TMS Public and Governmental Affairs Resource Center

By a vote of 407-6, the House passed the National Nanotechnology Initiatives Amendment Act of 2008. “The promise of nanotechnology is enormous, but potential downsides need to be addressed from the beginning in a thorough, transparent process,” said House Science and Technology Committee Chairman Bart Gordon (D-TN). “The federal interagency nanotechnology research program (NNI) has not yet put in place a well designed, adequately funded, and effectively executed research program focused on the environmental and safety aspects of nanotechnology. H.R. 5940 addresses this deficiency by requiring that a research plan, with detailed objectives and funding targets, be developed and quickly implemented.” In addition to the emphasis on environmental and safety research, the bill requires the NNI to increase its emphasis on ways for moving basic research results out of the laboratory and into commercial products, materials, and devices. It also creates new nanotechnology education programs to attract secondary school students to science and technology studies.

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