On May 28, 2010, the House of Representatives passed the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010 (H.R. 5116) on the third try. The bill would authorize $85.6 billion over five years for research and education programs at key federal agencies in an effort to boost U. S. competitiveness. The bill moved over to the Senate, and on June 29th, the Senate referred it to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
The original America COMPETES bill was passed in 2007 as a bipartisan effort in response to the 2005 National Academy of Sciences’ report, “Rising Above the Gathering Storm. This Act authorized appropriations through FY 2010, and the reauthorization Act would authorize appropriations through FY 2015. The goal of the original Act was to provide enough funding to double the federal budgets for the physical sciences and engineering over the next five years. It also established the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy (ARPA-E)
The National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy Office Science, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology were appropriated 10.6 billion in FY 2008, 11.8 billion in 2009, and 12.3 billion for FY 2010. These three agencies were highlighted for their support of economic competitiveness-related basic research. However, these agencies were actually appropriated one to two billion less for FY 2008 through FY 2010 than the funding plan contained in the 2007 Act. The reauthorization Act funding plan is even more conservative, only increasing funding for these agencies by 8.4% year over year, meaning that the goal of doubling the 2007 funding for the physical sciences and engineering is not even achieved by 2015.
Federal R& D funding declined between 1985 and 2004, dropping from 1.25 percent of the U.S. GDP to .080 percent in 2004. What is even more serious is that technology R&D represented 48 percent and life sciences represented 36 percent. By 2005, technology R&D represented only 32 percent and life sciences represented 54 percent.
Increasing federal R&D spending in technology is critical to maintaining American competitiveness in a global economy. The maintenance of an effective U. S. R&D network is essential for attracting private domestic and foreign R&D funds and the subsequent manufacturing that results from the innovation process, which increases U S. value-added resulting in economic growth.
Innovation is the hallmark of U. S. manufacturing, and it requires a certain mass of interconnected activities, which like a snowball rolling downhill, grows in size as it proceeds towards end users. R&D is required to keep the ball rolling to ensure more successes than failures.
Innovation resulting from federally funded research is responsible for the Internet, web browsers, the Mouse, fiber optics, MRI scanners, Doppler radars, global positioning satellites, and Nanotechnology just to name a few. Consumers have benefited greatly from the large selection and quality of manufacturing goods available as a result of the innovative new products resulting from R&D.
America’s manufacturing innovation process leads to investments in equipment and people, to productivity gains, the spreading of beneficial technology to other sectors, and to new and improved products and processes. It is an intricate process that begins with R&D. This intricate process generates growth and higher living standards than any other economic sector. But, it requires a critical mass to generate this wealth. If the U. S. manufacturing base continues to shrink at its present rate, the critical mass will be lost. The manufacturing innovation process will shift to other global centers.
It is imperative that the Senate pass the American COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010 without any further cuts in R&D funding. Doubling or even tripling federal R&D funding for physical sciences and engineering is essential to saving American manufacturing and maintaining America’s competitiveness and national security. Contact your senator today to support this critical bill. All you have to do is click on www.senate.gov and type in your zip code, and you are automatically directed to your senator.