The U.S. Department of Commerce on Aug. 9 announced that it had canceled a systemwide recompetition of Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) centers that was to occur by year's end. In announcing the decision, Phillip J. Bond, Under Secretary of ...
The U.S. Department of Commerce on Aug. 9 announced that it had canceled a systemwide recompetition of Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) centers that was to occur by year's end. In announcing the decision, Phillip J. Bond, Under Secretary of Technology, said in a statement, "Stakeholders expressed their belief that the proposed recompetition would be too disruptive and untimely . . . This is not the right time for a systemwide recompetition." The Commerce Department heard from stakeholders during a series of roundtables presented by the National Institute of Standards & Technology, which administers the MEP program. The MEP is a public-private partnership that aims to assist primarily small U.S. manufacturers improve their competitiveness. A recompetition originally had been proposed in a manufacturing report released by the Commerce Department in January.
