WASHINGTON – With a boost from the new Democratic leadership, Congress this spring is starting to approve key elements of the “innovation agenda” that tech leaders and House members from the Bay Area have sought for years, including more spending for basic science education and research.
While other elements of the tech agenda, including patent reform and a boost in foreign-worker visas, are moving more slowly, the House this week is expected to almost double funding for the National Science Foundation over the next four years and increase other research spending. Last week the Senate also approved a funding increase for the foundation, which supports about 200,000 scientists, engineers and educators each year.
After votes in the House last week, Congress is also on track to approve about $1.5 billion in grants to train 10,000 more math and science teachers each year, and increase in-service training for current instructors.
It’s too early to say whether these increases will boost research and investment in green technology, including renewable energy sources, which has become a major industry in Silicon Valley. But last week, the House Science and Technology Committee got a pitch from several business leaders, analysts and one of the Bay Area’s leading venture capitalists, John Denniston, urging lawmakers to focus more attention and money on alternative energy.
Foreign competition
“This country is going to have to spend a lot more money on research and development” on green technology “or we will cede the territory to other countries,” said Denniston, a partner with Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. He said Japan and several European nations were ahead of the United States in investing in solar, wind and other alternative sources.
Citing the need to tackle global warming, clean-tech experts and investors are hoping that a boost in federal research spending will replicate what happened about 30 years ago, when defense research spending aided emerging information technology companies, and a big increase in federally funded medical research helped launch biotech firms.
“The federal government’s funding role had a mighty impact,” Denniston said. “Without it, U.S. biotechnology and Internet industries would surely not be as advanced as they are today.”
Increases in research spending would benefit California. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, said about 20 percent of all National Science Foundation grants go to recipients in the state. California’s schools will need 16,000 new math and science teachers within five years, according to the California Council on Science and Technology.
So far, the increased spending has broad bipartisan support. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a San Francisco Democrat, has made it a priority and the Bush administration has been supportive. Last week’s Senate bill passed 88-8 and two House bills passed with overwhelming support from both parties.
“I’m a fiscal conservative, but the dollars we invest in basic research will come back to us in spades in terms of stimulating economic activity and helping the United States remain at the forefront of global innovation,” said Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev.
Tech representatives in Washington celebrated the progress. Lezlee Westine, president of TechNet, representing a group of tech CEOs, and Phil Bond, president of the Information Technology Association of America, praised the bipartisan backing for more spending.
Points of contention
The argument about protecting U.S. jobs and companies, especially start-ups, will be helpful when the final dollar amounts for research increases are hammered out later this year. But other elements of the tech agenda are more contentious and their passage is problematic. Two examples:
More visas for foreign engineers and other tech workers. There is widespread support in Congress for increasing the cap on H-1B visas, but the issue is tied up in the bigger controversies over immigration. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a San Jose Democrat who chairs the House immigration subcommittee, said she wants a comprehensive bill and doesn’t want to split off the visa issue.
Patent reform. Software and other IT companies back legislation that would allow patents to be challenged, while at the same time providing protection from paying out huge damages in patent cases. But they face strong opposition from drug companies, who are very protective of their lucrative patents and want the ability to fend off challenges and make sure violators pay large damages. And on Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court issued rulings in two cases that experts say devalue patents and could hurt innovation.
New agency proposed
Another tech idea, perhaps the most innovative proposal to emerge this year, would be to create a new agency, modeled after the Cold War-era Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which developed the precursor to the Internet, to tackle alternative and renewable energy projects.
Rep. Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., chairman of the Science Committee, is backing a bill to create a flexible, independent agency – dubbed the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy – that would have the funding and mission to launch “high-risk, high-return” projects aiming for breakthroughs in energy technology.
Gordon’s plan includes funding that would grow from $300 million to almost $1 billion in five years. But the energy experts who testified last week said that level of funding was deficient, given the importance of developing fuel alternatives to gas and coal as a way of curbing carbon emissions.
“With the huge investment in oil and gas, $1 billion for clean alternatives is woefully under-funded,” said Stephen Forrest, vice president for research at the University of Michigan.
The Department of Energy’s total budget for energy research and development dropped 85 percent from 1978 to 2005, according to a recent Government Accountability Office report requested by Gordon and Rep. Mike Honda, a San Jose Democrat.
Denniston of Kleiner Perkins said more government funding would help accelerate breakthroughs and increase private investment in clean technology.
“As a voter and an American,” he said, “I’m frustrated that we’re facing a crisis and we can’t find the budget to deal with it.”
Frank Davies can be reached at fdavies@mercurynews.com or (202) 662-8921.
