“A country that doesn’t innovate, stagnates.”
Senator Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.), with a bipartisan group of her colleagues including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), today continued her efforts to strengthen and maintain America’s leading edge in science and technology by introducing the America Creating Opportunities to Meaningfully Promote Excellence in Technology, Education, and Science (COMPETES) Act.
“The foundation of American culture and economy is based on discovery and innovation. When you look at what has made America a superpower, it’s our innovation and our technology,” said Senator Mikulski. “We have to look at where the new ideas are going to come from that are going to generate the new products for the 21st century. This bill will help set the framework and create the building blocks we need for a smarter America.”
The COMPETES Act focuses on improving innovation in the United States by increasing the federal investment in research and education, and developing a national innovation infrastructure. The bill is a bipartisan legislative response to recommendations contained in the 2005 National Academies’ of Science (NAS) “Rising Above the Gathering Storm” report and the Council on Competitiveness’ 2004 “Innovate America” report.
Senator Mikulski has a history of fighting to strengthen America’s innovation economy. Immediately after the 2005 release of the NAS report, Senator Mikulski joined Senators Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) to launch plans for a legislative initiative to foster an innovation economy in the United States. In 2006, they introduced the Protecting America’s Competitive Edge (PACE) Act, which was a package of three bills that would have implemented recommendations from the NAS report. The PACE Act never became law, but provisions from it have been incorporated into the COMPETES Act.
The NAS report was a response to federal policymakers’ questions about what they could do to enhance the science and technology enterprise for the United States to successfully compete, prosper and be secure in the global community of the 21st century. The report concluded that the United States’ world economic leadership will erode in the coming years if the country doesn’t proactively seek to improve the scientific and technological expertise of its workforce. Similarly, the Council on Competitiveness’ report called for a substantial investment in research, development, education and training programs that cultivate future innovators and entrepreneurs.