Technology Daily: Appropriations Next Hurdle For Competitiveness Bill

Technology Daily
Appropriations Next Hurdle For Competitiveness Bill
August 6, 2007
by Heather Greenfield

In a year when domestic spending budgets are tight, leaders of the effort to pass the House and Senate competitiveness legislation last week are nevertheless optimistic about the next step -- getting the funds appropriated.

The Senate approved H.R. 2272, Friday and President Bush is expected to sign it. House Science Committee Chairman Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., who led negotiations to reconcile the bill with the Senate's version, S. 761, predicted, "We'll see the president have a big grin on his face in August or September" and point to it as "an example of bipartisan success."

The bill authorizes $43 billion over three years to boost math and science education and increase federally funded basic science research.

If the funding gets through the appropriations process, it would put the National Science Foundation, the National Institute for Standards and Technology and the Energy Department's science office on track to double their research funding over the next seven years.

Both Bush's American Competitiveness Initiative and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's Innovation Agenda called for basic research funding to these agencies to double, but over a slightly longer time period.

The Senate passed the bill via voice vote and the House approved it 367-57, showing strong support among both Republicans and Democrats.

Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., who managed the bill on the Senate floor, says the fact that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., were the lead co-sponsors is a good sign that funds will be appropriated.

Alexander said the Senate Budget Committee has already "made room" for the extra money needed for basic research and math and science education.

He agreed there would be "back and forth between the Senate, House and the president on money, but there's not a higher priority for the Senate and also the House."

Gordon agreed, saying, "It's a very high priority for the speaker." Pelosi represents a San Francisco-based district just north of Silicon Valley.

Not taking any chances, the Computing Technology Industry Association sent a letter to President Bush Friday after the vote, urging him to sign the bill, noting its widespread support. "Across every segment of our membership -- businesses large and small -- there is near unanimous support for H.R. 2272," wrote public policy director Roger Cochetti.

Tech associations, which had begun lobbying for appropriations for the bill before it even passed, plan to turn up the volume on that effort now.

"We're going to have to work on the Appropriations bills to ensure a lot of this stays intact," said Josh Ackil, lobbyist for the Information Technology Industry Council.

"The major obstacles are the ones facing virtually all domestic spending programs -- the pay/go rules and the overall fiscal restraints," said Susan Traiman, public policy director at the Business Roundtable. "We're going to have to continue to make the case for why these particular initiatives need to be at the top of the priority list."