{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://kaptur.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/kaptur-statement-trump-department-commerce-decision-freeze-ohio-mep", "Kaptur Statement On Trump Department of Commerce Decision to Freeze Ohio MEP Funds", "2025-12-12", "2025", "2025-12", "Democrat", "House", "OH", "Marcy Kaptur", "K000009", "kaptur.house.gov", "kaptur", "https://kaptur.house.gov/media-center/press-releases", "scraper", "Toledo, OH \u2014 Today, Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (OH-09) denounced the Trump Administration Commerce Department\u2019s abrupt decision to freeze all federal support and funding, effective immediately for Ohio\u2019s Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) program \u2014 a bipartisan, Congressionally-appropriated initiative that has served thousands of Ohio manufacturers for decades.\n\nAccording to recent notices shared with Ohio MEP centers, the Department suspended funding without warning and without releasing any audit report or findings to justify such an extreme action. State officials have confirmed that no documentation has been provided for review, leaving local partners in the dark and forcing immediate pauses in technical assistance across the state.\n\n\u201cThis impulsive decision is not \u2018America First\u2019 \u2014 It is a direct blow to family-owned businesses and American entrepreneurs competing against Communist China. It delays critical upgrades, injects uncertainty into local production lines, and undermines the very workers this nation depends on,\u201d said Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (OH-09). \u201cCongress cannot permit the Executive Branch to impound funds simply because it chooses to. I urge the Department of Commerce to release these dollars immediately.\u201d\n\nThe freeze impacts federally and state-supported MEP services that provide training, automation assistance, cybersecurity upgrades, and productivity support to manufacturers in every region of Ohio. Numerous partners have now begun winding down operations due to the sudden loss of funds.\n\n# # #", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://kaptur.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/kaptur-statement-trump-department-commerce-decision-freeze-ohio-mep"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.469918992370367, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}