Whatever Happened to America Competes?

Editor's Note

February / March 2008 By: Bob Cochnar Volume 6 Number 1

Print this Article

E-mail this Article

In Greek mythology, Cassandra, the daughter of Troy's King Priam, could accurately predict the future. But because she incurred the wrath of Apollo, who had bestowed on her that prediction gift, he added a tragic codicil: Cassandra could still predict the future but no one would believe her. And so it was.
Norman Augustine, the retired chairman and CEO of Lockheed Martin Corp. (and a frequent contributor to Innovation), could be called a contemporary Cassandra, although plenty of people actually believe him. In 2005, he chaired a blue-ribbon committee of the National Academies that issued a 150-page report called Rising Above the Gathering Storm, which actually secured the attention of the president and the Congress. The report resulted in important new legislation called the America Competes Act. In this issue, beginning on Page10, we publish excerpts from a new report written by Augustine called Is America Falling Off the Flat Earth? I hope you'll read it.

President Bush and a near-unanimous Congress last year did indeed enact the America Competes Act, which called for the doubling of funding for the nation's science research programs and the expansion of science education. But the omnibus appropriations bill signed by the president this year seemed to have ignored the earlier promises. Here's what the American Physical Society had to say about that:
"While other nations are aggressively challenging American leadership in physical sciences and technology, the omnibus bill sets our country on the wrong course. It fails to provide the necessary resources for long-term research in the physical sciences and engineering. It fails to provide the requisite resources for developing new cutting-edge scientific laboratories and even for operating existing national user facilities. It fails to provide adequate funding for university-based research that is so essential for educating the next generation of scientists and engineers. It also fails to provide the appropriate incentives for American industry to innovate at an accelerated pace."

The Association of American Universities, an organization comprising 62 private and public research universities, said:
"The FY2008 omnibus appropriations bill is very disappointing to those who support the competitiveness and innovation agendas of the president and Congress. After accounting for inflation, this legislation essentially flat-funds or cuts funding for key science agencies including the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy Office of Science. Additionally, the bill cuts need-based student aid, making it more difficult for low-income students to attend college and contribute to the nation's economy—€¦ The America Competes Act has little meaning if it is not funded and this bill does not fund it. We will work with Congress and the president in hopes that they begin to fulfill that commitment next year [for the FY2009 budget], because this year has been a severe disappointment."

Even though the dust hasn't settled on the FY2008 budget, The federal spending proposal for FY2009 is due to be sent to Congress shortly and that will mark merely the opening shot in the election-year battle of the budget.

Will America Competes be fully funded this time around? It all depends on where it lands on the priority list, which is getting longer and longer. You might want to ask your elected representatives where it is on their priority lists.