COMMERCE, JUSTICE, SCIENCE, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS FOR 2012 HEARINGS BEFORE A SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED TWELFTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION SUBCOMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, JUSTICE, SCIENCE, AND RELATED AGENCIES FRANK R. WOLF, Virginia, Chairman JOHN ABNEY CULBERSON, Texas CHAKA FATTAH, Pennsylvania ROBERT B. ADERHOLT, Alabama ADAM B. SCHIFF, California JO BONNER, Alabama MICHAEL M. HONDA, California STEVE AUSTRIA, Ohio JOSE´ E. SERRANO, New York TOM GRAVES, Georgia KEVIN YODER, Kansas NOTE: Under Committee Rules, Mr. Rogers, as Chairman of the Full Committee, and Mr. Dicks, as Ranking Minority Member of the Full Committee, are authorized to sit as Members of all Subcommittees. MIKE RINGLER, STEPHANIE MYERS, LESLIE ALBRIGHT, DIANA SIMPSON, and COLIN SAMPLES, Subcommittee Staff PART 6 Page Department of Commerce ..................................................... 1 U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ...................................... 183 National Institute of Standards and Technology ............ 269 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ...... 337 Office of the United States Trade Representative .......... 465 ( Printed for the use of the Committee on Appropriations VerDate Mar 15 2010 20:18 Jul 28, 2011 Jkt 067061 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 7513 Sfmt 7513 E:\HR\OC\67061P1.XXX 67061P1 emcdonald on DSK2BSOYB1PROD with HEARING PART 6—COMMERCE, JUSTICE, SCIENCE, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS FOR 2012 VerDate Mar 15 2010 20:18 Jul 28, 2011 Jkt 067061 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6019 Sfmt 6019 E:\HR\OC\67061P1.XXX 67061P1 emcdonald on DSK2BSOYB1PROD with HEARING with DSK2BSOYB1PROD on emcdonald COMMERCE, JUSTICE, SCIENCE, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS FOR 2012 HEARINGS BEFORE A SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED TWELFTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION SUBCOMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, JUSTICE, SCIENCE, AND RELATED AGENCIES FRANK R. WOLF, Virginia, Chairman JOHN ABNEY CULBERSON, Texas CHAKA FATTAH, Pennsylvania ROBERT B. ADERHOLT, Alabama ADAM B. SCHIFF, California JO BONNER, Alabama MICHAEL M. HONDA, California STEVE AUSTRIA, Ohio JOSE´ E. SERRANO, New York TOM GRAVES, Georgia KEVIN YODER, Kansas NOTE: Under Committee Rules, Mr. Rogers, as Chairman of the Full Committee, and Mr. Dicks, as Ranking Minority Member of the Full Committee, are authorized to sit as Members of all Subcommittees. MIKE RINGLER, STEPHANIE MYERS, LESLIE ALBRIGHT, DIANA SIMPSON, and COLIN SAMPLES, Subcommittee Staff PART 6 Page Department of Commerce ..................................................... 1 U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ...................................... 183 National Institute of Standards and Technology ............ 269 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ...... 337 Office of the United States Trade Representative .......... 465 ( Printed for the use of the Committee on Appropriations U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 67–061 WASHINGTON : 2011 VerDate Mar 15 2010 20:18 Jul 28, 2011 Jkt 067061 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 7513 Sfmt 7513 E:\HR\OC\67061P1.XXX 67061P1 emcdonald on DSK2BSOYB1PROD with HEARING COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS HAROLD ROGERS, Kentucky, Chairman C. W. BILL YOUNG, Florida 1 NORMAN D. DICKS, Washington JERRY LEWIS, California 1 MARCY KAPTUR, Ohio FRANK R. WOLF, Virginia PETER J. VISCLOSKY, Indiana JACK KINGSTON, Georgia NITA M. LOWEY, New York RODNEY P. FRELINGHUYSEN, New Jersey JOSE´ E. SERRANO, New York TOM LATHAM, Iowa ROSA L. DELAURO, Connecticut ROBERT B. ADERHOLT, Alabama JAMES P. MORAN, Virginia JO ANN EMERSON, Missouri JOHN W. OLVER, Massachusetts KAY GRANGER, Texas ED PASTOR, Arizona MICHAEL K. SIMPSON, Idaho DAVID E. PRICE, North Carolina JOHN ABNEY CULBERSON, Texas MAURICE D. HINCHEY, New York ANDER CRENSHAW, Florida LUCILLE ROYBAL-ALLARD, California DENNY REHBERG, Montana SAM FARR, California JOHN R. CARTER, Texas JESSE L. JACKSON, JR., Illinois RODNEY ALEXANDER, Louisiana CHAKA FATTAH, Pennsylvania KEN CALVERT, California STEVEN R. ROTHMAN, New Jersey JO BONNER, Alabama SANFORD D. BISHOP, JR., Georgia STEVEN C. LATOURETTE, Ohio BARBARA LEE, California TOM COLE, Oklahoma ADAM B. SCHIFF, California JEFF FLAKE, Arizona MICHAEL M. HONDA, California MARIO DIAZ-BALART, Florida BETTY MCCOLLUM, Minnesota CHARLES W. DENT, Pennsylvania STEVE AUSTRIA, Ohio CYNTHIA M. LUMMIS, Wyoming TOM GRAVES, Georgia KEVIN YODER, Kansas STEVE WOMACK, Arkansas ALAN NUNNELEE, Mississippi ————— 1 Chairman Emeritus WILLIAM B. INGLEE, Clerk and Staff Director (II) VerDate Mar 15 2010 20:18 Jul 28, 2011 Jkt 067061 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 7513 Sfmt 7513 E:\HR\OC\67061P1.XXX 67061P1 emcdonald on DSK2BSOYB1PROD with HEARING COMMERCE, JUSTICE, SCIENCE, AND RE- LATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS FOR 2012 THURSDAY, MARCH 17, 2011. