In the September 17, 1999 Issue:

Copyright State Science & Technology Institute 2002. Information in this issue of the SSTI Weekly Digest was prepared under a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Commerce, Economic Development Administration. Redistribution to all others interested in tech-based economic development is strongly encouraged — please cite the State Science & Technology Institute whenever portions are reproduced or redirected. Any opinions expressed in the Digest do not necessarily reflect the official position of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Subscription to the SSTI Weekly Digest is free. If you are reading a forwarded copy of this issue and would like to receive your own copy each week directly, please subscribe at: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/digform.htm Requests to unsubscribe should be sent to sstiwd@ssti.org

$10 M Research Fund, Loan Forgiveness Program Among New Tech Initiatives in Arkansas
The State of Arkansas has enacted several initiatives this year to assist science, technology, and research within the state. The two largest efforts are a $10 million research fund and a loan forgiveness program.

Arkansas Research Matching Fund
In an effort to improve the state’s national ranking of 49th place in research performance, the Arkansas General Assembly created the Arkansas Research Matching Fund. The $10 million fund will be administered by the
Arkansas Science & Technology Authority, the state’s lead agency for R&D funding and technology-based economic development. (URL: http://www.state.ar.us/asta/ ) The $10 million appropriation is to fund the program for the next two years.

The new fund will provide grants to Arkansas universities and colleges to fulfill all or a portion of the match requirement of federally funded research projects from ten selected federal agencies. The program will complement the improvements made in Arkansas’s academic research capacity through the various federal EPSCoR programs.

Only large projects are eligible for consideration under the fund’s enabling legislation. State matching grants to purchase equipment and instrumentation must be for at least $20,000. Research and development matching grants will begin at $50,000. Costs related to construction of new facilities are not eligible under the program.

Technical Careers Student Loan Forgiveness
To encourage more technically trained graduates of Arkansas’s universities and colleges to remain in the state after school and to address the regional shortage of workers in selected technical fields, the state will forgive up to $2,500 of student loan debt annually for a maximum of four years and $10,000. The student must be employed full time in a high demand technical position with an Arkansas company to receive the credit. For the 1999-2000 academic year, the fields of Advanced Manufacturing, Computer/Information Technology and Biomedical/Biotechnology are approved for inclusion in the program. More than 100 technical education
programs at 24 Arkansas institutions of higher education were designated for inclusion.

The program is administered by the Arkansas Department of Workforce Education. (URL: http://www.work-ed.state.ar.us/loanforgiveness.htm )

Other new technology-related efforts underway in Arkansas include a website to match skilled workers with technology-based jobs at companies located within the state and an expanded worker retraining program targeting the skills needed in high-tech industries.

Return to the top of the page

Small Manufacturing Week Proclaimed; Summit Planned
President Clinton has declared September 19 through September 25 Small Manufacturing Week to recognize the economic contributions and national importance of America’s 385,000 small and medium-sized manufacturers.

On September 21-22, the Manufacturing Extension Partnership of the National Institute of Standards & Technology (MEP), the National Association of Manufacturers, and the Modernization Forum are holding a Manufacturing Summit at the Ronald Reagan International Trade Center in Washington, D.C.

Topics to be addressed during the Summit will include:

The Summit will also be the site for the unveiling of an exhibit showcasing more than 200 products and artifacts collected from small manufacturers around the country.
Visit http://www.mep.nist.gov for more information about the event.

Return to the top of this page

Editor’s Note
In the coming days, Congress will be acting on appropriations bills for the coming fiscal year. The consequences for science and technology are profound.

As a result, the Digest is departing from its usual format of summarizing the news to present opinions on the budget battle from: Allan Bromley, the presidential science adviser in the Bush Administration; John Podesta, President Clinton’s Chief of Staff; and, Representative James Sensenbrenner (R-WI), chair of the House
Science Committee.

Dr. Bromley’s article originally appeared in the Washington Post. Our thanks to them for permission to reprint it.

Due to the length of Mr. Podesta’s remarks, we have condensed the speech he originally made at the National Press Club. His full speech can be found on the White House’s home page at http://www.whitehouse.gov  

Return to the top of this page

No Science, No Surplus
by D. Allan Bromley

America is on a roll. We’re balancing the federal budget, reforming welfare and making retirement secure. Sound like a breakthrough in fiscal management? Not exactly. Our awesome economic success can be traced directly to our past investments in science. The problem is, this year’s federal budget for science is a disaster,
and it compromises our nation’s economic and social progress.

Here are the latest budget numbers: NASA science is slashed by $678 million; science at the Department of Energy is cut by $116 million; and the National Science Foundation ends up with $275 million less than the President requested. Clearly, Congress has lost sight of the critical role science plays in America.

