[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 23 (Monday, March 7, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[Congressional Record: March 7, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
NATIONAL COMPETITIVENESS ACT
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the hour of 1:30
p.m. having arrived, the Senate will now proceed to the consideration
of S. 4, which the clerk will report.
The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:
A bill (S. 4) to promote the industrial competitiveness and
economic growth of the United States by strengthening and
expanding the civilian technology programs of the Department
of Commerce, amending the Stevenson-Wydler Technology
Innovation Act of 1980 to enhance the development and
nationwide deployment of manufacturing technologies, and
authorizing appropriations for the Technology Administration
of the Department of Commerce, including the National
Institute of Standards and Technology, and for other
purposes.
The Senate proceeded to consider the bill, which had been reported
from the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, with an
amendment to strike out all after the enacting clause and insert in
lieu thereof the following:
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS.
(a) Short Title.--This Act may be cited as the ``National
Competitiveness Act of 1993''.
(b) Table of Contents.--
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.
TITLE I--GENERAL PROVISIONS
Sec. 101. Findings.
Sec. 102. Purposes.
Sec. 103. Definitions.
TITLE II--MANUFACTURING
Sec. 201. Short title.
Subtitle A--Manufacturing Technology and Extension
Sec. 211. Findings and purpose.
Sec. 212. Manufacturing technology and extension amendments to the
Stevenson-Wydler Act.
Sec. 213. Miscellaneous and conforming amendments.
Sec. 214. Manufacturing Technology Centers.
Sec. 215. State Technology Extension Program.
Sec. 216. American workforce quality.
Sec. 217. Report on options for accelerating the adoption of new
manufacturing equipment.
Subtitle B--National Science Foundation Manufacturing Programs
Sec. 221. National Science Foundation manufacturing activities.
TITLE III--CRITICAL TECHNOLOGIES
Sec. 301. Findings.
Sec. 302. Development of plan for the Advanced Technology Program.
Sec. 303. Advanced Technology Program support of large-scale joint
ventures.
Sec. 304. Technical amendments.
Sec. 305. Technology financing pilot program.
Sec. 306. Technology monitoring and competitiveness assessment.
Sec. 307. Commerce Technology Advisory Board.
Sec. 308. Study of semiconductor lithography technologies.
TITLE IV--ADDITIONAL COMMERCE DEPARTMENT PROVISIONS
Sec. 401. International standardization.
Sec. 402. Malcolm Baldrige Award.
Sec. 403. Cooperative research and development agreements.
Sec. 404. Clearinghouse on State and Local Initiatives.
Sec. 405. Use of domestic products.
Sec. 406. Severability.
Sec. 407. Wind engineering research program.
TITLE V--AUTHORIZATIONS OF APPROPRIATIONS
Sec. 501. Technology Administration.
Sec. 502. National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Sec. 503. Additional activities of the Technology Administration.
Sec. 504. National Science Foundation.
Sec. 505. Availability of appropriations.
TITLE VI--INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY APPLICATIONS RESEARCH PROGRAM
Sec. 601. Short title.
Sec. 602. Findings and purpose.
Sec. 603. Information technology applications research program.
Sec. 604. Network access.
Sec. 605. Applications for education.
Sec. 606. Applications for manufacturing.
Sec. 607. Applications for health care.
Sec. 608. Applications for libraries.
Sec. 609. Applications for government information.
Sec. 610. High-performance computing and applications advisory
committee.
Sec. 611. National Research and Education Network amendments.
Sec. 612. Conforming amendments.
TITLE I--GENERAL PROVISIONS
SEC. 101. FINDINGS.
Congress finds and declares the following:
(1) In an increasingly competitive world economy, the
companies and nations which lead in the rapid development,
commercialization, and application of new technologies, and
in the low-priced, high-quality manufacture of products based
on those technologies, will lead in economic growth,
employment, and high living standards.
(2) While the United States remains the world leader in
science and invention, it has not done as well as it should
in commercializing and manufacturing new inventions. This lag
and the unprecedented competitive challenge that the Nation
has faced from abroad have contributed to a drop in real
wages, living standards, and employment opportunities.
(3) While the private sector must take the lead in the
development, application, and manufacture of new
technologies, the Federal Government should--
(A) assist industry in the development of high-risk, long-
term precommercial technologies which promise large economic
benefits for the Nation;
(B) support industry-led efforts to develop and refine
advanced manufacturing technologies, including technologies
which improve productivity and quality and which build upon
and enhance employee skills;
(C) work with States, the private sector, worker
organizations, and technical and professional societies to
help small- and medium-sized manufacturers throughout the
Nation to adopt best current manufacturing technologies and
practices, to improve worker skills, to establish high-
performance work organizations, and to prepare, as
appropriate, to adopt the advanced computer-controlled
manufacturing technologies of the 21st century; and
(D) cooperate with industry and academia to help create an
advanced information infrastructure for the United States.
(4) In working with industry to promote the technological
leadership and economic growth of the United States, the
Federal Government also has a responsibility to consult with
business and labor leaders on industry's long-term
technological and skill needs, to monitor technological
trends, production process trends, and technology targeting
efforts in other nations, and generally to ensure that
Federal technology and industrial modernization programs help
United States industry to remain competitive and create good
domestic jobs.
(5) The Department of Commerce, and particularly its
Technology Administration and National Institute of Standards
and Technology, should continue to help commercial industry
to speed the development and commercialization of new
technologies, improve and modernize manufacturing, adopt new
methods of production, and ensure a growing and healthy
national industrial base and good manufacturing jobs. To
promote the long-term economic growth of the Nation, these
Department of Commerce programs should be strengthened and
expanded.
SEC. 102. PURPOSES.
The purposes of this Act are to--
(1) strengthen and expand the ability of Federal technology
programs, particularly those of the Department of Commerce,
to support industry-led and State-supported efforts to
improve the technological capabilities, manufacturing
performance, information infrastructure, and employment
opportunities of the United States;
(2) promote and facilitate, particularly through the
Advanced Technology Program of the Department of Commerce,
the creation, development, and adoption of technologies that
will contribute significantly to United States economic
competitiveness, employment, high quality jobs, and
prosperity;
(3) develop a nationwide network of sources of
technological and industrial modernization advice for
manufacturers, particularly small- and medium-sized firms,
and to provide high quality, current information to that
network;
(4) encourage the development and rapid application of
advanced manufacturing technologies and processes and of
advanced workplace practices;
(5) encourage cooperation among Federal departments and
agencies to help firms, managers, and workers, in a
coordinated fashion, to take full advantage of manufacturing
technology, to improve productivity and quality, and adopt
high-performance work organizations which successfully
integrate technology and employees;
(6) stimulate the flow of capital to business concerns
engaged principally in development or utilization of critical
civilian and other advanced technologies;
(7) ensure the widest possible application of high-
performance computing and high-speed networking and to aid
United States industry to develop an advanced national
information infrastructure; and
(8) enhance and expand the core programs of the National
Institute of Standards and Technology.
SEC 103. DEFINITIONS.
For purposes of this Act----
(1) the term ``advanced manufacturing technologies''
includes----
(A) numerically-controlled machine tools, robots, automated
process control equipment, computerized flexible
manufacturing systems, associated computer software, and
other technology for improving manufacturing and industrial
production which advance the state-of-the-art and promote
high-performance, high-skills systems; and
(B) equipment and processes designed to improve
manufacturing quality, productivity, and practice, and to
promote sustainable development, including engineering
design, quality assurance, concurrent engineering, continuous
process production technology, energy efficiency, waste
minimization, design for recyclability or parts reuse,
inventory management, and enhanced worker skills;
(2) the term ``advanced workplace practices'' means
innovations in work organization and performance, including
high-performance workplace systems, flexible production
techniques, quality programs, continuous improvement,
concurrent engineering, close relations between suppliers and
customers, lean manufacturing systems, widely diffused
decision-making and work teams, and effective integration of
production technology, worker skills and training, and
workplace organization;
(3) the term ``Director'' means the Director of the
Institute;
(4) the term ``Institute'' means the National Institute of
Standards and Technology;
(5) the term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary of Commerce;
(6) the term ``source reduction'' has the meaning given
that term in section 6603 of the Pollution Prevention Act of
1990 (42 U.S.C. 13102); and
(7) the term ``Under Secretary'' means the Under Secretary
of Commerce for Technology.
TITLE II--MANUFACTURING
SEC. 201. SHORT TITLE.
This title may be cited as the ``Manufacturing Technology
and Extension Act of 1993''.
Subtitle A--Manufacturing Technology and Extension
SEC. 211. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE.
(a) Findings.--Congress finds and declares the following:
(1) United States manufacturers, especially small
businesses, require the adoption and implementation of both
modern (that is, appropriate and currently available)
technology and advanced manufacturing and process
technologies to meet the challenge of foreign competition.
(2) The development and deployment of modern and advanced
manufacturing technologies are vital to the economic growth,
environmental sustainability, standard of living,
competitiveness in world markets, and national security of
the United States.
(3) New developments in flexible, computer-integrated
manufacturing, electronic manufacturing communications
networks, and other new technologies make possible dramatic
improvements across all industrial sectors in productivity,
quality, and the speed with which manufacturers can respond
to changing market opportunities.
(4) The Department of Commerce's Technology Administration,
in cooperation with other Federal departments and agencies,
can continue to play an important role in assisting United
Stated industry to develop, test, and deploy modern and
advanced manufacturing technologies and advanced workplace
practices.
(b) Purpose.--It is the purpose of this subtitle to help
ensure the continued leadership of the United States in
manufacturing by enhancing the Department of Commerce's
technology programs to--
(1) provide domestic manufacturers, especially small- and
medium-sized companies and their workforces, with ready
access to high quality advice and assistance in the
development, deployment, and improvement of modern
manufacturing technology, and in solving their specific
technology-based problems; and
(2) encourage, facilitate, and promote the development and
adoption of advanced manufacturing technologies and advanced
workplace practices by the private sector.
SEC. 212. MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY AND EXTENSION AMENDMENTS
TO THE STEVENSON-WYDLER ACT.
The Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980 (15
U.S.C. 3701 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the
following new title:
``TITLE II--MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY
``SEC. 301. STATEMENT OF POLICY.
``Congress declares that it is the policy of the United
States that--
``(1) Federal agencies, particularly the Department of
Commerce, shall work with industry and labor to ensure that
within 10 years of the date of enactment of this title the
United States is second to no other nation in the
development, deployment, and use of advanced manufacturing
technologies;
``(2) all the major Federal research and development
agencies shall place a high priority on the development and
deployment of skill-based and advanced manufacturing
technologies, and shall work closely with United States
industry and with the Nation's universities to develop and
test those technologies;
``(3) since the development of new skills in the existing
and entry workforce, and the development of new
organizational and managerial approaches, are integral parts
of successfully deploying advanced manufacturing and related
technologies, advanced workplace practices should be
developed and deployed simultaneously and in a coordinated
fashion with the development and deployment of advanced
manufacturing technologies; and
``(4) other Federal departments and agencies which work
with civilian industry and labor may, as appropriate and
consistent with applicable statutes and duties, work with the
Department of Commerce.
``SEC. 302. ROLE OF THE DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE.
``(a) In General.--The Department of Commerce shall,
consistent with the policy declared in section 301, work with
United States industry and labor and, as appropriate, other
Federal departments and agencies to--
``(1) help develop new generic advanced manufacturing
technologies, including advanced flexible computer-integrated
manufacturing systems and electronic communications networks;
``(2) assist the States and the private sector to help
United States manufacturers, especially small- and medium-
sized manufacturing enterprises, to adopt best current
manufacturing technologies and workplace practices and, as
appropriate, new advanced manufacturing equipment and
techniques; and
``(3) work with the private sector, other Federal
departments and agencies, State and local governments, and
educational institutions as a catalyst to help develop new
manufacturing business practices and arrangements, accounting
standards, improved supplier-customer relations,
manufacturing modernization and investment justification
strategies, and other steps which would accelerate the
development, deployment, and use of advanced manufacturing
technologies by United States industry, as well as evaluate
foreign programs to modernize manufacturing.
``(b) Twenty-First Century Manufacturing Infrastructure
Program.--(1) As one important step to carry out the
responsibilities of the Department of Commerce under
subsection (a), there is established within the Institute a
Twenty-First Century Manufacturing Infrastructure Program,
which shall include--
``(A) the Advanced Manufacturing Technology Development
Program established under section 303 of this Act; and
``(B) the Manufacturing Extension Partnership established
under section 304 of this Act and the associated programs
established under sections 25 and 26 of the National
Institute of Standards and Technology Act (15 U.S.C. 278k and
278l).
``(2) The Secretary, through the Under Secretary and the
Director, may accept the transfer of funds from any other
Federal agency and may use those funds to implement the
Twenty-First Century Manufacturing Infrastructure Program and
support its activities.
``SEC. 303. ADVANCED MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT
PROGRAM.
``(a) Program Direction.--The Secretary, through the Under
Secretary and the Director, shall establish an Advanced
Manufacturing Technology Development Program which shall
include advanced manufacturing systems and networking
projects.
``(b) Program Goal.--The goal of the Advanced Manufacturing
Technology Development Program is to create collaborative
multiyear technology development programs involving United
States industry and, as appropriate, other Federal agencies,
the States, worker organizations, universities, and other
interested persons, in order to develop, refine, test, and
transfer design and manufacturing technologies and associated
applications, including advanced computer integration, skill-
based manufacturing systems, networking, and electronic data
exchange.
``(c) Program Components.--The Advanced Manufacturing
Technology Development Program shall include--
``(1) the advanced manufacturing research and development
activities of the Institute; and
``(2) one or more technology development testbeds within
the United States, selected in accordance with procedures,
including cost sharing, established for the Advanced
Technology Program under section 28 of the National Institute
of Standards and Technology Act (15 U.S.C. 278n), whose
purpose shall be to develop, refine, test, and transfer
advanced manufacturing and networking technologies and
associated applications through a direct manufacturing
process.
``(d) Activities.--The Advanced Manufacturing Technology
Development Program, under the coordination of the Secretary,
through the Director and, as appropriate, in consultation
with other Federal officials, shall--
``(1) test and, as appropriate, develop the equipment,
computer software, and systems integration necessary for the
successful operation within the United States of advanced
design and manufacturing systems and associated electronic
networks, with an emphasis on technologies which both promote
United States economic competitiveness and build on and
expand the skills of United States workers;
``(2) establish at the Institute and the technology
development testbed or testbeds--
``(A) prototype advanced computer-integrated manufacturing
systems; and
``(B) prototype electronic networks linking manufacturing
systems, including networks linking customer firms and
supplier firms;
``(3) assist industry to develop and implement voluntary
consensus standards relevant to advanced computer-integrated
manufacturing operations, including standards for networks,
electronic data interchange, and digital product data
specifications;
``(4) help to make high-performance computing and
networking technologies an integral part of design and
production processes where appropriate;
``(5) conduct research to identify and overcome technical
barriers to the successful and cost-effective operation of
advanced manufacturing systems and networks;
``(6) facilitate industry efforts to develop and test new
applications for manufacturing systems and networks,
including both highly flexible and low-pollution
manufacturing technologies;
``(7) conduct research in advanced workplace practices
related to and necessary for the successful deployment of
advanced manufacturing technologies;
``(8) involve in the Advanced Manufacturing Technology
Development Program, to the maximum extent practicable, both
those United States companies which make manufacturing and
computer equipment and a broad range of personnel from those
companies which buy the equipment;
``(9) identify training needs, as appropriate, for company
managers, engineers, and employees in the operation and
applications of advanced manufacturing technologies and
networks, with a particular emphasis on training for
production workers in the effective use of new technologies;
``(10) work with private industry, worker organizations,
the Department of Labor, technical and professional
societies, universities, and other interested parties to
develop standards for the use of advanced computer-based
training systems, including multimedia and interactive
learning technologies that assure that production workers
effectively learn, adapt, and utilize advanced manufacturing
technologies and workplace practices;
``(11) involve small- and medium-sized manufacturers in its
activities;
``(12) exchange information and personnel, as appropriate,
between the technology development testbeds and the
electronic networks created under this section; and
``(13) incorporate and experiment with source reduction
techniques and technologies at the testbed or testbeds,
consulting, as appropriate, with other Federal officials.
``(e) Testbed Awards.--(1) In selecting applicants to
receive awards under subsection (c)(2), the Secretary shall
give particular consideration to applications that have
existing computer expertise in the management of business,
product, and process information such as digital data product
and process technologies and customer-supplier information
systems, and the ability to diffuse such expertise into
industry, and that, in the case of joint research and
development ventures, include both suppliers and users of
advanced manufacturing and computer equipment or systems.
``(2) An industry-led joint research and development
venture applying for an award under subsection (c)(2) may
include one or more State research organizations,
universities, independent research organizations, or Regional
Centers for the Transfer of Manufacturing Technology, as
created under section 25 of the National Institute of
Standards and Technology Act (15 U.S.C. 278k).
``(f) Advice and Assistance.--(1) Within 6 months after the
date of enactment of this title, and before any request for
proposals is issued, the Secretary shall hold one or more
workshops to solicit advice from United States industry and
worker organizations and from other Federal agencies,
particularly the Departments of Defense and Labor, regarding
the specific missions and activities of the testbeds.
``(2) The Secretary shall, to the greatest extent possible,
coordinate activities under this section with activities of
other Federal agencies and initiatives relating to Computer-
Aided Acquisition and Logistics Support, electronic data
interchange, flexible computer-integrated manufacturing, and
enterprise integration.
``(3) The Secretary may request and accept funds,
facilities, equipment, or personnel from other Federal
agencies in order to carry out responsibilities under this
section.
``(g) Application of Antitrust Laws.--Nothing in this
section shall be construed to create any immunity to any
civil or criminal action under any Federal or State antitrust
law, or to alter or restrict in any manner the applicability
of any Federal or State antitrust law.
``SEC. 304. MANUFACTURING EXTENSION PARTNERSHIP.
``(a) Establishment and Purpose.--There is established a
Manufacturing Extension Partnership (hereafter in this
section referred to as the `Partnership'). The Secretary,
acting through the Under Secretary and the Director, shall
implement and coordinate the Partnership in accordance with
an initial plan that shall be prepared and submitted to
Congress within 6 months after the date of enactment of this
title and a 5-year plan for the Partnership that shall be
submitted to Congress within 1 year after such date of
enactment. The 5-year plan shall be updated and submitted to
Congress annually. The purpose of the Partnership is to link
and strengthen the Nation's manufacturing extension centers
and activities in order to assist United States
manufacturers, especially small- and medium-sized firms, to
expand and accelerate the use of modern manufacturing
practices, and to accelerate the development and use of
advanced manufacturing technology and advanced workplace
practices.
``(b) Components.--The Partnership shall be a cooperative
effort of the Department of Commerce, the States, industry
and labor, nonprofit organizations, and, as appropriate,
other Federal agencies to provide a national system of
manufacturing extension centers and technical services to
United States companies, particularly small- and medium-sized
manufacturers. The Partnership shall include the following
components:
``(1) Manufacturing Outreach Centers, as authorized under
subsection (c);
``(2) Regional Centers for the Transfer of Manufacturing
Technology, as established under section 25 of the National
Institute of Standards and Technology Act (15 U.S.C. 278k),
and the State Technology Extension Program, as established
under section 26 of the National Institute of Standards and
Technology Act (15 U.S.C. 278l);
``(3) an activity, coordinated and funded by the Institute,
which links and supports Manufacturing Outreach Centers and
Regional Centers for the Transfer of Manufacturing
Technology, and which operates the information network
provided for under subsection (d) and the clearinghouse
system developed under subsection (e); and
``(4) such technology and manufacturing extension centers
supported by other Federal departments and agencies, States,
industry, and nonprofit organizations as the Secretary may
deem appropriate for inclusion in the Partnership.
``(c) Manufacturing Outreach Centers.--(1) Government and
private sector organizations, actively engaged in technology
or manufacturing extension activities, may apply to the
Secretary to be designated as Manufacturing Outreach Centers.
Eligible organizations may include Federal, State, and local
government agencies, their extension programs, and their
laboratories; small business development centers; and
appropriate programs run by professional and technical
societies, worker organizations, industrial organizations,
for-profit or nonprofit organizations, community development
organizations, State universities and other universities,
community colleges, and technical schools and colleges,
including, where appropriate, vendor-supported demonstrations
of production applications.
``(2) Any Regional Center for the Transfer of Manufacturing
Technology may apply to the Secretary to establish a
Manufacturing Outreach Center, managed by or in cooperation
with such Regional Center, which extends the effective
service area of such Regional Center. Funding for the
establishment and management of such Outreach Center may be
awarded to such Regional Center, notwithstanding the
restrictions of paragraph (5).
``(3) The Secretary shall establish terms and conditions of
participation and may provide financial assistance, on a
cost-shared basis and through competitive, merit-based review
processes, to nonprofit or government participants throughout
the United States to enable them to--
``(A) join the Partnership and disseminate its technical
and information services to United States manufacturing
firms, particularly small- and medium-sized firms; and
``(B) strengthen their direct assistance to small- and
medium-sized United States manufacturing firms to expand and
accelerate the use of modern and advanced manufacturing
practices.
``(4) If a State plan for technology extension exists in a
State where an applicant for financial assistance under this
subsection is operating or plans to operate, the applicant
shall demonstrate in its application that its proposal is
compatible with such State plan.
``(5) If a Manufacturing Outreach Center is in or near a
State which has a Regional Center for the Transfer of
Manufacturing Technology, the Director shall, as appropriate,
encourage the Outreach Center to cooperate with the Regional
Center in coordinating its proposals and ongoing programs to
serve manufacturers in the region. Manufacturing Outreach
Centers may not concurrently be designated as Regional
Centers for the Transfer of Manufacturing Technology under
section 25 of the National Institute of Standards and
Technology Act.
