S. 3084 American Innovation and Competitiveness Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to support S. 3084, the American Innovation and Competitiveness Act.

This bill represents a bicameral, bipartisan agreement between legislation that recently passed the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee and nine House Science Committee bills that passed the full House over the last two years, including H.R. 1806, the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2015.

This bill maximizes the nation's investment in basic research. It improves accountability and transparency, reduces administrative burden on researchers, enhances agency oversight, which improves research coordination, and reforms federal science agency programs to increase the impact of taxpayer-funded research.

The investment in basic research helps boost U.S. competitiveness, creates jobs and spurs new business and industries.

First and foremost, the bill helps ensure that research grants funded by the National Science Foundation are in the ``national interest.''

The House and Senate worked together to find common ground on language that ensures each NSF grant award has scientific merit and is required to serve the national interest through a broader impacts criterion, which supports one of seven goals.

These goals are:

Increasing the economic competitiveness in the United States.

Advancing of the health and welfare of the American public.

Supporting the national defense of the United States.

Enhancing partnerships between academia and industry in the United States.

Developing an American STEM workforce that is globally competitive through improved prekindergarten through grade 12 STEM education and teacher development, and improved ungraduated STEM education and instruction.

Improving public scientific literacy and public engagement with science and technology in the United States.

Expanding participation of women and individuals from underrepresented groups in STEM.

Each public NSF award announcement must make clear, in non-technical language, how at least one of these goals is met, affirming that the project is worthy of taxpayer support, based on scientific merit and national interest.

The American Innovation and Competitiveness Act preserves the intent of H.R. 3293, the Scientific Research in the National Interest Act, a bill I authored that passed the House earlier this year.

I believe this provision will go a long way towards ensuring the grant-making process at NSF is transparent and accountable to the American public. It also makes permanent and enhances some of the reforms NSF already has underway.

Title I of the bill includes key provisions from House-passed H.R. 5049, the NSF Major Facility Research Reform Act, introduced by Science Committee Oversight Chairman Barry Loudermilk.

It also requires NSF to address concerns about waste and abuse. It improves oversight of large facility construction, increases oversight on the use of rotator personnel, and updates conflict of interest policies.

S. 3084 incorporates a number of provisions to improve research coordination across the federal government in computing, neuroscience, cybersecurity and the physical sciences, specifically radiation biology, fusion energy, and high energy physics.

Most notably, Title I of the bill contains House-passed H.R. 5312, the Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) Act, authored by Science Committee Member Darin LaHood.

The bill updates and improves the interagency NITRD program, which coordinates the Federal R&D investment portfolio in unclassified networking, computing, software and cybersecurity.

Additionally, S. 3084 includes other enhancements to federal cybersecurity research and standards.

The bill directs the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to study the effectiveness of federal agency information security programs and practices, and the challenges to federal agencies' implementation of NIST standards and guidelines.

Other provisions also are included from H.R. 6066, the Cybersecurity Responsibility and Accountability Act of 2016, introduced by Representative Ralph Abraham, which passed the Science Committee in September.

Title II includes H.R. 1119, the Research and Development Efficiency Act. This House-passed bill sponsored by the Research & Technology Subcommittee Chair Barbara Comstock helps reduce the regulatory burdens on federally funded researchers, so more time can be spent on research, not redtape.

Title III of the bill improves coordination of STEM education activities across the Federal Government. A well-educated and trained high-tech workforce ensures our future economic prosperity.

This means motivating more American students to study science, math, and engineering so they will want to pursue these careers. The bill authorizes a STEM education advisory panel of outside experts to help guide federal STEM education program decision making and help ensure the best results for the taxpayer investment.

The title also continues the commitment of the STEM Education Act, a law I authored, which makes computer science part of STEM Education. That bill authorizes grants for computer science education research as an integral part of STEM education programs.

Finally, title IV and title V include a number of provisions to improve manufacturing innovation and leveraging the private sector in improved public-private partnerships.

It includes updates to NIST's Manufacturing Extension Program to improve participation and oversight. It promotes entrepreneurship education by expanding NSF's successful Innovation Corps program. And it expands opportunities for science prize competitions by reducing barriers and providing participants with IP protections.

America's future economic strength and national security depends on innovation. Public and private investments in research and development fuel the economy, create jobs and lead to new technologies that benefit Americans' daily lives.

I urge adoption of this pro-science bill that will help America remain the global leader in basic research discovery and technological innovation.

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