense of 

determinations made by the Enforcement and Compliance office in U.S. 

courts, the World Trade Organization, and in North American Free Trade 

Agreement dispute settlement panels, according to program officials. The 

program conducts investigations in response to U.S. industry petitions 

alleging that imports are being dumped or unfairly subsidized and that 

those imports are materially injuring, or threatening material injury to, 

competing U.S. industry.

Program activities that support manufacturing:

Administration and enforcement of the antidumping and 

countervailing duty laws: The Enforcement and Compliance Office 

investigates U.S. firms’ claims that they are being injured by dumped or 

unfairly subsidized imports. If the final result of an investigation is 

affirmative and the International Trade Commission makes a final finding 

of injury, the Enforcement and Compliance Office will impose an order 

that requires importers of the merchandise make cash deposits equal to 

the estimated amount of dumping and/or subsidization.

Antidumping and 

Countervailing Duty 

Operations
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 70 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Manufacturing Trends Addressed by the Program

Advanced manufacturing Higher skilled jobs Globalization

X

Source: GAO analysis of survey data. | GAO-17-240

Department of Commerce, International Trade Administration, 

Global Markets

Funding for the Domestic Field Program

Reported 

obligations, in 

millions

Estimated percentage 

of reported obligations 

used to support U.S. 

manufacturing

Fiscal Year 2014 $44 40%

Fiscal Year 2015 $45 40%

Fiscal Year 2016 $48 40%

Source: GAO survey of agency officials. | GAO-17-240

Program Information Reported in Survey

Year program created: 1980

Program category: Trade, Export promotion

Program description: The Domestic Field program includes a network of 

108 U.S. Export Assistance Centers across the United States that focus 

primarily on the exporting needs of small and medium-sized businesses. 

At Assistance Centers, Domestic Field trade specialists help identify 

opportunities for U.S. exporters, clarify foreign regulations and standards, 

provide support to clients who have business disputes abroad or 

encounter foreign market barriers, and counsel U.S. companies on the 

best strategies to succeed in overseas markets. The Domestic Field also 

plays a primary role in educating U.S. firms about their rights, obligations, 

and opportunities in foreign markets, or of the assistance the International 

Trade and Investment Administration can provide in resolving their trade 

problems. Working with other International Trade and Investment 

Administration programs, the Domestic Field program organizes 

educational outreach programs to U.S. businesses and industry 

associations across the country.

Domestic Field
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 71 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Program activities that support manufacturing:

Providing export counseling to U.S. exporters or companies 

interested in exporting: The network of U.S. Export Assistance Centers 

includes 108 offices in 48 states and Puerto Rico that work with U.S. 

companies on a one-by-one basis, including manufacturers, to focus on 

their exporting needs and plans. This often involves customized 

assistance, including market identification, export mechanics, financing 

options, and partner identification.

Fee-based services: These services include matchmaking and vetting 

services, as well as single company promotions, to help connect U.S. 

manufacturers with opportunities overseas.

Trade show assistance: This includes counseling on-site, and facilitating

business-to-business meetings.

Export training: It organizes trade promotion conferences as well as 

numerous webinars and seminars on all aspects of exporting for U.S. 

manufacturers. The Domestic Field also partners with the Manufacturing 

Extension Partnership program to deliver the ExporTech export training

program in locations across the country. This intensive export education 

program is delivered to five to seven manufacturers at a time with the end 

goal being the development of an actionable exporting plan for each 

manufacturer.

Manufacturing Trends Addressed by the Program

Advanced manufacturing Higher skilled jobs Globalization

X X

Source: GAO analysis of survey data. | GAO-17-240
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 72 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Department of Commerce, International Trade Administration, 

Enforcement and Compliance

Funding for the Foreign-Trade Zones in the United States Program

Reported 

obligations, in 

millions

Estimated percentage 

of reported obligations 

used to support U.S. 

manufacturing

Fiscal Year 2014 $1.8 37.5%

Fiscal Year 2015 $2 37.5%

Fiscal Year 2016 $0.7a 37.5%

Source: GAO survey of agency officials. | GAO-17-240

a

This amount is the obligations as of February 29, 2016.

Program Information Reported in Survey

Year program created: 1934

Program category: Trade, Export promotion

Program description: According to program officials, the Foreign-Trade 

Zones program helps encourage commercial activity and value added at 

U.S. manufacturing and distribution facilities that compete with foreign 

alternatives by allowing delayed or reduced duty payments on foreign 

merchandise transferred from the zones, as well as other savings. 

Officials also stated that the Foreign-Trade Zones program can reduce 

costs through delayed or reduced duties, allow special entry procedures, 

and encourage activity closer to market. Reducing costs through the 

program can lead to more competitive U.S. operations, thereby helping to 

maintain U.S.-based activities and jobs. Program staff serve as the 

operational arm of the Foreign-Trade Zone Board, an interagency body

chaired by the Secretary of Commerce. The Board was established to 

license and regulate foreign trade zones, and licenses primarily public or 

non-profit corporations to administer zones on a local level.

Program activities that support manufacturing:

Processing requests for manufacturing (production) authority:

According to program officials, under the Board’s regulations, companies 

may conduct manufacturing operations within foreign trade zones if they 

have obtained approval in advance. Officials stated that the Board 

approves requests for manufacturing authority under procedures and 

criteria delineated in the Board’s regulations.

Pre-application counseling for manufacturing applicants: Companies 

Foreign-Trade Zones 

in the United States
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 73 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

may conduct manufacturing operations within foreign-trade zones if they 

have obtained approval in advance from the Board. Specifically, the 

Board staff responds to questions presented via telephone or e-mail and 

reviews and provides feedback on draft requests submitted by potential 

applicants. 

Education and outreach on potential for Foreign-Trade Zone 

manufacturing: Through information available on the Board’s website 

and shared at industry events, the Board staff conducts education and 

outreach activities regarding potential benefits to manufacturers under the 

Foreign Trade Zone program.

Manufacturing Trends Addressed by the Program

The mission of the Foreign-Trade Zones program is broader than just 

manufacturing. Additionally, program officials explained that although not 

specifically targeting the manufacturing trends GAO identified, in 2012 the 

Foreign-Trade Zone Board completed a total overhaul of its regulations. 

They further stated that although the revised regulations dramatically 

streamline procedures for potential program users—including potential 

users that could fall under one or more of the manufacturing trends—that 

change was effective as of April 2012 and, therefore, fell outside GAO’s 

3-year scope of review. While the program may have addressed the three 

manufacturing trends in recent years, there is nothing explicit in the 

program design that is intended to address or affect these developments.
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 74 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and 

Technology

Funding for the Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership Program

Reported 

obligations, in 

millions

Estimated percentage 

of reported obligations 

used to support U.S. 

manufacturing

Fiscal Year 2014 $122 100%

Fiscal Year 2015 $145 100%

Fiscal Year 2016 Not reported 100%

Source: GAO survey of agency officials. | GAO-17-240

Program Information Reported in Survey

Year program created: 1988

Program category: Innovation, Applied research and development

Program description: The Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership 

is a federal-state-industry partnership that provides U.S. manufacturers 

with access to technologies, resources, and industry experts. The 

program consists of Manufacturing Extension Partnership Centers located 

across the country that work directly with local manufacturing 

communities to strengthen their competitiveness. Funding for the Centers 

is a cost-sharing arrangement consisting of support from federal, state, 

and local governments and fees charged to the manufacturing clients for 

services provided by the Centers.

Program activities that support manufacturing:

Technical assistance: This assistance helps companies with internal 

operations (manufacturing of products and the processes by which they 

are made, as well as those operations needed to run the business 

effectively and efficiently) and external opportunities needed to provide 

growth of the business (supply chain participation, sales and marketing).

Training: The partnership provides training to small and mid-size 

manufacturers that includes introductions to advanced manufacturing 

technologies and techniques (e.g., additive manufacturing, digital 

manufacturing, smart manufacturing, and robotics), lean manufacturing 

principles, lean accounting, lean office techniques, export readiness, 

technology scouting, technology-driven market intelligence, company 

growth and innovation, six sigma and other statistical quality measures, 

quality systems, rapid prototyping, as well as other topics. These trainings 

Hollings 

Manufacturing 

Extension Partnership
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 75 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

may be conducted in conjunction with local community colleges and 

technical schools.

Support for Manufacturing Day: The program supports the annual 

Manufacturing Day to raise awareness for manufacturing and attract 

younger workers to manufacturing jobs.

Export assistance: The program partners with the U.S. Export 

Assistance Centers of the Department of Commerce (DOC) to deliver the 

ExporTech export training and consultation program in locations across 

the country. This intensive export education program includes peer 

counseling and is delivered to five to seven manufacturers at a time to 

develop an exporting plan for each manufacturer, according to agency 

officials.

Manufacturing Trends Addressed by the Program

Advanced manufacturing Higher skilled jobs Globalization

X X X

Source: GAO analysis of survey data. | GAO-17-240

Department of Commerce, International Trade Administration, 

Industry and Analysis

Funding for the Industry Trade Policy and Analysis Program

Reported 

obligations, in 

millions

Estimated percentage 

of reported obligations 

used to support U.S. 

manufacturing

Fiscal Year 2014 $2 20%

Fiscal Year 2015 $2 20%

Fiscal Year 2016 Not reported N/A

Source: GAO survey of agency officials. | GAO-17-240

Program Information Reported in Survey

Year program created: 2013

Program category: Trade, Enforce trade laws and agreements and 

support policy formulation

Program Evaluations That Assessed Any 

Impact on the U.S. Manufacturing Sector

• Lipscomb, C.A. et al. (2015) Evaluating the 

Long-Term Effect of NIST MEP Services on 

Establishment Performance 

https://ideas.repec.org/p/cen/wpaper/15-

09.html

• Youtie, Jan A. (2013). An evaluation of the 

MEP: A Cross Study Analysis. In 21st 

Century Manufacturing: The Role of 

Manufacturing Extension Partnership 

Program. National Research Council.

• Ordowich, C. (2012) Evaluating the Impact 

of MEP Services on Establishment 

Performance: A Preliminary Empirical 

Investigation 

https://ideas.repec.org/p/cen/wpaper/12-15.

html

Source: GAO survey of agency officials. Ɩ GAO-17-240

Industry Trade Policy 

and Analysis
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 76 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Program description: The Industry Trade Policy and Analysis program 

supports U.S. government trade policy formulation and negotiations by 

providing the trade and economic analysis and issue expertise needed to 

expand exports and foreign direct investment in the United States. The 

objectives are to benefit U.S. businesses and provide new opportunities 

to expand U.S. exports of goods and services. The program also serves 

as the primary source of trade data within ITA and is responsible for 

undertaking cross-sectoral economic analysis, such as the number of 

annual jobs supported by exports.

Program activities that support manufacturing:

Represent U.S. industry in trade negotiations: The program 

maximizes U.S. gains in trade negotiations by evaluating industry 

positions and foreign market access offers and recommending policy 

actions that best support the interests of U.S. industry.

Protect U.S. intellectual property: The program advances U.S. 

commercial interests on international intellectual property laws, policies, 

practices and assists U.S. companies to overcome intellectual propertyrelated trade barriers.

Standards policy: The program addresses standards-related market 

access barriers and leads ITA’s involvement in standards policy issues, 

which may include those important to U.S. manufacturers.

Economic analysis: The program evaluates potential economic effects 

of statutory and regulatory programs on trade-dependent industries, 

including those engaged in manufacturing.

Data programs: The program provides publicly accessible online trade 

and tariff information to help companies (including manufacturers) assess 

the market opportunities available for their products.

Manufacturing Trends Addressed By the Program

Many of the issues that the Industry Trade Policy and Analysis program 

cover touch on the three manufacturing issues GAO identified, but little of 

what the program produces is explicit to U.S. manufacturing. The 

program is targeted toward exporters, although these exporters are 

neither explicitly “U.S.” companies or explicitly manufacturing firms. The 

program does not isolate the impact that it has on these trends, as its 

efforts are more broadly focused.
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 77 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Department of Commerce, International Trade Administration, 

Global Markets

Funding for the International Field Program

Reported 

obligations, in 

millions

Estimated percentage 

of reported obligations 

used to support U.S. 

manufacturing

Fiscal Year 2014 $103 40%

Fiscal Year 2015 $99 40%

Fiscal Year 2016 $88 40%

Source: GAO survey of agency officials. | GAO-17-240

Program Information Reported in Survey

Year program created: 1980

Program category: Trade, Export promotion

Program description: The International Field program includes foreign 

service officers, locally engaged staff, and headquarters-based experts 

who advance U.S. commercial interests, identify opportunities for U.S. 

exports, clarify local regulations and standards, engage foreign 

government officials in commercial diplomacy to help resolve market 

access and/or trade compliance problems affecting U.S. exporters or 

investors, and counsel companies on the best strategies to succeed in 

overseas markets. The program assists companies of all sizes to identify 

target markets for entry or expansion and develop effective strategies to 

succeed in those markets. This includes bringing foreign buyers and U.S. 

companies together through business matchmaking services, promotional 

support and representation at trade shows and fairs, trade events, 

product launches, and technical seminars.