``(6) Financial assistance may be awarded under this
subsection for an initial period not to exceed 3 years and
may, subject to successful evaluation by the Institute, be
renewed for additional periods, not to exceed 3 years each.
Such assistance may not at any time exceed 50 percent of the
operating costs and in-kind contributions of the recipient.
``(d) Manufacturing Extension Information Network.--The
Department of Commerce shall provide for an instantaneous,
interactive information network to serve the Partnership, to
facilitate interaction among Manufacturing Outreach Centers,
Regional Centers for the Transfer of Manufacturing
Technology, and Federal agencies, and to permit the
collection and dissemination in electronic form, in a timely
and accurate manner, of information described in subsection
(e). Such information network shall, wherever practicable,
make use of existing computer networks, data bases, and
electronic bulletin boards. Information network arrangements,
including user fees and appropriate electronic access for
information suppliers and users, shall be addressed in the 5-
year plan prepared under subsection (a). The Secretary shall,
to the extent practicable, coordinate these information
network activities with the relevant activities of other
Federal agencies, particularly the advanced manufacturing and
enterprise integration activities of the Department of
Defense.
``(e) Clearinghouse.--(1) The Secretary shall develop a
clearinghouse system, using the Institute, the National
Technical Information Service, and private sector information
providers and carriers, where appropriate, to--
``(A) identify expertise and acquire information,
appropriate to the purpose of the Partnership stated in
subsection (a), from all available Federal sources, and where
appropriate from other sources, providing assistance where
necessary in making such information electronically available
and compatible with the information network established under
subsection (d);
``(B) ensure ready access by United States manufacturers
and other interested private sector parties to the most
recent relevant available such information and expertise; and
``(C) to the extent practicable, inform such manufacturers
of the availability of such information.
``(2) The clearinghouse shall include information available
electronically regarding--
``(A) activities of Manufacturing Outreach Centers,
Regional Centers for the Transfer of Manufacturing
Technology, the State Technology Extension Program, and the
users of the information network;
``(B) domestic and international standards from the
Institute and private sector organizations and other export
promotion information, including conformity assessment
requirements and procedures;
``(C) the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award program,
and quality principles and standards;
``(D) manufacturing processes that minimize waste and
negative environmental impact;
``(E) advanced workplace practices that can improve
quality, response time, and flexibility in manufacturing;
``(F) federally funded technology development and transfer
programs;
``(G) responsibilities assigned to the Clearinghouse for
State and Local Initiatives on Productivity, Technology, and
Innovation under section 102;
``(H) how to access data bases and services;
``(I) skills training, particularly for production workers,
that is available through trade and professional
organizations, federally supported programs, State resources,
private industry, or other organizations; and
``(J) other subjects relevant to the ability of companies
to manufacture and sell competitive products throughout the
world.
``(f) Principles.--In carrying out this section, the
Department of Commerce shall take into consideration the
following principles:
``(1) The Partnership and the information network provided
for under subsection (d) shall be established and operated
through cooperation and co-funding among Federal, State and
local governments, other public and private contributors, and
end users.
``(2) The Partnership and the information network shall
utilize and leverage, to the extent practicable, existing
organizations, data bases, electronic networks, facilities,
and capabilities, and shall be designed to complement rather
than supplant State and local programs.
``(3) The Partnership should, to the extent practicable,
involve key stakeholders at all levels in the planning and
governance of modernization strategies; concentrate on
assisting local clusters of firms; assist rural as well as
urban manufacturers; promote collaborative learning and
cooperative action among manufacturers; link industrial
modernization programs tightly to existing and future Federal
training initiatives, including those for youth
apprenticeship programs and for assisting other workers;
encourage small firms to seek modernization services by
working with major manufacturers to strengthen and coordinate
their supplier assessment, certification, and development
programs; encourage small firms, as appropriate, to select
manufacturing equipment and practices which build upon and
expand the skills of their employees; identify and honor best
practices by firms and the programs that support them,
including both technology and workplace practices; provide
funding based on performance and ensure rigorous evaluation
of extension services; as appropriate, coordinate Federal
programs that support manufacturing modernization; work with
Federal, State, local, and private organizations so that
Manufacturing Outreach Centers and Regional Centers for the
Transfer of Manufacturing Technology can provide referrals to
other important business services, such as assistance with
financing, training, and exporting, and contribute to local
business climates supportive of high-performance
manufacturing.
``(4) The Partnership and the information network provided
for under subsection (d) shall be subject to all applicable
provisions of law for the protection of trade secrets and
business confidential information.
``(5) Local or regional needs should determine the
management structure and staffing of the Manufacturing
Outreach Centers. The Partnership shall strive for
geographical balance and for balance between urban and rural
recipients, with the ultimate goal of access for all United
States manufacturers.
``(6) Manufacturing Outreach Centers should have the
capability to deliver outreach services directly to
manufacturers; actively work with, rather than supplant, the
private sector; help firms assess needs regarding technology,
workplace practices, and training; and to the extent
practicable, maximize the exposure of manufacturers to
demonstrations of modern technologies in use.
``(7) Manufacturing Outreach Centers shall focus, where
possible, on the development and deployment of flexible
manufacturing technologies and practices applicable to both
defense and commercial applications and on opportunities to
modernize operations in ways which improve productivity,
reduce waste and pollution, and increase energy efficiency.
``(8) The Department of Commerce shall develop mechanisms
for--
``(A) soliciting the perspectives of manufacturers using
the services of the Manufacturing Outreach Centers and
Regional Centers for the Transfer of Manufacturing
Technology;
``(B) assisting in the training of technology extension
agents and in helping them disseminate information on best
available manufacturing technologies, including technologies
for source reduction, and workplace practices; and
``(C) rigorously evaluating the effectiveness of the
Manufacturing Outreach Centers and other components of the
Partnership.
``(9) Nothing in this section shall be construed as
limiting or interfering with any collective bargaining
agreement. Regional Centers for the Transfer of Manufacturing
Technology and Manufacturing Outreach Centers shall, as
practicable, respect any collective bargaining agreement
which is in force at a client firm.
``(g) Dissemination of Source Reduction and Energy
Efficiency Technologies.--(1) The Regional Centers for the
Transfer of Manufacturing Technology and Manufacturing
Outreach Centers shall make available source reduction and
energy efficiency assessments to their interested client
companies. These assessments shall assist such interested
client companies in identifying opportunities for energy
conservation and source reduction, and thus reduce operating
costs, through either improvement in manufacturing processes
or the purchase of new equipment.
``(2) The Secretary is authorized to work with other
appropriate Federal officials and other parties to provide
employees of Regional Centers and Outreach Centers with the
training needed to carry out the assessments specified in
paragraph (1).
``SEC. 305. INDUSTRY-LED MANUFACTURING ADVISORY COMMITTEE.
``(a) Establishment.--The Director of the Office of Science
and Technology Policy, after consultation with the Secretary
and other appropriate Federal officials, shall establish a
Manufacturing Advisory Committee (hereafter in this section
referred to as the `Committee'), led by United States
industry officials, to provide to the Director of the Office
of Science and Technology Policy advice and, as appropriate,
guidance to Federal manufacturing programs.
``(b) Functions.--The Committee shall--
``(1) collect and analyze information on the range of
factors which determine the success of United States-based
manufacturing industries, and particularly factors regarding
the development and deployment of advanced manufacturing
technologies and the application of best manufacturing
practices;
``(2) identify areas where appropriate cooperation between
the Federal Government and industry and labor, including
Government support for industry-led joint research and
development ventures and for manufacturing extension
activities, would enhance United States industrial
competitiveness, and provide advice and guidance for such
cooperative efforts;
``(3) provide guidance on what Federal policies and
practices are necessary to strengthen United States-based
manufacturing, particularly Federal policies and practices
regarding research budgets, interagency coordination and
initiatives, technology transfer, regulation, and
procurement; and
``(4) generally develop recommendations for guiding Federal
agency and interagency activities related to United States-
based manufacturing.
``(c) Membership and Procedures.--(1) The Committee shall
be composed of 16 members, of whom--
``(A) 6 members shall be the Director of the Office of
Science and Technology Policy, the Secretary, the Secretary
of Defense, the Secretary of Energy, the Secretary of Labor,
and the Director of the National Science Foundation, or their
designees; and
``(B) 10 members shall, within 120 days after the date of
enactment of this title, be appointed by the President,
acting through the Director of the Office of Science and
Technology Policy, from the private manufacturing industry,
worker organizations, technical and professional societies,
State technology agencies, and academia.
At least two of the members appointed under subparagraph (B)
shall be from small business.
``(2) The Director of the Office of Science and Technology
Policy or such Director's designee shall chair the Committee.
``(3) The chairman shall call the first meeting of the
Committee within 30 days after the appointment of members is
completed.
``(4) The Committee may use such personnel detailed from
Federal agencies as may be necessary to enable it to perform
its functions.
``(5) Nine members of the Committee shall constitute a
quorum for the transaction of business.
``(6) Members of the Committee, other than full-time
employees of the Federal Government, while attending meetings
of the Committee or otherwise performing duties of the
Committee while away from their homes or regular places of
business, shall be allowed travel expenses in accordance with
subchapter I of chapter 57 of title 5, United States Code.
``(7) The Committee shall submit a report of its activities
once every year after its establishment to the President, the
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the
Senate, and the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology
of the House of Representatives.
``(8) The Committee, as appropriate, shall work with the
Commerce Technology Advisory Board established under section
113 of this Act and with other appropriate Federal advisory
mechanisms to ensure integrated Federal-private consideration
of technology and manufacturing policies and programs.
``(d) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are
authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section such
sums as may be necessary for the fiscal years 1994 and
1995.''.
SEC. 213. MISCELLANEOUS AND CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.
(a) Definitions.--Section 4 of the Stevenson-Wydler
Technology Innovation Act of 1980 (15 U.S.C. 3703) is amended
by adding at the end of the following new paragraphs:
``(14) `Director' means the Director of the National
Institute of Standards and Technology.
``(15) `Institute' means the National Institute of
Standards and Technology.
``(16) `Assistant Secretary' means the Assistant Secretary
of Commerce for Technology Policy.
``(17) `Advanced manufacturing technology' includes--
``(A) numerically-controlled machine tools, robots,
automated process control equipment, computerized flexible
manufacturing systems, associated computer software, and
other technology for improving manufacturing and industrial
production which advance the state-of-the-art; and
``(B) novel techniques and work organization processes
designed to improve manufacturing quality, productivity, and
practices, and to promote sustainable development, including
engineering design, quality assurance, concurrent
engineering, continuous process production technology, energy
efficiency, waste minimization, design for recyclability or
parts reuse, inventory management, upgraded worker skills,
and communications with customers and suppliers.
``(18) `Modern technology' means the best available proven
technology, techniques, and processes appropriate to
enhancing the productivity of manufacturers.''.
(b) Redesignations.--The Stevenson-Wydler Technology
Innovation Act of 1980 (15 U.S.C. 3701 et seq.) is amended--
(1) by inserting immediately after section 4 the following
new title heading:
``TITLE I--DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE AND RELATED PROGRAMS'';
(2) by redesignating sections 5 through 10 as sections 101
through 106, respectively;
(3) by striking section 21;
(4) by redesignating sections 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, and 22,
as sections 107 through 112, respectively;
(5) by inserting immediately after section 113 (as
redesignated by paragraph (4) of this subsection) the
following new title heading:
``TITLE II--FEDERAL TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER'';
(6) by redesignating sections 11 through 15 as sections 201
through 205, respectively;
(7) by redesignating section 23 as section 206;
(8) in section 4--
(A) by striking ``section 5'' and inserting in lieu thereof
``section 101''; and by striking ``section 5(b)(1)'' and
inserting in lieu thereof ``section 101(b)(1)'';
(B) in paragraphs (4) and (6), by striking ``section 6''
and ``section 8'' each place they appear and inserting in
lieu thereof ``section 102'' and ``section 104'',
respectively; and
(C) in paragraph (13), by striking ``section 6'' and
inserting in lieu thereof ``section 102'';
(9) in section 105 (as redesignated by paragraph (2) of
this subsection) by striking ``section 6(a)'' and inserting
in lieu thereof ``section 102(a)''; by striking ``section
6(b)'' and inserting in lieu thereof ``section 102(b)''; and
by striking ``section 6(c)(3)'' and inserting in lieu thereof
``section 102(c)(3)'';
(10) in section 106(d) (as redesignated by paragraph (2) of
this subsection) by striking ``7, 9, 11, 15, 17, or 20'' and
inserting in lieu thereof ``103, 105, 108, 111, 201, or
205'';
(11) in section 201(i) (as redesignated by paragraph (6) of
this subsection)--
(A) by inserting ``loan, lease, or'' immediately after
``may''; and
(B) by inserting ``Actions taken under this subsection
shall not be subject to Federal requirements on the disposal
of property.'' immediately after ``activities.'';
(12) in section 202(b) (as redesignated by paragraph (6) of
this subsection) by striking ``section 14(a)(1)(B) (i), (ii),
and (iv)'' and inserting in lieu thereof ``section
204(a)(1)(B) (i), (ii), and (iv)'';
(13) in section 204(a)(1) (as redesignated by paragraph (6)
of this subsection) by striking ``section 12'' and inserting
in lieu thereof ``section 202'';
(14) in section 112 (as redesignated by paragraph (4) of
this subsection) by striking ``sections 11, 12, and 13'' and
inserting in lieu thereof ``sections 201, 202, and 203'';
(15) in section 206 (as redesignated by paragraph (7) of
this subsection)--
(A) by striking ``section 12(d)(2)'' in the introductory
matter of subsection (a) and inserting in lieu thereof
``section 202(d)(2)'';
(B) by striking ``section 11(b)'' in subsection (a)(2) and
inserting in lieu thereof ``section 201(b)''; and
(C) by striking ``section 6(d)'' in subsection (b) and
inserting in lieu thereof ``section 102(d)'';
(16) by adding at the end of section 201 (as redesignated
by paragraph (5) of this subsection) the following new
subsection:
``(j) Additional Technology Transfer Mechanisms.--In
addition to the technology transfer mechanisms set forth in
this section and section 202, the heads of Federal
departments and agencies also may transfer technologies
through the technology transfer, extension, and deployment
programs of the Department of Commerce and the Department of
Defense.''; and
(17) in section 101(c) (as redesignated by paragraph (2) of
this subsection), by striking ``and'' at the end of paragraph
(14); by striking the period at the end of paragraph (15) and
inserting ``; and''; and by adding at the end the following
new paragraph:
``(16) engage in joint projects with any person or persons
on matters within the authority of the Department of
Commerce, accept `partnership fellows' and receive cash
donations in the course of such joint projects, and in
conjunction with the planning and operation of such joint
projects hold meetings of matters of mutual interest with
groups of interested persons without regard to any other
provision of law, in order to protect sensitive information
about United States industry and to assure industry
participation in such joint projects.''.
SEC. 214. MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY CENTERS.
(a) Amendments.--(1) Section 25(a) of the National
Institute of Standards and Technology Act (15 U.S.C. 278k(a))
is amended by striking ``and'' at the end of paragraph (4),
by striking the period at the end of paragraph (5) and
inserting in lieu thereof a semicolon, and by inserting
immediately after paragraph (5) the following new paragraphs:
``(6) the active dissemination of information on advanced
workplace practices and available education and training
programs, and the encouragement of companies to train workers
in the effective use of modern and advanced manufacturing
technologies; and
``(7) demonstration projects in which Centers work with
States, local governments, community development
organizations, worker and business organizations, and
community banks to create a business climate supportive of
high-performance manufacturing.''.
(2) Section 25(b) of the National Institute of Standards
and Technology Act (15 U.S.C. 278k(b)) is amended by striking
``and'' at the end of paragraph (2), by redesignating
paragraph (3) as paragraph (4), and by inserting immediately
after paragraph (2) the following new paragraph:
``(3) assessments of client firms' modernization needs,
assistance in implementing quality processes, and, where
needed, cooperation with training institutions to ensure that
employees, particularly production workers, receive training
in the most effective use of manufacturing technology and
advanced workplace practices; and''.
(3) Section 25(c)(5) of the National Institute of Standards
and Technology Act (15 U.S.C. 278k(c)(15)) is amended by
striking ``which are designed'' and all that follows through
the period at the end and inserting in lieu thereof ``to a
maximum of one-third Federal funding. Each Center which
receives financial assistance under this section shall be
evaluated during its sixth year of operation, and at such
subsequent times as the Secretary considers appropriate, by
an evaluation panel appointed by the Secretary in the same
manner as was the evaluation panel previously appointed. The
Secretary shall not provide funding for additional years of
the Center's operation unless the evaluation is positive and
the Secretary finds that continuation of funding furthers the
goals of the Department. Such additional Federal funding
shall not exceed one-third of the cost of the Center's
operations.''.
(4) Section 25 of the National Institute of Standards and
Technology Act (15 U.S.C. 278k et seq.) is amended by adding
at the end the following new subsection:
``(e) If a Center receives a positive evaluation during its
third year of operation, the Director may, any time after
that evaluation, contract with the Center to provide
additional technology extension or transfer services above
and beyond the baseline activities of the Center. Such
additional services may include, but are not necessarily
limited to, the development and operation of the following:
``(1) Services focused on the testing, development, and
application of manufacturing and process technologies within
specific technical fields such as advanced materials or
electronics fabrication for the purpose of assisting United
States companies, both within the Center's original service
region and in other regions, to improve manufacturing,
product design, workforce training, and production in those
specific technical fields.
``(2) Assistance to small- and medium-sized firms in fields
of manufacturing other than the field or fields originally
served by the Center.
``(3) Industrial service facilities which provide tools to
help companies with the low-cost, low-volume, rapid
prototyping of a range of new products and the refinement of
the manufacturing and process technologies necessary to make
such products.
``(4) Programs to assist small- and medium-sized
manufacturers and their employees, particularly production
workers, in the Center's region to learn and apply the
technologies, techniques, and processes associated with
systems management technology, electronic commerce, pollution
minimization, or the improvement of manufacturing
productivity.
``(5) Industry-led demonstration programs that explore the
value of innovative nonprofit manufacturing technology
consortia to provide ongoing research, technology transfer,
and worker training assistance for industrial members. An
award under this paragraph shall be for no more than $500,000
per year, and shall be subject to renewal after a 1-year
demonstration period.''.
(b) Effective Date.--The effective date of section 25(c)(5)
of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Act, as
amended by subsection (a) of this section, is August 23,
1988.
SEC. 215. STATE TECHNOLOGY EXTENSION PROGRAM.
(a) Establishment.--Section 26(a) of the National Institute
of Standards and Technology Act (15 U.S.C. 278l(a)) is
amended--
(1) by inserting immediately after ``(a)'' the following
new sentence: ``There is established within the Institute a
State Technology Extension Program.''; and
(2) by inserting ``through that Program'' immediately after
``technical assistance''.
(b) Assistance Provided by Program.--Section 26 of the
National Institute of Standards and Technology Act (15 U.S.C.
278l) is amended by adding at the end the following new
subsection:
``(c) In addition to the general authorities listed in
subsection (b), the State Technology Extension Program also
shall, through merit-based competitive review processes and
as authorizations and appropriations permit--
``(1) make awards to States and conduct workshops, pursuant
to section 5121(b) of the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness
Act of 1988 (15 U.S.C. 278l note) in order to help States
improve their planning and coordination of technology
extension activities;
``(2) assist States, particularly States which historically
have had no manufacturing or technology extension programs or
only small programs, to plan, develop, and coordinate such
programs and to help bring those State programs to a level of
performance where they can apply successfully for awards to
establish Manufacturing Outreach Centers, Regional Centers
for the Transfer of Manufacturing Technology, or both;
``(3) support industrial modernization demonstration
projects to help States create networks among small
manufacturers for the purpose of facilitating technical
assistance, group services, and improved productivity and
competitiveness;
``(4) support State efforts to develop and test innovative
ways to help small- and medium-sized manufacturers improve
their technical capabilities, including, as appropriate,
State contracts with private-sector technology transfer
companies to provide technology assistance and development
services that are beyond the current capacity of a given
State's industrial extension activities;
``(5) support State efforts designed to help small
manufacturers in rural as well as urban areas improve and
modernize their technical capabilities, including, as
appropriate, interstate efforts to achieve such end;
``(6) support State efforts to assist interested small
defense manufacturing firms to convert their production to
nondefense or dual-use purposes;
``(7) support worker technology education programs in the
States at institutions such as research universities,
community colleges, technical and professional societies,
labor education centers, labor-management committees, and
worker organizations in production technologies critical to
the Nation's future, with an emphasis on high-performance
work systems, the skills necessary to use advanced
manufacturing system well, and best production practice; and
support on-the-job training programs in the States to build
and enhance the skills of employees, particularly production
workers, in small- and medium-sized companies; and
``(8) help States develop programs to train personnel who
in turn can provide technical skills to managers and workers
of manufacturing firms.''.
SEC. 216. AMERICAN WORKFORCE QUALITY.
(a) Workforce Activities.--In addition to existing
responsibilities and authorities prescribed by law, the
Secretary, through the Director and after consultation with
the Secretary of Labor, shall direct Regional Centers for the
Transfer of Manufacturing Technology and Manufacturing
Outreach Centers to utilize, when appropriate, their
expertise and capability to assist managers and workers in
United States manufacturing firms in effectively utilizing
and operating advanced manufacturing technologies and modern
technologies--
(1) by making available assessments of the needs of United
States manufacturing firms for worker training in the
effective utilization and operation of specific technologies
the firms have adopted or are planning to adopt;
(2) by making available to United States manufacturing
firms information on commercially and publicly provided
worker training services, including those provided by United
States sources of technologies, in the effective utilization
and operation of specific technologies the firms have adopted
or are planning to adopt; and
(3) by providing information to client firms and their
workers to enable them effectively to utilize and operate
specific technologies that the firms have adopted or plan to
adopt.
