01 February 2006
Bush Competitiveness Plan Aims To Reinforce U.S. Innovation
More research funding, teachers to help U.S. lead global technology race
Washington – President Bush has launched an initiative to keep the U.S. economy's competitive edge in the global marketplace as large emerging markets quickly catch up with leading industrial countries in technology.
In his January 31 State of the Union address Bush announced the American Competitiveness Initiative designed to "encourage innovation throughout our economy, and to give our nation's children a firm grounding in math and science." (See related article.)
The president proposed to double federal funding for critical basic research programs in nanotechnology, supercomputing, alternative energy sources and other areas and to make permanent the research and development (R&D) tax credit to encourage innovation and ensure that the United States leads the world in development of new technologies.
The president's initiative also calls for training and hiring more mathematics and science teachers to help the U.S. education system produce workers with skills required by emerging economic opportunities. (See White House fact sheet on initiative.)
The president's proposal comes amid growing concerns in the U.S. scientific community and business circles that the United States is not doing enough to support basic research critical for national security and economic growth and is falling behind China and India in training science and technology graduates.
In an October 2005 report, the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) said, “U.S. advantages in the marketplace and in science and technology have begun to erode." The report cited students in other countries consistently outperforming their U.S. counterparts in mathematics and science. It also said that China is graduating eight times more engineers than the United States, and India five times more.
John Marburger, President Bush's science adviser, on February 1 said the Bush initiative is not a response to any perceived threat from China, India or any other country but rather an attempt to strengthen the existing foundations of U.S. competitiveness to make them more supportive of the most promising science and technology fields such as nano- and biotechnology and advanced energy technologies.
"All other countries are trying to do it the way we do it," he told reporters in a briefing at the White House. "So this is not about going against China and India. This is about leading the world with models and productivity that keep our society strong."
COMMERCE SECRETARY WARNS ON PROTECTIONISM
Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, speaking at the same briefing, warned against protectionism as a response to increasing global competition. Instead of adopting protectionist trade measures, he said, the United States must show other countries that it "can compete with the best of them and win."
A few days earlier Senator Max Baucus, the senior Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, expressed similar sentiments. He said that competition with China, India and other emerging economic powers should not be seen as a "zero-sum" game.
"Their economic gains do not depend on our losses," he told the National Press Club in January. "We can all prosper. We can all grow."
Democrats in Congress proposed in November 2005 their own innovation agenda that covers a broader range of issues than the president's initiative.
A December 2005 gathering of government officials and business and academic leaders hosted by the Commerce Department proposed a number of specific actions, similar to those included in the NAS report, to deal with the competitive challenge. The meeting recommended:
• increasing funding for long-term basic research;
• doubling the number of graduates with bachelor's degrees in science, mathematics and engineering; and
• providing incentives for public-private partnerships working to encourage U.S. students to pursue careers in science and technology.
Late in January, two Republican and two Democratic senators introduced legislation to implement recommendations of the NAS report.
The NAS report recommended reforming U.S. immigration policies to allow for educating and employing foreign students and graduates with knowledge and skills related to science and technology. This action also has been sought aggressively by universities and high-technology companies. They have argued that U.S. security measures introduced after the September 11 terrorist attacks, particularly visa restrictions, hampered efforts to recruit such students and highly skilled workers. Many U.S. high-technology industries rely to a large degree on such workers and foreign-born graduates of U.S. universities.
At a January summit on international education, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called for a new partnership between the government and U.S. universities for education exchange.
She said the United States had improved "every aspect" of the visa application process for foreign students and graduates and is doing more to make it even more efficient. (See related article.)
A transcript of the February 1 briefing by administration officials is available on the White House Web site.
The NAS report is available on the NAS Web site.
A report (PDF, 8 pages) on the Commerce Department December 2005 meeting is available on a Web site maintained by the National Association of Manufacturers.