Program activities that support manufacturing:

Technical assistance: The program provides pre-export logistics 

information and assistance, matchmaking with foreign companies, and on 

the ground advocacy on market access and/or compliance issues.

International Field
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

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Manufacturing Trends Addressed by the Program

Advanced manufacturing Higher skilled jobs Globalization

X

Source: GAO analysis of survey data. | GAO-17-240

Department of Commerce, Economic Development Administration

Program Funding: The program is overseen by DOC, but DOC does not 

obligate additional funds specifically for the program. Instead, 12 federal 

agencies participating in the program and DOC provide funds to selected 

manufacturing communities through existing funding sources.

Program Information Reported in Survey

Year program created: 2013

Program category: General support across the areas of innovation, trade, 

and training

Program description: According to program officials, the Investing in 

Manufacturing Communities Partnership (IMCP) is designed to 

strengthen communities’ ability to attract inbound investment by fostering 

regional collaboration and designating manufacturing communities to 

receive preferential consideration for federal funding, among other things. 

DOC has not allocated ongoing grant funding for this program because it 

was designed to enhance coordination and strategic investment of 

existing funding and technical assistance to manufacturing communities, 

according to agency officials. Benefits of the program include increasing 

capacity for U.S. innovation and manufacturing, higher skills for the 

American workforce, attracting and retaining small businesses that serve 

as suppliers, and expanding opportunity for U.S. exports.

Program activities that support manufacturing:

Providing grants: In September 2013, IMCP awarded $7 million in 

planning grants to 44 communities nationwide to support the development 

of their strategies. Under IMCP, 12 federal agencies and DOC with more 

than $1 billion in grant funding can use the awardees’ plans to make 

targeted investments to strengthen regional manufacturing.

Technical assistance: To advance U.S. manufacturing and provide all 

communities with tools for success, DOC and the interagency team 

creates strategic programming and technical assistance opportunities.

Investing in 

Manufacturing 

Communities 

Partnership
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 79 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Community Mentorship Program: The mentorship program aims to 

cultivate relationships among communities, create mutual vested 

interests, and encourage ownership in each other’s success.

IMCP national summit: DOC hosts an annual manufacturing summit for

manufacturing communities.

Federal liaison: The Economic Development Administration assigns 

each IMCP community to a federal liaison in one of the 13 partnering 

federal agencies.

Manufacturing Trends Addressed by the Program

Advanced manufacturing Higher skilled jobs Globalization

X X

Source: GAO analysis of survey data. | GAO-17-240

Department of Commerce, International Trade Administration, 

Industry and Analysis

Program Funding: Not reported

Program Information Reported in Survey

Year program created: 2004

Program category: Trade, Export promotion

Program description: The Manufacturing program ensures appropriate 

industry and other stakeholder input into trade and investment policy 

development, as well as trade negotiations and implementation. Among 

other efforts, it supports exports and foreign direct investment in the 

United States by leveraging industry expertise and an understanding of 

the dynamics of global competition to develop and implement policies and 

improve U.S. business competitiveness globally in high-growth export 

sectors and markets and opportunities for foreign direct investment. The 

program develops industry-specific negotiating priorities for the U.S. 

government and develops and recommends strategies that further open 

foreign markets. The Manufacturing program also works closely with the 

Office of the United States Trade Representative in negotiating trade 

agreements and policy outcomes affecting these industries, providing key 

technical support. In addition, the Manufacturing unit analyzes and 

reports on potential benefits to U.S. producers and consumers, devises 

Manufacturing
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 80 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

programs to capitalize on opportunities, and supports compliance with 

trade agreement provisions.

Program activities that support manufacturing:

Export assistance (trade policy): The Manufacturing Unit works to 

develop trade policy positions that support the U.S. manufacturing sector 

and promote exports.

Export assistance (trade promotion): The Manufacturing Unit works to 

develop trade promotion activities for the U.S. manufacturing sector to 

promote exports.

Manufacturing Trends Addressed by the Program

Advanced manufacturing Higher skilled jobs Globalization

X X

Source: GAO analysis of survey data. | GAO-17-240

Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and 

Technology

Funding for the Manufacturing USA Program

Reported 

obligations, in 

millions

Estimated percentage 

of reported obligations 

used to support U.S. 

manufacturing

Fiscal Year 2014 $0a N/A

Fiscal Year 2015 $0a N/A

Fiscal Year 2016 $25 100%

Source: GAO survey of agency officials. | GAO-17-240

a

The existing Manufacturing USA institutes, as of November 2016, were funded and managed by the 

Departments of Defense and Energy, and the obligations for them are in those agencies’ budgets and 

not included here.

Program Information Reported in Survey

Year program created: 2014

Program category: Innovation, Applied research and development

Program description: Manufacturing USA is a network of institutes where 

researchers, companies, and entrepreneurs can collaborate to develop 

new manufacturing technologies with broad applications. Each institute 

Manufacturing USA
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 81 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

has a unique technology focus and helps support manufacturing activity 

in local areas. The Manufacturing Innovation Institutes allow minimization 

of cost and risk to an industry in developing new manufacturing 

processes and technologies that take the nation’s basic research to 

implementation in manufacturing, according to agency officials.

Program activities that support manufacturing:

Agency coordination: The network coordinates the activities of the 

program with programs and activities of other federal agencies whose 

missions contribute to or are affected by advanced manufacturing.

Network support: The network supports the institutes within the network 

with services to increase administrative efficiency and impact.

Open topic institutes: The Department of Commerce holds competitions 

for institutes where the topic is identified by industry via their proposals. It 

manages the institutes afterward.

Manufacturing Trends Addressed by the Program

Advanced manufacturing Higher skilled jobs Globalization

X X X

Source: GAO analysis of survey data. | GAO-17-240

Department of Commerce, International Trade Administration, 

Industry and Analysis

Program Funding: Not reported.

Program Information Reported in Survey

Year program created: 2013

Program category: Trade, Export promotion

Program description: The Textiles, Consumer Goods, and Materials 

program includes the Office of Textiles and Apparel and the Office of 

Consumer Goods and Materials. The Office of Textiles and Apparel 

administers and enforces agreements and preference programs 

concerning the textile, apparel, footwear, and travel goods industries and 

works to ensure fair trade and a level playing field for these industries to 

enhance their competitiveness in international markets. The office’s 

promotion export program assists small and medium-sized U.S. textile 

and apparel firms to develop and expand their export markets, attempting 

Textiles, Consumer 

Goods, and Materials
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 82 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

to help job retention and creation in this and related sectors. The Office of 

Consumer Goods and Materials provides industry expertise, trade policy 

guidance, and market access advocacy for a wide variety of consumer 

goods and materials industry sectors. Industry experts in the Office of 

Consumer Goods and Materials identify issues of strategic and 

commercial interest to those industry sectors and work with its 

stakeholders to enhance their international competitiveness.

Program activities that support manufacturing:

Policy advocacy and development: Program offices work with trade 

associations, companies, advisory committees, and individual companies 

to identify trade issues that need resolution so that U.S. industry is 

globally competitive. Activities include support for negotiation of trade 

agreements in concert with U.S. Trade Representatives and 

representation of U.S. policy and interests in bilateral and plurilateral 

trade for development of U.S. trade policy by objectively representing 

U.S. industry in internal U.S. government discussion.

Policy implementation: Program offices work with trade associations, 

companies, advisory committees, individual companies, and federal 

agencies to implement trade agreements and contribute to enforcement 

of trade agreements through work with industries and provide technical 

expertise on industry-related issues that are essential to developing policy 

and strategy for consultations and dispute settlement.

Trade promotion: Program offices work with trade associations, 

companies, and state and local governments to promote exports of U.S. 

textile, apparel, footwear, and consumer goods products, as well as 

materials (e.g., chemicals, building products, cosmetics, aluminum, and 

forest products). The program promotes products through trade missions, 

trade shows, International Buyer Programs, certified trade fairs, and 

Market Development Cooperator Program awards.

Technical assistance: The program provides U.S. industries with data 

and market analysis so companies can make better strategic decisions 

about exports and trade in general and counsels companies on foreign 

market conditions and trends based on trade data and qualitative 

analysis.

Administer cooperative agreements: Program offices currently 

administer seven Market Development Cooperative Programs, most of 

which are aimed at entry or expansion in key and growing markets (e.g., 

China).
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 83 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Manufacturing Trends Addressed by the Program

Advanced manufacturing Higher skilled jobs Globalization

X X

Source: GAO analysis of survey data. | GAO-17-240

Department of Commerce, Economic Development Administration

Funding for the Trade Adjustment Assistance for Firms Program

Reported 

obligations, in 

millions

Estimated percentage 

of reported obligations 

used to support U.S. 

manufacturing

Fiscal Year 2014 $8 96%

Fiscal Year 2015 $20 100%

Fiscal Year 2016 $13 98%

Source: GAO survey of agency officials. | GAO-17-240

Program Information Reported in Survey

Year program created: 1965

Program category: Trade, Financial support

Program description: According to agency officials, the Trade Adjustment 

Assistance for Firms program is a trade remedy mechanism that is used 

rather than relying on tariffs, quotas, or duties. This assistance targets 

U.S. firms experiencing a decline in sales and employment, resulting 

directly from the increase in imports of like or directly competitive articles. 

The program works in partnership with a national network of Trade 

Adjustment Assistance Centers, and provides technical assistance to 

U.S. manufacturing, production, and service firms affected by import 

competition to develop and implement projects to regain global 

competitiveness, increase profitability and create jobs.

Program activities that support manufacturing:

Petitioning for certification: The program assists firms with submitting a 

petition to be certified as a trade-impacted firm. Generally, certification 

specialists in the Trade Adjustment Assistance Centers work with the firm 

at no cost to the firm to complete and submit a petition.

Trade Adjustment 

Assistance for Firms
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 84 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Recovery planning: The program-certified firms work with Trade 

Adjustment Assistance Centers staff to develop a customized business 

recovery plan for approval.

Recovery plan implementation: The firm works with consultants to 

implement projects in an approved business recovery plan.

Providing grants: The program provides grants to independent, nonprofit or university-affiliated Trade Adjustment Assistance Centers that 

help U.S. manufacturing, production, and manufacturing service firms in a 

public-private collaborative framework apply for certification of eligibility 

for program assistance and prepare and implement strategies to guide 

firms’ economic recovery. 

Technical assistance: The program provides direct technical assistance 

to import-impacted U.S. manufacturing, production, and service firms by 

providing matching funds to Trade Adjustment Assistance Centers. The 

centers use the funds to match the costs for third-party consultants to 

help firms expand markets, strengthen operations, and increase 

competitiveness.

Manufacturing Trends Addressed by the Program

Advanced manufacturing Higher skilled jobs Globalization

X

Source: GAO analysis of survey data. | GAO-17-240

Department of Commerce, International Trade Administration, 

Enforcement and Compliance

Funding for the Trade Enforcement and Compliance Policy and Negotiations 

Program

Reported 

obligations, in 

millions

Estimated percentage 

of reported 

obligations used to 

support U.S. 

manufacturing

Fiscal Year 2014 $23 Not reported

Fiscal Year 2015 $24 Not reported

Fiscal Year 2016 Not reported N/A

Source: GAO survey of agency officials. | GAO-17-240

Program Evaluations That Assessed Any 

Impact on the U.S. Manufacturing Sector

• Trade Adjustment Assistance: 

Commerce Program Has Helped 

Manufacturing and Services Firms, but 

Measures, Data, and Funding Formula 

Could Improve. GAO-12-930. 

Washington, D.C.: September 13, 2012.

Source: GAO survey of agency officials. Ɩ GAO-17-240

Trade Enforcement 

and Compliance 

Policy and 

Negotiations
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 85 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Program Information Reported in Survey

Year program created: 2013

Program category: Trade, Enforce trade laws and agreements and 

support policy formulation

Program description: The Policy and Negotiations program oversees a 

variety of activities and policies related to the negotiation of trade and 

investment disciplines in international agreements, the administration of 

U.S. antidumping and countervailing duty laws, the negotiation and 

administration of suspension agreements of U.S. antidumping and 

countervailing duty investigations, as well as the improvement of access 

to export markets for U.S. companies.

Program activities that support manufacturing:

Trade agreements negotiation and compliance: The program office 

negotiates trade and investment international agreements, conducts 

outreach and assistance to U.S. companies or industries confronting 

foreign government trade actions or barriers that block or impede U.S. 

exports or investment, and administers the Trade Agreements 

Compliance Program, which involves all business units in ITA and the 

Office of the General Counsel.

Antidumping and Countervailing Duties Petition Counseling and 

Analysis Unit: This program office reaches out to and assists U.S. 

industries and workers (especially small and medium-sized enterprises) 

seeking to use U.S. antidumping and countervailing duty law to remedy 

injury from unfairly traded imports.

Support antidumping and countervailing duty cases: A program office 

applies policies and procedures in antidumping/countervailing duty 

proceedings while ensuring that broader policy objectives and statutory 

and international obligations are respected. They assist U.S. businesses 

by reviewing case determinations and developing new policies for major 

or emerging issues and ensuring consistent application of the trade 

remedy laws.