(b) Workforce Analysis and Information Dissemination.--In
addition to existing responsibilities and authorities
prescribed by law, the Secretary, through the Director and in
consultation with the Secretary of Labor and other
appropriate Federal officials and with leaders of industry
and labor, shall assist managers and other workers in United
States manufacturing firms in effectively utilizing and
operating advanced manufacturing technologies and modern
technologies--
(1) by establishing and managing a clearinghouse for
information, to be available through an appropriate entity to
the Regional Centers for the Transfer of Manufacturing
Technology, to the Manufacturing Outreach Centers when they
are established, to other technology training entities, or
directly to United States manufacturing firms, on the best
available training material and services for the effective
utilization and operation of specific advanced and modern
technologies;
(2) by encouraging United States providers of advanced and
modern technologies for manufacturing firms to develop
training material specifically designed for the managers and
other workers responsible for utilizing and operating such
technologies; and
(3) by establishing as an important criterion in the
assessment of advanced and modern technologies the
availability of training material specifically designed for
the managers and other workers responsible for utilizing and
operating such technologies.
SEC. 217. REPORT ON OPTIONS FOR ACCELERATING THE ADOPTION OF
NEW MANUFACTURING EQUIPMENT.
Within 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the
Secretary shall submit to Congress a report on--
(1) the degree to which manufacturing enterprises in the
United States have difficulty obtaining financing for the
purpose of purchasing new equipment and modernizing
operations;
(2) the policies and practices followed in other
industrialized countries to help manufacturing firms obtain
financing for modernization; and
(3) the advantages, disadvantages, and costs of major
options by which the Federal Government might help stimulate
the flow of capital to manufacturers and thus accelerate
industrial modernization, including--
(A) creation of a Government-sponsored enterprise to
stimulate the flow of capital to manufacturing;
(B) increasing technical advice to banks and other
financial institutions, perhaps through the National
Manufacturing Outreach Program, in order to increase their
ability to judge whether or not individual manufacturers have
sound modernization plans;
(C) cooperation between extension activities supported
under the Manufacturing Extension Partnership and
manufacturing equipment leasing firms in order to provide
manufacturers with additional information or equipment
leasing options; and
(D) tax incentives.
Subtitle B--National Science Foundation Manufacturing Programs
SEC. 221. NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION MANUFACTURING
ACTIVITIES.
(a) In General.--The Director of the National Science
Foundation, after, as appropriate, consultation with the
Secretary, the Under Secretary, and the Director, shall--
(1) work with United States industry to identify areas of
research in manufacturing technologies and practices that
offer the potential to improve United States productivity,
competitiveness, and employment;
(2) support research at United States universities to
improve manufacturing technologies and practices; and
(3) work with the Technology Administration of the
Department of Commerce and the Institute and, as appropriate,
other Federal agencies to accelerate the transfer to United
States industry of manufacturing research and innovations
developed at universities.
(b) Engineering Research Centers and Industry/University
Cooperative Research Centers.--The Director of the National
Science Foundation shall strengthen and expand the number of
Engineering Research Centers and strengthen and expand the
Industry/University Cooperative Research Centers Program with
the goals of increasing the engineering talent base versed in
technologies and workplace practices critical to the Nation's
future, with emphasis on advanced manufacturing, and of
advancing fundamental engineering knowledge in these
technologies. At least one Engineering Research Center shall
have a research and education focus on the concerns of
traditional manufacturers, including small- and medium-sized
firms that are trying to modernize their operations. Awards
under this subsection shall be made on a competitive, merit
review basis. Such awards may include support for acquisition
of instrumentation, equipment, and facilities related to the
research and education activities of the Centers and support
for undergraduate students to participate in the activities
of the Centers.
(c) Graduate Traineeships.--The Director of the National
Science Foundation, in consultation with the Secretary, may
establish a program to provide traineeships to graduate
students at institutions of higher education within the
United States who choose to pursue masters or doctoral
degrees in manufacturing or industrial engineering.
(d) Manufacturing Managers in the Classroom Program.--The
Director of the National Science Foundation, in consultation
with the Secretary, may establish a program to provide
fellowships, on a cost-shared basis, to individuals from
industry with experience in manufacturing to serve for 1 or 2
years as instructors in manufacturing at 2-year community and
technical colleges in the United States. In selecting
fellows, the Director of the National Science Foundation
shall place special emphasis on supporting individuals who
not only have expertise and practical experience in
manufacturing but who also will work to foster cooperation
between 2-year colleges and nearby manufacturing firms.
(e) Programs to Teach Total Quality Management.--The
Director of the National Science Foundation, in consultation
with the Secretary, the Under Secretary, and the Director,
may establish a program to develop innovative curricula,
courses, and materials for use by institutions of higher
education for instruction in total quality management and
related management practices, in order to help improve the
productivity of United States industry.
TITLE III--CRITICAL TECHNOLOGIES
SEC. 301. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds that--
(1) the rapid, effective use of advanced technologies in
the design and production of products is a key determinant of
economic competitiveness;
(2) investment in the development and adoption of advanced
technology contributes significantly to long-term economic
growth and employment;
(3) the governments of our most successful competitor
nations in the global marketplace have created supportive
structures and programs that have been effective in helping
their domestic industries increase their global market
shares;
(4) agriculture and aerospace are two examples of
industries that have achieved commercial success with strong
support from the United States Government; and
(5) the United States Government must promote and
facilitate the creation, development, and adoption of
advanced technologies, including skills-based production
technologies, to ensure long-term economic prosperity for the
United States.
SEC. 302. DEVELOPMENT OF PLAN FOR THE ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY
PROGRAM.
The Secretary, acting through the Under Secretary and the
Director, shall, within 6 months after the date of enactment
of this Act, submit to Congress a plan for the expansion of
the Advanced Technology Program established under section 28
of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Act (15
U.S.C. 278n), with specific consideration given to--
(1) closer coordination and cooperation with the Advanced
Research Projects Agency and other Federal research and
development agencies as appropriate;
(2) establishment of temporary staff positions that can be
filled by industrial or technical experts for a period of 1
to 2 years;
(3) ensuring that the Program will have a meaningful impact
on the commercialization of a broad range of new technologies
and on the refinement of critical manufacturing technologies;
(4) changes that may be needed when annual funds available
for grants under the Program reach levels of $200,000,000 and
$500,000,000; and
(5) administrative steps necessary for Program support of
large-scale industry-led consortia similar to, or possibly
eventually including, the Semiconductor Manufacturing
Technology Institute.
SEC. 303. ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY PROGRAM SUPPORT OF LARGE-SCALE
JOINT VENTURES.
Section 28 of the National Institute of Standards and
Technology Act (15 U.S.C. 278n) is amended by adding at the
end the following new subsection:
``(k) In addition to the general authority under this
section to provide financial assistance to joint ventures,
the Secretary, through the Director, also may, as permitted
by levels of authorizations and appropriations, provide
financial support to large-scale joint ventures requesting
$20 million or more a year in Department funds. Any such
support shall be subject to the matching funds requirements
of subsection (b)(1)(B)(ii), except that the Secretary may
provide assistance to such large-scale joint ventures for up
to 7 years. The Secretary may work with industrial groups to
develop such proposed large-scale joint ventures and shall
give preference to proposals which represent a broad spectrum
of companies for a given industry and which focus either on
speeding the commercialization of important new technologies
or on accelerating the development, testing, and deployment
of valuable new process technologies and workplace practices.
The Secretary and Director, as appropriate, shall obtain
independent technical review of industry proposals submitted
under this subsection.''.
SEC. 304. TECHNICAL AMENDMENTS.
(a) Amendments to National Institute of Standards and
Technology Act.--Section 28 of the National Institute of
Standards and Technology Act (15 U.S.C. 278n), as amended by
section 303 of this Act, is further amended--
(1) in subsection (b)--
(A) in paragraph (1)(B), by striking ``or contracts'' and
inserting in lieu thereof ``contracts, and other
transactions'';
(B) in paragraph (1)(B)(ii), by striking ``provision of a
minority share of the cost of such joint ventures for up to 5
years'' and inserting in lieu thereof ``the option of
providing either a minority share of the total cost of such
joint ventures for up to 5 years, or only direct costs (and
not indirect costs, profits, or management fees), for up to 5
years'';
(C) in paragraph (2), by striking ``and cooperative
agreements'' and inserting in lieu thereof ``cooperative
agreements, and other transactions'';
(D) by striking ``and'' at the end of paragraph (3);
(E) by striking the period at the end of paragraph (4) and
inserting in lieu thereof ``; and''; and
(F) by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
``(5) use other transactions authority under this
subsection only when the Secretary, acting through the
Director, determines that standard contracts, grants, or
cooperative agreements are not feasible or appropriate, and
only when other transaction instruments incorporate terms and
conditions that reflect the use of generally accepted
commercial accounting and auditing practices.''; and
(2) by adding at the end the following new subsections:
``(l) Notwithstanding subsections (b)(1)(B)(ii) and (d)(3),
the Director may grant an extension of not to exceed 6 months
beyond the deadlines established under those subsections for
joint venture and single applicant awardees to expend Federal
funds to complete their projects, if such extension may be
granted with no additional cost to the Federal Government.
``(m) The Secretary, Under Secretary, and Director may
organize or attend workshops or use other mechanisms to
encourage the leaders of specific United States industrial
sectors to--
``(1) identify which precompetitive, generic technologies
will be most critical in the future to each such sector and,
as appropriate, encourage the formation of broad-based
industry-led joint ventures which seek to develop those
technologies; and
``(2) analyze which additional steps may be necessary to
enable each sector to acquire, deploy, and finance needed
technologies in a timely fashion.''.
(b) Amendment to American Technology Preeminence Act of
1991.--Section 201(d) of the American Technology Preeminence
Act of 1991 (Public Law 102-245; 106 Stat. 19) is amended by
inserting ``, except in the case of the amendment made by
subsection (c)(6)(A)'' immediately after ``enactment of this
Act''.
SEC. 305. TECHNOLOGY FINANCING PILOT PROGRAM.
(a) Findings.--Congress finds and declares the following:
(1) In recent years, United States technology firms appear
to have had increasing difficulty financing the development
and early-stage commercialization of important new critical
civilian technologies. Venture capital is less available than
in past years, banks appear less willing to provide loans,
and medium-sized as well as small companies often have
difficulty under current capital market conditions financing
promising long-term technology projects.
(2) Difficulties in obtaining financing particularly hurts
those technology firms which face foreign competitors which
have received substantial direct or indirect financial help
from their governments.
(3) The Nation would benefit from a technology financing
pilot program to experiment with assisting private-sector
venture capital entities which in turn can select and support
the most promising and valuable long-term United States
technology projects.
(b) In General.--(1) As a pilot program, the Secretary,
through the Under Secretary and in consultation with the
Administrator of the Small Business Administration (hereafter
in this section referred to as the ``Administrator''), may
license and, to the extent provided in advance in
appropriations Acts and in accordance with the plan developed
under subsection (e), financially assist private-sector
entities to be known as civilian technology investment
companies, for the purpose of stimulating and expanding the
flow of private capital to eligible technology firms and
joint ventures of eligible technology firms.
(2)(A) Each civilian technology investment company licensed
under this section may provide venture capital and loans to
eligible technology firms and joint ventures in such manner
and under such terms as the licensee may fix in accordance
with regulations of the Secretary. Civilian technology
investment companies may provide venture capital and loans
directly or in cooperation with other investors.
(B) Each civilian technology investment company shall have
authority to borrow money and to issue its debenture bonds,
promissory notes, or other obligations under such general
conditions and subject to such limiations and regulations as
the Secretary may prescribe.
(3) In order to encourage the formation and growth of
civilian technology investment companies pursuant to this
section, the Secretary is authorized, when funds are
previously made available in appropriations Acts, to--
(A) purchase, or guarantee the timely payment of up to 100
percent of principal and interest as scheduled on, debentures
issued by such companies, on such terms and conditions as the
Secretary deems appropriate pursuant to regulations issued
under subsection (e); and
(B) purchase nonparticipating or participating, nonvoting
preferred securities and issue trust certificates
representing ownership of all or part of such preferred
securities.
(4) Guarantees and purchases of debentures and preferred
securities under this subsection shall be made on such terms
and conditions as are necessary to ensure that the cost of
the program established under this section shall not exceed
15 percent of its corresponding credit authority in any
fiscal year. For purposes of this paragraph, the term
``cost'' shall have the same meaning given such term in
section 502(5) of the Federal Credit Reform Act of 1990, and
the term ``credit authority'' shall have the same meaning
given such term in section 3(10) of the Congressional Budget
Act of 1974.
(c) Purposes.--The Secretary shall require that any
civilian technology investment company licensed and assisted
under this section shall--
(1) focus primarily on providing patient early-stage
capital, either loans or equity investments, to eligible
technology firms in the United States, including joint
ventures of eligible firms, in order to help those firms
finance and accelerate the development and early-stage
commercialization of critical civilian technologies;
(2) support critical civilian technology projects,
particularly those undertaken by eligible technology firms
whose net worth is $50,000,000 or less;
(3) demonstrate to the Secretary credible procedures for
ensuring that investments are made in critical technology
projects for which eligible firms cannot obtain necessary
financing solely through commercial capital markets; and
(4) demonstrate to the Secretary working relationships with
either the Institute, universities, research bodies,
technology transfer centers, or other organizations that can
assist such licensee to identify and evaluate projects to be
supported under this section.
(d) Payments.--Amounts received by the Secretary from the
payment of dividends, any profit allocation, and the
redemption of securities pursuant to this section, and fees
paid to the United States by a civilian technology investment
company licensed pursuant to this section, shall be deposited
in an account established by the Secretary and shall be
available solely for carrying out this section, to the extent
provided in advance in appropriations Acts.
(e) Operating Plan; Effective Date; and Evaluation.--(1)
The Secretary, acting through the Under Secretary and in
coordination with the Administrator, and in consultation with
other appropriate Federal officials, the States, industry,
the financial community, and other appropriate parties, shall
prepare and submit to Congress on or before January 1, 1994,
an operating plan to carry out this section. In preparing
such plan, the Secretary shall consider and evaluate
approaches to achieving the purposes of this section and
shall develop recommendations, as appropriate, to fulfill
this section's objective to help technology firms in the
United States to develop and commercialize critical civilian
technologies. Such evaluations and recommendations shall be
included in the plan submitted to Congress under this
subsection.
(2) The Secretary, in consultation with the Administrator,
shall promulgate such regulations as may be necessary to
carry out the provisions of this section and may contract
with other agencies for administrative services to help carry
out this section.
(3) Except for the requirement set forth in paragraph (1),
the provisions of this section shall not take effect until
October 1, 1994.
(4) After appropriations are provided for the pilot project
authorized under this section, the Secretary, after
consultation with the Administrator, shall evaluate annually
the effectiveness of the program and submit an annual report
to appropriate committees of Congress on the findings
resulting from such evaluation. Such report shall contain, on
a confidential basis, appendices which include, but are not
necessarily limited to, the type and amount of assistance
provided to licensees under this section, key characteristics
of licensees, the number and size in net worth of the
technology firms and joint ventures assisted by each
licensee, the amount of assistance provided to each
technology firm or joint venture, and the types of technology
each such technology firm or joint venture is developing and
commercializing.
(f) Definitions.--As used in this section, the term--
(1) ``critical civilian technology'' means a technology not
exclusively military which is identified in one or more of
the biennial national critical technologies reports required
under section 603 of the National Science and Technology
Policy, Organization, and Priorities Act of 1976 (42 U.S.C.
6683); and
(2) ``eligible technology firm'' means a company--
(A) which meets the requirements of section 28(d)(9) of the
National Institute of Standards and Technology Act (15 U.S.C.
278n(d)(9)); and
(B) whose principal business is the development of products
and services based on critical civilian technologies.
SEC. 306. TECHNOLOGY MONITORING AND COMPETITIVENESS
ASSESSMENT.
Section 101(e) of the Stevenson-Wydler Technology
Innovation Act of 1980, as redesignated by section 213(b)(2)
of this Act, is amended to read as follows:
``(e) Office of Technology Monitoring and Competitiveness
Assessment.--(1) The Secretary, through the Under Secretary,
shall establish within the Technology Administration an
Office of Technology Monitoring and Competitiveness
Assessment, to collect, evaluate, assess, and disseminate
information on--
``(A) foreign science and technology, specifically
information assessing foreign capabilities relative to the
United States;
``(B) policies and programs used by foreign governments and
industries to develop and apply economically important
critical technologies, how these policies and programs
compare with public and private activities in the United
States, and the effects that these foreign policies and
programs have on the competitiveness of United States
industry; and
``(C) the way in which the economic competitiveness of
United States industry can be enhanced through Federal
programs, including Department of Commerce programs, and
evaluations of the effectiveness of Federal technology
programs in helping to promote United States industrial
competitiveness and economic growth.
``(2) Based on the information gathered under paragraph
(1), the President, with the assistance of the Secretary,
shall submit to Congress an annual report on United States
technology and competitiveness analyzing the condition of
United States technology relative to major trading partners,
key trends in foreign technology and competitiveness policies
and targeting, and the degree to which Federal programs are
helping the United States to stay competitive with other
countries and create domestic employment opportunities.
``(3) The Office of Technology Monitoring and
Competitiveness Assessment, in cooperation with the National
Technical Information Service, is authorized to--
``(A) act as a focal point within the Federal Government
for the collection and dissemination, including electronic
dissemination, of information on foreign process and product
technologies, including information collected under the
Japanese Technical Literature Program;
``(B) work and, as appropriate, enter into cooperative
arrangements with sector-specific industry trade associations
or consortia to define the information desired by industry;
``(C) compile and make available the extensive foreign
technology monitoring and assessment information already
collected and analyzed by the Federal Government;
``(D) as appropriate, enter into controlled access
agreements with other Federal agencies to fill the industry's
information needs;
``(E) act as an electronic clearinghouse for this
information or otherwise provide for this function;
``(F) direct and fund the collection of additional
information;
``(G) direct and fund analysis of foreign research and
development activities, technical capabilities, workplace
practices, particularly in technical areas where the United
States is considered to be at par or lagging foreign
capabilities;
``(H) establish a program to identify technical areas
needing a full-scale technical evaluation, and provide, on a
cost-shared basis to private sector or government-industry
joint ventures, grants to conduct the evaluation;
``(I) establish and administer a fellowship program to
support Technology Fellows in those countries that are major
competitors of the United States in critical technologies to
collect and provide initial analysis of information on
foreign science and technology capabilities; and
``(J) work with the Department of State to place technical
experts from the Institute and other Federal laboratories
into United States embassies to serve as technology attaches
and counselors.''.
SEC. 307. COMMERCE TECHNOLOGY ADVISORY BOARD.
Title I of the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act
of 1980 (as amended by title II of this Act) is further
amended by adding at the end the following new section:
``SEC. 113. COMMERCE TECHNOLOGY ADVISORY BOARD.
``(a) Establishment.--There is established a Commerce
Technology Advisory Board (hereafter in this section referred
to as the `Advisory Board'), the purpose of which is to
advise the Secretary, Under Secretary, and Director regarding
ways in which to--
``(1) promote the development and rapid application of
advanced commercial technologies, including
advancedmanufacturing technologies such as skill-based
production technologies;
``(2) strengthen the programs of the Technology
Administration; and
``(3) generally improve the global competitiveness of
industries within the United States.
``(b) Composition.--The Advisory Board shall be composed of
at least 17 members, appointed by the Under Secretary from
among individuals who, because of their experience and
accomplishments in technology development, business
development, or finance are exceptionally qualified to
analyze and formulate policy that would improve the global
competitiveness of industries in the United States. The Under
Secretary shall designate one member to serve as chairman.
Membership of the Advisory Board shall be composed of--
``(1) representatives of--
``(A) United States small businesses;
``(B) other United States businesses;
``(C) research universities and independent research
institutes;
``(D) State and local government agencies involved in
industrial extension;
``(E) national laboratories;
``(F) industrial, worker, and technical and professional
organizations; and
``(G) financial organizations; and
``(2) other individuals that possess important sinsight to
issues of national competitiveness.
``(c) Meetings.--(1) The chairman shall call the first
meeting of the Advisory Board not later than 90 days after
the date of enactment of this section.
``(2) The Advisory Board shall meet at least once every 6
months, and at the call of the Under Secretary.
``(d) Travel Expenses.--Members of the Advisory Board,
other than full-time employees of the United States, shall be
allowed travel expenses in accordance with subchapter I of
chapter 57 of title 5, United Stated Code, while engaged in
the business of the Advisory Board.
``(e) Consultation--In carrying out this section, the Under
Secretary shall consult with other agencies, as appropriate.
The Advisory Board, as appropriate, shall establish
communication and coordination mechanisms with other Federal
advisory committees to help ensure integrated Federal-private
consideration of technology and manufacturing policies and
programs.
``(f) Termination.--Section 14 of the Federal Advisory
Committee Act shall not apply to the Advisory Board.''.
SEC. 308. STUDY OF SEMICONDUCTOR LITHOGRAPHY TECHNOLOGIES.
Within 9 months after the date of enactment of this Act,
the Critical Technologies Institute (in this section referred
to as the ``Institute'') established under section 822 of the
National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1991 (42
U.S.C. 6686) shall, after consultation with the private
sector and appropriate officials from other Federal agencies,
submit to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and
Transportation of the Senate and the Committee on Science,
Space, and Technology of the House of Representatives a
report on advanced lithography technologies for the
production of semiconductor devices. The report shall include
the Institute's evaluation of the likely technical and
economic advantages and disadvantages of each such
technology, an analysis of current private and Government
research to develop each such technology, and any
recommendations the Institute may have regarding future
Federal support for research and development in advanced
lithography. To the extent appropriate, the Institute shall
draw upon technical and business analyses of advanced
lithography technologies prepared by or for major trade
associations and professional and technical societies.
