BUFFALO, N.Y. — U.S. Senator Charles Schumer who serves as Senate Majority Leader aims to use his clout to land a major grant for the Western New York area in hopes of improving advanced manufacturing in the region.
Out of 529 applicants, 60 communities have emerged as finalists for grants of up to $100 million from the American Rescue Plan.
Eventually, 20 to 30 grants will be made from a pool of funding totaling $1 billion from the Build Back Better Regional Challenge, which is part of the more encompassing American Rescue Plan.
The grant for Western New York was submitted by Empire State Development, and seeks to improve the region's advanced manufacturing sector. The application can be viewed here.
According to manufacturing.gov, advanced manufacturing involves the "Use of innovative technologies to create existing products and the creation of new products."
Advanced manufacturing can include production activities that depend on information, automation, computation, software, sensing, and networking.
It's the type of work being conducted currently at the Buffalo Manufacturing Works at Northland Workforce Training Center, where Schumer visited on Monday.
In addition, Schumer said landing a Build Back Better Regional Challenge Grant could lead to more federal funding for Western New York, as it would put it in line for $1 billion in funding from the proposed United States Innovation and Competition Act.
USICA has received bipartisan support and passed both the House of Representative and Senate, where leaders in each house have now picked conferees to go over the bill and come up with one version for approval.
According to Schumer, there would ultimately be ten regions in the country selected to receive the $1 billion USICA grants for the establishment of high-tech manufacturing hubs.
Schumer says if the region were to be awarded that kind of money, he'd push to have the tech hub built in the still largely vacant STAMP facility in Genesee County.