Trade remedy compliance: Staff monitor and conduct outreach and 

advocacy to address potentially unfair application of foreign trade 

remedies. Staff members provide a wide range of services and tools to 

assist U.S. companies that find themselves subject to trade remedy 

actions.

Subsidies Enforcement Office: This office assists U.S. businesses by 

providing a range of services to confront foreign subsidies that impede 

U.S. companies’ and workers’ ability to compete and expand into 

domestic as well as overseas markets.
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 86 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Steel import monitoring and analysis: The office administers the Steel 

Import Licensing program and provides steel import statistics and 

analyses to the U.S. government and industry stakeholders.

Interagency Trade Enforcement Center: The office provides expert 

support to trade enforcement undertakings by the U.S. government, 

including research on foreign laws and measures.

Manufacturing Trends Addressed by the Program

Advanced manufacturing Higher skilled jobs Globalization

X

Source: GAO analysis of survey data. | GAO-17-240

Department of Defense, Office of the Secretary

Program Funding: Not reported

Program Information Reported in Survey

Year program created: Not reported

Program category: Innovation, Basic research and development

Program description: The Basic, Applied, and Advanced Research in 

Science and Engineering program (1) supports basic, applied, or 

advanced research and technology development in mathematical, 

physical, engineering, environmental, and life sciences, in addition to 

other fields with good, long-term potential for contributing to technology 

for Department of Defense missions; (2) facilitates transition of research 

results to practical application for defense needs; (3) improves linkages 

between defense research and the civilian technology and industrial 

bases to promote commercial application of the results of defense 

research and commercial availability of technology for defense needs; (4) 

fosters education of future scientists and engineers in disciplines critical 

to defense; and (5) strengthens the infrastructure for research and related 

science and engineering education in those disciplines.

Program activities that support manufacturing:

Technology maturity: The program invests in emerging manufacturing 

processes for enabling defense technologies required for national 

defense.

Basic, Applied, and 

Advanced Research 

in Science and 

Engineering
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 87 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Industrial base: The program actively supports a connected U.S. 

defense industrial base.

Infrastructure: The program actively supports a healthy defense

infrastructure.

Workforce: The program actively supports an educated workforce to 

support national defense.

Manufacturing Trends Addressed by the Program

Advanced manufacturing Higher skilled jobs Globalization

X X X

Source: GAO analysis of survey data. | GAO-17-240

Department of Defense, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense 

for Logistics Maintenance and Readiness

Program Funding: Not reported

Program Information Reported in Survey

Year program created: 1998

Program category: Innovation, Applied research and development

Program description: The Commercial Technologies for Maintenance 

Activities program is a joint Department of Defense (DOD)/National 

Centers for Manufacturing Science effort that promotes collaborative 

technology development, demonstration, and transition within DOD. Its 

objective is to ensure American troops and their equipment are ready to 

face any situation, with the most up-to-date and best-maintained 

platforms and tools available. The program is based on a collaborative 

model for manufacturers, academia, and DOD, and it creates 

relationships and opportunities, drives cutting edge research and 

development, and conducts industry intelligence from a unique 

perspective. Through partnerships, training, software, and business 

operations, the program can help achieve industry objectives while 

satisfying DOD needs through demonstration of new technologies prior to 

full deployment.

Commercial 

Technologies for 

Maintenance 

Activities
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 88 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Program activities that support manufacturing:

Facilitates industry and DOD collaboration regarding maintenance 

technology: On occasion, the program advances maintenance 

capabilities that have directly benefited the manufacturing industrial base 

due, in part, to a large overlap between manufacturing technologies used 

by original equipment manufacturers and the tools and procedures 

employed by DOD maintenance depots. Examples of these capabilities 

include advanced machine controls, additive manufacturing and repair, 

complex electronics testing and troubleshooting, product lifecycle 

management applications, and advanced welding techniques, among 

other things.

Manufacturing Trends Addressed by the Program

Advanced manufacturing Higher skilled jobs Globalization

X

Source: GAO analysis of survey data. | GAO-17-240

Department Of Defense, Office of Manufacturing and Industrial Base 

Policy

Funding for the Defense Production Act Title III Program

Reported 

obligations, in 

millions

Estimated percentage 

of reported obligations 

used to support U.S. 

manufacturing

Fiscal Year 2014 $157 100%

Fiscal Year 2015 $204 100%

Fiscal Year 2016 Not reported N/A

Source: GAO survey of agency officials. | GAO-17-240

Program Information Reported in Survey

Year program created: 1950

Program category: General financing

Program description: According to agency officials, when essential to the 

national defense, Title III authority enables the U.S. government to apply 

financial incentives to encourage private industry to create new domestic 

sources of supply for key advanced materials and technology items and 

Defense Production 

Act Title III
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 89 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

to accelerate deployment of new product and manufacturing process 

technology. According to agency officials, Title III authorities may be 

employed when domestic industrial capabilities that impact essential 

government requirements do not exist, are at risk of being lost, or are 

insufficient to meet essential governmental needs. According to agency 

officials, Title III actions stimulate private investment in production 

resources by reducing the risks associated with the capitalization and 

investments required to establish the needed production capacity. 

Projects range from process improvements and emerging technologies to 

construction of complete industrial production facilities.

Program activities that support manufacturing:

Purchase and develop production capabilities: The program 

purchases for government use or resale to create, maintain, protect, 

expand, or restore domestic industrial base capabilities essential for the 

national defense.

Installation of equipment in industrial facilities: The program 

purchases, installs, and transfers title of production equipment.

Purchase commitments: The program guarantees market to incentivize 

companies to establish production capability.

Loans/loan guarantees: According to agency officials, the President 

may authorize a guaranteeing agency to provide guarantees of loans by 

private institutions to finance any contractor, subcontractor, provider of 

critical infrastructure, or other person in support of production capabilities 

or supplies that are necessary to the national defense to reduce current 

or projected shortfalls of industrial resources, critical technology items, or 

essential materials needed for national defense purposes.

Development of substitutes: The program strengthens the production 

and technological capabilities of key industrial sectors and ensures 

affordable and assured access to critical materials and technologies.

Manufacturing Trends Addressed by the Program

Advanced manufacturing Higher skilled jobs Globalization

X X

Source: GAO analysis of survey data. | GAO-17-240
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 90 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Department Of Defense, Office of Manufacturing and Industrial Base 

Policy

Funding for the Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment Program

Reported 

obligations, in 

millions

Estimated percentage 

of reported obligations 

used to support U.S. 

manufacturing

Fiscal Year 2014 $10 100%

Fiscal Year 2015 $15 100%

Fiscal Year 2016 $23 100%

Source: GAO survey of agency officials. | GAO-17-240

Program Information Reported in Survey

Year program created: 2014

Program category: Innovation, Applied research and development

Program description: The Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment 

program provides the Department of Defense with a comprehensive 

ability to monitor and assess the industrial base, to address critical issues 

relating to urgent operational needs and industrial base vulnerabilities, 

and to support industrial base expansion. This program maintains or 

improves the health of critical and fragile industry capabilities that are at 

risk of being lost but are needed to support the National Defense 

Strategy. The goal of the program is to avoid loss of critical capabilities 

and resultant reconstitution costs wherever affordable; innovative 

mechanisms are available to the producers in the interim.

Program activities that support manufacturing:

Contracts: The program funds contracts with constituents of the National 

Technology and Industrial Base for specific at-risk goods and services to 

address critical issues in the industrial base, expand the industrial base, 

and address defense supply chain vulnerabilities.

Minimize risks to industrial base: The program supports the warfighter 

by minimizing risks from industrial base capability issues.

Manufacturing Trends Addressed by the Program

Advanced manufacturing Higher skilled jobs Globalization

X X

Source: GAO analysis of survey data. | GAO-17-240

Industrial Base 

Analysis and 

Sustainment 

Program
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 91 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Department of Defense, Navy

Funding for the Manufacturing Applied Research Program

Reported 

obligations, in 

millions

Estimated percentage 

of reported obligations 

used to support U.S. 

manufacturing

Fiscal Year 2014 $1 100%

Fiscal Year 2015 $1 100%

Fiscal Year 2016 $1 100%

Source: GAO survey of agency officials. | GAO-17-240

Program Information Reported in Survey

Year program created: Fiscal Year 2014

Program category: Innovation, Applied research and development

Program description: The Manufacturing Applied Research program 

supports innovation-based efforts that will provide technology options for 

future Navy and Marine Corps capabilities. Efforts focus on advanced 

Naval materials, biocentric technologies, environmental quality, human 

factors and organizational design, medical technologies, and Naval 

training technologies.

Program activities that support manufacturing:

Providing contracts: The program contracts for technical work in 

manufacturing applied research.

Manufacturing Trends Addressed by the Program

Advanced manufacturing Higher skilled jobs Globalization

X

Source: GAO analysis of survey data. | GAO-17-240

Manufacturing 

Applied Research
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 92 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Department of Defense, Defense Advanced Research Projects 

Agency, Defense Science Office

Funding for the Manufacturing Experimentation and Outreach Two Program

Reported 

obligations, in 

millions

Estimated percentage 

of reported obligations 

used to support U.S. 

manufacturing

Fiscal Year 2014 $11 100%

Fiscal Year 2015 $0 N/A

Fiscal Year 2016 $0 N/A

Source: GAO survey of agency officials. | GAO-17-240

Program Information Reported in Survey

Year program created: 2014

Program category: Training, Enhancing job seekers’ skills

Program description: The Manufacturing Experimentation and Outreach 

Two (MENTOR2) program seeks to enhance defense readiness by 

improving both the training and the tools available to those who will be 

called on to utilize, maintain, and adapt high-technology systems in lowtechnology environments. The program pursues this goal by developing 

and demonstrating new training tools, new materials, and new 

manufacturing technologies in the fields of electromechanical design and 

manufacturing. It is envisioned that project-based curricula employing 

MENTOR2 design and prototyping tools will teach a deeper 

understanding of high-technology systems and better enable future 

competence in maintaining and adapting such systems through the 

manufacture of as-designed components or the design and manufacture 

of new components.

Program activities that support manufacturing:

Training: The program develops instructor-led and independent training 

(along with supporting materials/equipment) to Department of Defense 

personnel to support understanding and hands-on experience with 

prototyping equipment, computer-aided design, and simulation systems.

Manufacturing 

Experimentation and 

Outreach Two 

(MENTOR2)
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

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Manufacturing Trends Addressed by the Program

Advanced manufacturing Higher skilled jobs Globalization

X

Source: GAO analysis of survey data. | GAO-17-240

Department of Defense, Office of Manufacturing and Industrial Base 

Policy

Funding for the Manufacturing Technology Program

Reported 

obligations, in 

millions

Estimated percentage 

of reported obligations 

used to support U.S. 

manufacturing

Fiscal Year 2014 $226 100%

Fiscal Year 2015 $191 100%

Fiscal Year 2016 $27 100%

Source: GAO survey of agency officials. | GAO-17-240

Program Information Reported in Survey

Year program created: more than 50 years ago

Program category: Innovation, Applied research and development

Program description: The Manufacturing Technology Program focuses on 

the needs of the warfighter and weapons systems by helping to 

implement affordable, low-risk manufacturing solutions. The program 

provides a crucial link between technology and industrial base 

applications; matures and validates emerging manufacturing technologies 

to support affordable, timely, and low-risk implementation in industry; and 

addresses production issues from system development through transition 

to production sustainment. In addition, this program funds the Department 

of Defense-led Manufacturing USA institutes.

Program activities that support manufacturing:

Technology maturity: The program invests in emerging manufacturing 

processes for enabling defense technologies required for national 

defense.

Industrial base: The program actively supports a connected U.S. 

defense industrial base.

Manufacturing 

Technology Program
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 94 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Infrastructure: The program actively supports a healthy defense 

infrastructure.

Workforce: The program actively supports an educated workforce to 

support national defense.

Manufacturing Trends Addressed by the Program

Advanced manufacturing Higher skilled jobs Globalization

X X X

Source: GAO analysis of survey data. | GAO-17-240

Department of Defense, Navy

Funding for the Navy Manufacturing Science Program

Reported 

obligations, in 

millions

Estimated percentage 

of reported obligations 

used to support U.S. 

manufacturing

Fiscal Year 2014 $2 100%

Fiscal Year 2015 $0.8 100%

Fiscal Year 2016 $0.8 100%

Source: GAO survey of agency officials. | GAO-17-240

Program Information Reported in Survey

Year program created: Fiscal Year 2009

Program category: Innovation, Basic research and development

Program description: The Navy Manufacturing Science program 

addresses basic research efforts including scientific study and 

experimentation directed toward increasing knowledge and understanding 

in national security related aspects of physical, engineering, 

environmental and life sciences.

Program activities that support manufacturing:

Providing grants: The program awards grants to research institutions to 

carry out research in novel manufacturing and process control 

technologies.