TITLE IV--ADDITIONAL COMMERCE DEPARTMENT PROVISIONS
SEC. 401. INTERNATIONAL STANDARDIZATION.
(a) Findings.--Congress finds that--
(1) private sector consensus standards are essential to the
timely development of competitive products;
(2) Federal Government contributions of resources and more
active participation in the voluntary standards process in
the United States can increase the quality of United States
standards, increase their compatibility with the standards of
other countries, and, where appropriate, through government-
to-government negotiations, ease access of United States-made
products to foreign markets; and
(3) the Federal Government, working in cooperation with
private sector organizations including trade associations,
engineering societies, and technical bodies, can effectively
promote Federal Government use of United States consensus
standards and, where appropriate, the adoption and Federal
Government use of international standards.
(b) Standards Pilot Program.--Section 104(e) of the
American Technology Preeminence Act of 1991 (Public Law 102-
245; 106 Stat. 10) is amended--
(1) by inserting ``(1)'' immediately before ``Pursuant to
the'';
(2) by striking ``matching funds'' and inserting in lieu
thereof ``financial contributions deemed appropriate by the
Secretary''; and
(3) by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
``(2) As necessary and appropriate, the Institute shall
expand the program established under section 112 of the
National Institute of Standards and Technology Authorization
Act for Fiscal Year 1989 (15 U.S.C. 272 note) by extending
the existing program to include other countries that prefer
to discuss their standards-related activities with official
representatives of the Federal Government. The Institute may
enter into additional contracts with non-Federal
organizations representing United States-owned companies, as
such term is defined in section 28(j)(2) of the National
Institute of Standards and Technology Act (15 U.S.C.
278n(j)(2)). Such contracts shall require cost sharing
between Federal and non-Federal sources for such purposes. In
awarding such contracts, the Institute shall seek to promote
and support the dissemination of United States technical
standards to additional foreign countries and shall seek, as
the Director deems appropriate, to promote the adoption of
international standards supported by United States industry.
The Institute and such contractors shall, in pursuing this
mission, cooperate with governmental bodies, private
organizations including standards-setting organizations and
industry, and multinational institutions that promote
economic development. The organizations receiving such
contracts may establish training programs to bring to the
United States foreign standards experts for the purpose of
receiving in-depth training in the United States standards
system.''.
(c) Reports on Global Standards.--(1) Section 508(a) of the
American Technology Preeminence Act of 1992 (15 U.S.C. 3701
note) is amended--
(A) by inserting ``standards development and
international'' immediately after ``a thorough review of
international'';
(B) by redesignating paragraphs (1) through (5) as
paragraphs (2) through (6), respectively; and
(C) by inserting immediately before paragraph (2), as so
redesignated, the following new paragraph:
``(1) Current and potential future roles of the Federal
Government in the development and promulgation of domestic
and global product and process standards.''.
(2) The Secretary, in consultation with the Institute and
the Commerce Technology Advisory Board established under
section 113 of the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act
of 1980 (as added by section 307 of this Act) and with, as
appropriate, the active participation of the private sector,
shall submit to Congress a report describing the appropriate
roles of the Department of Commerce in aid to United States
companies in qualifying their products in foreign markets
through the development and promulgation of domestic and
global product and quality standards and through the
implementation of conformity assessment and accreditation
procedures based upon such standards, including a discussion
of the extent to which each of the policy options provided in
the March 1992 Office of Technology Assessment report on
global standards, contributes to meeting the goals of--
(A) increasing the international adoption of standards
beneficial to United States industries; and
(B) improving the coordination of United States
representation at international standards-setting bodies.
SEC. 402. MALCOLM BALDRIGE AWARD.
(a) Categories in Which Award May Be Given.--(1) Section
108(c)(1) of the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act
of 1980, as so redesignated by section 213(b)(3) of this Act,
is amended by adding at the end the following new
subparagraph:
``(D) Educational institutions.''.
(2)(A) Within 1 year after the date of enactment of this
Act, the Secretary shall submit to Congress a report
containing--
(i) criteria for qualification for a Malcolm Baldrige
National Quality Award by various classes of educational
institutions;
(ii) criteria for the evaluation of applications for each
such award under section 108(d)(1) of the Stevenson-Wydler
Technology Innovation Act of 1980, as so redesignated; and
(iii) a plan for funding such awards.
(B) In preparing the report required under subparagraph
(A), the Secretary shall consult with the National Science
Foundation and other public and private entities with
appropriate expertise, and shall provide for public notice
and comment.
(C) The Secretary shall not accept applications for awards
described in subparagraph (A)(i) until after the report
required under subparagraph (A) is submitted to Congress.
(b) Restriction.--Section 108(c)(3) of the Stevenson-Wydler
Technology Innovation Act of 1980, as so redesignated, is
amended to read as follows:
``(3) No award shall be made within any category or
subcategory if there are no qualifying enterprises in that
category or subcategory.''.
(c) Quality Laboratory.--Section 108(g) of the Stevenson-
Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980, as so redesignated,
is amended to read as follows:
``(g) Quality Laboratory.--A National Quality Laboratory is
established within the Institute, the purpose of which is to
perform research and outreach activities to assist private
sector quality efforts and to serve as a mechanism by which
United States companies, universities, and the Institute can
work together to advance quality management programs and to
share and, as appropriate, develop manufacturing best
practices.''.
SEC. 403. COOPERATIVE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENTS.
Section 202(d)(1) of the Stevenson-Wydler Technology
Innovation Act of 1980, as so redesignated by section
213(b)(6) of this Act, is amended by inserting ``(including
both real and personal property)'' immediately after ``or
other resources'' both places it appears.
SEC. 404. CLEARINGHOUSE ON STATE AND LOCAL INITIATIVES.
Section 102(a) of the Stevenson-Wydler Technology
Innovation Act of 1980, as so redesignated by section
213(b)(2) of this Act, is amended by striking ``Office of
Productivity, Technology, and Innovation'' and inserting in
lieu thereof ``Institute''.
SEC. 405. USE OF DOMESTIC PRODUCTS.
(a) Prohibition Against Fraudulent Use of ``Made in
America'' Labels.--(1) A person shall not intentionally affix
a label bearing the inscription of ``Made in America'', or
any inscription with that meaning, to any product sold in or
shipped to the United States, if that product is not a
domestic product.
(2) A person who violates paragraph (1) shall not be
eligible for any contract for a procurement carried out with
amounts authorized under this Act and the amendments made by
this Act, including any subcontract under such a contract
pursuant to the debarment, suspension, and ineligibility
procedures in subpart 9.4 of chapter 1 of title 48, Code of
Federal Regulations, or any successor procedures thereto.
(b) Compliance With Buy American Act.--(1) Except as
provided in paragraph (2), the head of each agency which
conducts procurements shall ensure that such procurements are
conducted in compliance with sections 2 through 4 of the Act
of March 3, 1933 (41 U.S.C. 10a through 10c, popularly known
as the ``Buy American Act'').
(2) This subsection shall apply only to procurements made
for which--
(A) amounts are authorized by this Act, and the amendments
made by this Act, to be made available; and
(B) solicitations for bids are issued after the date of
enactment of this Act.
(3) The Secretary, before January 1, 1994, shall report to
Congress on procurements covered under this subsection of
products that are not domestic products.
(c) Definitions.--For the purposes of this section, the
term ``domestic product'' means a product--
(1) that is manufactured or produced in the United States;
and
(2) at least 50 percent of the cost of the articles,
materials, or supplies of which are mined, produced, or
manufactured in the United States.
SEC. 406. SEVERABILITY.
If any provision of this Act, or the application thereof to
any person or circumstance, is held invalid, the remainder of
this Act and the application thereof to other persons or
circumstances shall not be affected thereby.
SEC. 407. WIND ENGINEERING RESEARCH PROGRAM.
(a) Short Title.--This section may be cited as the ``Wind
Engineering Program Act of 1993''.
(b) Findings and Purposes.--Congress finds and declares the
following:
(1) Hurricanes and tornadoes kill more Americans and
destroy more property than any other natural disaster.
(2) Each year, in the United States, extreme winds cause
billions of dollars of damage to homes, schools, and other
buildings, roads and bridges, electrical power distribution
networks, and communications networks.
(3) Research on wind and wind engineering has resulted in
improved methods for making buildings and other structures
less vulnerable to extreme winds, but additional research
funding is needed to develop new, improved, and more cost-
effective methods of wind-resistant construction.
(4) Federal funding for wind engineering research has
decreased drastically over the last 20 years.
(5) Wind research has been hampered by a lack of data on
near-surface wind speed and distribution during hurricanes,
tornadoes, and other severe storms.
(6) Many existing methods for wind-resistant construction
are inexpensive and easy to implement but often they are not
applied because the construction industry and the general
public are unaware of such methods.
(7) Various Federal agencies have important roles to play
in wind engineering research, but at present there is little
interagency cooperation in this area.
(8) Establishment of a Federal Wind Engineering Program
would result in new technologies for wind-resistant
construction, broader application of such technologies in
construction, and ultimately decreased loss of life and
property due to extreme winds.
(c) Purpose.--The purpose of this section is to create a
Wind Engineering Program within the National Institute of
Standards and Technology, which would--
(1) provide for wind engineering research;
(2) serve as a clearinghouse for information on wind
engineering; and
(3) improve interagency coordination on wind engineering
research between the National Institute of Standards and
Technology, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, the National Science Foundation, the Federal
Aviation Administration, and other appropriate agencies.
(d) Establishment.--Within the National Institute of
Standards and Technology, there shall be established a Wind
Engineering Program which shall--
(1) conduct research and development, in cooperation with
the private sector and academia, on new methods for
mitigating wind damage due to tornadoes, hurricanes, and
other severe storms;
(2) fund construction and maintenance of wind tunnels and
other research facilities needed for wind engineering
research;
(3) promote the application of existing methods for, and
research results on, reducing wind damage to buildings that
are usually incompletely- or non-engineered, such as single
family dwellings, mobile homes, light industrial buildings,
and small commercial structures;
(4) transfer technology developed in wind engineering
research to the private sector so that it may be applied in
building codes, design practice, and construction;
(5) conduct, in conjunction with the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration, post-disaster research following
hurricanes, tornadoes, and other severe storms to evaluate
the vulnerability of different types of buildings to extreme
winds;
(6) serve as a point of contact for dissemination of
research information on wind engineering and work with the
private sector to develop education and training programs on
construction techniques, developed from research results, for
reducing wind damage;
(7) work with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, the Federal Aviation Administration, and
other agencies as is appropriate, on meteorology programs to
collect and disseminate more data on extreme wind events; and
(8) work with the National Science Foundation to support
and expand basic research on wind engineering.
TITLE V--AUTHORIZATIONS OF APPROPRIATIONS
SEC. 501. TECHNOLOGY ADMINISTRATION.
(a) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized
to be appropriated to the Secretary, to carry out the
activities of the Under Secretary and the Assistant Secretary
of Commerce for Technology Policy--
(1) for the Office of the Under Secretary, $5,000,000 for
fiscal year 1994 and $8,000,000 for fiscal year 1995;
(2) for Technology Policy, $5,000,000 for fiscal year 1994
and $6,000,000 for fiscal years 1995;
(3) for Japanese Technical Literature, $2,000,000 for
fiscal year 1994 and $3,000,000 for fiscal year 1995;
(4) for the Office of Technology Monitoring and
Competitiveness Assessment, $3,000,000 for fiscal year 1994
and $5,000,000 for fiscal year 1995.
(b) Transfers.--(1) Funds may be transferred among the line
items listed in subsection (a), so long as--
(A) the net funds transferred to or from any line item do
not exceed 10 percent of the amount authorized for that line
item in such subsection;
(B) the aggregate amount authorized under subsection (a) is
not changed; and
(C) the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
of the Senate and the Committee on Science, Space, and
Technology of the House of Representatives are notified in
advance of any such transfer.
(2) The Secretary may propose transfers to or from any line
item listed in subsection (a) exceeding 10 percent of the
amount authorized from such line item, but such proposed
transfer may not be made unless--
(A) a full and complete explanation of any such proposed
transfer and the reason therefor are transmitted in writing
to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the President
of the Senate, and the appropriate authorizing committees of
the House of Representatives and the Senate; and
(B) 30 days have passed following the transmission of such
written explanation.
(c) National Technical Information Service Facilities
Study.--As part of its modernization effort and before
signing a new facility lease, the National Technical
Information Service, in consultation with the General
Services Administration, shall study and report to Congress
on the feasibility of accomplishing all or part of its
modernization by signing a long-term lease with an
organization that agrees to supply a facility and supply and
periodically upgrade modern equipment which permits the
National Technical Information Service to receive, store, and
manipulate in electronic form, and print, electronically-
created documents and reports and to carry out the other
functions assigned to the National Technical Information
Service.
SEC. 502. NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF STANDARDS AND TECHNOLOGY.
(a) Intramural Scientific and Technical Research and
Services.--(1) There are authorized to be appropriated to the
Secretary, to carry out the intramural scientific and
technical research and services activities of the Institute,
$240,988,000 for fiscal year 1994 and $320,764,000 for fiscal
year 1995.
(2) Of the amount authorized under paragraph (1)--
(A) $1,000,000 for fiscal year 1994 and $1,000,000 for
fiscal year 1995 are authorized only for the evaluation of
nonenergy-related inventions;
(B) $9,000,000 for fiscal year 1994 and $10,000,000 for
fiscal year 1995 are authorized only for the technical
competence fund; and
(C) $5,000,000 for fiscal year 1994 and $5,000,000 for
fiscal year 1995 are authorized only for the standards pilot
project established under section 104(e) of the American
Technology Preeminence Act of 1991 (Public Law 102-245; 106
Stat. 10).
(b) Facilities.--In addition to the amounts authorized
under subsection (a), there are authorized to the
appropriated to the Secretary $105,000,000 for fiscal year
1993, $62,000,000 for fiscal year 1994, and $105,000,000 for
fiscal year 1995 for the renovation and upgrading of the
Institute's facilities. The Institute may enter into a
contract for the design work for such purposes only if
Federal Government payments under the contract are limited to
amounts provided in advance in appropriations Acts.
(c) Extramural Industrial Technology Services.--In addition
to the amounts authorized under subsections (a) and (b),
there are authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary, to
carry out the extramural industrial technology services
activities of the Institute--
(1) for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership,
$120,000,000 for fiscal year 1994 and $220,000,000 for fiscal
year 1995, of which--
(A) $40,000,000 for fiscal year 1994 and $60,000,000 for
fiscal year 1995 are authorized only for the support of
Regional Centers for the Transfer of Manufacturing
Technology;
(B) $30,000,000 for fiscal year 1994 and $80,000,000 for
fiscal year 1995 are authorized only for the support of
Manufacturing Outreach Centers;
(C) $30,000,000 for fiscal year 1994 and $50,000,000 for
fiscal year 1995 are authorized only for the State Technology
Extension Program; and
(D) $20,000,000 for fiscal year 1994 and $30,000,000 for
fiscal year 1995 are authorized only for the Institute
activities in support of the Manufacturing Extension
Partnership, including support of the technology extension
communications network provided for, and the associated
clearinghouse system developed, under section 304 of the
Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980 (as added
by section 212 of this Act);
(2) for the Advanced Technology Program, $200,000,000 for
fiscal year 1994 and $468,000,000 for fiscal year 1995, of
which $30,000,000 for fiscal year 1994 and $50,000,000 for
fiscal year 1995 are authorized only for support of the
Advanced Manufacturing Technology Development Program
established under section 303 of the Stevenson-Wydler
Technology Innovation Act of 1980 (as added by section 212 of
this Act); and
(3) for quality programs at the Institute, $2,000,000 for
each of the fiscal years 1994 and 1995.
(d) Wind Engineering.--(1) There are authorized to be
appropriated to the Institute for the purposes of section 407
of this Act, $1,000,000 for fiscal year 1994 and $3,000,000
for fiscal year 1995.
(2) Of the amounts appropriated under paragraph (1), no
less than 50 percent shall be used for cooperative agreements
with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the
National Science Foundation, and the Federal Aviation
Administration, or other agencies, for wind engineering
research, development of improved practices for structures,
and the collection and dissemination of meterological data
needed for wind engineering.
SEC. 503. ADDITIONAL ACTIVITIES OF THE TECHNOLOGY
ADMINISTRATION.
In addition to the amounts authorized under sections 501
and 502, there are authorized to be appropriated to the
Secretary--
(1) for the establishment and management of a technology
training clearinghouse, $2,000,000 for fiscal year 1994 and
$3,000,000 for fiscal year 1995;
(2) for the support of policy experiments relating to
intelligent manufacturing systems, $10,000,000 for fiscal
year 1994; and
(3) for the purpose of carrying out the technology
financing pilot program under section 305, $2,000,000 in
fiscal year 1994 to prepare the operating plan and promulgate
regulations required under subsection (c) of that section and
$50,000,000 for each of fiscal years 1995 and 1996 to carry
out the provisions of that section.
Amounts appropriated under paragraph (3) shall remain
available for expenditure through September 30, 1996. Of the
amounts made available under paragraph (3) for a fiscal year,
not more than $5,000,000 or 10 percent, whichever is greater,
shall be available for administrative expenses. The
Secretary, through the Under Secretary and the Director, may
accept the transfer of funding appropriated to any other
agency for purposes similar or related to those of the
programs established and carried out under title III of the
Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980 (as added
by section 212 of this Act), or the programs established and
carried out under sections 25 and 26 of the National
Institute of Standards and Technology Act (15 U.S.C. 278k and
278l), and to use those funds to implement such programs as
provided in those statutory provisions.
SEC. 504. NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION.
In addition to such other sums as may be authorized by
other provisions of law to be appropriated to the Director of
the National Science Foundation, there are authorized to be
appropriated to that Director, to carry out the provisions of
section 221, $50,000,000 for fiscal year 1994 and $75,000,000
for fiscal year 1995.
SEC. 505. AVAILABILITY OF APPROPRIATIONS.
Appropriations made under the authority provided in this
title shall remain available for obligation, for expenditure,
or for obligation and expenditure for periods specified in
the Acts making such appropriations.
TITLE VI--INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY APPLICATIONS RESEARCH PROGRAM
SEC. 601. SHORT TITLE.
This title may be cited as the ``Information Technology
Applications Program Act of 1993''.
SEC. 602. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE.
(a) Findings.--Congress finds and declares the following:
(1) High-performance computing and high-speed networks have
proven to be powerful tools for improving America's national
security, industrial competitiveness, and research
capabilities.
(2) Federal programs, like the High-Performance Computing
Program established by Congress in 1991, have played a key
role in maintaining United States leadership in high-
performance computing, especially in the defense and research
sectors.
(3) High-performance computing and high-speed networking
have the potential to revolutionize many fields, including
education, libraries, health care, and manufacturing, if
adequate resources are invested in developing the technology
needed to do so.
(4) The Federal Government should ensure that the
technology developed under research and development programs
like the High-Performance Computing Program can be widely
applied for the benefit of all Americans, including Americans
with disabilities .
(5) A coordinated, interagency program is needed to
identify and promote the development of applications of high-
performance computing and high-speed networking which will
provide large economic and social benefits to the Nation.
These so-called ``National Challenges'' should include tools
for teaching, digital libraries of electronic information,
computer systems to improve the delivery of health care, and
computer and networking technology to promote United States
competitiveness. To the extent practicable, these
applications should be designed and operated in a manner
consistent with copyright law.
(6) The Office of Science and Technology Policy is the
appropriate office to coordinate such a program.
(b) Purpose.--It is the purpose of this Act to help ensure
the widest possible application of high-performance computing
and high-speed networking. This requires that the United
States Government--
(1) expand Federal support for research and development on
applications of high-performance computing and high-speed
networks for--
(A) improving education at all levels, from preschool to
adult education, by developing new educational technology;
(B) building digital libraries of electronic information
accessible over computer networks like the National Research
and Education Network;
(C) improving the provision of health care by furnishing
health care providers and their patients with better, more
accurate, and more timely information; and
(D) increasing the productivity of the Nation's workers,
especially in the manufacturing sector; and
(2) improve coordination of Federal efforts to deploy these
technologies in cooperation with the private sector as part
of an advanced, national information infrastructure.
SEC. 603. INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY APPLICATIONS RESEARCH
PROGRAM.
The High-Performance Computing Act of 1991 (15 U.S.C. 5501
et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following new
title:
``TITLE III--INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY APPLICATIONS RESEARCH PROGRAM
``SEC. 301. ESTABLISHMENT OF APPLICATIONS RESEARCH PROGRAM.
``The Director, through the Federal Coordinating Council
for Science, Engineering, and Technology, shall, in
accordance with this title--
``(1) establish a coordinated interagency applications
research program to develop applications of computing and
networking advances achieved under the Program described in
section 101, that are designed (A) to be accessible and
usable by all persons in the United States, in the fields of
education, libraries, health care, the provision of
government information, and other appropriate fields; and (B)
to ensure privacy, security, and respect for copyrights; and
``(2) develop a Plan for Computing and Networking
Applications (hereafter in this title referred to as the
`Plan') describing the goals and proposed activities of the
applications research program established under paragraph
(1), taking into consideration the recommendations of the
advisory committee on high-performance computing and
applications established under section 101(b).
The President shall designate the Federal agencies and
departments which shall participate in the applications
program established under paragraph (1).
``SEC. 302. PLAN FOR COMPUTING AND NETWORK APPLICATIONS.
``(a) Requirement.--The Plan shall contain recommendations
for a 5-year national effort and shall be submitted to the
Congress within 1 year after the date of enactment of this
title. The Plan shall be resubmitted upon revision at least
once every 2 years thereafter.
