'Essential': Senate prepares bipartisan campaign to defy Trump

A bipartisan group of senators will launch Thursday a new effort to force President Donald Trump to restore a popular and critical program his administration cut, according to a new report. Sens. Adam Schiff (D-CA), Jon Husted and Bernie Moreno (R-OH), and Andy Kim (D-NJ) will introduce a new bill to bring back a Commerce Department program that helps "hundreds of thousands of US manufacturing firms," according to Semafor. "[The legislation] comes as Commerce withholds funding for Manufacturing Extension Partnership centers across the country, forcing hiring freezes or layoffs at 90% of them , according to one estimate," the report stated. The Manufacturing Extension Partnership is a public-private program that connects smaller domestic manufacturers with technology solutions. Ohio alone has had to close six centers after the Trump administration froze the program. Despite these issues, and despite Trump having pledged to support American manufacturing throughout his political career, the administration has proposed eliminating the program entirely in its latest budget request — and these senators are trying to force it to do the opposite. “In order to help small manufacturers compete in an increasingly small and globalized world, it is important that they have the resources to grow and adapt,” said Schiff. The Trump administration has cut numerous small programs, much of it driven by the now-defunct Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) program. Despite this, deficit spending has not appreciably decreased since he took office.