Date: 2004-07-09
Speaker: EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Mr. Chairman. let me thank our leaders on the committee and our esteemed ranking member of the full committee. I rise today and speak in support of my colleagues and the gentleman from Tennessees amendment to the Manufacturing Technology Competitiveness Act of 2004. The Gordon amendment provides a robust MEP program authorized for fiscal year 2005 to 2008. 10 percent above the fiscal year 2004 total. in fiscal year 2005. $116 million and 10 percent per year increases. This compares with approximately a 4 percent increase per year in the base bill. The amendment also adjusts the current onethird Federal costshare for 6 years and older MEP centers to be as much as onehalf in the fiscal year 2005 only. Unfortunately. when this bill was marked up in committee. this amendment along with all of the amendments that were offered by the Democratic side were voted down. Not because of the merit but because apparently they said the White House had indicated that they would not sign the bill if they did not do it the way they wanted them to do it. But let me assure you that we have lost so many manufacturing jobs. In Texas alone. we have lost 178.000 since 2001 and overall 8.2 million throughout the country. And you can look at there chart and see all the jobs lost. Every State has lost many jobs. This is the area which we are talking about. manufacturing. And this is also where we need to give attention most. We are not going to get the manufacturing jobs back that have left this country but we do have to create more. Any country without a manufacturing base will never have a stable economy. and the only way we are going to get it is to do the research. involve the small companies involved. Let me conclude by saying that when we have this many people. 8.2 million Americans without employment. which accounts for 5.6 percent and over 10 percent African Americans are jobless. we have to give attention to this manufacturing. I do not know what we are going to do instead of it. but I can assure you. Mr. Speaker. that we are missing the boat when it comes to making sure that Americans will have jobs in the future. Mr. Chairman. I rise today to speak in support of my colleagues. Mr. GORDONS amendment to the Manufacturing Technology Competitiveness Act of 2004. The Gordon amendment provides a robust MEP program authorization for FY 20052008 (10 percent above FY 2004 totals in FY 2005 ($116 million) and 10 percent per year increases for FY 20062008). This compares with an approximately 4 percent increase per year in the base bill. The amendment also adjusts the current onethird federal costshare for 6year and older MEP Centers to be as much as onehalf in fiscal year 2005 only. Unfortunately. when this bill was marked up in the Committee. this amendment. along with the vast majority of amendments from the Democratic side of the committee voted down. This language is a necessary addition to the manufacturing bill because it provides a decent level of MEP authorizationessentially a small increase in FY 2005 and $5 million per year more for FY 20062008. This is certainly an improvement on the Bush administrations efforts to kill the program. but we can do better. MEPs services continue to be underutilized because of a lack of resources. A recent study by the National Association of Public Administrators found that small manufacturers are underserved by the MEP. . Given the tremendous leverage generated among small businesses by the program. its funding should be ramped up toward a doubling over the next 67 years. In FY 2004. because of the Bush administrations budget proposal and the actions of the Republican Congress. the MEP program was only provided with onethird ($39 million) of the funding necessary to maintain the existing network of MEP Centers (full funding would be $106 million). According to the Modernization Forum (the umbrella.group of state MEP Centers). as of April. MEP Centers will have closed 58 regional offices and reduced staffing by 15 percent. If no additional funds are provided in FY 2005. 16 states may close their MEP Centers. Overall. the MEP Centers- could reduce their staff by 50 percent and close half of their regional offices. Another impact of the current funding shortfall. is that Centers are focusing on larger manufacturers that can afford large dollar projects. raising rates beyond the reach of many small manufacturers. and serving few small manufacturers overall. This is a very important addition. especially at a time when over 8.2 million Americans are without employment. which accounts for 5.6 percent. and over 10% of African Americans are currently jobless. Manufacturing had long been the engine that drove the American economy. Much of manufacturing is still in recession even as the rest of the economy moves forward. As we debate this bill on the House floor today. I am hopeful that we can reach constructive consensus on many of the amendments being offered today.