National Nanotechnology Initiative Amendments Act of 2008

Floor Speech

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Mr. HONDA. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 5940, the National Nanotechnology Initiative Amendments Act.

I commend Chairman Bart Gordon and the other members of the Science and Technology Committee, on which I am proud to have once served, for the hard work and thoughtful consideration that went into this bill. I am pleased that this bill includes numerous provisions that I originally proposed in my own legislation, the Nanotechnology Advancement and New Opportunities, NANO, Act, H.R. 3235.

Nanotechnology has the potential to create entirely new industries and radically transform the basis of competition in other fields, and I am proud of my work with former Science Committee Chairman Sherwood Boehlert on the Nanotechnology Research and Development Act of 2003 to foster research in this area.

But one of the things policymakers have heard from experts is that while the United States is a leader in nanotechnology research, our foreign competitors are focusing more resources and effort on the commercialization of those research results than we are.

Both H.R. 5940 and my own bill would focus America's nanotechnology research and development programs on areas of national need such as energy, health care, and the environment, and have provisions to help assist in the commercialization of nanotechnology.

In recent months, there has been much discussion about potential health and safety risks associated with nanotechnology. Uncertainty is one of the major obstacles to the commercialization of nanotechnology--uncertainty about what the risks might be and uncertainty about how the Federal Government might regulate nanotechnology in the future. Both my bill and H.R. 5940 require the development of a nanotechnology research plan that will ensure the development and responsible stewardship of nanotechnology.

Other important areas that are addressed by both H.R. 5940 and H.R. 3235 include: the development of curriculum tools to help improve nanotechnology education; the establishment of educational partnerships to help prepare students to pursue postsecondary education in nanotechnology; support for the development of environmentally beneficial nanotechnology; and the development of advanced tools for simulation and characterization to enable rapid prediction, characterization and monitoring for nanoscale manufacturing.

I am also pleased that H.R. 5940 will require that the NNI Advisory Panel must be a stand-alone advisory committee. This is a concept, I originally proposed in 2002 in the Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Advisory Board Act, H.R. 5669 in the 107th Congress.

I would like to thank the members of the Blue Ribbon Task Force on Nanotechnology, BRTFN, a panel of California nanotechnology experts with backgrounds in established industry, startup companies, consulting groups, nonprofits, academia, government, medical research, and venture capital that I convened with then-California State Controller Steve Westly during 2005, for the important recommendations included in its report, Thinking Big About Thinking Small, many of which are reflected in the bill we are considering today. I would also like to thank Scott Hubbard, who was the director of the NASA Ames Research Center at that time and who served as working chair of the BRTFN, and all of the staff at Ames whose hard work made the task force run so well and helped produce a great report. The report is available on my website at http://honda.house.gov/issues/links/brtfn/report/final.pdf.

Again, I congratulate the Science and Technology Committee and Chairman Gordon for their work on this bill and thank them for incorporating so many of the provisions from my bill into H.R. 5940, and I urge my colleagues to support this important legislation to reauthorize the Nation's nanotechnology research and development program.

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