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NEMW Region Selected for New Pilot Manufacturing Institute
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Last week, a consortium of companies, universities, and nonprofit organizations in Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia received a $30 million federal grant, matched by $40 million from the consortium, to serve the three-state area to help accelerate research, development, and demonstration in additive manufacturing and transition technologies. This new manufacturing institute--led by National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM), headquartered in Latrobe, PA--will be located in Youngstown, OH, and will serve as the first pilot for an Administration proposal to establish a national network of up to 15 manufacturing innovation institutes around the country. NEMW Senate Coalition Co-Chair Sherrod Brown (D-OH) along with NEMW Senate Member Bob Casey (D-PA) and 16 House Members wrote in support of NCDMM's initial grant application. Establishment of further institutes is dependent on congressional funding; President Obama requested $1 billion in mandatory appropriations in his FY13 budget proposal to create a National Network of Manufacturing Innovation to support the development of additional manufacturing institutes.
For more information, see the U.S. Department of Commerce's release, Sen. Brown's press release, or contact Kate Ostrander or Mike Gaffin, Legislative Directors of the Northeast-Midwest Congressional and Senate Coalitions, respectively.
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U.S. DOT Makes Over $470 Million in Unspent Earmarks Available to States
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The U.S. Department of Transportation announced last week that it will make eligible $473M in highway earmarks from FY03-06 appropriations acts that have remained unspent (unspent potentially for a number of reasons: projects came in under-budget, environmental assessments failed, a cost-share could not be found, etc.). State DOTs can now choose to use their unspent earmarked highway funds on "any eligible highway, transit, passenger rail, or port project." States must identify the projects they plan to use the funds for by October 1, and must obligate them by December 31, 2012. A list of available funds by state is here. Many NEMW states are among those with the highest balances, including New York ($29M), Pennsylvania ($28.5M), and Massachusetts ($18.9M).
For more information, contact Kate Ostrander , Legislative Director of the Northeast-Midwest Congressional Coalition.
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