``(b) Contents.--The Plan shall--
``(1) establish the goals and priorities for the Program
for the fiscal year in which the Plan (or revised Plan) is
submitted and the succeeding 4 fiscal years;
``(2) set forth the role of each Federal agency and
department in implementing the Plan;
``(3) describe the levels of Federal funding for each
agency and department, and specific activities, required to
achieve the goals and priorities established under paragraph
(1);
``(4) identify steps agencies will take in the applications
research program to promote privacy, security, and respect
for copyrights in Federal networks and computing
applications; and
``(5) assign particular agencies primary responsibility for
developing particular National Challenges of high-performance
computing and high-speed networks.
``(c) Accompanying Documents.--Accompanying the Plan shall
be--
``(1) a summary of the achievements of Federal efforts
during the preceding fiscal year to develop technologies
needed for deployment and full utilization of an advanced
information infrastructure;
``(2) an evaluation of the progress made toward achieving
the goals and objectives of the Plan;
``(3) a summary of problems encountered in implementing the
Plan; and
``(4) any recommendations regarding additional action or
legislation which may be required to assist in achieving the
purposes of this title.
``(d) Agencies and Departments.--The Plan shall address,
where appropriate, the relevant programs and activities of
the following Federal agencies and departments:
``(1) The National Science Foundation.
``(2) The Department of Commerce, particularly the National
Institute of Standards and Technology, the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration, and the National
Telecommunications and Information Administration.
``(3) The National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
``(4) The Department of Defense, particularly the Advanced
Research Projects Agency.
``(5) The Department of Energy.
``(6) The Department of Health and Human Services,
particularly the National Institutes of Health and the
National Library of Medicine.
``(7) The Department of the Interior, particularly the
United States Geological Survey.
``(8) The Department of Education.
``(9) The Department of Agriculture, particularly the
National Agricultural Library.
``(10) Such other agencies and departments as the President
or the Chairman of the Council considers appropriate.
``(e) Library of Congress.--In addition, the Plan shall
take into consideration the present and planned activities of
the Library of Congress, as deemed appropriate by the
Librarian of Congress.
``(f) Council.--The Council shall--
``(1) serve as lead entity responsible for development of
the Plan and interagency coordination of the Program;
``(2) coordinate the high-performance computing research
and development activities of Federal agencies and
departments undertaken pursuant to the Plan and report at
least annually to the President, through the Chairman of the
Council, on any recommended changes in agency or departmental
roles that are needed to better implement the Plan;
``(3) review, prior to the President's submission to the
Congress of the annual budget estimate, each agency and
departmental budget estimate in the context of the Plan and
make the results of that review available to the appropriate
elements of the Executive Office of the President,
particularly the Office of Management and Budget; and
``(4) consult and ensure communication between Federal
agencies and research, educational, and industry groups and
State agencies conducting research and development on and
using high-performance computing.
``SEC. 303. DEFINITIONS.
``As used in this title, the term--
``(1) `broadband' means a transmission rate for digital
information on a communications network which exceeds the
maximum rate possible for transmission of digital information
on normal copper telephone wires;
``(2) `information infrastructure' means a network of
communications systems and computer systems designed to
exchange information among all citizens and residents of the
United States;
``(3) `Internet' means the network of interoperable and
interconnected packet-switched data networks, whether
provided by the public or private sector; and
``(4) `National Challenge' means an application of high-
performance computing and high-speed networking that will
provide large economic and social benefits to a broad segment
of the Nation's populace.''.
SEC. 604. NETWORK ACCESS.
(a) Connections Program.--In accordance with the Plan
developed under section 301 of the High-Performance Computing
Act of 1991, as added by section 603 of this Act, the
National Science Foundation and Department of Commerce
shall--
(1) foster the creation of local networks in communities
which will connect institutions of higher education,
elementary and secondary schools, libraries, and State and
local governments to each other; and
(2) provide for connection of such local networks to the
Internet.
Such program shall include funding for the acquisition of
required hardware and for the establishment of broadband
connections to the Internet. In making awards under this
subsection, the National Science Foundation and, as
appropriate, the Department of Commerce shall ensure that not
more than 75 percent of the cost of the project for which the
award is made is provided under this section.
(b) Training.--The Plan shall include programs administered
by the National Science Foundation, Department of Commerce,
and other appropriate agencies and departments to train
teachers, students, librarians, and State and local
government personnel in the use of computer networks and the
Internet. Training programs for librarians shall be designed
to provide skills and training materials needed by librarians
to instruct the public in the use of hardware and software
for accessing and using computer networks and the Internet.
(c) Report.--The Director of the Office of Science and
Technology Policy shall, within 1 year after the date of
enactment of this Act, submit a report to Congress which
shall include--
(1) findings of an examination of the extent to which the
education and library communities and State and local
government have access to the Internet, including the numbers
and the geographic distribution, by type, of institutions
having access;
(2) a statement of the extent to which broadband
connections to the Internet exist for the education and
library communities and State and local governments,
including the numbers and the geographic distribution, by
type, of institutions having access;
(3) an assessment of the factors limiting access by
schools, libraries, and State and local governments to the
Internet and an estimate of the cost of providing universal
broadband access for those institutions to the Internet; and
(4) recommendations for collaborative programs among
Federal, State, and local governments and the private sector
to expand connectivity to the Internet for educational
institutions, libraries, and State and local governments.
(d) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized
to be appropriated to the National Science Foundation for the
purposes of this section, $10,000,000 for fiscal year 1994
and $25,000,000 for fiscal year 1995.
SEC. 605. APPLICATIONS FOR EDUCATION.
(a) Responsibilities of National Science Foundation and
Other Agencies.--In accordance with the Plan developed under
section 301 of the High-Performance Computing Act of 1991, as
added by section 603 of this Act, the National Science
Foundation, the Department of Commerce, and other appropriate
agencies shall provide for the development of advanced
computing and networking technology for use in education at
all levels. Such applications shall include but not be
limited to the following:
(1) Pilot projects, including support for acquisition of
required computer hardware and software, that demonstrate the
educational value of the Internet in providing for advances
in distance learning and electronic classrooms, facilitating
nationwide communication among educators and students, access
to databases of information in digital format, and access to
innovative curricular materials.
(2) Development, testing, and evaluation of computer
systems, computer software, and computer networks for--
(A) teacher training; and
(B) informal education outside of school, including
workforce training in mathematics, science, and technology
and in specific job-related skills.
(3) Development, testing, and evaluation of advanced
educational software and of network-based information
resources, including software and information resources to
assist students with disabilities.
(b) Cooperation.--In carrying out activities under
subsection (a), the National Science Foundation, the
Department of Commerce, and other appropriate agencies shall
work with the computer and communications industry, authors
and publishers of educational materials, State education
departments, local school districts, and the Department of
Education, as appropriate.
(c) National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Projects.--The Administrator of the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration (hereafter in this section referred to
as the ``Administrator'') shall establish a Computer
Technologies for K-12 Education Project (hereafter in this
section referred to as the ``Project'') to test and
demonstrate educational applications of advanced computer
technologies in K-12 public school systems. The Project shall
award, on a competitive basis, grants to plan, deploy,
manage, and operate advanced educational applications of
computer technologies in K-12 public school systems in the
United States in response to proposals requested by the
Administrator. Such proposals, at a minimum, shall provide
for--
(1) placement and use of advanced computer hardware,
software, and networking capabilities to benefit as broad a
segment of the relevant public school system as possible;
(2) use of computer technology to provide audio-visual and
interactive educational experiences for students and
teachers;
(3) incorporation of computer technology in as many phases
of the school system curricula as practicable and across all
grade levels;
(4) connection of the school system to national, regional,
and local computer networks which would enhance the
educational capability and effectiveness of the system;
(5) access to national, regional, and local libraries and
databases which would improve the educational process and
enhance the educational experience within the school system;
and
(6) matching non-Federal funds committed to support the
proposal amounting to not less than 30 percent of the Federal
grant from the Project.
(d) Authorization of Appropriations.--(1) There are
authorized to be appropriated to the National Science
Foundation for the purposes of subsections (a) and (b)
$12,000,000 for fiscal year 1993, $24,000,000 for fiscal year
1994, and $40,000,000 for fiscal year 1995.
(2) There are authorized to be appropriated to the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration $8,000,000 for each of
the fiscal years 1994 and 1995, to carry out the provisions
of subsection (c). No funds shall be awarded under the
Project other than through the competitive process
established by the Administrator pursuant to this section.
SEC. 606. APPLICATIONS FOR MANUFACTURING.
(a) Advanced Manufacturing Systems and Networking
Projects.--In accordance with the Plan developed under
section 301 of the High-Performance Computing Act of 1991, as
added by section 603 of this Act, the Institute shall, as
provided under section 303 of the Stevenson-Wydler Technology
Innovation Act (as added by section 212 of this Act),
establish an Advanced Manufacturing Program, including
advanced manufacturing systems and networking projects.
Activities under the Advanced Manufacturing Program shall, as
appropriate, be coordinated with the activities of the
Advanced Research Projects Agency, the National Science
Foundation, other Federal agencies, and the States to
develop, refine, test, and transfer advanced computer-
integrated electronically-networked manufacturing
technologies and associated applications.
(b) Support From Other Federal Departments and Agencies.--
The Director may request and accept funds, facilities,
equipment, or personnel from other Federal departments and
agencies in order to carry out responsibilities under this
section.
(c) Authorization of Appropriations.--Of the amounts
authorized under section 502(a) for the Institute's
intramural scientific and technical research and services,
$24,000,000 for fiscal year 1994 and $40,000,000 for fiscal
year 1995 are authorized only for activities under this
section.
SEC. 607. APPLICATIONS FOR HEALTH CARE.
(a) Development of Technologies by the Department of Health
and Human Services.--In accordance with the Plan developed
under section 301 of the High Performance Computing Act of
1991, as added by section 603 of this Act, the Department of
Health and Human Services, through the National Institutes of
Health, the National Library of Medicine, and the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, in cooperation with the
National Science Foundation and other appropriate agencies,
shall develop and support the development of interoperable
technologies for applications of high-performance computing
and high-speed networking in the health care sector. In such
development, emphasis shall be placed initially on
applications that can produce significant savings in national
health care costs. Such technologies shall, when feasible,
build on existing Federal programs for developing information
technology applications in the health care sector. Such
applications shall include but not be limited to the
following:
(1) Testbed networks for linking hospitals, clinics,
doctor's offices, medical schools, medical libraries, and
universities to enable health care providers and researchers
to share medical data and imagery, including testbed projects
involving rural providers and others.
(2) Software and visualization technology for visualizing
the human anatomy and analyzing imagery from X-rays, CAT
scans, PET scans, and other diagnostic tools.
(3) Virtual reality technology for simulating operations
and other medical procedures.
(4) Collaborative technology to allow several health care
providers in remote locations to provide real-time treatment
to patients.
(5) Database technology to provide health care providers
with access to relevant medical information and literature.
(6) Database technology for storing, accessing, and
transmitting patients' medical records while protecting the
accuracy and privacy of those records.
(7) Development, testing, and evaluation of database and
network technologies for the storage of consumer-oriented,
interactive, multimedia materials for health promotion, and
for the distribution of such materials to public access
points, such as community health and human service agencies,
schools, and public libraries.
(b) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized
to be appropriated to the National Library of Medicine for
the purposes of this section, $9,000,000 for fiscal year
1993, $30,000,000 for fiscal year 1994, and $50,000,000 for
fiscal year 1995.
SEC. 608. APPLICATIONS FOR LIBRARIES.
(a) Digital Libraries.--In accordance with the Plan
developed under section 301 of the High-Performance Computing
Act of 1991, as added by section 603 of this Act, the
National Science Foundation, the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration, the Advanced Research Projects Agency,
and other appropriate agencies shall develop technologies for
``digital libraries'' of electronic information. Development
of digital libraries shall include the following:
(1) Development of advanced data storage systems capable of
storing hundreds of trillions of bits of data and giving
thousands of users nearly instantaneous access to that
information.
(2) Development of high-speed, highly accurate systems for
converting printed text, page images, graphics, and
photographic images into electronic form.
(3) Development of database software capable of quickly
searching, filtering, and summarizing large volumes of text,
imagery, data, and sound.
(4) Encouragement of development and adoption of common
standards and, where appropriate, common formats, for
electronic data.
(5) Development of computer technology to categorize and
organize electronic information in a variety of formats.
(6) Training of database users and librarians in the use of
and development of electronic databases.
(7) Development of technology for simplifying the
utilization of networked databases distributed around the
Nation and around the world.
(8) Development of visualization technology for quickly
browsing large volumes of imagery.
(b) Development of Prototypes.--The National Science
Foundation, working with the supercomputer centers it
supports, shall develop prototype digital libraries of
scientific data available over the Internet.
(c) Electronic Libraries in the States.--The National
Science Foundation, in consultation with the Department of
Education, the Department of Commerce, the Advanced Research
Projects Agency, and the Library of Congress, is authorized
to initiate a competitive, merit-based program to support the
efforts of States and, as appropriate, libraries to develop
electronic libraries. These electronic libraries shall
provide delivery of and access to a variety of databases,
computer programs and interactive multimedia presentations,
including educational materials, research information,
statistics and reports developed by Federal, State, and local
governments, and other information and informational services
which can be carried over the Internet.
(d) Development of Databases of Remote-Sensing Images.--The
National Aeronautics and Space Administration shall develop
databases of software and remote-sensing images to be made
available over computer networks like the Internet.
(e) Authorization of Appropriations.--(1) There are
authorized to be appropriated to the National Science
Foundation for the purposes of this section, $10,000,000 for
fiscal year 1993, $30,000,000 for fiscal year 1994, and
$55,000,000 for fiscal year 1995.
(2) There are authorized to be appropriated to the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration for the purposes of this
section, $10,000,000 for fiscal year 1993, $20,000,000 for
fiscal year 1994, and $30,000,000 for fiscal year 1995.
SEC. 609. APPLICATIONS FOR GOVERNMENT INFORMATION.
(a) In General.--In accordance with the Plan developed
under section 301 of the High-Performance Computing Act of
1991, as added by section 603 of this Act, the Secretary and,
as appropriate, other Federal officials shall identify
projects to develop and apply high-performance computing and
high-speed networking technologies to provide improved public
access to information generated by Federal, State, and local
governments.
(b) Projects.--In accordance with subsection (a), projects
shall be undertaken which--
(1) connect depository libraries and other sources of
government information to the Internet to enable--
(A) access to Federal Government information and databases
in electronic formats;
(B) access to State or local government information;
(C) access to related resources which enhance the use of
government information; and
(D) linkages with other libraries and institutions to
enhance use of government information; and
(2) demonstrate, test, and evaluate technologies to
increase access to and facilitate effective use of government
information and databases for support of research and
education, economic development, and an informed citizenry.
(c) Federal Information Locator.--In accordance with
subsection (a), an information locator system shall be
established which is accessible by the public via the
Internet and which provides citations to Federal information
and guidance on how to obtain such information.
(d) Earth Sciences Information.--In accordance with the
Plan developed under section 301 of the High-Performance
Computing Act of 1991, as added by section 603 of this Act,
the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other
appropriate agencies shall provide for the development and
application of high-performance computing and high-speed
networking technology for use in environmental monitoring,
prediction, and assessment, including making environmental
data and information more readily accessible. Such
applications shall include but not be limited to the
following:
(1) Development of advanced data acquisition systems for in
situ and remotely sensed environmental data that are capable
of making these data available to thousands of users.
(2) Development of advanced information systems to process
these environmental data, including necessary quality control
and interpretation using the most current scientific
knowledge, so that the resulting environmental information is
reliable, useful, and distributed widely over computer
networks such as the National Research and Education Network
in a timely manner.
(3) Development of advanced information systems to archive
and disseminate this environmental data and information so
that it can be readily used for environmental policymaking,
research, and operational purposes.
(e) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized
to be appropriated to the Secretary for the purposes of this
section, $14,000,000 for fiscal year 1994 and $36,000,000 for
fiscal year 1995.
SEC. 610. HIGH-PERFORMANCE COMPUTING AND APPLICATIONS
ADVISORY COMMITTEE.
Section 101(b) of the High-Performance Computing Act of
1991 (15 U.S.C. 5511(b)) is amended to read as follows:
``(b) High-Performance Computing and Applications Advisory
Committee.--The Director shall establish an advisory
committee on high-performance computing and applications
consisting of non-Federal members, including representatives
of the research, elementary and secondary education, higher
education, and library communities, consumer and public
interest groups, network providers, and the computer,
telecommunications, and information and publishing
industries, who are specially qualified to provide the
Director with advice and information on high-performance
computing and on applications of computing and networking.
The recommendations of the advisory committee shall be
considered in reviewing and revising the Program, and the
Plan required by section 301(2). The advisory committee shall
provide the Director with an independent assessment of--
``(1) progress in implementing the Program and the Plan;
``(2) the need to revise the Program and the Plan;
``(3) the balance between the components of the activities
undertaken pursuant to this Act;
``(4) whether the research, development, and demonstration
projects undertaken pursuant to this Act are helping to
maintain United States leadership in computing and networking
technologies and in the application of those technologies;
``(5) whether the applications developed under title III
are successfully addressing the needs of the targeted
populations, including assessment of the number of users
served by those applications; and
``(6) other issues identified by the Director.''.
SEC. 611. NATIONAL RESEARCH AND EDUCATION NETWORK AMENDMENTS.
Section 102 of the High-Performance Computing Act of 1991
(15 U.S.C. 5512) is amended to read as follows:
``SEC. 102. NATIONAL RESEARCH AND EDUCATION NETWORK PROGRAM.
``(a) Establishment.--As part of the Program described in
section 101, the National Science Foundation, the Department
of Defense, the Department of Energy, the Department of
Commerce, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration,
and other agencies participating in the Program shall support
the establishment of the National Research and Education
Network Program. The Network Program shall consist of the
following components:
``(1) Research and development of broadband networking
software and hardware.
``(2) Experimental test bed networks for--
``(A) developing and demonstrating advanced networking
technologies resulting from the activities described in
paragraph (1); and
``(B) providing connections for purposes consistent with
this Act which require levels of network capabilities not
available from commercial networks operated by the private
sector.
``(3) Provision of support directly to researchers,
educators, and students to obtain access to and use of the
Internet to allow for communication with other individuals in
the research and education communities and to allow for
access to high-performance computing systems, electronic
information resources, other research facilities, and
libraries.
``(b) Test Bed Network Characteristics.--The test bed
networks shall--
``(1) be developed and deployed in coordination with the
computer, telecommunications, and information industries;
``(2) be designed, developed, and operated in collaboration
with potential users in government, industry, and research
institutions and educational institutions;
``(3) be designed, developed, and operated in a manner
which fosters and maintains competition and private sector
investment in high-speed data networking within the
telecommunications industry;
``(4) be designed and operated in a manner which promotes
and encourages research and development leading to the
creation of commercial data transmission standards, enabling
the establishment of privately developed high-speed
commercial networks;
``(5) support enough sites, users, and applications to
provide a realistic test of new networking technologies;
``(6) be designed and operated so as to enable the
application of laws that provide network and information
resources security, including those that protect copyright
and other intellectual property rights, and those that
control access to databases and protect national security;
``(7) have accounting mechanisms which allow users or
groups of users to be charged for their usage of copyrighted
materials available over the test bed networks and, where
appropriate and technically feasible, for their usage of the
test bed networks;
``(8) be connected to and interoperable with Federal and
non-Federal computer networks, to the extent appropriate, in
a way that allows autonomy for each component network; and
``(9) be developed by purchasing standard commercial
transmission and network services from vendors whenever
feasible, and by contracting for customized services when not
feasible, in order to minimize Federal investment in network
hardware.
``(c) Network Access.--The Federal agencies and departments
participating in activities under this section shall develop
a plan with specific goals for implementing the requirements
of subsection (a)(3), including provision for financial
assistance to educational institutions, public libraries, and
other appropriate entities. This plan shall be submitted to
the Congress not later than one year after the date of
enactment of the Information Technology Applications Program
Act of 1993.
``(d) Restriction on Use of Test Bed Networks.--(1) The
test bed networks shall not be used to provide commercial
network services that are not related to experimental
activity conducted under this section and that could
otherwise be provided satisfactorily by using commercially
available network services.
``(2) This subsection shall take effect 18 months after the
date of enactment of the Information Technology Applications
Program Act of 1993.
``(e) Advanced Research Projects Agency Responsibility.--As
part of the Program, the Department of Defense, through the
Advanced Research Projects Agency, shall support research and
development of advanced fiber optics technology, switches,
and protocols needed to develop the Network Program.
``(f) Information Services.--The Director shall assist the
President in coordinating the activities of appropriate
agencies and departments to promote the development of
information services that could be provided over the Internet
consistent with the purposes of this Act. These services may
include the provision of directories of the users and
services on computer networks, databases of unclassified
Federal scientific data, training of users of databases and
computer networks, and technology to support computer-based
collaboration that allows researchers and educators around
the Nation to share information and instrumentation.
``(g) Use of Grant Funds.--All Federal agencies and
departments are authorized to allow recipients of Federal
research grants to use grant moneys to pay for computer
networking expenses.''.
SEC. 612. CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.
The High-Performance Computing Act of 1991 (15 U.S.C. 5501
et seq.) is amended--
(1) in section 3(1), by amending subparagraph (A) to read
as follows:
``(A) accelerate the creation of a universally accessible
broadband telecommunications network for the Nation;'';
(2) in section 4(4), by inserting immediately before the
semicolon the following: ``, which consists of that portion
of the Internet which receives direct Federal subsidy''; and
(3) in section 101(a)(2), by striking ``and'' at the end of
subparagraph (H); by striking the period at the end of
subparagraph (I) and inserting in lieu thereof ``; and''; and
by adding at the end the following new subparagraph:
``(J) not provide for the building, ownership, or operation
of data communications networks by the Federal Government, or
any State or local government, or any agency or
instrumentality thereof, unless such networks are either (i)
test bed networks or (ii) networks operated for government
mission purposes, including military purposes.''.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Chair recognizes the Senator from South
Carolina [Mr. Hollings].
