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The American Innovation and Competitiveness Act

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The American Innovation and Competitiveness Act S. HRG. 115–654 ONE YEAR LATER: THE AMERICAN INNOVATION AND COMPETITIVENESS ACT HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION UNITED STATES SENATE ONE HUNDRED FIFTEENTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION JANUARY 30, 2018 Printed for the use of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation ( Available online: http://www.govinfo.gov U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE 37–300 PDF WASHINGTON : 2019 VerDate Nov 24 2008 07:28 Aug 12, 2019 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 5011 Sfmt 5011 S:\GPO\DOCS\37300.TXT JACKIE SENATE COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION ONE HUNDRED FIFTEENTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION JOHN THUNE, South Dakota, Chairman ROGER WICKER, Mississippi BILL NELSON, Florida, Ranking ROY BLUNT, Missouri MARIA CANTWELL, Washington TED CRUZ, Texas AMY KLOBUCHAR, Minnesota DEB FISCHER, Nebraska RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, Connecticut JERRY MORAN, Kansas BRIAN SCHATZ, Hawaii DAN SULLIVAN, Alaska EDWARD MARKEY, Massachusetts DEAN HELLER, Nevada TOM UDALL, New Mexico JAMES INHOFE, Oklahoma GARY PETERS, Michigan MIKE LEE, Utah TAMMY BALDWIN, Wisconsin RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin TAMMY DUCKWORTH, Illinois SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO, West Virginia MAGGIE HASSAN, New Hampshire CORY GARDNER, Colorado CATHERINE CORTEZ MASTO, Nevada TODD YOUNG, Indiana JON TESTER, Montana NICK ROSSI, Staff Director ADRIAN ARNAKIS, Deputy Staff Director JASON VAN BEEK, General Counsel KIM LIPSKY, Democratic Staff Director CHRIS DAY, Democratic Deputy Staff Director RENAE BLACK, Senior Counsel (II) VerDate Nov 24 2008 07:28 Aug 12, 2019 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 S:\GPO\DOCS\37300.TXT JACKIE C O N T E N T S Page Hearing held on January 30, 2018 ......................................................................... 1 Statement of Senator Gardner ............................................................................... 1 Letter dated January 30, 2018 to Hon. John Thune and Hon. Bill Nelson from Ted M. Wackler, Deputy Chief of Staff and Assistant Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy, Executive Office of the President .............. 23 Statement of Senator Nelson .................................................................................. 2 Statement of Senator Peters ................................................................................... 4 Statement of Senator Cortez Masto ....................................................................... 29 Statement of Senator Thune ................................................................................... 32 Statement of Senator Hassan ................................................................................. 34 Statement of Senator Markey ................................................................................. 40 WITNESSES Dr. France Co´rdova, Director, National Science Foundation ............................... 5 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 7 Dr. Walter Copan, Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Tech- nology and Director, National Institute of Standards and Technology, United States Department of Commerce ........................................................... 12 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 14 APPENDIX Response to written questions submitted to Hon. France Co´rdova by: Hon. John Thune .............................................................................................. 45 Hon. Roger Wicker ........................................................................................... 46 Hon. Bill Nelson ............................................................................................... 46 Hon. Catherine Cortez Masto .......................................................................... 48 Hon. Maria Cantwell ........................................................................................ 48 Hon. Amy Klobuchar ........................................................................................ 50 Hon. Richard Blumenthal ................................................................................ 50 Hon. Tom Udall ................................................................................................ 51 Hon. Maggie Hassan ........................................................................................ 57 Response to written questions submitted to Dr. Walter Copan by: Hon. Bill Nelson ............................................................................................... 57 Hon. Amy Klobuchar ........................................................................................ 58 Hon. Richard Blumenthal ................................................................................ 59 Hon. Tom Udall ................................................................................................ 60 Hon. Catherine Cortez Masto .......................................................................... 60 (III) VerDate Nov 24 2008 07:28 Aug 12, 2019 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 S:\GPO\DOCS\37300.TXT JACKIE VerDate Nov 24 2008 07:28 Aug 12, 2019 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 S:\GPO\DOCS\37300.TXT JACKIE ONE YEAR LATER: THE AMERICAN INNOVATION AND COMPETITIVENESS ACT TUESDAY, JANUARY 30, 2018 U.S. SENATE, COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION, Washington, DC. The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:38 p.m., in room SR–253, Russell Senate Office Building, Hon. Cory Gardner, pre- siding. Present: Senators Thune, Fischer, Gardner [presiding], Nelson, Cantwell, Klobuchar, Blumenthal, Markey, Peters, Hassan, and Cortez Masto. OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. CORY GARDNER, U.S. SENATOR FROM COLORADO Senator GARDNER. Well, good afternoon, and thank you, every- one, for participating in this hearing today. Thank you to our wit- nesses. And, Dr. Co´rdova and Dr. Copan, thank you so much, both of you, for being here. I would also like to extend a special thank-you to Chairman Thune for allowing me to chair this hearing, as well as Ranking Member Nelson and Senator Peters for your partnership, your in- credible work that we did on the American Innovation and Com- petitiveness Act, or I have an acronym here, AICA. I guess nobody uses that one, right? [Laughter.] Senator GARDNER. How about America COMPETES last Con- gress? It’s an honor to represent a state like Colorado, where we have so many incredible Federal labs, including facilities operated by NSF and NIST. Whether in car, in rail, or any of the other nearly 30 Federal labs, Colorado is lucky to house our Nation’s foremost thinkers in the research and development space. This hearing marks just over one year since President Obama signed the American Innovation and Competitiveness Act into law. Senator Peters and I worked closely with Chairman Thune, Rank- ing Member Nelson, and other members of this Committee over the course of about 18 months to assemble a bill that built on the suc- cesses of the America COMPETES legislation passed in 2007 and in 2010. Our goals revolved around three principal components: maximizing basic research, improving STEM education, and en- couraging greater commercialization and technology transfer oppor- tunities. We developed our legislation through a series of round- table discussions, dozens of stakeholder meetings, a Commerce (1) VerDate Nov 24 2008 07:28 Aug 12, 2019 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 S:\GPO\DOCS\37300.TXT JACKIE 2 Committee hearing and markup, and a thorough review of count- less comments, interested parties, and agencies alike submitted for consideration. In the end, we were able to pass the first major Commerce Com- mittee-led reauthorization of the National Science Foundation and National Institute of Standards and Technology in 6 years. Former Vice-Chair of the National Science Board, Dr. Kelvin Droegemeier, supported this process and thanked us for helping to, quote, make science bipartisan again. Despite all the successes we were able to achieve, there is still much work to be done. While the United States remains the global leader in research and development investments at approximately 26 percent of the global total according to recent National Science Board publications, China is quickly closing the gap and is now spending about 21 percent of the global R&D total. And the re- cently published ITIF study shows that the U.S. is falling out of the top 10 global innovators for the first time in history. While this isn’t a hearing on funding, I would like to reiterate my strong support for robust funding increases in both the Na- tional Science Foundation and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Unless we dedicate more support to our Nation’s research and development enterprise, we will lose out to competi- tors like China, who are quickly working to displace the United States as the world’s greatest innovator. But we also have to ensure our research agencies are functioning at all levels and are able to continue to produce the best possible outcomes for our country. And so now that more than a year has passed since the Act’s passage, it presents a great opportunity to hear about the progress of AICA—I’m just going to keep saying that, just get it out—— [Laughter.] Senator GARDNER.—implementation from the well-qualified lead- ers, both at NSF and NIST in their first appearances before the Senate Commerce Committee since taking the helms at their agen- cies. With that, it’s my pleasure to first introduce
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