Building Careers and Shaping Public Policy

Statement To The

SUBCOMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENT, TECHNOLOGY AND STANDARDS
COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

For The Hearing On

THE FISCAL YEAR 2005 NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF STANDARDS AND TECHNOLOGY BUDGET: VIEWS FROM INDUSTRY

Submitted By

IEEE-USA

28 April 2004

The IEEE-USA is pleased to express its support for the National Institute of Standards and Technology, whose laboratory and extramural programs play a critical role in providing essential measurement and other enabling technologies that underpin the competitiveness of U.S. industry. With respect to the FY 2005 NIST budget request, IEEE-USA appreciates and strongly supports the significant increase in funding for NIST's vital laboratory programs but are concerned that the increase will not adequately compensate for the major decrease in funding in the previous fiscal year. We believe that strong reassurances of stability of funding are necessary. Furthermore, we oppose the elimination of the Advanced Technology Program (ATP) and the corresponding reductions to the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) program.

The ATP provides critical resources for high risk, long term research and development and relies on cost sharing, peer review and competition to ensure that only deserving proposals are funded. It is a model for collaboration between the federal government and the private sector in funding advanced technologies. Over the past decade, the ATP has awarded 709 projects. Four out of five ATP projects result in new products or processes introduced into the marketplace, and half of all ATP projects result in a patent application. One prosthesis technology project alone is projected to deliver $15 billion in the economy. This is exactly the type of payoff Americans expect for their tax dollars.

The MEP has a proven track record of promoting innovation and economic growth. The MEP has helped over 150,000 small and mid-size businesses to grow, modernize, and improve productivity. The MEP program is instrumental to re-vitalizing the manufacturing industry and to creating and keeping jobs in the U.S. Given the significant benefit it provides to American innovation, economic prosperity and job creation, cutting the MEP at this time would be a serious mistake.

We understand the difficult decisions that Congress must make in a very constrained budget environment. However, we believe that eliminating the ATP and reducing the MEP budget is short sighted and would be detrimental to the United States' international competitiveness. We strongly urge you to support funding the ATP at the level of $145 million and the MEP at $106 million, as provided in the FY2004 budget, while sustaining the requested budget for the NIST laboratory program.

IEEE-USA is an organizational unit of the IEEE, which was created in 1973 to advance the public good and promote the careers and public-policy interests of the more than 225,000 technology professionals who are U.S. members of the IEEE. Our members are employed in industry, academia and government.

We are submitting this statement for the information of the committee and ask that it be incorporated into the hearing record.