Today, U.S. Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer and U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand announced that the recently passed Omnibus spending bill, which funds the federal government through the end of the fiscal year, includes $70 million for the Department of Energy’s (DOE) five Clean Energy Manufacturing Innovation Institutes, including the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT)-led REMADE Institute. The funding will support Rochester’s Reducing Embodied-Energy and Decreasing Emissions (REMADE) Institute, which is an RIT-led consortium that won a national DOE competition in 2017 to receive a promised $70 million in DOE funding over five years, to be matched with $70 million in non-federal funding, in order to headquarter a new public-private clean energy manufacturing institute in Rochester.
“RIT, via the REMADE Manufacturing Institute, has been leading the way in revolutionizing our manufacturing sector for years, and this continued federal investment will build on that legacy and bring more good paying jobs to New York State,” said Senator Schumer. “I will continue to fight for RIT and the national REMADE Manufacturing Institute so that we can move forward on opening and hiring staff for the new national public-private clean energy manufacturing institute headquarters in Rochester.”
“I am very pleased to see that following my push, the omnibus bill includes continued Department of Energy funding for the $70 million federal investment in the Rochester Institute of Technology’s REMADE manufacturing institute focused on clean energy manufacturing,” said Senator Gillibrand, who led the Senate push for funding for this program. “RIT is already at the forefront of our nation’s clean energy research and is a major source of talent for jobs in our state. This investment will give RIT the resources they need to help the U.S. continue to be a global leader in clean-energy technology and support entrepreneurs in New York and across the country who are creating good-paying, high-tech jobs.”
While the DOE’s proposed FY18 budget would have eliminated funding for REMADE and the other Clean Energy Manufacturing Innovation Institutes, the funding secured by the senators in this bill will ensure the RIT REMADE facility can proceed as planned to open a new Rochester-based headquarters with new staff. Today’s, announcement is the continuation of their multi-year effort of advocating for RIT’s REMADE during the 2018 appropriations process and speaks to Schumer and Gillibrand’s continued commitment to the project. The senators said REMADE is leveraging RIT’s leadership in sustainable manufacturing and was established to increase sales for the manufacturing industry by furthering technologies that allow companies to manufacture more cost-effectively by reducing costly byproducts and by using less energy. The senators said RIT’s REMADE will be a driving force for the Rochester region’s economy and continued federal support will enable REMADE to pioneer the kinds of solutions that can improve the U.S. manufacturing industry by reducing net-energy costs, waste materials and emissions, as well as help grow new, clean tech and clean energy jobs.
Beginning in 2016, when DOE announced it would conduct a national competition to establish a new Clean Energy Manufacturing Innovation Institute, the senators urged then-Secretary Ernest Moniz to select the RIT-Led REMADE proposal. The senators succeeded in this push and announced on January 3, 2017, that the RIT-led consortium had won the competition and the $70 million federal funding commitment over five years, headquartering this new hub of clean energy manufacturing innovation in Rochester, NY. The federal funding must be appropriated every year in order to keep REMADE open and is being matched by $70 million in non-federal matching funding from REMADE’s member entities. REMADE is a national coalition of 26 universities, 44 companies, seven national labs, 26 industry trade associations and foundations, and three states. REMADE counts as its members some of the U.S.’s largest manufacturers, including Xerox, Corning, Caterpillar, John Deere, Kohler, and many others. Together, through the $140 million REMADE Institute, these companies plan to collaborate and develop new best practices to manufacture more efficiently, use fewer resources and less costly raw materials in order to save billions of dollars, increase efficiency, deliver a 50 percent increase in U.S. manufacturing sales, and create or retain thousands of new U.S. jobs.
Without this vital FY18 funding announced by the senators today, the RIT-led REMADE Institute would be forced to shut down, putting in jeopardy the new national headquarters in Rochester along with new test facilities. The Department of Energy’s FY18 proposed budget would have eliminated the Manufacturing USA program and the DOE’s five Manufacturing Institutes, including RIT’s REMADE which would have devastated efforts to create and preserve top manufacturing jobs across New York. Schumer and Gillibrand emphasized their support for REMADE throughout the appropriations process and said without the full $70 million investment promised over five years by the DOE, REMADE will not be able to continue their innovative work.