Navy Manufacturing 

Science
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 95 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Manufacturing Trends Addressed by the Program

Advanced manufacturing Higher skilled jobs Globalization

X

Source: GAO analysis of survey data. | GAO-17-240

Department of Defense, Army, Research, Development, and 

Engineering Command

Program Funding: Not reported

Program Information Reported in Survey

Year program created: 2012

Program category: Innovation, Applied research and development

Program description: Prototype Integration Facilities are buildings where 

engineers develop and test various manufacturing products and generate 

related data to help meet warfighter needs. The facilities assist in the 

transition of technologies from the laboratory to the field. The specific 

core mission and related competencies of each prototype integration 

facility is unique depending upon the engineering support required by 

their specific customers.

Program activities that support manufacturing:

Execute Army Manufacturing Technology Program: The Army 

Manufacturing Technology program addressed manufacturing technology 

gaps. When developing Army weapon systems, the facilities identify 

manufacturing technology gaps and develop manufacturing processes to 

promote affordability. Prototype integration facilities execute this work 

using in-house facilities and in collaboration with industry. The facilities 

are able to transfer manufacturing technologies to both the commercial 

and organic industrial base using a variety of contracting instruments and 

agreements.

Training: The program provides training to organic industrial base 

personnel in newly developed manufacturing processes (e.g., welding of 

titanium) and provides specialized training in manufacturing technologies 

for Army personnel.

Manufacturing technology transfer: The program validates engineering 

data through manufacturing prototypes and captures manufacturing 

process data. The program also makes these data available to the 

Prototype Integration 

Facilities
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 96 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

organic and commercial industrial base.

Cooperative research and development agreements: The program 

works directly with industry to develop and transition new manufacturing 

technologies.

Manufacturing Trends Addressed by the Program

Advanced manufacturing Higher skilled jobs Globalization

X X

Source: GAO analysis of survey data. | GAO-17-240

Department of Education, Office of Career, Technical, and Adult 

Education

Funding for the Career and Technical Education—Basic Grants to States Program

Reported 

obligations, in 

millions

Estimated percentage 

of reported obligations 

used to support U.S. 

manufacturing

Fiscal Year 2014 $1,116 Not reporteda

Fiscal Year 2015 $1,116 Not reporteda

Fiscal Year 2016 $777 Not reporteda

Source: GAO survey of agency officials. | GAO-17-240

a

Agency officials were unable to estimate the percentage used to support manufacturing.

Program Information Reported in Survey

Year program created: 1984

Program category: Training, Enhancing job seekers’ skills

Program description: The Career and Technical Education—Basic Grants 

to States program helps develop the academic, career, and technical 

skills of secondary and postsecondary students who elect to enroll in 

career and technical education programs.

Program activities that support manufacturing:

Providing grants: Grant recipients and subrecipients may use grant 

funds to improve programs that prepare individuals for careers in 

manufacturing. The decision to use grant funds for this purpose is made 

by the recipient and subrecipient. About 5 percent of students 

Career and Technical 

Education—Basic 

Grants to States
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 97 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

concentrated in manufacturing in program year 2010-2011, according to 

officials from the Department of Education.1

Manufacturing Trends Addressed by the Program

Advanced manufacturing Higher skilled jobs Globalization

X

Source: GAO analysis of survey data. | GAO-17-240

Department of Education, Office of Career, Technical, and Adult

Education

Funding for Career and Technical Education—National Programs

Reported 

obligations, in 

millions

Estimated percentage 

of reported obligations 

used to support U.S. 

manufacturing

Fiscal Year 2014 $7 2%

Fiscal Year 2015 $6 Not reporteda

Fiscal Year 2016 $1.8 Not reporteda

Source: GAO survey of agency officials. | GAO-17-240

a

Agency officials were unable to estimate the percentage used to support manufacturing.

Program Information Reported in Survey

Year program created: 1984

Program category: Training, Enhancing job seekers’ skills

Program description: The Career and Technical Education—National 

Programs provide support directly—or through grants, contracts, or 

cooperative agreements—for research, development, demonstration, 

dissemination, evaluation, assessment, capacity-building, and technical 

assistance activities aimed at improving the quality and effectiveness of 

career and technical education programs.

 1

U.S. Department of Education, Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education, Carl D. 

Perkins Career and Technical Education Act of 2006: Report to Congress on State 

Performance, Program Year 2010-2011. Washington, D.C., 2014.

Career and Technical 

Education—National 

Programs
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 98 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Program activities that support manufacturing:

Technical assistance: In 2015, program funds were used to support a 

series of webinars (“Skills on Purpose”) to provide technical assistance to 

those seeking to build the education and skills of the manufacturing 

workforce through partnerships between educational institutions and 

industry.

Manufacturing Trends Addressed by the Program

Advanced manufacturing Higher skilled jobs Globalization

X

Source: GAO analysis of survey data. | GAO-17-240

Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable 

Energy

Funding for the Advanced Manufacturing Office

Reported 

obligations, in 

millions

Estimated percentage 

of reported obligations 

used to support U.S. 

manufacturing

Fiscal Year 2014 $72 100%

Fiscal Year 2015 $196 100%

Fiscal Year 2016 $174 100%

Source: GAO survey of agency officials. | GAO-17-240

Program Information Reported in Survey

Year program created: 2011

Program category: Innovation, Applied research and development

Program description: The mission of the Advanced Manufacturing Office 

is to reduce the energy intensity and life-cycle energy consumption of 

manufactured products by researching, developing, and demonstrating 

energy-efficient manufacturing processes and materials and to promote 

continuous improvement in energy efficiency among existing facilities and 

manufacturers. Its goal is to reduce energy consumption of manufactured 

goods across targeted product life-cycles by 50 percent over 10 years.

Advanced 

Manufacturing Office
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 99 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Program activities that support manufacturing:

Research and development facilities: The program works with National 

Laboratories to competitively select research, development, and 

demonstration activity investments in foundational energy-related 

advanced manufacturing technologies through large scale public-private 

consortia. As noted previously, the program also oversees and funds 

Department of Energy institutes under the Manufacturing USA program.

Research and development projects: These projects support 

innovative, clean-energy manufacturing projects cost-shared with 

companies and research organizations that focus on specific high-impact 

manufacturing technology materials and process challenges. These 

activities fund the development of next-generation manufacturing 

materials, information, and process technologies that facilitate the 

transition of emerging clean energy technologies to domestic production 

and improve energy efficiency in energy-intensive and energy-dependent 

manufacturing processes.

Technical assistance: The program provides critical technical 

assistance for the deployment of advanced energy efficiency technologies 

and practices. Technical assistance activities help individual 

manufacturers reduce their energy intensity by 25 percent over 10 years; 

demonstrate the viability of improved energy management approaches; 

and provide targeted energy efficiency, productivity, and waste/water use 

reduction technical assistance to small and medium-sized manufacturers.

Manufacturing Trends Addressed by the Program

Advanced manufacturing Higher skilled jobs Globalization

X X X

Source: GAO analysis of survey data. | GAO-17-240
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 100 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Department of Energy, Loan Program Office

Funding for the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program

Reported 

obligations, in 

millionsa

Estimated percentage 

of reported obligations 

used to support U.S. 

manufacturing

Fiscal Year 2014 $5 0%b

Fiscal Year 2015 $4 100%

Fiscal Year 2016 $13 0%c

Source: GAO survey of agency officials. | GAO-17-240

a

These numbers are reported obligations for the program’s administrative costs. These are funds for 

originating, evaluating, and monitoring direct loans. The program also has funds for direct loans. 

These funds are used to provide direct loans to borrowers and are not included here.

b

In fiscal year 2014, the program did not make any loan or credit subsidy obligations.

c

In fiscal year 2016, no loan or credit subsidy obligations had been made as of March 25, 2016.

Program Information Reported in Survey

Year program created: 2007

Program category: General financing

Program description: The Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing 

loan program was established to support the production of fuel-efficient, 

advanced technology vehicles and qualifying components in the United 

States. The purpose is to originate, underwrite, and service loans to 

eligible automotive manufacturers and component manufacturers to 

finance the cost of (1) re-equipping, expanding, or establishing 

manufacturing facilities in the United States to produce advanced 

technology vehicles and qualifying components and (2) engineering 

integration performed in the United States of advanced technology 

vehicles and qualifying components.

Program activities that support manufacturing:

Provides direct loans to automotive or component manufacturers:

The program provides direct loans to automotive manufacturers and 

component suppliers to support domestic manufacturing of fuel-efficient, 

advanced technology vehicles and qualifying components.

Advanced Technology 

Vehicles 

Manufacturing 

Loan Program
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 101 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Manufacturing Trends Addressed by the Program

Advanced manufacturing Higher skilled jobs Globalization

X X

Source: GAO analysis of survey data. | GAO-17-240

Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable 

Energy

Funding for the Bioenergy Technologies Office

Reported 

obligations, in 

millions

Estimated percentage 

of reported obligations 

used to support U.S. 

manufacturing

Fiscal Year 2014 $124 100%

Fiscal Year 2015 $109 100%

Fiscal Year 2016 $193 100%

Source: GAO survey of agency officials. | GAO-17-240

Program Information Reported in Survey

Year program created: 1992

Program category: Innovation, Applied research and development

Program description: The Department of Energy’s Bioenergy 

Technologies Office forms cost-share partnerships with key stakeholders 

to develop, demonstrate, and deploy technologies for advanced biofuels 

production. The program works with industrial, academic, national 

laboratory, agricultural, and nonprofit partners to develop and deploy 

commercially viable, high-performance and sustainable biofuels, 

biproducts, and biopower from renewable biomass resources in the 

United States to reduce dependence on imported oil, enhance energy 

security, create domestic jobs, improve ecosystem health, and reduce 

carbon emissions.

Bioenergy 

Technologies Office
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 102 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Program activities that support manufacturing:

Competitive research and development awards: The program 

regularly issues funding opportunity announcements that target research 

and development needs identified through workshops with industry and 

academia, which identify key technical barriers to commercialization of 

biofuel and enabling technologies. 

Competitive pilot and demonstration awards: The program regularly 

issues funding opportunity announcements designed to provide financial 

assistance to industry in construction of pilot and demonstration facilities.

National laboratory research and development: The program directly 

funds research and development on applied and enabling technology at 

several national laboratories with core and key capabilities to address 

cross-cutting technical barriers.

Enhancing sustainability of bio-based systems: The program’s 

sustainability activities include analysis and research and development 

focused on understanding and promoting the positive environmental, 

economic, and social effects and reducing the potential negative impacts 

of bioenergy production activities. Efforts include developing scientific 

methods and models for measuring bioenergy sustainability across the 

full supply chain, demonstrating improved environmental performance 

and social benefits relative to conventional or business-as-usual energy 

systems, and disseminating practical tools for analyses and technology 

development that enhance sustainable bioenergy outcomes. 

Resource assessment: The program’s resource assessment work uses 

a comprehensive spatially-explicit modeling framework to estimate 

county-level supply curves for all major traditional crop and biomass 

feedstock resources, including energy crops. In fiscal year 2015, the 

focus was on the analysis of the current and future economic availability 

of biomass feedstocks. 

Workforce development: The program is developing and will implement 

an education and workforce development program to improve public

accessibility to information on bioenergy production and the bioenergy 

industry, support formal and informal education including STEM and 

vocational programs in exploring issues relevant to sustainable 

production of biofuels and bioproducts, and develop and enhance 

pathways to bioenergy-related training and careers.

Manufacturing Trends Addressed by the Program

Advanced manufacturing Higher skilled jobs Globalization

X X X

Source: GAO analysis of survey data. | GAO-17-240

Program Evaluations That Assessed Any 

Impact on the U.S. Manufacturing Sector

• U.S. Department of Energy, Energy 

Efficiency & Renewable Energy, 

Bioenergy Technologies Office, 2013 

Review Panel Summary Report and 

Program Results, DOE/EE-1014 (2014).

• U.S. Department of Energy, Energy 

Efficiency & Renewable Energy, 

Bioenergy Technologies Office, 2015

Review Panel Summary Report and 

Program Results, DOE/EE-1386 (2016).

Source: GAO survey of agency officials. Ɩ 

GAO-17-240
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 103 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable 

Energy

Program Funding: This initiative is a crosscutting activity leveraging 

other programs’ funded activities, according to Department of Energy 

(DOE) officials.

Program Information Reported in Survey

Year program created: 2013

Program category: Innovation, Applied research and development

Program description: The Clean Energy Manufacturing Initiative is an 

effort across DOE to strengthen U.S. clean energy manufacturing 

competitiveness. The objectives are to increase U.S. competitiveness in 

manufacturing clean energy technologies and increase U.S. 

manufacturing competitiveness across the board by boosting energy 

productivity and leveraging low-cost domestic energy resources and 

feedstocks.

Program activities that support manufacturing:

Analysis: The program provides objective analysis and up-to-date data 

on global clean energy manufacturing.

Public-private partnership pilots: As a part of its mission, the program 

builds partnerships to increase U.S. manufacturing competitiveness. DOE 

currently supports partnership efforts across the country through a range 

of pilots, initiatives, institutes, and facilities. 

