TMS Public and Governmental Affairs Resource Center

FROM THE FEDERATION OF MATERIALS SOCIETIES: After years of effort by key Senators and Representatives with the backing of the science and technology community, the America COMPETES Act was signed into law by President Bush on August 9. (Typical of Washington, COMPETES is an acronym—"America Creating Opportunities to Meaningfully Promote Excellence in Technology, Education and Science").

The bill is one of the rare pieces of legislation that can be described as truly bipartisan and bicameral. It includes the basic elements of the President's American Competitiveness Initiative (ACI) as well as the Democratic Congressional Leadership's National Innovation Initiative—authorizing doubling of the research budgets in the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy's Office of Science, and the labs of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. However, it also omits some ACI provisions while including several programs opposed by the Administration and emphasized by the President in his bill signing statement. "I am disappointed," the President said, "that Congress failed to authorize my Adjunct Teacher Corps program to encourage math and science professionals to teach in our schools. I am also disappointed that the legislation includes excessive authorizations and expansion of government." He called the 30 new programs authorized by the Act "mostly duplicative or counterproductive," pointing in particular to the new ARPA-E agency in the Department of Energy, modeled after the Defense Department's DARPA. He also reiterated his opposition to funding increases in excess of the amounts called for in the ACI, which confirms the probability of vetoes of appropriations bills when they reach his desk in September. That confrontation may mean that the spending measures will be rolled into a "continuing resolution" to keep the government operating into fiscal year 2008, which begins on October 1. President Bush also drew the line on future funding for ARPA-E and other programs, saying that "I will request funding in my 2009 Budget for those authorizations that support the focused priorities of the ACI, but will not propose excessive or duplicative funding based on authorizations in this bill." He went on to challenge Congress "to complete work on the remaining components of ACI, including modernizing and making permanent the research and development tax credit, authorizing the Adjunct Teacher Corps program, and increasing our ability to attract and retain the best and brightest high-skilled workers from around the world . . . I will continue to work with the Congress to ensure that we keep America competitive through appropriate and strong support for science and technology."

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