Mr. HOLLINGS. Mr. President, I am authorized by the Committee on
Commerce, Science, and Transportation to offer a modification to the
committee amendment in the nature of a substitute to S. 4. I offer this
modification and send it to the desk.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator has a right to modify the
amendment if authorized by the committee, and the amendment is so
modified.
The amendment as modified is as follows:
In lieu of the matter proposed to be inserted, insert the
following:
TITLE I--GENERAL PROVISIONS
SEC. 101. SHORT TITLE AND TABLE OF CONTENTS.
(a) Short Title.--This Act may be cited as the ``National
Competitiveness Act of 1994''.
(b) Table of Contents.--
TITLE I--GENERAL PROVISIONS
Sec. 101. Short title and table of contents.
Sec. 102. Findings.
Sec. 103. Purposes.
Sec. 104. Definitions.
TITLE II--MANUFACTURING
Sec. 201. Short title.
Subtitle A--Manufacturing Technology and Extension
Sec. 211. Manufacturing amendments to the Stevenson-Wydler Technology
Innovation Act.
Sec. 212. Manufacturing amendments to the National Institute of
Standards and Technology Act.
Sec. 213. Additional amendments to the Stevenson-Wydler Technology
Innovation Act.
Sec. 214. Manufacturing technology centers.
Sec. 215. State Technology Extension Program.
Sec. 216. Report on options for accelerating the adoption of new
manufacturing equipment.
Subtitle B--National Science Foundation Manufacturing Programs
Sec. 221. National Science Foundation manufacturing programs.
TITLE III--CRITICAL TECHNOLOGIES
Sec. 301. Development of plan for Advanced Technology Program.
Sec. 302. Large scale research and development consortia.
Sec. 303. Technical amendments.
Sec. 304. Technology monitoring and competitiveness assessment.
Sec. 305. Recoupment.
Sec. 306. Technology financing pilot program.
TITLE IV--ADDITIONAL COMMERCE DEPARTMENT PROVISIONS
Sec. 401. Department of Commerce Technology Advisory Board.
Sec. 402. International standarization.
Sec. 403. Malcolm Baldrige award amendments.
Sec. 404. Cooperative research and development agreements.
Sec. 405. Program evaluations.
Sec. 406. Study of semiconductor lithography technologies.
Sec. 407. Clearinghouse on State and Local Initiatives.
Sec. 408. Wind engineering research program.
Sec. 409. Environmentally sensitive construction technologies.
Sec. 410. American workforce quality.
Sec. 411. Severability.
Sec. 412. Use of domestic products.
Sec. 413. Personnel.
TITLE V--AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS
Sec. 501. Technology Administration.
Sec. 502. National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Sec. 503. Additional activities of the Technology Administration.
Sec. 504. National Science Foundation.
Sec. 505. Availability of appropriations.
TITLE VI--INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY APPLICATIONS
Sec. 601. Short title.
Sec. 602. Findings and purpose.
Sec. 603. Information technology applications.
Sec. 604. Applications for education and libraries.
Sec. 605. Applications in manufacturing and information.
Sec. 606. Applications in energy and other areas.
Sec. 607. Applications for health care; access to networks.
Sec. 608. High-Performance Computing and Applications Advisory
Committee.
Sec. 609. National Research and Education Network Program.
Sec. 610. Support computer education programs.
Sec. 611. Support for State-based digital libraries.
Sec. 612. Support for computing activities at tribal colleges.
Sec. 613. Department of Education support for computer education
programs.
TITLE VII--FASTENER QUALITY ACT AMENDMENTS
Sec. 701. Fastener Quality Act amendments.
SEC. 102. FINDINGS.
Congress finds and declares the following:
(1) In an increasingly competitive world economy, the
companies and nations which lead in the rapid development,
adoption, and application of new technologies, and in the
low-priced, high-quality manufacture of products based on
those technologies, will lead in economic growth, employment,
and high living standards.
(2) While the United States remains the world leader in
science and invention, it has not done as well as it should
in manufacturing new products based on these innovations.
This lag and the unprecedented competitive challenge that the
Nation has faced from abroad have contributed to a drop in
real wages, living standards, and employment opportunities.
(3) There is general agreement on which fields of
technology are critical for economic competitiveness through
the first decade of the next century, but the United States
Government must pursue a comprehensive strategy to ensure
that the appropriate research, development, and applications
activities and other reforms occur so these technologies are
readily available to United States manufacturers for
incorporation into products made in the United States.
(4) Maintaining a highly competitive manufacturing base in
the United States is essential for economic prosperity and
national welfare and requires continuous development and
adoption of advanced manufacturing technologies that will
enable United States manufacturers to develop innovative
products rapidly and manufacture goods of the highest quality
at competitive prices.
(5) While the private sector must take the lead in the
development, application, and manufacture of new
technologies, the Federal Government should--
(A) assist industry in the development of high-risk, long-
term precommercial technologies which promise large economic
benefits for the Nation;
(B) support industry-led efforts to develop and refine
advanced manufacturing technologies, including technologies
which improve productivity and quality and which build upon
and enhance employee skills;
(C) work with States, the private sector, worker
organizations, and technical and professional societies to
help small and medium-sized manufacturers throughout the
Nation to adopt best current manufacturing technologies and
practices, to improve worker skills, to establish high-
performance work organizations, and to prepare, as
appropriate, to adopt the advanced computer-controlled
manufacturing technologies of the twenty-first century; and
(D) cooperate with industry and academia to help create an
advanced information infrastructure for the United States.
(6) In working with industry to promote the technological
leadership and economic growth of the United States, the
Federal Government also has a responsibility to consult with
business and labor leaders on industry's long-term
technological and skill needs, to monitor technological
trends, production process trends, and technology targeting
efforts in other nations, and generally to ensure that
Federal technology and industrial modernization programs help
United States industry to remain competitive and create good
domestic jobs.
(7) Technology-based products of the twenty-first century
should be developed incorporating the values of sustainable
development, including low material use, safety,
recyclability, and minimal pollution.
(8) The Department of Commerce, and particularly its
Technology Administration and National Institute of Standards
and Technology, can effectively assist industry to speed the
development and utilization of new technologies, improve and
modernize manufacturing, adopt new methods of production, and
ensure a growing and healthy national industrial base and
good manufacturing jobs. To promote the long-term economic
growth of the Nation, these Department of Commerce programs
should be strengthened and expanded.
SEC. 103. PURPOSES.
The purposes of this Act are to--
(1) strengthen and expand the ability of Federal technology
programs, particularly those of the Department of Commerce,
to support industry-led and State-supported efforts to
improve the technological capabilities, manufacturing
performance, information infrastructure, and employment
opportunities of the United States.
(2) promote and facilitate, particularly through the
Advanced Technology Program of the Department of Commerce,
the creation, development, and adoption of technologies that
will contribute significantly to United States economic
competitiveness, employment, high quality jobs, and
prosperity;
(3) develop a nationwide network of sources of
technological and industrial modernization advice for
manufacturers, particularly small and medium-sized firms, and
provide high quality, current information to that network;
(4) encourage cooperation among Federal departments and
agencies to help companies, managers, and workers, in a
coordinated fashion, to take full advantage of advanced
manufacturing technologies, to improve productivity and
quality, and adopt advanced workplace practices which
successfully integrate technology and employees;
(5) stimulate the flow of capital to business concerns
engaged principally in development or utilization of critical
technologies and other manufacturing technologies;
(6) ensure the widest possible application of high-
performance computing and high-speed networking and aid
United States industry to develop an advanced national
information infrastructure; and
(7) enhance and expand the core programs of the National
Institute of Standards and Technology.
SEC. 104. DEFINITIONS.
For purposes of this Act--
(1) the terms ``advanced manufacturing technology'',
``advanced workplace practices'', ``modern technology'', and
``sustainable economic growth'' have the meanings given such
terms, respectively, in section 4 of the Stevenson-Wydler
Technology Innovation Act of 1980, as amended by section
211(b) of this Act;
(2) the term ``critical technologies'' means technologies
identified as critical technologies pursuant to section
603(d) of the National Science and Technology Policy,
Organization, and Priorities Act of 1976 (42 U.S.C. 6683(d));
(3) the term ``Director'' means the Director of the
Institute;
(4) the term ``Institute'' means the National Institute of
Standards and Technology;
(5) the term '`Secretary'' means the Secretary of Commerce;
(6) the term ``small business'' has the meaning given such
term in the Small Business Act;
(7) the term ``source reduction'' has the meaning given
that term in section 6603 of the Pollution Prevention Act of
1990 (42 U.S.C. 13102);
(8) the term ``State'' means any of the several States, the
District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the
Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the
Northern Mariana Islands, or any other territory or
possession of the United States;
(9) the term ``Under Secretary'' means the Under Secretary
of Commerce for Technology; and
(10) the term ``United States'' means the several States,
the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico,
the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of
the Northern Mariana Islands, and any other territory or
possession of the United States.
TITLE II--MANUFACTURING
SEC. 201. SHORT TITLE.
This title may be cited as the ``Manufacturing Technology
and Extension Act of 1994''.
Subtitle A--Manuafacturing Technology and Extension
SEC. 211. MANUFACTURING AMENDMENTS TO THE STEVENSON-WYDLER
TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION ACT.
(a) Amendments.--The Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation
Act of 1980 (15 U.S.C. 3701 et seq.), as amended by section
213 of this Act, is further amended by adding after section
101 (as so redesignated by section 213 of this Act) the
following new sections:
``SEC. 102. MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY.
``(a) Statement of Policy.--Congress declares that it is
the policy of the United States that--
``(1) Federal agencies, particularly the Department of
Commerce shall work with manufacturers in the United States
and labor to ensure that within 10 years of the date of
enactment of the National Competitiveness Act of 1994 the
United States is second to no other nation in the
development, deployment, and use of advanced manufacturing
technologies;
``(2) all the major Federal research and development
agencies shall place a high priority on the development and
deployment of skill-based and advanced manufacturing
technologies, and shall work closely with manufacturers in
the United States and labor and with the Nation's
universities to develop and test those technologies; and
``(3) since the development of new skills in the existing
and entry workforce, and the development of new
organizational and managerial approaches, are integral parts
of successfully deploying advanced manufacturing technologies
and related technologies, advanced workplace practices should
be developed and deployed simultaneously and in a coordinated
fashion with the development and deployment of advanced
manufacturing technologies.
``(b) Role of the Department of Commerce.--The Department
of Commerce, consistent with the policy declared in
subsection (a), shall have primary responsibility in the
Federal Government for commercial and industrial civilian
technology and shall--
``(1) through the activities of the Technology
Administration, the Institute's laboratories, and the
Advanced Technology Program created under section 28 of the
National Institute of Standards and Technology Act (15 U.S.C.
278n), work with manufacturers in the United States and labor
and, as appropriate, with other Federal departments and
agencies to help develop new generic advanced manufacturing
technologies, including technologies which build upon and
enhance employee skills and technologies which facilitate
flexibility, agility, and electronic integration in
manufacturing enterprises;
``(2) through the Manufacturing Extension Partnership
established under section 24 of the National Institute of
Standards and Technology Act and through other activities of
the Department, assist the States and the private sector to
help manufacturers in the United States, especially small and
medium-sized manufacturing enterprises, to adopt modern
technologies and advanced workplace practices and, as
appropriate, advanced manufacturing technologies and
equipment;
``(3) work with the private sector, other Federal
departments and agencies, State and local governments, and
educational institutions to--
``(A) help develop advanced workplace practices, improved
supplier-customer relations, manufacturing modernization and
investment justification strategies, and other steps which
would accelerate the development, deployment, and use of
advanced manufacturing technologies by United States
companies; and
``(B) evaluate foreign programs to modernize manufacturing;
``(4) have primary responsibility in the Federal Government
in working with industry and labor and the States to develop
advanced manufacturing technologies and to promote and assist
the adoption and use of modern technologies, advanced
manufacturing technologies, and management techniques
throughout the United States; and
``(5) through the Under Secretary, develop measurements and
coordinate with appropriate Federal agencies to ensure that
Federal research and development expenditures are linked to
the economic needs of industry and the promotion of economic
growth.
``SEC. 103. MANUFACTURING ADVISORY COMMITTEE.
``(a) Establishment.--Subject to subsection (d), the
Secretary shall establish a Manufacturing Advisory Committee
(in this section referred to as the `Committee'), which shall
be chaired by the Secretary and which shall provide advice to
the Secretary and, as appropriate, to other Federal
officials.
``(b) Functions.--The Committee shall--
``(1) collect and analyze information on the range of
factors which determine the success of United States-based
manufacturing industries, and particularly factors regarding
the development of advanced manufacturing technologies, the
deployment of modern technologies, and the application of
advanced workplace practices;
``(2) identify areas where appropriate cooperation between
the Federal Government and industry and labor, including
Government support for industry-led joint research and
development ventures and for manufacturing extension
activities, would enhance United States industrial
competiveness, and provide advice and guidance for such
cooperative efforts;
``(3) provide guidance on what Federal policies and
practices are necessary to strengthen United States-based
manufacturing, particularly Federal policies and practices
regarding research budgets, interagency coordination and
initiatives, and technology transfer; and
``(4) generally develop recommendations for guiding Federal
agency and interagency activities related to United States-
based manufacturing.
``(C) Membership and Procedures.--(1) The Committee shall
be composed of 16 members, of whom--
``(A) 6 members shall be the Secretary, the Director of the
Office of Science and Technology Policy, the Secretary of
Defense, the Secretary of Energy, the Secretary of Labor, and
the Director of the National Science Foundation, or their
designees; and
``(B) 10 members shall, within 120 days after the date of
enactment of the National Competitiveness Act of 1994, be
appointed by the Secretary from the private manufacturing
industry, worker organizations, technical and professional
societies, State technology agencies, and academia.
At least two of the members appointed under subparagraph (B)
shall be from small business.
``(2) The Secretary shall call the first meeting of the
Committee within 30 days after the appointment of members is
completed.
``(3) The Committee may use such personnel detailed from
Federal agencies as may be necessary to enable it to perform
its functions.
``(4) Nine members of the Committee shall constitute a
quorum for the transaction of business.
``(5) Members of the Committee other than full-time
employees of the Federal Government, while attending meetings
of the Committee or otherwise performing duties of the
Committee while away from their homes or regular places of
business, shall be allowed travel expenses in accordance with
subchapter I of chapter 57 of title 5, United States Code.
``(6) The Committee, as appropriate, shall work with the
Department of Commerce Technology Advisory Board and with
other appropriate Federal advisory mechanisms to ensure
integrated Federal-private consideration of technology and
manufacturing policies and programs.
``(d) Secretarial Discretion.--Notwithstanding any other
provision of this section, the Secretary shall have the
discretion of decide whether to establish the Committee or
create a more cost-effective way to achieve the goal of
closer cooperation with industry. If the Secretary exercises
such discretion and establishes an alternative mechanism, the
Under Secretary shall make an effort to ensure the
participation of socially and economically disadvantaged
individuals (within the meaning of section 8(a) (5) and (6)
of the Small Business Act, and including women) in the
alternative mechanism.''.
``(b) Additional Definitions.--Section 4 of the Stevenson-
Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980 (15 U.S.C. 3703) is
amended by adding at the end the following new paragraphs:
``(14) `Advanced manufacturing technology' means--
``(A) numerically-controlled machine tools, robots,
automated process control equipment, computerized flexible
manufacturing systems, associated computer software, and
other technology for improving manufacturing and industrial
production of goods, including biotechnology products, which
advance the state-of-the-art; or
``(B) novel manufacturing techniques and processes not
previously generally available that improve manufacturing
quality, productivity, that practices, including engineering
design, quality assurance, concurrent engineering, continuous
process production technology, inventory management, upgraded
worker skills, communications with customers and suppliers,
and promotion of sustainable economic growth.
``(15) `Modern technology' means the best available proven
technology, techniques, and processes appropriate to
enhancing the productivity of manufacturers or to promoting
sustainable economic growth.
``(16) `Advanced workplace practices' means innovations in
work organization and performance, including high-performance
workplace systems, flexible production techniques, quality
programs, continuous improvement, concurrent engineering,
close relations between suppliers and customers, widely
diffused decision-making and work teams, and effective
integration of production technology, worker skills and
training, and workplace organization.
``(17) `Sustainable economic growth' means economic growth
that enhances the national quality of life and preserves
environmental integrity.''.
SEC. 212. MANUFACTURING AMENDMENTS TO THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE
OF STANDARDS AND TECHNOLOGY ACT.
``(a) National Quality Laboratory; Manufacturing Extension
Partnership.--The National Institute of Standards and
Technology Act (15 U.S.C. 271 et seq.) is amended--
``(1) by redesignating sections 29 through 31 as sections
31 through 33, respectively;
``(2) by redesignating sections 23 and 24 as sections 29
and 30, respectively; and
``(3) by inserting after section 22 the following new
sections:
``national quality laboratory
``Sec. 23. A National Quality Laboratory is established
within the Institute, the purpose of which is to perform
research and outreach activities to assist private sector
quality efforts and to serve as a mechanism by which
companies in the United States, universities and other
interested parties, and the Institute and work together to
advance quality management programs and to share and, a
appropriate, develop manufacturing best practices.
``manufacturing extension partnership
``Sec. 24. (a) There is established within the Institute a
Manufacturing Extension Partnership (in this section referred
to as the `Partnership'). The Secretary, acting through the
Under Secretary and the Director, shall implement and
coordinate the Partnership in accordance with the initial and
5-year plans prepared under subsection (h). The purpose of
the Partnership is to link electronically and strengthen the
Nation's manufacturing extension centers and activities in
order to assist manufacturers in the United States,
especially small- and medium-sized companies, to extend and
accelerate the use of modern technologies, and to accelerate
the development and use of advanced manufacturing
technologies and advanced workplace practices.
``(b) The Partnership shall be a cooperative effort of the
Department of Commerce, the States, manufacturers in the
United States, labor, nonprofit organizations, and, as
appropriate, other Federal agencies to provide a national
system of manufacturing extension centers and technical
services to United States companies, particularly small- and
medium-sized manufacturers. The Partnership shall include--
``(1) Manufacturing Outreach Centers, as authorized under
subsection (c);
``(2) Regional Centers for the Transfer of Manufacturing
Technology and Local Manufacturing Offices, as established
under section 25, and the State Technology Extension Program,
as established under section 26;
``(3) The outreach network provided for under subsection
(d) and the clearinghouse system developed under subsection
(e); and
``(4) such technology and manufacturing extension centers
supported by other Federal departments and agencies, States,
industry, and nonprofit organizations as the Secretary
considers appropriate for inclusion in the Partnership
``(c)(1) Government and private sector organizations,
actively engaged in technology or manufacturing extension
activities, may apply to the Secretary to be designated as
Manufacturing Outreach Centers. Eligible organizations may
include Federal, State, and local government agencies, their
extension programs, and their laboratories; small business
development centers; and appropriate programs run by
professional and technical societies worker organizations,
industrial organizations, for-profit or nonprofit
organizations, community development organizations, State
universities and other universities, community colleges, and
technical schools and colleges, including, where appropriate,
vendor-supported demonstrations of production applications.
``(2) The purpose of such Manufacturing Outreach Centers
shall be to--
``(A) disseminate technical and information services to
manufacturers in the United States, particularly small-and
medium-sized companies; and
``(B) strengthen direct assistance to small- and medium-
sized manufacturers in the United States to expand and
accelerate the use of modern technologies and advanced
workplace practices.
``(3) The Secretary shall establish terms and conditions of
participation in a Manufacturing Outreach Center, including
qualifications of start-up programs as Manufacturing Outreach
Centers, and may provide financial assistance, on a cost-
shared basis and through competitive, merit-based review
processes, to nonprofit or government participants throughout
the United States to enable them to establish a Manufacturing
Outreach Center.
``(4) Any Regional Center for the Transfer of Manufacturing
Technology may apply to the Secretary to establish a
Manufacturing Outreach Center, managed by or in cooperation
with such Regional Center, if the Manufacturing Outreach
Center would be located outside and would primarily serve an
area outside the effective service area of such Regional
Center. Funding for the establishment and management of such
Manufacturing Outreach Center may be awarded to such Regional
Center under this subsection, notwithstanding the
restrictions of paragraph (6).
``(5) If a State plan for technology extension exists in a
State where an applicant for financial assistance under this
subsection is operating or plans to operate, the applicant
shall demonstrate in its application that its proposal is
compatible with such State plan.
``(6) If a Manufacturing Outreach Center is in or near a
State which has a Regional Center for the Transfer of
Manufacturing Technology, the Director shall, as appropriate,
encourage the Manufacturing Outreach Center to cooperate with
the Regional Center in coordinating its proposals and ongoing
programs to serve manufacturers in the region. Manufacturing
Outreach Centers may not concurrently be designated as
Regional Centers for the Transfer of Manufacturing Technology
under section 25.
``(7) Financial assistance may be awarded under this
subsection for an initial period not to exceed 3 years and
may, subject to successful evaluation by the institute, be
renewed for additional periods, not to exceed 3 years each.
Such assistance may not at any time exceed 50 percent of the
operating costs and other costs of the Manufacturing Outreach
Center, as defined by regulation.
``(d)(1) The Department of Commerce shall provide for an
instantaneous, interactive electronic communications network
(in this section referred to as the `outreach network') to
serve the Partnership, to facilitate effective and efficient
interaction within it, and to permit the collection and
dissemination in electronic form, in a timely and accurate
manner, of information described in subsection (e). The
outreach network shall, wherever practicable, make use of
existing public and private computer networks, data bases,
and electronic bulletin boards. The design, configuration,
acquisition plan, and operating policies, including user fees
and appropriate electronic access for public and private
information suppliers and users, of the outreach network
shall be included in the 5-year plan prepared under
subsection (h)(2).