Engagement and communications: The program engages leaders from 

industry, universities, national laboratories, and the broader innovation 

and economic community to identify ways in which the public and private 

sectors can partner to enhance U.S. clean energy competitiveness. For 

advancing clean energy manufacturing, the program engages 

stakeholders through regional and national summits and through new 

partnerships. Further, at Clean Energy Manufacturing Initiative Days, 

leaders from the Department of Energy and the participating 

manufacturing companies discuss manufacturing technology research 

and development priorities and strategies for increasing U.S. 

manufacturing competitiveness.

Crosscutting coordination: The program coordinates the Clean Energy 

Manufacturing Tech Team. The team formulates and develops a strategy 

to leverage existing budget authorities to strengthen U.S. clean energy 

manufacturing competitiveness and advance progress toward the nation’s 

energy goals.

Clean Energy 

Manufacturing 

Initiative
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 104 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Manufacturing Trends Addressed by the Program

Advanced manufacturing Higher skilled jobs Globalization

X X X

Source: GAO analysis of survey data. | GAO-17-240

Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable 

Energy, Solar Energy Technology Office

Funding for the Concentrating Solar Power Program

Reported 

obligations, in 

millions

Estimated percentage 

of reported obligations 

used to support U.S. 

manufacturing

Fiscal Year 2014 $15 75-100%

Fiscal Year 2015 $49 75-100%

Fiscal Year 2016 $20 75-100%

Source: GAO survey of agency officials. | GAO-17-240

Program Information Reported in Survey

Year program created: 1977

Program category: Innovation, Applied research and development

Program description: The Concentrating Solar Power program provides 

competitive awards to industry, national laboratories, and universities with 

the shared goal of making large-scale dispatchable solar energy systems 

cost competitive without subsidies by the end of the decade. As part of 

this effort, the program supports research and development of 

concentrated solar power technologies to achieve SunShot Initiative cost 

targets, which seeks to make solar energy more affordable by using 

systems that can supply solar power on demand through the use of 

thermal storage.

Program activities that support manufacturing:

Funding opportunity announcements: The program provides financial 

assistance for research, development, and demonstration to assist in 

getting technology to market.

Workshops/conferences: The program holds and participates in 

workshops and conferences to stimulate discussion of the market, trends, 

priorities, and to identify opportunities, among other things.

Concentrating Solar 

Power
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 105 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Technical assistance: The program provides technical assistance to 

awardees during the course of projects.

Interagency collaboration: The program collaborates with other 

agencies to perform studies of potential environmental impacts of the 

technologies.

Manufacturing Trends Addressed by the Program

Advanced manufacturing Higher skilled jobs Globalization

X X X

Source: GAO analysis of survey data. | GAO-17-240

Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable 

Energy, Solar Energy Technology Office

Funding for the Photovoltaics Program

Reported 

obligations, in 

millions

Estimated percentage 

of reported obligations 

used to support U.S.

manufacturing

Fiscal Year 2014 $58 10%

Fiscal Year 2015 $27 10%

Fiscal Year 2016 $51 30-40%

Source: GAO survey of agency officials. | GAO-17-240

Program Information Reported in Survey

Year program created: 2012

Program category: Innovation, Applied research and development

Program description: The Photovoltaics program specifically supports the 

research and development of photovoltaics technologies to improve 

efficiency and reliability and to lower manufacturing costs to make solar 

electricity cost-competitive with other sources of energy.

Program activities that support manufacturing:

Providing cooperative assistance: The program funds research and 

development activities that, if successful, are intended to transition to 

domestic manufacturing.

Photovoltaics
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 106 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Manufacturing Trends Addressed by the Program

Advanced manufacturing Higher skilled jobs Globalization

X

Source: GAO analysis of survey data. | GAO-17-240

Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable 

Energy, Building Technologies Office

Funding for the Solid State Lighting Program

Reported 

obligations, in 

millions

Estimated percentage 

of reported obligations 

used to support U.S. 

manufacturing

Fiscal Year 2014 $23 25-50%

Fiscal Year 2015 $23 25-50%

Fiscal Year 2016 $23 25-50%

Source: GAO survey of agency officials. | GAO-17-240

Program Information Reported in Survey

Year program created: 2005

Program category: Innovation, Applied research and development

Program description: The Solid State Lighting Program focuses on 

research and development breakthroughs in efficiency and performance 

of solid-state lighting technology, and it equips buyers to successfully 

apply solid-state lighting. The program includes the following elements: 

(1) core technology research projects focused on applied research for 

technology development, with particular emphasis on meeting efficiency, 

performance, and cost targets; (2) product development projects that use 

the knowledge gained from basic or applied research to develop or 

improve commercially viable materials, devices, or systems; (3) 

manufacturing research and development projects to reduce costs and 

enhance quality in solid-state lighting products and to address the 

technical challenges that must be overcome to enable solid-state lighting 

to compete with existing lighting on a first-cost basis; and (4) technology 

application research and development projects to monitor solid-state 

lighting technology advances and provide field and laboratory evaluations 

of emerging products, particularly LED lighting systems that involve 

advanced controls. Technology application research and development 

Solid State Lighting 

Program
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 107 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

projects address broad issues related to technology performance with a 

view that spans the entire industry.

Program activities that support manufacturing:

Financial assistance agreements for research and development: The 

program provides financial assistance for competitive research and 

development to maximize the energy-efficiency of solid-state lighting 

products in the marketplace; remove market barriers by improving 

lifetime, color quality, and lighting system performance; reduce costs of 

solid-state lighting sources and luminaires; improve product consistency 

while maintaining high-quality products; and encourage the growth, 

leadership, and sustainability of domestic U.S. manufacturing within the 

solid-state lighting industry. Applicants seeking assistance must submit a 

manufacturing plan that includes substantial domestic manufacturing.

Email postings: The program disseminates information that focuses on 

solid-state lighting companies manufacturing in the United States, in a 

series called “SSL [solid-state lighting] in America.” This is not intended to 

endorse or promote any of the companies, but rather to describe 

advances in energy-efficient solid-state lighting.

Manufacturing Trends Addressed by the Program

Advanced manufacturing Higher skilled jobs Globalization

X X

Source: GAO analysis of survey data. | GAO-17-240
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 108 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable 

Energy, Solar Energy Technology Office

Funding for the Tech-to-Market Program

Reported 

obligations, in 

millions

Estimated percentage 

of reported obligations 

used to support U.S. 

manufacturing

Fiscal Year 2014 $31 50-75%

Fiscal Year 2015 $42 50-75%

Fiscal Year 2016 $75 Not reporteda

Source: GAO survey of agency officials. | GAO-17-240

a

Agency officials were unable to estimate the percentage used to support manufacturing.

Program Information Reported in Survey

Year program created: 2012

Program category: Innovation, Applied research and development

Program description: The Tech-to-Market program within the Solar 

Energy Technology Office aims to make solar energy more costcompetitive. The program helps move technologies to the market by 

targeting two known funding gaps: (1) those that occur at the prototype 

commercialization stage and (2) those at the commercial scale-up stage. 

The program funds recipients so that they are able achieve technical 

milestones and commercialize the funded technology, while also helping 

them to find follow-on funding and form strategic partnerships.

Program activities that support manufacturing:

Provide funding opportunities: The program provides funding 

opportunities to selected and awarded applicants who are working on 

cutting edge technology within the United States. The recipients must be 

working toward the Sunshot goal and contributing to the latest and 

greatest technologies in the solar industry.

Manufacturing Trends Addressed by the Program

Advanced manufacturing Higher skilled jobs Globalization

X X X

Source: GAO analysis of survey data. | GAO-17-240

Tech-to-Market
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 109 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable 

Energy, Building Technologies Office

Funding for the Windows and Building Envelope Program

Reported 

obligations, in 

millions

Estimated percentage 

of reported obligations 

used to support U.S. 

manufacturing

Fiscal Year 2014 $10 84%

Fiscal Year 2015 $2 0%

Fiscal Year 2016 $31 Not reported

Source: GAO survey of agency officials. | GAO-17-240

Program Information Reported in Survey

Year program created: 1974

Program category: Innovation, Applied research and development

Program description: The Windows and Building Envelope program 

research and development efforts focus on ways to reduce energy 

consumption in buildings by supporting projects that develop energyefficient windows and envelope projects. Program activities address 

technologies like highly insulating materials and systems; methodologies 

and analysis tools to measure and validate building envelope 

performance; and market-enabling efforts, such as creating an 

organization to rate, certify, and label related products to better inform 

consumers.

Program activities that support manufacturing:

Competitively awarded research and development projects: The 

program provides funds to support research and development projects 

that include advanced manufacturing processes for energy-efficient 

window and building envelope components. The sub-program also 

provides earlier stage applied research and development funding for 

technologies that might indirectly impact the U.S. manufacturing sector, 

such as advanced window coatings or advanced insulation materials that 

could be adopted by U.S. manufacturers in the future.

Annual operating plan for Department of Energy national 

laboratories: The program provides direct funding to some national 

laboratories to support the development of physics-based software 

models of building envelope components, including windows, as well as 

facilities used by manufacturers to test the physical properties of building 

Windows and 

Building Envelope
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 110 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

envelope components. The sub-program also supports research and 

development projects at the national laboratories that have indirect impact 

on U.S. manufacturers as they have the potential to be incorporated in 

future manufacturing processes.

Manufacturing Trends Addressed by the Program

Advanced manufacturing Higher skilled jobs Globalization

X

Source: GAO analysis of survey data. | GAO-17-240

Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant 

Secretary for Preparedness and Response

Funding for the Centers for Innovation in Advanced Development and 

Manufacturing Program

Reported 

obligations, in 

millions

Estimated percentage 

of reported obligations 

used to support U.S. 

manufacturing

Fiscal Year 2014 $0 N/A

Fiscal Year 2015 $20 100%

Fiscal Year 2016 $21 100%

Source: GAO survey of agency officials. | GAO-17-240

Program Information Reported in Survey

Year program created: 2012

Program category: Manufacturing public health products

Program description: The Centers for Innovation in Advanced 

Development in Manufacturing is a core service that provides advanced 

development and manufacturing capabilities for developing medical 

countermeasures for emerging infectious diseases; chemical, biological, 

radiological, and nuclear threats; as well as the manufacturing of 

pandemic influenza vaccine doses augmenting the current national 

capacity. The Centers will increase the nation’s preparedness for 

bioterrorism and influenza pandemic by using modern technologies for 

accelerating production, improving quality, and expanding vaccine 

manufacturing capacity. The Centers are comprised of three companies 

that provide advanced development and manufacturing capabilities.

Centers for 

Innovation in 

Advanced 

Development and 

Manufacturing
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 111 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Program activities that support manufacturing:

Funding for manufacturing sites: The program is currently funding the 

establishment and operation of domestic manufacturing sites located in 

Baltimore, MD; Holly Springs, NC; and College Station, TX.

Workforce training and development: Aside from providing core

services for the advanced development and manufacture of biological 

medical countermeasures, this program supports the creation or 

enhancement of specialized workforce training and development 

approaches to reestablish the U.S.-based expertise necessary for 

developing and producing chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear 

medical countermeasures. These approaches are intended to develop a 

highly-skilled biotechnology and pharmaceutical workforce proficient in 

bioprocess engineering, production, quality systems, and regulatory 

affairs.

Manufacturing Trends Addressed by the Program

Advanced manufacturing Higher skilled jobs Globalization

X X X

Source: GAO analysis of survey data. | GAO-17-240

Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant 

Secretary for Preparedness and Response

Funding for the Fill Finish Manufacturing Network Program

Reported 

obligations, in 

millions

Estimated percentage 

of reported obligations 

used to support U.S. 

manufacturing

Fiscal Year 2014 $0 N/A

Fiscal Year 2015 $13 100%

Fiscal Year 2016 $0.4 50-100%a

Source: GAO survey of agency officials. | GAO-17-240

a

According to agency officials, as of December 2016, half of the 2016 obligations may be disbursed 

in the future to non-US manufacturing contractors, dependent on task orders awarded in the next 5 

years, though all 100 percent could support U.S. manufacturing.

Fill Finish 

Manufacturing 

Network
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 112 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Program Information Reported in Survey

Year program created: 2013

Program category: Manufacturing public health products

Program description: The Fill Finish Manufacturing Network provides 

packaging support for medical countermeasure distribution. The program 

is comprised of four companies that are industry experts in the area of 

filling and finishing bulk products into sterile vials, syringes, and 

cartridges. They also complete the kitting, labeling, and packaging 

services as needed. These four companies maintain commercial clients 

and perform these services on a routine basis. As members of the 

network, they can respond to U.S. government funded project needs 

where a product developer does not have these capabilities in-house.

Program activities that support manufacturing:

Domestic manufacturing capacity: The four providers of the biological 

fill and finish manufacturing services maintain a significant domestic 

capacity. Facilities exist in Alachua, FL; Bloomington, IN; Rochester, MI; 

and Greenville, NC.

