More than 2 years in the making, a massive bill that Congress completed this week aims high: It envisions a 5-year, $280 billion investment to keep the US ahead of China in a global competition for technological preeminence.
Some of the biggest changes in U.S. innovation policy in more than a decade will come from the CHIPS and Science Act. Researchers shouldn't expect a lot of new funding in the near future.
The budget of the National Science Foundation will be doubled over the next five years. The Office of Science at the DOE would be grown by 45% and the research account at the National Institute of Standards and Technology would be increased by 50%.
Money is not committed. The spending panels have the power to appropriate the extra dollars. There is only one concrete boost in spending, and that is for the Semiconductor industry.
As soon as President Joe Biden signs the bill, there will be significant changes to the way those agencies operate. It adds to the agency's traditional mission of supporting basic research by giving it the authority to create a technology directorate that nurtures innovations with commercial potential and social impact. Artificial intelligence and quantum information science are some of the emerging technologies that the new directorate will focus on.
More rural states will benefit from the requirement that the share of research spending go to institutions there. The DOE doesn't keep track of theNSF figure. The bill requires the Department of Commerce to create a network of regional technology centers in order to accelerate economic growth in those states.
China has been accused of stealing or unfairly benefiting from U.S. funded research. The research security provisions tighten oversight of interactions between the US and foreign scientists.
The legislation prohibits U.S.-based scientists with federal funding from participating in a foreign talent recruitment program sponsored by China and Russia. It prevents the National Science Foundation from giving awards to any university that operates a Chinese-funded Confucius Institute, a once popular way for universities to beef up Chinese language and cultural programs on campus. It requires U.S. institutions to report gifts of $50,000 or more from foreign governments. The minimum mandated by the government is $250,000.
Federal research dollars must now be given to institutions that provide research security training. An independent forum has been ordered by the National Science Foundation to discuss how to strengthen research security.
Legislators did not include at least $10 billion in immediate funding to jump-start the grand vision that was described in the CHIPS and Science Act. A 5-year, $200 million appropriation for the National Science Foundation to boost workforce training in microelectronics is the only immediate boost for the research agencies. They don't want the authorized funding to be a promise.
The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities says that in 2007, Congress authorized tens of billions of dollars of new investments in federal research but failed to deliver on funding. Congress needs to deliver the funding that will accomplish the goals of the legislation in order for the CHIPS Act to work.
Legislators dropped a number of research security provisions. The final bill did not include a new White House research security office that was seen as a threat to legitimate research collaborations, a duplication of efforts across the government, and an invitation to target Asian American scientists.
The House bill did not include immigration provisions that many scientists believe are necessary to maintain a strong pool of high-tech talent. It would have been easier for foreign-born scientists to stay in the country if one had been put in place. A new visa category for foreign scientists would have been created.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer floated the idea of a $100 billion technology directorate in a speech in November. In May 2020, he joined with Senator Todd Young to introduce legislation that was named after the 1945 report that led to the creation of the National Science Foundation.
The Senate passed the U.S. innovation and competition act by a wide margin in June of 2021. The bill was approved by the House on a straight party line vote.
The CHIPS and Science Act became law after the Senate voted on it on July 27. "This is a Sputnik moment, only instead of Russia it's China, in which America realized that another rival power would get way ahead of us if we didn't pull out all the stops"
Most academic leaders were thrilled by Schumer's original vision to beef up the National Science Foundation, but some were unhappy with the idea of a technology directorate focused on applied research. They were concerned about its quasi-independent status.
The final legislation is so small it makes it the seventh research division at the National Science Foundation. CHIPS calls for the directorate to have a budget of $4 billion by the year 2027, which is roughly one-fifth of the budget of the National Science Foundation. Some academic leaders worry that if Congress doesn't grow the overall budget of the National Science Foundation, the new directorate may be favored over existing programs.
House Democrats withstood a last-ditch effort by House Republican leaders to kill the bill and won the vote with a margin of 243 to 187. Eddie Bernice Johnson, chair of the science committee and a key player in formulating the bill, says that the legislation will help American science and innovation.
Johnson is retiring this fall after 30 years in Congress.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