``(2) Except as provided in this section, the outreach
network established under paragraph (1) shall be designed and
configured in a manner that will enable interoperability with
networks and technologies developed under the National High-
Performance Computing Program described in section 101 of the
High-Performance Computing Act of 1991 (15 U.S.C. 5511). The
Secretary shall also, as appropriate, coordinate activities
under this subsection with the relevant activities of other
Federal agencies, particularly the agile manufacturing/
enterprise integration activities of the Department of
Defense.
``(e)(1) The Secretary, acting through the Under Secretary,
shall develop a clearinghouse system, using appropriate
components of the Technology Administration and other public
and private sector information providers and carriers, where
appropriate, to--
``(A) identify expertise and acquire information,
appropriate to the purpose of the Partnership stated in
subsection (a), from all available Federal sources, and where
appropriate from other sources, providing assistance where
necessary in making such information electronically available
and compatible with the outreach network established under
subsection (d);
``(B) ensure ready access by manufacturers, governmental
agencies, and nonprofit organizations in the United States to
the most recent relevant available such information and
expertise;
``(C) ensure that common standards of interconnection are
utilized by the outreach network and the clearinghouse to
allow maximum interoperability and usership; and
``(D) to the extent practicable, inform potential users of
the availability of such information.
``(2) The clearinghouse shall include information available
electronically regarding--
``(A) activities of Manufacturing Outreach Centers,
Regional Centers for the Transfer of Manufacturing
Technology, the State Technology Extension Program, and the
users of the outreach network;
``(B) domestic and international standards from the
Institute and private sector organizations and other export
promotion information, including conformity assessment
requirements and procedures;
``(C) the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award program,
and quality principles and standards;
``(D) manufacturing processes that minimize waste and
negative environmental impact;
``(E) advanced workplace practices;
``(F) federally funded technology development and transfer
programs;
``(G) responsibilities assigned to the Clearinghouse for
State and Local Initiatives on Productivity, Technology, and
Innovation;
``(H) how to access data bases and services;
``(I) skills training, particularly for production workers,
that is available through trade and professional
organizations, federally supported programs, State resources,
private industry, or other organizations; and
``(J) other subjects relevant to the ability of companies
to manufacture and sell competitive products throughout the
world.
``(f) In carrying out this section, the Department of
Commerce shall take into consideration on the following
principles:
``(1) The Partnership and the outreach network provided for
under subsection (d) shall be established and operated
through cooperation and co-funding among Federal, State, and
local governments, other public and private contributors, and
end users.
``(2) The Partnership and the outreach network shall
utilize and leverage, to the extent practicable, existing
organizations, data bases, electronic networks, facilities,
and capabilities, and shall be designed to complement rather
than supplant State and local programs.
``(3) The Partnership should, to the extent practicable,
involve key stakeholders at all levels in the planning and
governance of modernization strategies; concentrate on
assisting local clusters of firms; assist rural as well as
urban manufacturers; promote collaborative learning and
cooperative action among manufacturers; link industrial
modernization programs tightly to existing and future Federal
training initiatives, including those for youth
apprenticeship programs and for assisting other workers;
encourage small firms to seek modernization services by
working with major manufacturers; encourage small firms, as
appropriate, to select manufacturing equipment and practices
which build upon and expand the skills of their employees;
identify and honor best practices by firms and the programs
that support them, including both technology and workplace
practices; provide funding based on performance and ensure
rigorous evaluation of extension services; as appropriate,
coordinate Federal programs that support manufacturing
modernization; work with Federal, State, local, and private
organizations so that Manufacturing Outreach Centers and
Regional Centers for the Transfer of Manufacturing Technology
can provide referrals to other important business services,
such as assistance with financing, training, and exporting,
and contribute to local business climates supportive of high-
performance manufacturing.
``(4) The Partnership and the outreach network provided for
under subsection (d) shall be subject to all applicable
provisions of law for the protection of trade secrets and
business confidential information.
``(5) Local or regional needs should determine the
management structure and staffing of the Manufacturing
Outreach Centers. The Partnership shall strive for
geographical balance and for balance between urban and rural
recipients, with the ultimate goal of access for all United
States manufacturers.
``(6) Manufacturing Outreach Centers should have the
capability to deliver outreach services directly to
manufacturers; actively work with, rather than supplant, the
private sector; help firms assess needs regarding technology,
workplace practices, and training; and to the extent
practicable, maximize the exposure of United States
manufacturers to demonstrations of modern technologies in
use.
``(7) Manufacturing Outreach Centers shall focus, where
possible, on the deployment of flexible manufacturing
technologies and practices applicable to both defense and
commercial applications and on opportunities to modernize
operations in ways which improve productivity, reduce waste
and pollution, and increase energy efficiency.
``(8) The Department of Commerce shall develop mechanisms
for--
``(A) soliciting the perspectives of manufacturers using
the services of the Manufacturing Outreach Centers and
Regional Centers for the Transfer of Manufacturing
Technology;
``(B) assisting in the training of technology extension
agents and in helping them disseminate information on modern
manufacturing technologies, including technologies for source
reduction, and advance workplace practices; and
``(C) rigorously evaluating the effectiveness of the
Manufacturing Outreach Centers and other components of the
Partnership.
``(9) This Act does not supersede, modify, or otherwise
alter the rights and obligations of employers, employees, and
labor organizations as set forth in the National Labor
Relations Act and the Railway Labor Act or in any collective
bargaining agreement entered into by parties covered by those
Acts.
``(g)(1) The Regional Centers for the Transfer of
Manufacturing Technology and Manufacturing Outreach Centers
shall, as appropriate, make available source reduction and
energy conservation assessments to interested manufacturers
in the United States. These assessments shall assist such
interested manufacturers in identifying opportunities for
energy conservation and source reduction, and thus reduce
operating costs, through either improvement in manufacturing
processes or the purchase of new equipment.
``(2) The Secretary is authorized to work with other
appropriate Federal officials and other parties to provide
employees of Regional Centers for the Transfer of
Manufacturing Technology and Manufacturing Outreach Centers
with the training needed to carry out the assessments
specified in paragraph (1).
``(h)(1) Within 6 months after the date of enactment of the
National Competitiveness Act of 1994, the Secretary, through
the Under Secretary and Director and after consulting with
the private sector, shall submit an initial plan for the
implementation of this section to Congress--
``(A) describing how the Secretary will carry out the
responsibility to create, operate, and support the
Partnership and the outreach network;
``(B) establishing criteria and procedures, consistent with
the requirements of this section, for--
``(i) the selection of organizations to receive Department
of Commerce services or financial assistance as part of the
Partnership, including qualifications and training of
technology extension agents;
``(ii) access to services provided by participants in the
Partnership and to information available through the outreach
network servicing the Partnership; and
``(iii) the annual evaluation of the Partnership in
achieving the purposes of this section; and
``(C) evaluating the need for and the benefits of a
National Conference of States on Technology Extension,
similar in structure to the National Conference on Weights
and Measures, and, if the Secretary determines that such a
Conference is advisable, developing, in consultation with the
States and other interested parties, a plan for the
establishment, operation, funding, and evaluation of such a
Conference.
``(2)(A) within 1 year after the date of enactment of the
National Competitiveness Act of 1994, the Secretary, through
the Under Secretary and Director, shall prepare and submit to
the Congress a 5-year plan for implementing the Partnership
and the outreach network and clearinghouse established under
subsections (d) and (e), respectively, of this section.
``(B) Such 5-year plan shall address--
``(i) effective mechanisms for providing operating funds
for the maintenance and use of the outreach network
established under subsection (d), including user fees,
industry support, and continued Federal investment;
``(ii) the future operation and evolution of the outreach
network, including its relationship with other public or
private information services;
``(iii) how to protect the copyrights of material
distributed over the outreach network; and
``(iv) appropriate policies to ensure the security of
proprietary information that might be available on the
outreach network and to protect the privacy of users of the
outreach network.
``(C) Such 5-year plan shall identify appropriate methods
for expanding the Partnership in a geographically balanced
manner. Such 5-year plan shall include a detailed
implementation plan and cost estimates and shall take into
consideration and build on the report submitted under
paragraph (1). In the preparation of such 5-year plan, the
Secretary shall provide an opportunity for public comment,
and the plan submitted to Congress shall include a summary of
comments received. Any new types of activities proposed by
such plan may not be implemented until 90 days after its
submission to the Congress.
``(3) Beginning with the first year after submission of the
5-year plan under paragraph (2), the Secretary shall annually
report to the Congress, at the time of the President's annual
budget request to Congress, on--
``(A) progress made in achieving the purposes of the
Partnership described in subsection (a), using criteria and
procedures established under paragraph (1)(B)(iii) of this
subsection;
``(B) changes proposed to the 5-year plan;
``(C) performance in adhering to schedules; and
``(D) any recommendations for legislative changes necessary
to enhance the Partnership.
The report under this paragraph submitted at the end of the
fourth year of operation of the Partnership shall include
recommendations on whether to terminate the Partnership or
extend it for an additional period not to exceed 5 years.''.
(b) Definitions.--The National Institute of Standards and
Technology Act (15 U.S.C. 271 et seq.) is amended by
inserting after section 1 the following new section:
``Sec. 1A. As used in this Act--
``(1) the terms `advanced manufacturing technology',
`modern technology', `advanced workplace practices', and
`sustainable economic growth' have the meanings given such
terms in section 4 of the Stevenson Wydler Technology
Innovation Act;
``(2) the term `independent research organizations' means
nonprofit organizations organized primarily for the purpose
of conducting or managing research activities;
``(3) the term `source reduction' has the meaning given
that term in section 6603 of the Pollution Prevention Act of
1990 (42 U.S.C. 13102);
``(4) the term `State' means any of the several States, the
District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the
Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the
Northern Mariana Islands, or any other territory or
possession of the United States; and
``(5) the term `United States' means the several States,
the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico,
the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of
the Northern Mariana Islands, and any other territory or
possession of the United States.''.
SEC. 213. ADDITIONAL AMENDMENTS TO THE STEVENSON-WYDLER
TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION ACT.
The Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980 (15
U.S.C. 3701 et seq.) is amended--
(1) by inserting after section 4 the following new title
heading:
``TITLE I--DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE AND RELATED PROGRAMS'';
(2) by redesignating section 5 as section 101;
(3) by redesignating sections 6 through 10 as sections 105
through 109, respectively;
(4) by striking section 21;
(5) by redesignating sections 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, and 22 as
sections 110 through 115, respectively;
(6) by inserting after section 115 (as redesignated by
paragraph (5) of this subsection) the following new title
heading:
``TITLE II--FEDERAL TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER'';
(7) by redesignating sections 11 through 15 as sections 201
through 205, respectively;
(8) by redesignating section 23 as section 206;
(9) in section 4--
(A) by striking ``section 5'' and inserting in lieu thereof
``section 101'';
(B) by striking ``section 5(b)(1)'' and inserting in lieu
thereof ``section 101(b)(1)'';
(C) in paragraphs (4) and (6), by striking ``section 6''
and ``section 8'' each place they appear and inserting in
lieu thereof ``section 105'' and ``section 107'',
respectively; and
(D) in paragraph (13), by striking ``section 6'' and
inserting in lieu thereof ``section 105'';
(10) in section 108 (as redesignated by paragraph (3) of
this subsection) by striking ``section 6(a)'' and inserting
in lieu thereof ``section 106(a)''; by striking ``section
6(b)'' and inserting in lieu thereof ``section 106(b)''; and
by striking ``section 6(c)(3)'' and inserting in lieu thereof
``section 106(c)(3)'';
(11) in section 109(d) (as redesignated by paragraph (2) of
this subsection) by striking ``section 7, 9, 11, 15, 17, or
20 of'';
(12) in section 201(i) (as redesignated by paragraph (7) of
this subsection) by inserting ``loan, lease, or'' after
``may''; and by inserting ``Actions taken under this
subsection shall not be subject to Federal requirements on
the disposal of property.'' after ``activities.'';
(13) in section 202(b) (as redesignated by paragraph (7) of
this subsection) by striking ``section 14(a)(1)(B) (i), (ii),
and (iv)'' and inserting in lieu thereof ``section
204(a)(1)(B) (i), (ii), and (iv)'';
(14) in section 204(a)(1) (as redesignated by paragraph (7)
of this subsection) by striking ``section 12'' and inserting
in lieu thereof ``section 202'';
(15) in section 115 (as redesignated by paragraph (5) of
this subsection) by striking ``Act (other than sections 11,
12, and 13)'' and inserting in lieu thereof ``title'';
(16) in section 206 (as redesignated by paragraph (7) of
this subsection)--
(A) by striking ``section 12(d)(2)'' in the introductory
matter of subsection (a) and inserting in lieu thereof
``section 202(d)(2)'';
(B) by striking ``section 11(b)'' in subsection (a)(2) and
inserting in lieu thereof ``section 201(b)''; and
(C) by striking ``section 6(d)'' in subsection (b) and
inserting in lieu thereof ``section 105(d)'';
(17) in section 112 (as redesignated by paragraph (5) of
this subsection)--
(A) in the section heading, by striking ``CONFERENCE'' and
inserting in lieu thereof ``CONFERENCES'';
(B) by striking ``Not later than'' through ``shall convene
a conference'' and inserting in lieu thereof ``The Secretary,
through the Under Secretary, in consultation with other
appropriate officials, may convene conferences''; and
(C) by striking ``such conference shall'' and in insert in
lieu thereof ``any such conferences shall, whenever
appropriate,'';
(18) by adding at the end of section 201 (as redesignated
by paragraph (7) of this subsection) the following new
subsection:
``(j) Additional Technology Transfer Mechanisms.--In
addition to the technology transfer mechanisms set forth in
this section and section 202, the heads of Federal
departments and agencies also may transfer technologies
through the technology transfer, extension, and deployment
programs of the Department of Commerce and the Department of
Defense.''; and
(19) in section 101(c) (as redesignated by paragraph (2) of
this subsection)--
(A) by striking ``and'' at the end of paragraph (14);
(B) by striking the period at the end of paragraph (15) and
inserting in lieu thereof ``; and''; and
(C) by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
``(16) engage in joint projects with any person or persons
on matters within the authority of the Department of
Commerce, accept temporary personnel from industrial
partners, and receive cash donations in the course of such
joint projects, and in conjunction with the planning and
operation of such joint projects hold private meetings of
matters of mutual interest with groups of interested persons,
in order to protect sensitive information about United States
industry and to ensure industry participation in such joint
projects.''.
SEC. 214. MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY CENTERS.
(a) Amendments.--(1) Section 25(a) of the National
Institute of Standards and Technology Act (15 U.S.C. 278k(a))
is amended by striking ``and'' at the end of paragraph (4);
by striking the period at the end of paragraph (5) and
inserting in lieu thereof a semicolon; and by inserting after
paragraph (5) the following new paragraphs:
``(6) the active dissemination of information on advanced
workplace practices and available education and training
programs, and the encouragement of companies to train workers
in the effective use of modern technologies and advanced
manufacturing technologies; and
``(7) demonstration projects in which Centers work with
States, local governments, community development
organizations, worker and business organizations, and
community banks to create a business climate supportive of
high-performance manufacturing.''.
(2) Section 25(b) of the National Institute of Standards
and Technology Act (15 U.S.C. 278k(b)) is amended by striking
``and'' at the end of paragraph (2); by redesignating
paragraph (3) as paragraph (4); and by inserting after
paragraph (2) the following new paragraph:
``(3) assessments of client companies' modernization needs,
assistance in implementing quality processes, advice on
pollution minimization and source reduction, and, where
needed, cooperation with training institutions to ensure that
employees, particularly production workers, receive training
in the most effective use of modern technologies and advanced
workplace practices; and''.
(3) Section 25(c) of the National Institute of Standards
and Technology Act (15 U.S.C. 278k(c)) is amended--
(A) in paragraph (1) by striking ``for a period not to
exceed six years''; and
(B) in paragraph (5) by striking ``which are designed'' and
all that follows through the period at the end of the
paragraph and inserting in lieu thereof ``to a maximum of
one-third Federal funding. Each Center which receives
financial assistance under this section shall be evaluated
during its sixth year of operation, and at least triennially
thereafter as the Secretary considers appropriate, by an
evaluation panel appointed by the Secretary in the same
manner as was the evaluation panel previously appointed. The
Secretary shall not provide funding for additional years of
the Center's operation unless the most recent evaluation is
positive and the Secretary finds that continuation of funding
furthers the purposes of this section.''.
(4) Section 25 of the National Institute of Standards and
Technology Act (15 U.S.C. 278k) is amended by adding at the
end the following new subsections:
``(e) In addition to any assistance provided or contracts
entered into with a Center under this section, the Director
is authorized to make separate and smaller awards, through a
competitive process, to nonprofit organizations which wish to
work with a Center. Such awards shall be for the purpose of
enabling those organizations to provide outreach services, in
collaboration with the Center, to manufacturers located in
parts of the region served by the Center which are not easily
accessible to the Center and which are not served by any
other manufacturing outreach center. Organizations which
receive such awards shall be known as Local Manufacturing
Offices. In reviewing applications, the Director shall
consider the needs of rural as well as urban manufacturers.
No single award for a Local Manufacturing Office shall be for
more than 3 years, awards shall be renewable through the
competitive awards process, and no award shall be made unless
the applicant provides matching funds at least equal to the
amount received under this subsection.
``(f) In carrying out this section, the Director shall
coordinate his efforts with the plans for the Manufacturing
Extension Partnership established under section 24.''.
SEC. 215 STATE TECHNOLOGY EXTENSION PROGRAM.
(a) Establishment.--Section 26(a) of the National Institute
of Standards and Technology Act (15 U.S.C. 2781(a)) is
amended--
(1) by inserting after ``(a)'' the following new sentence:
``There is established within the Institute a State
Technology Extension Program.''; and
(2) by inserting ``through that Program'' after ``technical
assistance''.
(b) Assistance Provided by Program.--Section 26 of the
National Institute of Standards and Technology Act (15 U.S.C.
278l) is amended by adding at the end the following new
subsection:
``(c) In addition to the general authorities listed in
subsection (b), the State Technology Extension Program also
shall, through merit-based competitive review processes and
to the extent provided in advance in appropriations Acts--
``(1) make awards to States and conduct workshops, pursuant
to section 5121(b) of the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness
Act of 1988 (15 U.S.C. 2781 note) in order to help States
improve their planning and coordination of technology
extension activities;
``(2) assist States, including States which historically
have had no manufacturing or technology extension programs or
only small programs, to plan, develop, and coordinate such
programs and to help bring those State programs to a level of
performance where they can provide the full range of
manufacturing extension services required by their
manufacturers or, as appropriate, apply successfully for
awards to establish Manufacturing Outreach Centers, Regional
Centers for the Transfer of Manufacturing Technology, or
both;
``(3) support industrial modernization demonstration
projects to help States create networks among small
manufacturers for the purpose of facilitating technical
assistance, group services, and improved productivity and
competitiveness;
``(4) support State efforts to develop and test innovative
ways to help small- and medium-sized manufacturers in the
United States improve their technical capabilities,
including, as appropriate, State contracts with private-
sector technology transfer companies to provide technology
assistance and development services that are beyond the
current capacity of a given State's industrial extension
activities;
``(5) support State efforts designed to help small- and
medium-sized manufacturers in rural as well as urban areas
improve and modernize their technical capabilities,
including, as appropriate, interstate efforts to achieve such
end;
``(6) support State efforts to assist interested small
defense manufacturing firms to convert their production to
nondefense or dual-use purposes;
``(7) support planning for worker technology education
programs in the States at institutions such as research
universities, community colleges, technical and professional
societies, labor education centers, labor-management
committees, and worker organizations in production
technologies critical to the Nation's future, with an
emphasis on high-performance work systems, the skills
necessary to use advanced manufacturing system well, and best
production practice; and support on-the-job training programs
in the States to build and enhance the skills of employees,
particularly production workers, in small- and medium-sized
manufacturers; and
``(8) help States develop programs to train personnel who
in turn can provide technical skills to managers and workers
of manufacturing firms.''.
SEC. 216. REPORT ON OPTIONS FOR ACCELERATING THE ADOPTION OF
NEW MANUFACTURING EQUIPMENT.
Within 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the
Secretary, acting through the Under Secretary, shall submit
to Congress a report on--
(1) the degree to which United States manufacturers have
difficulty obtaining financing for the purpose of purchasing
equipment needed to implement advanced manufacturing
technology and modernize operations;
(2) the policies and practices followed in other
industrialized countries to help manufacturers obtain
financing for modernization; and
(3) the advantages, disadvantages, and costs of major
options by which the Federal Government might help stimulate
the flow of capital to manufacturers and thus accelerate
industrial modernization, including--
(A) creation of a Government-sponsored enterprise to
stimulate the flow of capital to manufacturing;
(B) increasing technical advice to banks and other
financial institutions, perhaps through the Manufacturing
Extension Partnership in order to increase their ability to
judge whether or not individual manufacturers have sound
modernization plans;
(C) cooperation between extension activities supported
under the Manufacturing Extension Partnership and
manufacturing equipment leasing firms in order to provide
manufacturers with additional information or equipment
leasing options; and
(D) tax incentives.
Subtitle B--National Science Foundation Manufacturing Programs
SEC. 221. NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION MANUFACTURING PROGRAMS.