Addressing critical sterile drug shortage concerns: In collaboration 

with the Food and Drug Administration, the Department of Health and 

Human Services has engaged contractors in the Fill Finish Manufacturing 

Network to manufacture and transfer specific sterile drug products found 

on the drug shortage list. The intent is to train the network to perform an 

effective and efficient manufacturing technical transfer for any sterile drug 

product, along with all the quality and regulatory administration tasks that 

would be required in a public health emergency. This pilot program has 

the added benefit of potentially alleviating sterile drug shortage concerns 

by increasing domestic capacity.

Manufacturing Trends Addressed by the Program

Advanced manufacturing Higher skilled jobs Globalization

X X X

Source: GAO analysis of survey data. | GAO-17-240
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 113 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Department of Health and Human Services, National Institute for 

Occupational Safety and Health

Funding for the National Occupational Research Agenda Manufacturing Sector 

Program

Reported 

obligations, in 

millions

Estimated percentage 

of reported obligations 

used to support U.S. 

manufacturing

Fiscal Year 2014 $291 11%

Fiscal Year 2015 $297 10%

Fiscal Year 2016 $301 9%

Source: GAO survey of agency officials. | GAO-17-240

Program Information Reported in Survey

Year program created: 2006

Program category: Innovation, Applied research and development

Program description: The mission of the program is to eliminate 

occupational injuries, illnesses, hazardous exposures, and fatalities 

among individuals working in manufacturing through a focused program 

of research, intervention, and prevention. Program officials also co-chair 

the Manufacturing Sector Council, which has representatives from 

academia, trade/professional organizations, industry, insurers, unions, 

and government. This Council is charged with maximizing the impact of 

occupational safety and health research through partnerships and to 

promote widespread adoption of improved workplace safety and health 

practices based on research findings.

Program activities that support manufacturing:

Research: The program helps generate new knowledge on occupational 

safety and health through an intramural/research program; develop 

innovative solutions for difficult-to-solve problems in high-risk industrial 

sectors; and track work-related hazards, exposures, illnesses and injuries 

for prevention.

Provide grants: The program provides grants to extramural investigators 

to conduct research on occupational safety and health. These 

investigators generate new knowledge and test the efficacy of innovative 

solutions.

Training: The program builds capacity to address traditional and 

emerging hazards through training.

National Occupational 

Research Agenda 

Manufacturing Sector
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 114 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Information dissemination: The program delivers occupational safety 

and health communication to inform decisions towards safe work 

practices and to improve workplace safety and health.

Manufacturing Trends Addressed by the Program

Advanced manufacturing Higher skilled jobs Globalization

X

Source: GAO analysis of survey data. | GAO-17-240

Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration

Funding for the H-1B Jobs Training Grants Program

Reported 

obligations, in 

millions

Estimated percentage 

of reported obligations 

used to support U.S. 

manufacturing

Fiscal Year 2014 $117 33%

Fiscal Year 2015 $250 62%

Fiscal Year 2016 $380 59%a

Source: GAO survey of agency officials. | GAO-17-240

a

This is the reported percentage of grant project funds awarded in FY 2016 that supported training in 

advanced manufacturing.

Program Information Reported in Survey

Year program created: 1998

Program category: Training, Enhancing job seekers’ skills

Program description: The H-1B Job Training Grant Program funds 

projects that provide training and related activities to assist workers in 

gaining the skills and competencies needed to obtain or upgrade 

employment in high-growth industries or economic sectors. Over time, 

these education and training programs will help businesses reduce their 

use of skilled foreign professionals permitted to work in the U.S. on a 

temporary basis under the H-1B visa program.

H-1B Jobs Training 

Grants
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 115 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Program activities that support manufacturing:

Funding training through grants: The program competitively awards 

grants to public and private partnerships to provide training and related 

services that support employment in high-growth and economic sectors 

that currently use H-1B visas to employ foreign workers, many of which

are manufacturing occupations.

Manufacturing Trends Addressed by the Program

Advanced manufacturing Higher skilled jobs Globalization

X X X

Source: GAO analysis of survey data. | GAO-17-240

Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration

Funding for the Registered Apprenticeship Program

Reported 

obligations, in 

millions

Estimated percentage of 

reported obligations used 

to support U.S. 

manufacturing

Fiscal Year 2014 $31 10-20%

Fiscal Year 2015 $34 10-20%

Fiscal Year 2016 $124 20%

Source: GAO survey of agency officials. | GAO-17-240

Program Information Reported in Survey

Year program created: 1937

Program category: Training, Enhancing job seekers’ skills

Program description: The Registered Apprenticeship program prepares 

American workers to compete in a global 21st Century economy. 

Registered Apprenticeship has already trained millions of U.S. workers 

through a network of 21,000 Registered Apprenticeship programs across 

the nation, consisting of over 150,000 employers.

Program activities that support manufacturing:

Training/technical assistance: The Department of Labor’s (DOL) Office 

of Apprenticeship works in conjunction with independent State 

Apprenticeship Agencies to administer the program nationally. These 

state agencies are responsible for registering apprenticeship programs 

Registered 

Apprenticeship 

Program
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 116 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

that meet federal and state standards, protecting the safety and welfare of 

apprentices, issuing nationally recognized and portable Certificates of 

Completion to apprentices, promoting the development of new programs 

through marketing and technical assistance, assuring that all programs 

provide high quality training and produce skilled and competent workers.

Industry grants: The program awards grants as part of a broader 

commitment to create more opportunities by advancing job-driven training 

initiatives that help workers acquire the skills to succeed in currently 

available jobs. Under the American Apprenticeship Initiative Grant, 46 

grantees have committed to expanding apprenticeship programs in new 

and growing industries, to align apprenticeships with further education 

and career advancement, and to expand the use of proven 

apprenticeship models that work.

Manufacturing Trends Addressed By the Program

Advanced manufacturing Higher skilled jobs Globalization

X X

Source: GAO analysis of survey data. | GAO-17-240

Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration

Funding for the Trade Adjustment Assistance Program

Reported 

obligations, in 

millions

Estimated percentage 

of reported obligations 

used to support U.S. 

manufacturinga

Fiscal Year 2014 $604 N/A

Fiscal Year 2015 $507 N/A

Fiscal Year 2016 $802 N/A

Source: GAO survey of agency officials. | GAO-17-240

a

According to the Department of Labor, it does not track obligations exclusively for manufacturing 

workers served by the Trade Adjustment Assistance program.

Program Information Reported in Survey

Year program created: 1974

Program category: Training, Supporting workers who have been laid off 

from their job in manufacturing

Trade Adjustment 

Assistance
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 117 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Program description: DOL’s Trade Adjustment Assistance program funds 

employment and training services to manufacturing and other eligible 

workers who lose their jobs as a result of the impact of global trade.

Program activities that support manufacturing:

Employment and case management services: Program participants 

receive employment and case management services, which include: (1) 

comprehensive assessments of skill levels and service needs; (2) 

development of an individual employment plan to identify employment 

goals and objectives; (3) information on available training and counseling, 

and how to apply for financial aid; (4) short-term prevocational services 

such as development of learning skills, communications skills, 

interviewing skills, among others; (5) individual career counseling; (6) 

provision of labor market information; (7) job referral and placement; and 

(8) information relating to the availability of supportive services.

Training that includes tuition-based courses or work-based learning: 

The program provides training, such as classroom training; on the-job 

training; customized training designed to meet the needs of a specific 

employer or group of employers; apprenticeship programs; postsecondary education; prerequisite education or coursework and remedial 

education, which may include General Equivalency Diploma preparation; 

literacy training; basic math; or English as a Second Language.

Relocation allowances and job search allowances: The program 

provides participants job search and relocation allowance 

reimbursements when seeking a job outside of the worker’s commuting 

area or moving to a job that earns family-sustaining wages. 

Trade readjustment allowances: Upon exhaustion of Unemployment 

Insurance benefits, program participants may be eligible to receive trade 

readjustment allowances that provide income support while participating 

in full-time training. 

Reemployment trade adjustment assistance: Reemployment trade 

adjustment assistance provides wage supplements to reemployed 

program participants age 50 or older who do not earn more than $50,000 

annually in their new employment. A qualified participant receives a wage 

supplement consisting of a portion of the difference between a worker’s 

new wage and their old wage when they accept new employment at a 

lower wage than their previous employment.

Trade adjustment assistance program-related state administration 

funds: The program provides funds to cover related administration costs 

the state would incur in the provision of the program’s benefits and 

services to trade-affected workers.
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 118 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Manufacturing Trends Addressed by the Program

Advanced manufacturing Higher skilled jobs Globalization

X X X

Source: GAO analysis of survey data. | GAO-17-240

Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration

Funding for the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career 

Training Grant Program

Reported 

obligations, in 

millions

Estimated percentage 

of reported obligations 

used to support U.S. 

manufacturing

Fiscal Year 2014 $464 47-51%

Fiscal Year 2015 $0a N/A

Fiscal Year 2016 $0a N/A

Source: GAO survey of agency officials. | GAO-17-240

a

There were no funds reported obligated in fiscal years 2015 and 2016, but the program continues to 

monitor existing grants.

Program Information Reported in Survey

Year program created: 2009

Program category: Training, Enhancing job seekers’ skills

Program description: The Trade Adjustment Assistance Community 

College and Career Training Grant program provides community colleges 

and other eligible institutions of higher education with funds to expand 

and improve their ability to deliver education and career training programs 

that can be completed in 2 years or less; are suited for workers who are 

eligible for training under the Trade Adjustment Assistance for Workers 

program; and prepare program participants for employment in high-wage, 

high-skill occupations. These multi-year grants help ensure that 

institutions of higher education are helping adults succeed in acquiring 

the skills, degrees, and credentials needed for high-wage, high-skill 

employment while also meeting the needs of employers for skilled 

workers. DOL implements the program in partnership with the 

Department of Education.

Program activities that support manufacturing:

Trade Adjustment 

Assistance 

Community College 

and Career 

Training Grant
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 119 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Workforce training related to manufacturing jobs: Grantees’ capacitybuilding activities may include developing or enhancing programs of study 

that lead to industry-recognized credentials, purchasing approved training 

equipment, or renovating classroom or lab space to support training 

programs.

Information-sharing: The program makes all curriculum developed with 

program grant funds available as open educational resources using a 

creative commons copyright, and the curriculum is uploaded to the 

program’s repository. This allows nonfunded training providers to further 

adapt and reuse grant-funded curriculum. 

Providing training to trade-eligible workers and other unemployed or 

under-employed adults: According to program officials, program 

grantees are required to provide training to participants during their grant 

period of performance and to track certain performance metrics for those 

participants, and the training must lead to stackable credentials that are 

also industry-recognized, such as a certificate or associate’s degree.

Strengthening relationships between manufacturing employers and 

community colleges: Grants support strengthening relationships 

between community colleges and manufacturing employers. Grantees 

engage employers in the manufacturing sector to create or strengthen 

programs of study through the design of curriculum and credentials; 

delivery of training; provision of internships and other work-based learning 

opportunities; contributions of equipment, facility, faculty, mentors; and 

hiring graduates of the training programs.

Manufacturing Trends Addressed by the Program

Advanced manufacturing Higher skilled jobs Globalization

X X X

Source: GAO analysis of survey data. | GAO-17-240
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 120 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Environmental Protection Agency

Funding for the E3 - Economy, Energy and Environment Program

Reported 

obligations, in 

millions

Estimated percentage 

of reported obligations 

used to support U.S. 

manufacturing

Fiscal Year 2014 $5 45%

Fiscal Year 2015 $4 27%

Fiscal Year 2016 $3 25%

Source: GAO survey of agency officials. | GAO-17-240

Program Information Reported in Survey

Year program created: 2009

Program category: Innovation, Applied research and development

Program description: The E3 - Economy, Energy and Environment 

program is a federal technical assistance framework comprising six 

federal agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 

to provide support to small and medium-sized manufacturers. The 

program’s mission is to help communities, manufacturers, and 

manufacturing supply chains adapt and thrive in today’s green economy. 

In providing technical assistance, the program connects agencies and 

organizations in local communities and small and medium-sized 

manufacturers with experts from federal agencies, states, and regions.

Program activities that support manufacturing:

Technical assistance: EPA, in concert with five other federal agencies, 

provides technical reviews of manufacturing processes at small and 

medium-sized manufacturers and provides customized assessments 

detailing how participating manufacturers can incorporate practical 

sustainability approaches. The program’s assessments aim to reduce 

energy consumption, minimize carbon footprints, prevent pollution, 

increase productivity, and drive innovation.

Manufacturing Trends Addressed by the Program

E3 has not directly engaged with advanced manufacturing work because 

the program is primarily targeted toward smaller manufacturers for whom 

a lack of environmental and lean manufacturing knowledge is an 

impediment to improving their operations. Some of these companies may 

supply other companies in the advanced manufacturing sphere. Agency

E3 - Economy, 

Energy and 

Environment
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 121 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

officials at DOL, who also support E3, may be engaged in enhancing 

workforce skills, but EPA is primarily concerned with improvements to 

manufacturing processes themselves.

