Joseph Knollenberg: “I rise in support of H.R. 4754, the CJS Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2005. I commend the chairman, the gentleman…”

“I rise in support of H.R. 4754, the CJS Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2005. I commend the chairman, the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Wolf), for producing what I believe to be an excellent bill, and the ranking member, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Serrano) as well; and I urge my colleagues to join in supporting this legislation. There are many reasons to support this bill. I want to note one program in particular, the Manufacturing Extension Partnership. I thank the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Wolf) for recognizing the importance of the MEP program to our Nation's manufacturers by funding it at $106 million. At that level, all MEP centers will continue to provide their valuable service to this country's manufacturers. The MEP program, as has been discussed, is a Federal-State private network of over 60 centers with 400 locations in all 50 States. In fiscal year 2002 alone, MEP served approximately 18,000 small- and medium-sized manufacturers nationwide. These manufacturers reported an additional $2.8 billion in sales, $681 million more in cost savings, and 35,000 more jobs simply as a result of their projects in these MEP centers.”