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Capitol Comment
by Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison
Competition Through Research, Education and Innovation
April 27, 2007
Rising powers like China and India are threatening America’s economic prominence, and we must refocus our efforts to address this threat head-on. I recently joined with many of my Senate colleagues to meet this challenge by passing the America COMPETES (Creating Opportunities to Meaningfully Promote Excellence in Technology, Education, and Science) Act. This bipartisan bill increases research, education and innovation to strengthen America’s long-term economic competitiveness.
A report published by the National Academies in 2005 titled “Rising Above the Gathering Storm” illustrated my concerns about how precarious our economic leadership is. The United States graduates about 70,000 engineers annually, yet more than half come from overseas. India matriculates far more engineers each year (around 250,000), and in China, the number is even greater. If this trend continues, within a few years approximately 90 percent of all scientists and engineers in the world will live in Asia.
We are already starting to see the consequences of our lack of focus, because fewer innovators results in fewer innovations. In the 1990s, U.S. patent applications grew at an annual rate of 10 percent, but since 2001, their growth rate has slowed to less than three percent. By not replenishing America’s well of innovations, we are seeing a fundamental – and detrimental – shift in the global economy. In particular, our trade balance in high-tech products has turned upside down. China has passed us as the world’s largest exporter of information-technology products, while we have become a net importer of such products.
In a very real sense, the foundation of our economic prosperity is cracking. Norman Augustine, the former CEO of Lockheed Martin who chaired the panel that produced the National Academies report, summed up the problem when he wrote, “In the five decades since I began working in the aerospace industry, I have never seen American business and academic leaders as concerned about this nation’s future prosperity as they are today.” Many of the recommendations for remedying the current trend are included in the America COMPETES Act.
First, we would increase research investment by doubling the authorized funding levels for the National Science Foundation (NSF) and substantially increasing funding for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science. NASA, in particular, is one of our premier research institutions, and we have created a framework to provide increased NASA funding to support basic research and spur new innovation.
Second, we have focused on improving education, specifically in the vitally important fields of science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and critical foreign languages. We have authorized competitive grants to states to promote stronger curricula in elementary and secondary schools so that the next generation of Americans has the skills to succeed in college, the workforce, and in the U.S. Armed Forces. It strengthens the skills of thousands of math and science teachers by supporting the NSF’s Teachers Institutes for the 21st Century Program and providing grants for teachers to earn master’s and doctoral degrees in math or science.
Finally, our bill focuses on innovation. From the Franklin Stove to the grain reaper, from the telephone to the television, from the space shuttle to the Internet, America has been the world capital of technology. Economic studies show that as much as 85 percent of the measured growth in per capita income is due to technological change, and our bill ensures that both NASA and NSF are able to expand their strong traditional roles in fostering technological and scientific excellence.
With this landmark legislation, we will have a better-educated workforce, increased research, and ground-breaking ideas that will recharge our competitiveness and raise our overall standard of living.
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