Export-Import Bank

Funding for the Export-Import Bank of the United States

Reported 

obligations, in 

millionsa

Estimated percentage 

of reported obligations 

used to support U.S. 

manufacturing

Fiscal Year 2014 $108 81%

Fiscal Year 2015 $107 83%

Fiscal Year 2016 $106 51%

Source: GAO survey of agency officials. | GAO-17-240

a

These amounts represent the amounts obligated by the Export-Import Bank for administrative costs, 

which according to the Bank were paid by the fees charged to the foreign buyers of U.S. exports.

Program Information Reported in Survey

Year program created: 1945

Program category: Trade, Financial support

Program description: The Export-Import Bank of the United States is the 

official export credit agency of the United States. The Bank is an 

independent, self-sustaining (for budgetary purposes) federal agency that 

exists to support the export of U.S. goods and services, and thereby 

American jobs. The Bank’s charter states that it should not compete with 

the private sector. Rather, the Export-Import Bank’s role is to assume the 

credit and country risks that the private sector is unable or unwilling to 

accept, while still maintaining a reasonable assurance of repayment. In 

fiscal year 2015, the Export-Import Bank authorized 2,630 transactions 

supporting an estimated $17 billion in U.S. exports.

Program activities that support manufacturing:

Loans: Under this program, the Export-Import Bank provides fixed-rate 

loans directly to foreign buyers of goods and services.

Loan guarantees (including Working Capital Guarantees): These 

programs provide guarantees to commercial lenders to cover repayment 

risks on foreign buyer’s debt obligations incurred to purchase U.S. 

exports. As described by program officials, under Working Capital 

Export-Import Bank of 

the United States
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 122 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Guarantees, the Export-Import Bank provides repayment guarantees to 

lenders on secured, short-term working capital loans made to qualified 

exporters.

Export credit insurance: The Bank explained that export credit 

insurance supports U.S. exporters selling goods overseas by protecting 

the businesses against the risk of foreign buyer or other foreign debtor 

default for political or commercial reasons. This risk protection permits 

exporters to extend credit to their international customers where 

otherwise not possible, according to program officials.

Manufacturing Trends Addressed by the Program

The Export-Import Bank does not directly address manufacturing trends.

National Science Foundation, Division of Undergraduate Education

Funding for the Advanced Technological Education Program

Reported 

obligations, in 

millions

Estimated percentage of 

reported obligations used 

to support U.S. 

manufacturing

Fiscal Year 2014 $64 25.4%

Fiscal Year 2015 $65 26.3%

Fiscal Year 2016 $66 28.2%

Source: GAO survey of agency officials. | GAO-17-240

Program Information Reported in Survey

Year program created: 1993

Program category: Training, Enhancing job seekers’ skills

Program description: With an emphasis on 2-year colleges, the Advanced 

Technological Education program focuses on the education of technicians 

for the high-technology fields that drive our nation’s economy. The 

program involves partnerships between academic institutions and 

industry to promote improvement in the education of science and 

engineering technicians at the undergraduate and secondary school 

levels. The program supports curriculum-development, professional 

development of college faculty and secondary school teachers, career 

pathways to 2-year colleges from secondary schools and from 2-year 

colleges to 4-year institutions, and other activities. Another goal is 

articulation between 2-year and 4-year programs for K-12 prospective 

Advanced 

Technological 

Education Program
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 123 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

science, technology, engineering, and mathematics teachers that focus 

on technological education. The program invites research proposals that 

advance the knowledge base related to technician education.

Program activities that support manufacturing:

Providing grants: The program provides grants for technician education 

at 2-year-degree granting institutions in many science, technology, 

engineering, and mathematics technology fields, including advanced 

manufacturing.

Support for other federal initiatives: The program supports the 

Advanced Technological Education Program support for manufacturing 

institutes and Investing in Manufacturing Communities Partnerships

Manufacturing Trends Addressed by the Program

Advanced manufacturing Higher skilled jobs Globalization

X X

Source: GAO analysis of survey data. | GAO-17-240

National Science Foundation, Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, 

Environmental, and Transport Systems

Funding for the Biotechnology and Biochemical Engineering Program

Reported 

obligations, in 

millions

Estimated percentage 

of reported obligations 

used to support U.S. 

manufacturing

Fiscal Year 2014 $13 76-100%

Fiscal Year 2015 $14 76-100%

Fiscal Year 2016 $5a 76-100%

Source: GAO survey of agency officials. | GAO-17-240

a

This amount is the reported obligations as of March 10, 2016.

Program Information Reported in Survey

Year program created: mid 1980s

Program category: Innovation, Basic research and development

Program description: The Biotechnology and Biochemical Engineering 

program supports fundamental engineering research that advances the 

understanding of cellular and biomolecular processes. This research 

Biotechnology and 

Biochemical 

Engineering
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 124 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

eventually leads to the development of enabling technology for advanced 

manufacturing and/or applications in support of the biopharmaceutical, 

biotechnology, and bioenergy industries, or with applications in health or 

for the environment. A quantitative treatment of biological and 

engineering problems of biological processes is considered vital to 

successful research projects in the program. The program encourages 

highly innovative and potentially transformative engineering research, 

which may lead to novel bioprocessing and manufacturing approaches 

and proposals that address emerging research areas and technologies 

that effectively integrate knowledge and practices from different 

disciplines while incorporating ongoing research into educational 

activities.

Program activities that support manufacturing:

Providing grants: The grants enable fundamental research toward 

developing new manufacturing technologies based on engineering 

biology.

Manufacturing Trends Addressed by the Program

Advanced manufacturing Higher skilled jobs Globalization

X

Source: GAO analysis of survey data. | GAO-17-240

National Science Foundation, Division of Civil, Mechanical, and 

Manufacturing Innovation

Funding for the Design of Engineering Materials Systems Program

Reported 

obligations, in 

millions

Estimated percentage 

of reported obligations 

used to support U.S. 

manufacturing

Fiscal Year 2014 $1 100%

Fiscal Year 2015 $3 100%

Fiscal Year 2016 $2 100%

Source: GAO survey of agency officials. | GAO-17-240

Design of 

Engineering Materials 

Systems
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 125 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Program Information Reported in Survey

Year program created: 2012

Program category: Innovation, Basic research and development

Program description: The Design of Engineering Material Systems 

program supports fundamental research intended to lead to new 

paradigms of design, development, and insertion of advanced 

engineering material systems. For the purposes of this program, 

fundamental research includes research that develops and creatively 

integrates theory, processing/manufacturing, data/informatics, 

experimental, and/or computational approaches with rigorous engineering 

design principles, approaches, and tools to inform the accelerated design 

and development of materials. The program seeks research proposals 

that strive to develop systematic scientific methodologies to tailor the 

behavior of material systems in ways that are driven by performance 

metrics and incorporate processing/manufacturing. Ultimately it is 

expected that research outcomes will be methodologies to enable the 

discovery of materials systems with new properties and behavior and to 

also enable their rapid insertion into engineering systems.

Program activities that support manufacturing:

Providing grants: The grants support fundamental research in 

engineering and science. Awards may include research that leads to 

advanced engineering materials systems for manufacturing.

Manufacturing Trends Addressed by the Program

Advanced manufacturing Higher skilled jobs Globalization

X

Source: GAO analysis of survey data. | GAO-17-240
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 126 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

National Science Foundation, Division of Civil, Mechanical and 

Manufacturing Innovation

Funding for the Engineering and Systems Design Program

Reported 

obligations, in 

millions

Estimated percentage 

of reported obligations 

used to support U.S. 

manufacturing

Fiscal Year 2014 $6 50%

Fiscal Year 2015 $6 50%

Fiscal Year 2016 $5 50%

Source: GAO survey of agency officials. | GAO-17-240

Program Information Reported in Survey

Year program created: 1982 

Program category: Innovation, Basic research and development

Program description: The Engineering and Systems Design program 

supports fundamental research ultimately leading to new engineering and 

systems design methods and practices for specific global contexts. In 

particular, the program seeks intellectual advances in which the 

theoretical foundations underlying design and systems engineering are 

operationalized into rigorous and pragmatic methods for a specific 

context. In addition, the program funds the rigorous theoretical and 

empirical characterization of new or existing methods for design and 

systems engineering, identifying which global contexts and under which 

assumptions these methods are effective and efficient. Research in 

engineering and systems design should advance the state of knowledge 

of design methodology by adapting existing methods to a new context or 

by carefully characterizing existing or new design methods in a new 

context.

Program activities that support manufacturing:

Providing grants: The grants support fundamental research in 

engineering and science. Awards may include research that ultimately 

leads to new engineering and systems design methods and practices for 

manufacturing.

Engineering and 

Systems Design
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 127 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Manufacturing Trends Addressed by the Program

Advanced manufacturing Higher skilled jobs Globalization

X

Source: GAO analysis of survey data. | GAO-17-240

National Science Foundation

Funding for the Industry/University Cooperative Research Centers Program

Reported 

obligations, in 

millions

Estimated percentage 

of reported obligations 

used to support U.S. 

manufacturing

Fiscal Year 2014 $5 25%

Fiscal Year 2015 $9 44%

Fiscal Year 2016 $3 18%

Source: GAO survey of agency officials. | GAO-17-240

Program Information Reported in Survey

Year program created: 1973

Program category: Innovation, Applied research and development

Program description: The Industry/University Cooperative Research 

Centers program develops long-term partnerships among industry, 

academe, and government. The centers are catalyzed by a small 

investment from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and are primarily 

supported by industry center members, with NSF taking a supporting role 

in the development and evolution of the center. Each center is 

established to conduct research that is of interest to both the industry 

members and the center faculty. The program contributes to the nation’s 

research infrastructure base and enhances the intellectual capacity of the 

engineering and science workforce through the integration of research 

and education.

Program activities that support manufacturing:

Providing grants: The program enables partnership between academia 

and industries to carry out pre-competitive research benefiting multiple 

industrial sectors, including manufacturing.

Industry/University 

Cooperative 

Research Centers 

Program
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 128 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Training: The program helps train students and other researchers in 

industrially relevant research and prepares them as the workforce for U.S. 

industries, including manufacturing.

Manufacturing Trends Addressed by the Program

Advanced manufacturing Higher skilled jobs Globalization

X X X

Source: GAO analysis of survey data. | GAO-17-240

National Science Foundation, Division of Civil, Mechanical, and 

Manufacturing Innovation

Funding for the Manufacturing Machines and Equipment Program

Reported 

obligations, in 

millions

Estimated percentage 

of reported obligations 

used to support U.S. 

manufacturing

Fiscal Year 2014 $10 100%

Fiscal Year 2015 $10 100%

Fiscal Year 2016 $9 100%

Source: GAO survey of agency officials. | GAO-17-240

Program Information Reported in Survey

Year program created: 1983

Program category: Innovation, Basic research and development

Program description: The Manufacturing Machines and Equipment 

program supports fundamental research that informs the development of 

new and/or improved manufacturing machines and equipment—and 

optimization of their use—with a particular focus on equipment 

appropriate for the manufacture of mechanical and electromechanical 

devices, products, and systems featuring scales from microns to meters. 

The program promotes proposals that relate to the manufacturing of 

equipment and facilities that enable the production of energy products. 

Other areas of research interest include a wide range of manufacturing 

operations, including both subtractive and additive processes, forming, 

bonding/joining, and laser processing.

Manufacturing 

Machines and 

Equipment

Program Evaluations That Assessed Any 

Impact on the U.S. Manufacturing Sector

• Weber, C. (2013). The Role of the 

National Science Foundation in the 

Origin and Evolution of Additive 

Manufacturing in the United States. 

Institute for Defense Analyses Science 

and Technology Policy Institute.

Source: GAO survey of agency officials. Ɩ GAO-17-240
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 129 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Program activities that support manufacturing:

Providing grants: The grants support fundamental research in 

engineering and science. Awards may include research that leads to new 

manufacturing machines and equipment.

Manufacturing Trends Addressed by the Program

Advanced manufacturing Higher skilled jobs Globalization

X

Source: GAO analysis of survey data. | GAO-17-240

National Science Foundation, Division of Civil, Mechanical and 

Manufacturing Innovation

Funding for the Materials Engineering and Processing Program

Reported 

obligations, in 

millions

Estimated percentage 

of reported obligations 

used to support U.S. 

manufacturing

Fiscal Year 2014 $17 100%

Fiscal Year 2015 $20 100%

Fiscal Year 2016 $19 100%

Source: GAO survey of agency officials. | GAO-17-240

Program Information Reported in Survey

Year program created: 2013

Program category: Innovation, Basic research and development

Program description: The Materials Engineering and Processing program 

supports fundamental research addressing the processing and 

mechanical performance of engineering materials by investigating the 

interrelationship of materials processing, structure, properties and/or lifecycle performance for targeted applications. As part of its mission, the 

program focuses on manufacturing processes that convert material into 

useful forms as either intermediate or final composition. These include 

processes such as extrusion, molding, casting, deposition, sintering and 

printing.

Materials Engineering 

and Processing
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 130 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Program activities that support manufacturing:

Providing grants: The grants support fundamental research in 

engineering and science. Awards may include research that ultimately 

leads to advanced engineering materials processing and performance for 

manufacturing.

