WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Representative Mike Doyle (D-PA) pledged today to fight to prevent Congress from dismantling federal programs that help hundreds of small manufacturers in Pennsylvania with technical assistance and business-support services.

“The Manufacturing Extension Partnership program helps small businesses save existing manufacturing jobs and create new ones,” Doyle observed. “We should be spending more on the MEP – not less.”

Congressman Doyle made these remarks in a meeting this afternoon with Steve Zylstra, President and CEO of Catalyst Connection, the MEP office in Pittsburgh. Catalyst Connection, formerly known as the Southwestern Pennsylvania Industrial Resource Center (SPIRC), is one of seven non-profit industrial resource centers in Pennsylvania that receive MEP funding through the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Department of Community and Economic Development. These centers help small and medium-sized manufacturers adopt new processes and technology that make them more productive. Since its creation in 1988, Catalyst Connection has helped over 1,000 local manufacturers.

The administration has proposed a budget for next year that slashes funding for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership, which helped 164 Pennsylvania businesses generate nearly $90 million in sales and keep or create more than 400 jobs in 2001 alone. In FY 2002, companies using MEP assistance reported $681 million in cost savings, $940 million of investment in modernization, and $2.79 billion in new and retained sales nation-wide. Harvard University’s Institute for Government Administration selected MEP as one of the nation’s “most creative, forward thinking, results-driven government programs.” The President’s proposed budget would fund the MEP program at 33 percent of last year’s level.

“It’s foolish and counterproductive to cut investments in programs that support American industries and create jobs,” said Congressman Doyle. “America has lost 2.7 million manufacturing jobs in the last three years. 138,000 of those jobs were in Pennsylvania.”

“Too many manufacturers around the country have closed down – sending workers away with little hope of finding other good jobs in their communities,” Congressman Doyle said. “We need to do what we can to reverse this trend and move the country forward.”

“If we hope to promote economic growth and provide jobs for everyone who wants one, we as a nation are going to have to invest heavily in research and development,” Congressman Doyle said. “We shouldn’t slash federal technology programs that help our small- and medium-sized businesses stay competitive.”

“The MEP program has helped tens of thousands of businesses nation-wide at a time when our small and medium-sized manufacturers are under a lot of pressure from competition overseas,” said Steve Zylstra, President and CEO of Catalyst Connection. “This is definitely not the time to cut funding for the MEP.”

“Here’s a federal program where every federal dollar invested leverages two additional dollars in state and private-sector investments. It’s a partnership with local governments and the private sector that works, and which keeps Pennsylvanians working,” the congressman added. “I’ll do everything I can in the coming months to provide full funding for this important program.”

Congress will take up the Fiscal Year 2005 federal budget in March.

Photo of Congressman Mike Doyle (D-PA) meeting with Steve Zylstra, President and CEO of Catalyst Connection in Congressman Doyle’s Washington, DC, office on February 24, 2004.

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