"A year that started with great promise of bipartisan action to enhance American competitiveness in the global economy appears about to end with no significant action on any of the key elements," said Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) President George Scalise. "To say that we are keenly disappointed would be a huge understatement."
The SIA noted that President Bush and the Democratic leadership in the House of Representatives both made strong commitments to increasing funding for basic research, reforming visa programs to ease the hiring of the best and brightest foreign-born scholars with advanced degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, and modernizing and extending the R&D tax credit. "Both Congress and the Administration have taken bows for their strong commitment to enhancing U.S. competitiveness and innovative capabilities, but the rhetoric has greatly outstripped the action," Scalise continued.
"While Congress recently passed and President Bush signed the 'America COMPETES Act,' these actions mean little without an actual appropriation to fund the programs it authorizes. Current spending bills drastically shortchange research funding for the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institute for Science and Technology (NIST), and the Department of Energy," Scalise said. NSF and NIST both play critical roles in the Nanoelectronics Research Initiative which supports cutting-edge basic research in collaboration with industry and universities.
SIA noted that without action this week, funding for basic research at universities and the national laboratories will fall far short of the levels promised by the President and the House leadership; U.S. companies will continue to be disadvantaged in the competition to hire the best and brightest foreign-born graduates from American universities; and the R&D tax credit will expire on December 31, 2007.
"Our competitors in the global economy are poised to seize the opportunities presented by our inaction on these critical concerns," Scalise said. "Other countries and regions have put in place generous incentives to attract investment, including cash grants, tax holidays, and liberal R&D tax credits. Competitors are also seeking to build world-class research universities and funding basic research in nanotechnology. The U.S. still enjoys a lead in technology, but leadership is not a birthright - it must be earned through action.
“Short-sighted and short-changed” declared Dr. Mary Good, Chairman of ASTRA, the Alliance for Science & Technology Research in America, following last-minute changes in key science budgets by Congress and the Administration as lawmakers rush to adjourn before the Holidays. “Reversing years of hard work, Congress and the Administration have been short-sighted in their haste to get a budget agreement — and they have short-changed America in the process” declared Good. “Only a few months ago, we achieved a refreshing consensus to begin the much-needed doubling of key science budgets under the America COMPETES Act,” said Good, adding “passage of the COMPETES Act recognized that America must increase its investment in physical sciences and engineering if it is to compete successfully in the future global economy. The COMPETES Act was bipartisan and signed by the President. It was a first step in insuring that future generations of Americans can be prepared for the competitive dynamics of a flat world.” The impending budget changes come only days after ASTRA’s release of a new 14-Point policy framework document, Riding the Rising Tide that is being sent to all Presidential campaigns and Congress. The RisingTide Report sets forth an action agenda that details how Americacan maintain its innovation future in the 21st Century in the face of global competition and “flattening.” Rising Tide explains the consequences of inadequate investment in scientific research to our economy, the US standard of living and national security. See Riding the Rising Tide (www.usinnovation.org)
Following is a statement by the Task Force on the Future of American Innovation on the FY08 omnibus appropriations bill now under consideration in Congress.
The FY08 omnibus appropriations bill that Congress is considering represents a step backwards for the bipartisan innovation agenda. The President and Congress, for all their stated support this year for making basic research in the physical sciences and engineering a top budget priority ended up essentially cutting, or flat-funding, key science agencies after accounting for inflation.
The nations that seek to challenge our global leadership in science and innovation should be greatly encouraged by this legislation.
The President and a near-unanimous Congress, by enacting the America COMPETES Act earlier this year, laid out a bold path toward revitalizing basic research in the physical sciences and engineering. COMPETES was a welcome Congressional initiative to double funding for America’s science research programs and expand science education that complemented the President’s American Competitiveness Initiative and the Democratic Innovation Agenda.
This appropriations legislation takes a step back from the promises contained in all of these initiatives.
The Task Force on the Future of American Innovation is hopeful that this reversal of direction does not represent a lack of commitment to turning around the nation’s long decline in support for basic research programs. For now, the failure to provide the funding required to begin growing these programs makes these promises little more than empty gestures. We intend to work with the Administration and Congress in the new year to make the promise of America COMPETES a reality.
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