Federal investments in science pay off — they produce cutting-edge ideas and a highly skilled workforce. The ideas and personnel then feed into high-tech industries to drive the U.S. economy. It’s a straightforward relationship: industry is attentive to immediate market pressures; the federal government makes the venturous
investments in university-based research that ensures long-term competitiveness. So far, it’s been a powerful tandem.

Thirty years ago, the laser and fiber optic cable were born from federal investments in university research. Over time, those two discoveries formed the backbone of a multi-billion-dollar telecom-munications industry. The fusion of university research and industrial development now generates about 5,000 new jobs and contributes a
quarter-billion dollars in taxes to the federal coffer every day. It accounts for 70 percent of our economic growth. The result is undeniable. The fusion is primarily responsible for our booming economy and our growing federal surplus. So the consequences of a budget cut to science are equally undeniable: no science, no surplus.

The benefits of science investment go deeper than just the surplus. Three years ago this month, welfare underwent dramatic reform. No one knew what the fallout from that would be. But the high-tech economy eased the burden. Unemployment was dropping to a 25-year low, and jobs were being created at a record pace. As it turned out, half of those jobs were generated by the high-tech sector.

The legislative challenge before us is patching up Social Security. Again, we’ll rely on the science and technology juggernaut. Whether the solution lies in stimulating private investment or in steady federal surpluses, the proposals all rely on a familiar friend — the strength of our nation’s booming economy.

And while Congress dithers, the public already is taking steps of its own.

Americans hold more than $5 trillion in communications and technology stocks. Our mutual funds, our 401K plans and IRA are stuffed full of high-tech investments. The retirement security of Americans now depends upon the steady flow of innovations from technology companies. In turn, those companies rely on the steady flow of
discoveries and trained workforce generated by the scientific community. No science, no savings.

Scientific research at our universities and national labs is now a foundation of the economy and thereby vital to the success of social legislation. But rather than reinforcing the foundation, Congress is eroding it. This action couldn’t come at a worse time.

America’s science infrastructure is in decay — aged science buildings on our campuses, dated laboratory equipment, antiquated computers. During the Bush administration, the Office of Science and Technology Policy estimated the cost of rebuilding our science infrastructure at $100 billion. The Clinton administration has done little to address the problem. The budget Congress is proposing guarantees continued decay.

Congress must significantly increase science funding. Senators recognized the need last week when, with the support of Sens. Trent Lott and Tom Daschle, they passed the Federal Research Investment Act, which calls for doubling the federal investment in science by the year 2010. But appropriations haven’t followed through. It’s
not too late — budgets won’t be settled until October.

For the sake of the country, I hope Congress will recognize the significant role science plays in society. Without science, there won’t be a surplus.

Dr. Bromley was the presidential science adviser in the Bush administration. He now serves as the Sterling professor of sciences and dean of engineering at Yale University.

Note: Appeared originally in the Washington Post, 8/26/99. Reprinted with permission. (c) The Washington Post

Return to the top of this page

Remarks on R&D Funding
by John Podesta

....This morning, I'd like to explain why we believe that continued federal investments in research and development are so important, and why we're so troubled by the Republican attack on our science and technology budgets. We should all be working toward bipartisan progress -- not playing politics with an issue so fundamentally crucial to our nation's future.

Investments in science and technology -- both public and private – have driven economic growth and improvements in the quality of life in America for the last 200 years.

Many of the products and services we have come to depend on for our way of life in America -- from lasers to communications satellites to human insulin -- are all the products of US policies to encourage investments in science and technology....

In the last fifty years alone, technological innovation has been responsible for as much as half of the nation's growth in productivity. The information technology sector alone has accounted for one-third of our economic growth -- jobs in the IT sector are paying 80 percent above the private average wage....

Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan recently stated that rapid technological change has greatly contributed to eight years of record peacetime expansion, and is one of the forces producing what he called "America's sparkling economic performance...."

It seems logical that there would be strong bipartisan support for federal investments in science and technology. After all, thanks to farsighted, bipartisan investments, the United States today has an array of major scientific facilities and accomplishments that are the envy of the world. And economists of all ideological persuasions
agree that the government has an important role to play, because individual companies can never capture all of the benefits of research.

But this year, the Republican-led Congress, to make room for their risky tax plan, is playing politics with science and technology funding. They have proposed deep cuts in many important research programs. And in so doing, they are threatening the potential progress of innovation in America.

1) So far, they have cut the President's request for civilian R&D by $1.8 billion, an 8 to 10 percent reduction.

