Trump cut help for Kansas manufacturers. Sharice Davids wants to restore funds

Kansas Manufacturing Solutions CEO Tiffany Stovall has spent 15 years with the Lenexa-based nonprofit as it’s helped hundreds of Kansas manufacturing businesses navigate obstacles to help them grow. 

She’s now forced to preside over its gutting. 

President Donald Trump’s administration cut KMS’s federal contract to provide consulting services to Kansas-based businesses. The non-renewal, which took effect April 1, has already forced the organization to let go of just over half of its 13 employees. 

KMS had been a part of the Manufacturing Extension Partnership, a nationwide federal program run by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The institute, housed in the U.S. Department of Commerce, chose not to renew MEP contracts in Kansas and nine other states with program agreements that ended on March 31. 

The non-renewals come even as Trump and his allies publicly emphasize the importance of American manufacturing and luring manufacturers into the country from overseas. One of the major aims of the massive tariffs Trump imposed this month – before pausing many of them Wednesday – is to encourage the production of goods in the United States. 

“It was really a gut punch,” Stovall said in an interview, adding later that tariffs don’t work without a strong manufacturing base to meet demand. “Cutting MEP now is like building a runway and then grounding the plane.” 

Rep. Sharice Davids, a Democrat who represents the Kansas 3rd Congressional District, will introduce legislation on Thursday to effectively reverse the cuts. The bill, jointly offered by Davids, Rep. Sarah McBride of Delaware and Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California, would direct the National Institute of Standards and Technology to renew and award MEP contracts annually. 

Davids, who represents southern Wyandotte County, Johnson County and rural areas southwest of the Kansas City metro, said the measure, called the Defend American Manufacturing Act, would free the program’s funding from politically-motivated decisionmaking. 

“I’m very frustrated right now, actually, about this because we’re at this time where people are dealing with supply chain issues. By the hour, the economic uncertainty seems to grow,” Davids told The Star in an interview on Tuesday. 

“And I will say that having a president literally say he’s focused on bringing more manufacturing home to the United States, while nearly simultaneously imposing these tariffs, announcing these tariffs – this is an example of a politician saying one thing and doing another.” 

KMS’s agreement was worth about $2.2 million a year. A small crew of remaining staff members will remain to help wind down the nonprofit’s MEP operations. KMS does have other grants, which will continue, but MEP represented the bulk of its work. 

Roughly 4,400 manufacturers operate in Kansas, and 84% are owned by small and medium-sized enterprises, according to KMS’ 2024 annual report. Those small and medium-sized businesses represent the nonprofit’s target client – businesses who want assistance but aren’t large enough to afford high-end consulting. 

Kansas manufacturers employ some 173,000 people statewide, including over 30,000 in the 3rd District. 

Describing the kind of work KMS does, Stovall spoke about a company where the organization found ways to improve efficiency – everything from ordering supplies to moving products out the door. She didn’t name the company, citing privacy considerations. 

“We took them, essentially, on an entire … continuous improvement journey that helped them save time, save money, save waste within the organization,” Stovall said. 

Kansas Manufacturing Solutions gives businesses access to technical assistance without having to pay highly expensive consulting fees, Stovall said. 

The Wyandotte County Economic Development Council partners with KMS to help deliver its services as a sub-recipient in the MEP program. Council President Greg Kindle said that when his organization is courting manufacturers to the county, KMS is “almost always at the table with us.” 

The council’s collaboration and coordination with KMS is a key part of its success, Kindle said. Cutting the Manufacturing Extension Partnership program now is directly at odds with the goal of boosting manufacturing both locally and across the country. 

“Nationally, part of the point of the tariffs is to, in fact, drive more manufacturing back into the U.S.,” Kindle said. “But if we tear down the structures that help make that happen, then it’s not helpful. We’re not going to have the result we anticipated if we aren’t ready when those companies come knocking.” 

The Kansas Chamber of Commerce, another KMS partner, is holding discussions about how to continue to support manufacturers in the state, Eric Stafford, the chamber’s vice president of government affairs, said in a statement. 

“We will not take our eyes off of the mission of supporting Kansas manufacturers of all sizes in this dynamic economic environment,” Stafford said. 

The National Institute of Standards and Technology confirmed in a statement that agreements with KMS and organizations in nine other states weren’t renewed. The other affected states are Delaware, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota and Wyoming. 

“The Department of Commerce is evaluating how it can best use the resources provided by Congress to most effectively advance U.S. manufacturing capabilities in alignment with statute and the President’s priorities for U.S. leadership in critical and emerging technologies,” the statement said. 

The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, in a 2023 report, recommended privatizing the Manufacturing Extension Partnership. While Trump sought to distance himself from Project 2025 during his most recent campaign, his administration has taken steps to implement a number of its recommendations. 

The Project 2025 report said that when Congress created the program, MEP centers were intended to transition to self-sustaining private institutions but that a ban on long-term funding was abolished in 1998. “MEP’s business advisory services would be more properly carried out by the private sector,” the report says. 

Last year KMS helped create or retain some 2,300 jobs, according to data from Davids’ office, and helped drive $122 million in new investment. The nonprofit assisted 552 manufacturers in the 3rd District alone, the congresswoman’s office said. 

Davids said KMS acts as “boots on the ground” patterns for small and medium-sized manufacturers. The businesses were already dealing with economic uncertainty. 

But the federal decision to cut the Manufacturing Extension Partnership was “absolutely the rug being pulled out from under them.” 

Davids’ legislation faces an uncertain future in the Republican-controlled U.S. House. Davids said she plans to seek Republican support, adding that many lawmakers may not yet be aware of the cuts to the MEP program. 

At a time when cuts to Medicaid are on the table in Congress and significant job losses are possible at the Social Security Administration and other federal agencies, Davids said, “we shouldn’t have to worry about whether Donald Trump is going to continue to support our ability to have a strong economy.” 

Stovall emphasized that Congress had approved funding for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership. She declined to comment on whether KMS and other MEP funding recipients are weighing a lawsuit. 

Over the past 15 years, Stovall said she’s been a part of building KMS into an organization she’s proud of, and she praised the organization’s team – half of which have now lost their jobs. 

“It’s devastating,” Stovall said. “But as devastating as it is to us, we’re leaving manufacturers short.”