Manufacturing Trends Addressed by the Program

Advanced manufacturing Higher skilled jobs Globalization

X

Source: GAO analysis of survey data. | GAO-17-240

National Science Foundation, Division of Civil, Mechanical, and 

Manufacturing Innovation

Funding for the Nanomanufacturing Program

Reported 

obligations, in 

millions

Estimated percentage 

of reported obligations 

used to support U.S. 

manufacturing

Fiscal Year 2014 $8 100%

Fiscal Year 2015 $9 100%

Fiscal Year 2016 $8 100%

Source: GAO survey of agency officials. | GAO-17-240

Program Information Reported in Survey

Year program created: 2001

Program category: Innovation, Basic research and development

Program description: The Nanomanufacturing program seeks to explore 

transformative approaches to nanomanufacturing. Nanomanufacturing is 

the production of useful nano-scale materials, structures, devices, and 

systems in an economically viable manner. The approaches supported by 

this program include, but are not limited to: micro-reactor and microfluidics enabled nanosynthesis, bio-inspired nanomanufacturing, 

manufacturing by nanomachines, additive nanomanufacturing, 

hierarchical nanostructure assembly, continuous high-rate 

nanofabrication, and modular manufacturing platforms for nanosystems. 

The program encourages the fabrication of nanomaterials by design, 

three-dimensional nanostructures, multi-layer nanodevices, and multiNanomanufacturing
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 131 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

material and multi-functional nanosystems. Also of interest is the 

manufacture of dynamic nanosystems, such as nanomotors, nanorobots, 

and nanomachines, and enabling advances in transport and diffusion 

mechanisms at the nano-scale.

Program activities that support manufacturing:

Providing grants: The grants support fundamental research in 

engineering and science. Awards may include research that leads to the 

manufacture of useful nano-scale materials, structures, devices, and 

systems.

Manufacturing Trends Addressed by the Program

Advanced manufacturing Higher skilled jobs Globalization

X

Source: GAO analysis of survey data. | GAO-17-240

National Science Foundation

Funding for the National Robotics Initiative

Reported 

obligations, in 

millions

Estimated percentage 

of reported obligations 

used to support U.S. 

manufacturing

Fiscal Year 2014 $32 48%

Fiscal Year 2015 $31 50%

Fiscal Year 2016 Not reported N/A

Source: GAO survey of agency officials. | GAO-17-240

Program Information Reported in Survey

Year program created: 2011

Program category: Innovation, Basic research and development

Program description: The goal of the National Robotics Initiative is to 

accelerate the development and use of robots in the United States that 

work beside or cooperatively with people. Innovative robotics research 

and applications emphasizing the realization of such co-robots working in 

symbiotic relationships with human partners is supported by multiple 

agencies of the federal government including NSF. The purpose of this 

program is the development of this next generation of robotics, to 

National Robotics 

Initiative
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 132 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

advance the capability and usability of such systems and artifacts, and to 

encourage existing and new communities to focus on innovative 

application areas. It will address the entire life cycle from fundamental 

research and development to manufacturing and deployment.

Program activities that support manufacturing:

Providing grants: The program supports basic research in co-robots 

(robots that work with, or help, people). Much of the research is 

applicable to manufacturing; some of it is specifically aimed at improving 

the ability of robots to aid in manufacturing processes.

Manufacturing Trends Addressed by the Program

Advanced manufacturing Higher skilled jobs Globalization

X

Source: GAO analysis of survey data. | GAO-17-240

National Science Foundation, Division of Civil, Mechanical, and 

Manufacturing Innovation

Funding for the Service, Manufacturing, and Operations Research Program

Reported 

obligations, in 

millions

Estimated percentage 

of reported obligations 

used to support U.S. 

manufacturing

Fiscal Year 2014 Not reported N/A

Fiscal Year 2015 $14 20%

Fiscal Year 2016 $15 25%

Source: GAO survey of agency officials. | GAO-17-240

Program Information Reported in Survey

Year program created: 2014

Program category: Innovation, Basic research and development

Program description: The Service, Manufacturing, and Operations 

Research program supports fundamental research leading to the creation 

of innovative mathematical models, analysis, and algorithms for decisionmaking related to design, planning, and operation of service, 

manufacturing, and other complex systems. Specifically, the program 

supports two main types of research: (1) innovations in general-purpose 

Service, 

Manufacturing, and 

Operations Research
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 133 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

methodology related to optimization, stochastic modeling, and decision 

and game theory; and (2) research grounded in relevant applications that 

require the development of novel and customized analytical and 

computational methodologies. Application areas of interest include supply 

chains and logistics; risk management; healthcare; environment; energy 

production and distribution; mechanism design and incentives; production 

planning, maintenance, process monitoring, and quality control; and 

national security. Of particular interest are methods that incorporate 

increasingly rich and diverse sources of data to support decision-making.

Program activities that support manufacturing:

Providing grants: The grants support fundamental research in 

engineering and science. Awards may include research that leads to 

advances in modeling and optimization for manufacturing.

Manufacturing Trends Addressed by the Program

Advanced manufacturing Higher skilled jobs Globalization

X

Source: GAO analysis of survey data. | GAO-17-240

Small Business Administration, Office of Capital Access

Program Funding: Not reported.

Program Information Reported in Survey

Year program created: 1953

Program category: General financing

Program description: The 7(a) loan program is the largest of the Small 

Business Administration’s (SBA) business loan programs. The mission is 

to assist small businesses in obtaining financing when they do not qualify 

for conventional credit by providing the credit enhancement of a federal 

guaranty. Loan guarantees can help underserved businesses that 

traditionally have trouble accessing capital through conventional credit 

markets. SBA loan guarantees are flexible enabling small businesses to 

obtain financing of up to $5 million for various business uses, with loan 

maturities up to 25 years depending on the type of assets being financed. 

SBA guarantees a portion of 7(a) loans made and administered by private 

7(a) loan program
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 134 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

sector commercial lending institutions. Loans can be guaranteed for most 

legitimate general business purposes to businesses classified as small.

Program activities that support manufacturing:

Loans: The 7(a) program provides loan guarantees to small 

manufacturers. Loans can be made to start-up or existing manufacturers 

for many legitimate costs related to the opening, operations, and 

expansion of independent small manufacturing companies.

Manufacturing Trends Addressed by the Program

Advanced manufacturing Higher skilled jobs Globalization

X X

Source: GAO analysis of survey data. | GAO-17-240

Small Business Administration, Office of Capital Access

Program Funding: Not reported.

Program Information Reported in Survey

Year program created: 1958

Program category: General financing

Program description: The 504 loan program is SBA’s premier economic 

development program, providing “brick and mortar” and/or major 

equipment financing. The program has particular features, such as a 

statutorily-mandated job creation component, a community development 

goal, or a public policy goal achievement component, that help the 

agency facilitate job creation and enable the establishment and viability of 

small businesses.

Program activities that support manufacturing:

Loans: Fixed-rate, long-term financing for land, building, and equipment.

Certified 

Development 

Company (CDC)/504 

loan program
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 135 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Manufacturing Trends Addressed by the Program

The Certified Development Company (CDC)/504 Loan Program provides 

financing for major fixed assets, such as equipment or real estate for the 

purpose of job creation/retention without regard to manufacturing trends 

in any one industry group. Loan proceeds used for the acquisition of 

equipment could result in addressing manufacturing trends. However, 

SBA does not track the types of equipment purchased.

Small Business Administration, Office of Investment and Innovation

Funding for the Small Business Innovation Research Program

Reported 

obligations, in 

millionsa

Estimated percentage 

of reported obligations 

used to support U.S. 

manufacturing

Fiscal Year 2014 $2,276 12%

Fiscal Year 2015 $2,253 13%

Fiscal Year 2016 Not reportedb N/A

Source: GAO survey of agency officials. | GAO-17-240

a

These numbers are the amounts reported obligated by federal agencies for the Small Business 

Innovation Research program. SBA did not obligate these funds. For more information, see GAO, 

Small Business Research Programs: Agencies Have Improved Compliance with Spending and 

Reporting Requirements, but Challenges Remain, GAO-16-492 (Washington, D.C.: May 26, 2016).

b

According to SBA, these data are not yet available.

Program Information Reported in Survey

Year program created: 1982

Program category: Innovation, Applied research and development

Program description: SBA establishes the policy guidance for the Small 

Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. The federal agencies that 

participate in the program must obligate a minimum percentage of 

extramural research and development funds for awards to small 

businesses. Funding from the participating agencies helps drive small 

research and development companies to innovate, strengthen U.S. 

competitiveness, and create jobs. The program helps small businesses 

develop innovations to meet the research and development needs of the 

federal government and then commercialize those innovations in the 

marketplace.

Small Business 

Innovation Research
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 136 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Program activities that support manufacturing:

Providing grants and contracts: Eleven federal agencies participate in 

the program by funding research and development in the manufacturing 

space.

Implement Executive Order 13329: According to agency officials, 

Executive Order 13329 requires SBIR/Small Business Technology 

Transfer (STTR) agencies to give high priority to manufacturing-related 

research and development and it further states that the federal 

government has an important role in advancing innovation, including 

innovation in the manufacturing sector, through small businesses. 

According to agency officials, the program Policy Directive states that 

participating agencies must, to the extent permitted by law, and in a 

manner consistent with the mission of that agency and the purpose of the 

SBIR program, give priority in the SBIR program to manufacturing-related 

research and development in accordance with Executive Order 13329. 

SBA collects information, as part of the annual reports submitted by 

participating agencies, regarding agency efforts to advance 

manufacturing through the programs.

Manufacturing Trends Addressed by the Program

Advanced manufacturing Higher skilled jobs Globalization

X X X

Source: GAO analysis of survey data. | GAO-17-240

Small Business Administration, Office of Investment and Innovation

Funding for the Small Business Technology Transfer Program

Reported 

obligations, in 

millionsa

Estimated percentage 

of reported obligations 

used to support U.S. 

manufacturing

Fiscal Year 2014 $231 20%

Fiscal Year 2015 $296 13%

Fiscal Year 2016 Not reportedb N/A

Source: GAO survey of agency officials. | GAO-17-240

a

These numbers are the amounts reported obligated by participating federal agencies. SBA did not 

obligate these funds.

b

According to SBA, these data are not yet available.

Small Business 

Technology Transfer
Appendix II: Additional Information Reported 

by Programs We Identified That Support U.S. 

Manufacturing

Page 137 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Program Information Reported in Survey

Year program created: 1992

Program category: Innovation, Applied research and development

Program description: SBA establishes the policy guidance for the STTR 

program. The federal agencies that participate in the program must 

obligate a minimum percentage of extramural research and development 

funds for awards to small businesses. The purpose of the program is to 

stimulate a partnership of ideas and technologies between innovative 

small business concerns and research institutions through federally 

funded research and development. By providing awards to small business 

concerns for cooperative research and development efforts with research 

institutions, the program assists the small business and research 

communities by commercializing innovative technology. Central to the 

program is expansion of the public/private sector partnership to include 

joint venture opportunities for small businesses and nonprofit research 

institutions. The unique feature of the program, according to agency 

officials, is the requirement for the small business to formally collaborate 

with a research institution in early phases of the research and 

development cycle.

Program activities that support manufacturing:

Providing grants and contracts: Five federal agencies participate in the 

program by funding research and development in the manufacturing area,

as well as other areas.

Implement Executive Order 13329: According to agency officials, 

Executive Order 13329 requires SBIR/STTR agencies to give high priority 

to manufacturing-related research and development and it further states 

that the federal government has an important role in advancing 

innovation, including innovation in the manufacturing sector, through 

small businesses. The program gives priority in the STTR program to 

manufacturing-related research and development. SBA collects 

information, as part of the annual reports submitted by participating 

agencies, regarding agency efforts to advance manufacturing through the 

programs.

Manufacturing Trends Addressed by the Program

Advanced manufacturing Higher skilled jobs Globalization

X X X

Source: GAO analysis of survey data. | GAO-17-240
Appendix III: GAO Contacts and Staff 

Acknowledgments

Page 138 GAO-17-240 U.S. Manufacturing

Andrew Sherrill, (202) 512-7215, sherrilla@gao.gov and John Neumann, 

(202) 512-3841, neumannj@gao.gov

In addition to the contacts named above, Kimberly Gianopoulos 

(Director), Blake Ainsworth (Assistant Director), Kim Frankena (Assistant 

Director), Laura Heald (Assistant Director), Christopher Murray (Assistant 

Director), Pierre Toureille (Assistant Director), Paul Schearf (Analyst-inCharge), Jeffrey Arkin, Jeffrey Barron, Anthony Costulas, David Dornisch, 

Holly Dye, Alexander Galuten, Tobias Gillett, Rich Hung, Stephen 

Komadina, Zina Merritt, Mimi Nguyen, Nhi Nguyen, Oliver Richard, 

Timothy Persons, Rachel Pittenger, William Shear, Almeta Spencer, Amy 

Suntoke, Daren Sweeney, Brian Tremblay, and Marilyn Wasleski made 

key contributions to this report.

Appendix III: GAO Contacts and Staff 

Acknowledgments

GAO Contacts

Staff 

Acknowledgments

(131349)
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