America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010 could help S.C.

The America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010, H.R. 5116 makes investments in science, innovation, and education to strengthen U.S. scientific and economic leadership, support businesses, and create jobs in the short-, mid-, and long-term. In the short-term, programs like Innovative Technology Federal Loan Guarantees address the immediate need of small- and medium-sized manufacturers. In the mid-term, the bill will strengthen regional economies through programs like Regional Innovation Clusters.

To ensure scientific and technological leadership now and long into the future, the bill makes investments in basic research. The bill also includes authorization of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy and Energy Innovation Hubs to help advance the U.S.’s transition to a clean energy economy and to support the growth of new sectors of the economy –and the jobs that come with them.

The bill will double authorized funding for our basic research programs—the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy Office of Science, and the labs at the National Institute of Standards and Technology—over ten years, based on the 2007 appropriated levels.

This funding trajectory falls between the steeper doubling path of the bill enacted in 2007 and the more shallow curve of the president’s budget request. It provides a stable, sustainable, and achievable set of authorization levels that balance the importance of these investments with the reality of our current budget deficits.

Bill Text: HTML Version, PDF Version
Bill Summary and Status
Committee: House Committee on Science and Technology

COMPETES will create jobs and support manufacturers and industry by:

• Providing innovative technology federal loan guarantees for small- and medium-sized manufacturers, to help them access capital to become more efficient and stay competitive (Sec. 502)
• Coordinating manufacturing research and development carried out across the federal government (Sec. 122)
• Authorizing the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support fundamental research leading to transformative advances in manufacturing (Sec. 223)
• Reorganizing the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) labs to reflect the multidisciplinary nature of technology and better meet the needs of industry in the 21st century (Sec. 404)
• Giving NIST a role in facilitating cross-agency coordination when the federal government is involved with the development of international technical standards, a function that supplements the agency’s current role in helping develop technical standards within the U.S, to help drive competition, increase product choices, and lower costs (Title IV)
• Ensuring that the Manufacturing Extension Partnership program at NIST better reflects the needs and challenges facing manufacturers today (Sec. 406)
• Providing Manufacturing Extension Partnership program centers with 50 percent of the cost incurred to run the center, an increase from the federal government’s previous one-third cost share contribution, which will reduce the centers’ financial obligation during this difficult economic time (Sec. 406)
• Directing the Manufacturing Extension Partnership Centers to inform local community colleges of the skill sets that are needed by area manufacturers, to help ensure that students have the specific job training necessary to secure a good-paying job in their community (Sec. 406 (a))

For the full reports and details on this Act, please visit this site. Information is provided by the Whip Pack courtesy of U.S. Majority Whip Jim Clyburn - S.C.