2) They slashed funding for the Administration's information technology research initiative by 70 percent -- a program that would sponsor a wave of innovations in the same way that the ARPANET led to today's Internet.

3) They blocked the Administration's proposed increase for the National Science Foundation -- the only agency that has the responsibility of supporting research and education in all science and engineering disciplines.

4) They cut the NASA budget by $1 billion, threatening over 30 space missions. These cuts endanger future NASA missions like the Chandra Project -- which recently beamed vivid images of exploding stars and black holes back to Earth.

5) They cut $580 million from the budget for environmental and energy research -- dramatically undermining our efforts to increase our understanding of climate change, to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and to improve the quality of the air we breathe.

6) They eliminated the Commerce Department's Advanced Technology Program -- the only program that is explicitly designed to promote civilian technology in partnership with industry.

7) And by digging deep into the pork-barrel, they earmarked nearly $1 billion in R&D projects, undermining the discipline of competition and peer review, and slashing funding for higher priority projects. Although in 1994 Republicans pledged to cut wasteful spending, it's clear that they're more interested in larding up the budget
than pursuing cutting-edge research.

8) And as if this year's cuts weren't devastating enough, the Republican budget and tax plans could reduce discretionary domestic spending by roughly half in the coming decades -- inevitably leading to even further cuts in research and development. This is a 19th century budget for a 21st century economy. It appears that these Republicans grew up watching too much Fred Flintstone and not enough Jetsons.

These cuts are inconsistent with the Republican rhetoric on science and technology. Republican Senators have passed bipartisan legislation to double civilian R&D over an 11-year period. The Republican Chairman of the House Science Committee has introduced legislation that would authorize much of the Administration's
information technology initiative. But these lofty sentiments are nowhere to be seen in the House-passed appropriations bills, or in the Republican fiscal and tax proposals, which would devastate discretionary spending. We can't build a bridge to the 21st Century with press releases and empty promises....

Technological leadership is vital to the national interests of the United States. Most of the Federal research and education investment portfolio enjoyed bipartisan support during the first term of the Clinton Administration. I would hope that we can continue to extend this partnership with the Congress across our entire science and
technology agenda -- and promote private sector investment in research and development by supporting the R&D tax credit.

Such a partnership to stimulate scientific discovery and new technologies will take America into the new century well-equipped for the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. A passionate interest in exploring new frontiers, a relentless quest for new knowledge, a fundamental belief in progress and in rising standards of living -- are all at the core of the American character.

Although it is virtually impossible to predict specifically how today's basic research results will eventually improve our quality of life, or to imagine the new industries and markets that will emerge, there is no question that such improvements and
industries will arise. Just as we now reap the harvest from past discoveries, the work of researchers and scientists will transform our lives as we move into the 21st Century....

Mr. Podesta is President Clinton’s Chief of Staff.

Return to the top of this page

Statement on Podesta Remarks
by James Sensenbrenner, Jr.

I am encouraged by the Administration’s sudden interest in science funding. Over the last seven years, overall science budgets, which include both defense and civilian R&D, when indexed for inflation, have been flat or decreasing. Science needs a boost.

Unfortunately, the President’s Fiscal Year 2000 (FY2000) budget depends on budgetary tricks such as tax hikes and user fees that will never be enacted. In fact, the House of Representatives defeated the President’s FY2000 budget request by a vote of 426-2 and the Senate defeated it 97-2. This gimmickry significantly overstates the amount of money that can be made available for R&D.

Now the President’s Chief of Staff is complaining about the levels of science funding, which a few short years ago the Administration thought too generous. Mr. Podesta claims that programs within the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) would be severely under-funded in the Congressional appropriation process.
However, in the Administration’s FY1997 budget, Vice President Gore proposed a NASA budget of $11.6 billion for FY 2000, $1 billion below the House Appropriation Committee’s current recommendation.

Mr. Podesta also included in his list of grievances the lack of adequate funding for a new standards laboratory at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Ironically, just two years ago, in its FY1998 budget request, the Administration proposed no funding for the construction of this important laboratory while Congress
appropriated $78 million for it.

In total, the Republican Congress has appropriated more for R&D than the Administration requested in three out of the last four years. Those in Congress who have been advocates of increasing science funding welcome the Administration to our cause. We hope, however, the President’s staff view science funding as a priority, not
a short-lived political gimmick.

Mr. Sensenbrenner (R-WI) is the chair of the House Science Committee.

Return to the top of this page

State Science & Technology Institute
5015 Pine Creek Drive
Westerville, OH 43081
Phone: (614) 901-1690
Fax: (614) 901-1696
Email: ssti@ssti.org

  © 2002 State Science and Technology Institute. All rights reserved.