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE WITNESS HON. GARY LOCKE, SECRETARY, DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE OPENING REMARKS FROM CHAIRMAN WOLF Mr. WOLF. Welcome, Mr. Secretary. Good afternoon. There are going to be a series of votes coming up pretty soon. So we will just proceed. We have a number of issues to discuss with you today with re- spect to the fiscal year 2012 budget. You are requesting $8.8 billion in a new budget authority that amounts to $868 million or about 11 percent higher than the House-passed Continuing Resolution for fiscal year 2011. The largest increases in your budget include an additional $768 million for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, $145 million for the National Institute of Standards and Tech- nology, $70 million for the International Trade Administration, and these increases are partially offset by reductions in Census totaling $199 million. These funding changes are just a few within Commerce. Prac- tically every account within Commerce is increasing in your re- quest. You are also proposing a number of new initiatives in your budget as well as the termination of a few small but potentially significant programs. The Congress unfortunately will not be in a position to provide such increases. The fiscal crisis facing the Nation is real and will require a level of austerity that goes beyond the President’s budget. So we are going to ask you to help prioritize. And this is not in the statement, but I am sorry to see you go, frankly. And it is probably not a good appointment in all honesty because I think you are engaged in this thing and your ideas with regard to exports. And now you are going to have a vacancy there for a long period of time. But I want to congratulate you on your nomination. But when I heard it, I did not think it was such a good idea because of that very reason. But there are some questions we will have. These are not confirmation hearings obviously on China, but I will have some (1) VerDate Mar 15 2010 20:30 Jul 28, 2011 Jkt 067061 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 E:\HR\OC\A061P2.XXX A061P2 emcdonald on DSK2BSOYB1PROD with HEARING 2 questions with regard to China, to encourage more job growth in manufacturing in this country. I will go to Mr. Dicks if he wants to make a comment and then we will go to your testimony. OPENING REMARKS FROM REP. DICKS Mr. DICKS. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman. And, Secretary Locke, it is good to see you and we congratulate you on your nomination to be Ambassador to China. We have worked together since you were King County executive and gov- ernor of Washington. And I think you have done a fine job as Sec- retary. We have some great initiatives, the National Export Initiative, the Manufacturing Extension Partnership, just to name two. And we were pleased with your work on comprehensive—with NIST’s effort on comprehensive cybersecurity. I am concerned, and I hope you will have a chance to discuss this during the hearing, on the effects of H.R. 1 on NOAA procurement, acquisition, and construction. And we are concerned about the tsu- nami that has happened in Japan and what the effect of these budget cuts would be on our weather satellites and our buoys out in the ocean which I know are very important. And I hope you could tell us what the impact of the $450 million cut will be in H.R. 1. I think you are in an ideal spot to be able to translate this, and this process is not over yet. We are still try- ing to make sure that we, you know, make appropriate cuts. And if there has been mistakes made, we still have a chance to review this in light of the current circumstances. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. WOLF. Thank you, Secretary. Proceed. OPENING STATEMENT BY SECRETARY LOCKE Secretary LOCKE. Thank you very much, Chairman Wolf and dis- tinguished Members of the subcommittee. I am really pleased to join you today to talk about the President’s budget request for the Department of Commerce for fiscal year 2012. Since I joined the Department of Commerce two years ago, we have focused on delivering our services more efficiently and at less cost to the taxpayer. Those efforts have paid off. The 2010 Census was completed on schedule and under budget, returning $1.9 billion to the taxpayers. Our Economic Development Administration has cut the time it takes to grant awards from 128 business days to 20 business days. Our Patent Office reduced an application backlog of almost 800,000 when the President assumed office. We have reduced by 10 percent last year even as applications surged by 7 percent. And next month, we will be rolling out and starting a program allowing applicants to have their patents evaluated within one year for a very small extra fee. Our efficiencies and cost savings are not one-time achievements. We have instituted comprehensive performance management proc- esses throughout the Department which should help our reforms stand the test of time. VerDate Mar 15 2010 20:30 Jul 28, 2011 Jkt 067061 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 E:\HR\OC\A061P2.XXX A061P2 emcdonald on DSK2BSOYB1PROD with HEARING 3 And it is in this context of proven savings and performance that I hope the committee will consider Commerce’s fiscal year 2012 budget request.