(a) In General.--The Director of the National Science
Foundation, after, as appropriate, consultation with the
Secretary, the Under Secretary, and the Director, shall--
(1) work with United States companies to identify areas of
research in advanced manufacturing technologies and advanced
workplace practices that offer the potential to improve
United States productivity, competitiveness, and
employment;
(2) support research at United States universities to
improve advanced manufacturing technologies and advanced
workplace practices; and
(3) work with the Technology Administration of the
Department of Commerce and the Institute and, as appropriate,
other Federal agencies to accelerate the transfer to United
States companies of manufacturing research and innovations
developed at universities.
(b) Engineering Research Centers and Industry/University
Cooperative Research Centers.--The Director of the National
Science Foundation shall strengthen and expand the number of
Engineering Research Centers and strengthen and expand the
Industry/University Cooperative Research Centers Program with
the goals of increasing the engineering talent base versed in
technologies and workplace practices critical to the Nation's
future, with emphasis on advanced manufacturing technologies,
and of advancing fundamental engineering knowledge in these
technologies. At least one Engineering Research Center shall
have a research and education focus on the concerns of United
States manufacturers, including small- and medium-sized
manufacturers that are trying to modernize their operations.
Awards under this subsection shall be made on a competitive,
merit review basis. Such awards may include support for
acquisition of instrumentation, equipment, and facilities
related to the research and education activities of the
Engineering Research Centers and support for undergraduate
students to participate in the activities of the Engineering
Research Centers.
(c) Graduate Traineeships.--The Director of the National
Science Foundation, in consultation with the Secretary, may
establish a program to provide traineeships to United States
citizens or permanent resident aliens who are graduate
students at institutions of higher education within the
United States who choose to pursue masters or doctoral
degrees in manufacturing or industrial engineering. The
Director of the National Science Foundation shall make an
effort to ensure the provision of traineeships under this
subsection to socially and economically disadvantaged
individuals (within the meaning of section 8(a) (5) and (6)
of the Small Business Act, and including women).
(d) Manufacturing Managers in the Classroom Program.--The
Director of the National Science Foundation, in consultation
with the Secretary, may establish a program to provide
fellowships, on a cost-shared basis, to individuals from
industry with experience in manufacturing to serve for 1 or 2
years as instructors in manufacturing at 2-year community and
technical colleges in the United States. In selecting
fellows, the Director of the National Science Foundation
shall place special emphasis on supporting individuals who
not only have expertise and practical experience in
manufacturing but who also will work to foster cooperation
between 2-year colleges and nearby manufacturing firms.
(e) Programs to Teach Total Quality Management.--The
Director of the National Science Foundation, in consultation
with the Secretary, the Under Secretary, and the Director,
may establish a program to develop innovative curricula,
courses, and materials for use by institutions of higher
education for instruction in total quality management and
related management practices, in order to help improve the
productivity of United States companies.
(f) Small Manufacturers Renewal and Training.--(1) The
Director of the National Science Foundation, acting in
cooperation with the Director, shall establish and carry out
a pilot program, know as the Small Manufacturers Renewal and
Training Program in this subsection referred to as the
``Program''), to award grants to eligible partnerships for
internship activities under this section. Partnerships
between engineering colleges and manufacturing extension
centers are eligible to apply for grants under the Program
and be designated as SMaRT Partnerships. The Director of the
National Science Foundation shall establish requirements for
proposals for funding under the Program, for activities
undertaken by SMaRT Partnerships with such funding, and for
reporting by SMaRT Partnerships and other persons
participating in the Program, and criteria for selecting
proposals, including economic need.
(2) Each SMaRT Partnership receiving a grant under the
Program shall use such grant funds to sponsor qualified
engineering students to work as interns with eligible small
manufacturers, especially very small manufacturers, by paying
the host company the Federal share of the intern's wages, not
to exceed the Federal minimum wage.
(3) A small manufacturer shall be eligible to host interns
under the Program only for manufacturing operations in the
United States, shall provide adequate supervision to each
intern, and shall use funds provided under the Program only
to pay wages to the intern that supplement the host company
share of the intern's wages, not be less than the Federal
minimum wage. No company shall be eligible to receive funding
in excess of 2 years' wages at the Federal minimum wage.
TITLE III--CRITICAL TECHNOLOGIES
SEC. 301. DEVELOPMENT OF PLAN FOR THE ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY
PROGRAM.
The Secretary, acting through the Under Secretary and the
Director, shall, within 6 months after the date of enactment
of this Act, submit to Congress a plan for the expansion of
the Advanced Technology Program established under section 28
of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Act (15
U.S.C. 278n), with specific consideration given to--
(1) closer coordination and cooperation with the Advanced
Research Projects Agency and other Federal research and
development agencies as appropriate;
(2) establishment of temporary staff positions that can be
filled by industrial or technical experts for a period of 1
to 2 years;
(3) ensuring that the Advanced Technology Program will have
a meaningful impact on the utilization of a broad range of
critical technologies and on the refinement of advanced
manufacturing technologies;
(4) changes that may be needed when annual funds available
for grants under the Advanced Technology Program reach levels
of $200,000,000 and $500,000,000; and
(5) any additional administrative steps that may be
necessary for the Advanced Technology Program to support
large-scale joint research and development ventures.
SEC. 302. LARGE-SCALE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CONSORTIA.
Section 28 of the National Institute of Standards and
Technology Act (15 U.S.C. 278n) is amended by adding at the
end the following new subsection:
``(k) In addition to the general authority under this
section to provide financial assistance to joint ventures,
the Secretary, through the Director, also may, as permitted
by levels of authorizations and appropriations, provide
financial support for up to 7 years to large-scale joint
ventures requesting $20,000,000 or more a year in Department
of Commerce funds. The Secretary may work with industrial
groups to develop such proposed large-scale joint ventures
and shall give preference to proposals which represent a
broad spectrum of companies for a given industry and which
focus either on speeding the commercialization of important
new technologies or on accelerating the development, testing,
and deployment of valuable new process technologies and
workplace practices. The Secretary and Director, as
appropriate, shall obtain independent technical review of
industry proposals submitted under this section.''.
SEC. 303. TECHNICAL AMENDMENTS.
(a) Amendments to the National Institute of Standards and
Technology Act.--Section 28 of the National Institute of
Standards and Technology Act (15 U.S.C. 278n), as amended by
section 302 of this Act, is further amended--
(1) by adding at the end of subsection (a), the following
new sentence: ``The Secretary, acting through the Director,
shall ensure that the principal economic benefits of the
Program accrue to the economy of the United States.'';
(2) in subsection (b)--
(A) in paragraph (1)(B), by striking ``or contracts'' and
inserting in lieu thereof ``contracts, and, subject to the
last sentence of this subsection, other transactions'';
(B) in paragraph (1)(B)(ii), by striking ``provision of a
minority share of the cost of such joint ventures for up to 5
years'' and inserting in lieu thereof ``the option of
providing either a minority share of the total cost of such
joint ventures for up to 5 years, or only direct costs (and
not indirect costs, profits, or management fees), for up to 5
years'';
(c) in paragraph (2)--
(i) by striking ``and cooperative agreements'' and
inserting in lieu thereof ``cooperative agreements, and,
subject to the last sentence of this subsection, other
transactions''; and
(ii) by inserting '', and independent research
organizations'' after ``especially small businesses''; and
(D) by adding after paragraph (4) the following:
``The authority under paragraph (1)(B) and paragraph (2) to
enter into other transactions shall apply only if the
Secretary, acting through the Director, determines that
standard contracts, grants, or cooperative agreements are not
feasible or appropriate, and only when other transaction
instruments incorporate terms and conditions that reflect the
use of generally accepted commercial accounting and auditing
practices.'';
(3) in subsection (d)(3), by striking ``exceed $2,000,000
over 3 years, or'';
(4) in subsection (j)--
(A) by redesignating paragraphs (1) and (2) as paragraphs
(2) and (3), respectively; and
(B) by inserting before paragraph (2), as so redesignated,
the following new paragraph:
``(1) the term `independent research organizations' means
nonprofit organizations organized primarily for the purpose
of conducting or managing research activities;''; and
(5) by adding at the end the following new subsection:
``(1) Notwithstanding subsection (b)(1)(B)(ii) and (d)(3),
the Director may grant an extension beyond the deadlines
established under those subsections for joint venture and
single applicant awardees to expend Federal funds to complete
their projects, if such extension may be granted with no
additional cost to the Federal Government.''.
(b) United States Joint Ventures.--(1) Section 28(d)(11)(A)
of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Act (15
U.S.C. 278n(d)(11)(A)) is amended by striking the periods at
the end of the first sentence and inserting in lieu thereof
the following: ``or any other person otherwise eligible to
participate in an eligible joint venture, as agreed by the
parties receiving funding under any particular award,
notwithstanding the requirements of section 202(a) and (b) of
title 35, United States Code.''.
(2) The amendment made by paragraph (1) shall be effective
only with respect to assistance for which solicitations for
proposals are made after the date of enactment of this Act.
(c) Amendments to the American Technology Preeminence Act
of 1991.--Section 201(d) of the American Technology
Preeminence Act of 1991 (15 U.S.C. 278n note) is amended by
adding at the end the following new sentence: ``In the case
of the amendment made by subparagraph (A) of subsection
(c)(6), such amendment shall be effective as of the date of
enactment of the paragraph stricken by such paragraph.''.
(2) Section 507 of the American Technology Preeminence Act
of 1991 (15 U.S.C. 3717) is repealed.
(d) Amendments to the National Science and Technology
Policy, Organization, and Priorities Act.--(1) Title IV of
the National Science and Technology Policy, Organization, and
Priorities Act of 1976 (42 U.S.c. 6651) is amended to read as
follows:
``TITLE IV--NATIONAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COUNCIL
``Sec. 401. There is established a National Science and
Technology Council (hereafter in this title referred to as
the `Council').
``Sec. 402. Within 30 days after the date of enactment of
the National Competitiveness Act of 1994, the President shall
submit to Congress a report that outlines the composition and
functions of the Council.
``Sec. 403. (a) The Council shall assume the
responsibilities and authorities of the Federal Coordinating
Council for Science, Engineering, and Technology, the
National Space Council, and the National Critical Materials
Council.
``(b) Executive departments and agencies shall make
resources, including, but not limited to, personnel, office
support, and printing, available to the Council.
``(c) The Council is authorized to establish such
committees and working groups as it may require.''.
(2) The Federal Coordinating Council for Science,
Engineering, and Technology established by Public Law 94-282
and by Executive Order 12039, the National Space Council
established by Public Law 100-685 and Executive Order 12675,
and the National Critical Materials Council established by
Public Law 98-373 are hereby abolished.
(3) Section 207(c) of the National Science and Technology
Policy, Organization, and Priorities Act of 1976 (42 U.S.C.
6616(c)) is amended--
(A) by amending paragraph (1) to read as follows:
``(1) appoint such officers and employees as deemed
necessary to perform the functions now or hereafter vested in
the Director without regard to any provision of law
regulating the employment or compensation of persons in the
Government service, at rates not to exceed the rate of pay
for level VI of the Senior Executive schedule as provided
pursuant to section 5382 of title 5, the United States Code,
and to prescribe their duties;''; and
(B) by striking ``and'' at the end of paragraph (2); by
striking the period at the end of paragraph (3) and inserting
in lieu thereof ``; and''; and by adding at the end the
following new paragraph:
``(4) accept voluntary and uncompensated services,
notwithstanding the provisions of section 1342, title 31,
United States Code.''.
SEC. 304. TECHNOLOGY MONITORING AND COMPETITIVENESS
ASSESSMENT.
Section 101 of the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation
Act of 1980, as redesignated by section 213(2) of this Act,
is amended by striking subsection (e) and inserting in lieu
thereof the following new subsections:
``(e) Office of Technology Monitoring and Competitiveness
Assessment.--(1) The Secretary, through the Under Secretary,
shall establish within the Technology Administration an
Office of Technology Monitoring and Competitiveness
Assessment, to collect, evaluate, assess, and disseminate to
United States industry, State and local governments,
nonprofit organizations, and other interested parties
information on--
``(A) foreign science and technology, specifically
information assessing foreign capabilities relative to the
United States;
``(B) policies and programs used by foreign governments and
industries to develop and apply economically important
critical technologies, how these policies and programs
compare with public and private activities in the United
States, and the effects that these foreign policies and
programs have on the competitiveness of United States
industry; and
``(C) the way in which the economic competitiveness of
United States industry can be enhanced through Federal
programs, including Department of Commerce programs, and
evaluations of the effectiveness of Federal technology
programs in helping to promote United States industrial
competitiveness and economic growth.
``(2) Based on the information gathered under paragraph
(1), the President, with the assistance of the Secretary,
shall submit to Congress an annual report on United States
technology and competitiveness analyzing the condition of
United States technology relative to major trading partners,
key trends in foreign technology and competitiveness policies
and targeting, and the degree to which Federal programs are
helping the United States to stay competitive with other
countries and create domestic employment opportunities.
``(3) The Office of Technology Monitoring and
Competitiveness Assessment is authorized to--
``(A) act as a focal point within the Federal Government
for the collection and dissemination, including electronic
dissemination, of information on foreign process and product
technologies, including information collected under the
Japanese Technical Literature Program;
``(B) work and, as appropriate, entered into cooperative
arrangement with sector-specific industry trade associations
or consortia to define the information desire by industry;
``(C) compile and make available the extensive foreign
technology monitoring and assessment information already
collected and analyzed by the Federal Government;
``(D) as appropriate, enter into controlled access
agreements with other Federal agencies to fill the industry's
information needs;
``(E) act as an electronic clearinghouse for such
information or otherwise provide for such a clearinghouse;
``(F) direct and fund the collection of additional related
information;
``(G) direct and fund analysis of foreign research and
development activities, technical capabilities, workplace
practices, particularly in technical areas where the United
States is considered to be at par or lagging foreign
capabilities;
``(H) establish a program to identify technical areas
needing a full-scale technical evaluation, and provide, on a
cost-shared basis to private sector or government-industry
joint ventures, grants to conduct the evaluation; and
``(I) work with the Department of State to place technical
experts from the Institute and other Federal laboratories
into United States embassies to serve as technology attaches
and counselors.
``(f) Fellowship Program.--(1) The Secretary, acting
through the Under Secretary, shall establish and administer a
fellowship program to support Technology Fellows to assist
the Under Secretary in carrying out activities under
subsection (e) relating to those countries that are major
competitors of the United States in critical technologies,
and to identify opportunities for technology transfer to the
United States or technological collaboration for United
States industries.
``(2) Technology Fellows shall--
``(A) regularly report to the Department of Commerce on
work planned, in progress, and accomplished; and
``(B) provide support to the Department of Commerce as
requested by that Department.
``(3) Fellowships awarded under the program established
under this subsection shall--
``(A) be awarded for a period of 2 years;
``(B) be reasonable and appropriate; and
``(C) include provisions for living and office arrangements
in the host country.
``(4) Only individuals who--
``(A) have at least a bachelors degree in engineering or
science; and
``(B) have at least 5 years of work experience in
manufacturing or technology development,
shall be eligible for a fellowship under this program.''.
SEC. 305. RECOUPMENT.
Section 28 of the National Institute of Standards and
Technology Act (15 U.S.C. 278n), as amended by this Act, is
further amended by adding at the end the following new
subsection:
``(n)(1) Any transaction providing assistance under this
section may include a clause that requires the recipient to
make payments to the Department of Commerce as a condition of
receiving such assistance.
``(2) There is established on the books of the Treasury a
separate account for the Advanced Technology Program
established under this section. Amounts received by the
United States pursuant to a requirement imposed under
paragraph (1) may be credited to the extent authorized by the
Secretary, to the account established under this paragraph.
Amounts so credited shall be merged with other funds in the
account and shall be available, to the extent provided in
advance in appropriations Acts, for the same purposes and the
same period for which other funds in such account are
available.''.
SEC. 306. TECHNOLOGY FINANCING PILOT PROGRAM.
The Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980 (15
U.S.C. 3701 et seq.), as amended by title II of this Act, is
further amended by adding at the end the following new title:
``TITLE III--ADDITIONAL ASSISTANCE TO INDUSTRY
``SEC. 301. FINDING AND STATEMENT OF POLICY.
``Congress finds and declares the following:
``(1) In recent years, United States technology firms
appear to have had increasing difficulty financing the
development and early-stage commercialization of important
new critical civilian technologies. Venture capital is less
available than in past years; banks appear less willing to
provide loans; and medium-sized as well as small companies
often have problems financing long-term technology projects.
``(2) This difficulty in obtaining financing particularly
hurts those technology firms which face foreign competitors
which have received substantial direct or indirect financial
help from their respective governments.
``(4) The Nation would benefit from a technology financing
pilot program designed to assist, on an experimental basis,
private-sector venture capital entities which, in turn, can
select and support the most promising and valuable long-term
United States technology projects.
``SEC. 302. TECHNOLOGY FINANCING PILOT PROGRAM.
``(a) Establishment of Program.--(1) There is established a
Department of Commerce-Small Business Administration Pilot
Technology Financing Partnership Program (in this section
referred to as the `Pilot Program').
``(2) The Pilot Program shall be operated under the
direction of a Department of Commerce-Small Business
Administration Venture Capital Licensing Committee (in this
section referred to as the `Licensing Committee'), which
shall consist of--
``(A) three Department of Commerce designees appointed by
the Secretary, one of whom shall be the Under Secretary for
Technology and shall serve as chair of the Licensing
Committee, and the other two of whom shall be technology
experts, at least one of whom shall also be a finance and
investment expert; and
``(B) two Small Business Administration designees who are
appointed by the Administrator of the Small Business
Administration (in this section referred to as the
`Administrator') who shall be finance and investment experts.
``(3) Under the Pilot Program, for the purpose of
stimulating and expanding the flow of private capital to
eligible technology firms and eligible joint ventures--
``(A) the Licensing Committee may license, pursuant to
joint regulations promulgated under paragraph (4), private
sector entities, to be known as `civilian technology
investment companies'; and
``(B) to the extent directed by the Secretary and the
Administrator and provided in advance in appropriations Acts,
and in accordance with the operating plan developed under
subsection (f), the Licensing Committee may authorize the
Small Business Administration to assist financially such
civilian technology investment companies.
``(4) The Secretary and the Administrator, acting through
the Licensing Committee, shall promulgate such regulations
(in this section referred to as the `joint regulations') as
shall be necessary to carry out the Pilot Program. Such joint
regulations shall reflect that the Administrator will have
primary responsibility for executing the Pilot Program, using
Small Business Administration personnel and the programmatic
authority provided in this section, and applicable law. In
accordance with the operating plan developed by the Licensing
Committee under subsection (f), the Administrator may issue
regulations modifying and augmenting existing Small Business
Administration authority or program criteria, as necessary,
to accommodate the special needs of the Pilot Program. Those
Small Business Administration regulations which are modified
or adopted to facilitate the Pilot Program shall also be
reviewed by the Licensing Committee and, if approved by the
Licensing Committee, shall become part of the joint
regulations.
``(5) The Secretary shall, utilizing Department of Commerce
technology personnel and the programmatic authority provided
in this section and under applicable law, institute and
implement a complementary information and technical
assistance pilot program designed to facilities matches
between high-technology companies seeking financing and
venture capitalists looking for meritorious early-stage
critical technology investments.
``(6) Such funds as may be appropriated through this Act or
any other Act to the Department of Commerce to implement the
Pilot Program may be transferred by the Secretary to the
Small Business Administration, as necessary to carry out the
purposes of this section, in accordance with subsection
(c)(1).
``(b) Activities of Licensees.--(1) Each civilian
technology investment company licensed under this section may
provide venture capital and loans to eligible technology
firms and eligible joint ventures in such manner and under
such terms as the licensee may fix in accordance with the
joint regulations. Civilian technology investment companies
may provide venture capital and loan directly or in
coinvestments with other investors. The type of financing to
be provide shall be determined by the Licensing Committee,
and shall include but shall not be limited to that provided
by the Small Business Act or the Small Business Investment
Act of 1958, or any regulation promulgated thereunder.
``(2) Each civilian technology investment company shall
have authority to borrow money and to issue its debentures,
promissory notes, securities, or other obligations under such
general conditions and subject to such limitations and
regulations as prescribed in the joint regulations.
``(c) Assistance to Licensees.--(1) In order to encourage
the formation and growth of civilian technology investment
companies, the Licensing Committee is authorized, to the
extent that funds are made available to the Department of
Commerce in appropriations Acts, to transfer such funds as
may be necessary to the Small Business Administration to
purchase (or guarantee the timely payment of all principal,
interest, and dividends, as scheduled, on) debentures or
participating, nonvoting preferred securities issued by such
companies, on such terms and conditions as are appropriate
pursuant to the joint regulations to carry out the purposes
of this section. The Small Business Administration is also
authorized, in accordance with sections 321 and 322 of the
Small Business Investment Act of 1958, and regulations
promulgated thereunder, to issue and guarantee such trust
certificates as are necessary and appropriate to provide
funding for qualified civilian technology investment
companies. Such issuance and funding shall take place in the
manner and on the terms and conditions as the Licensing
Committee directs and shall not be limited to the terms and
conditions that the Small Business Administration utilities
for funding of small business investment companies under the
Small Business Investment Act of 1958.
``(2) Guarantees and purchases of debentures and equity
securities under this subsection shall be made on such terms
and conditions as are necessary to ensure that the cost of
the program established under this section shall not exceed
15 percent of its corresponding credit authority in any
fiscal year. For the purposes of this subsection, the term
`cost' shall have the same meaning given such term in section
502(5) of the Federal Credit Reform Act of 1990, and the term
`credit authority' shall have the same meaning given such
term in section 3 (10) of the Congressional Budget Act of
1974.
``(d) Purposes and Requirements.--The Licensing Committee
shall require that any civilian technology investment company
licensed and assisted under this section shall--
``(1) focus primarily on providing patient early-stage
capital, either loans or equity investments, to eligible
technology firms and eligible joint ventures in the United
States in order to help those firms and joint ventures
finance and accelerate the development and early-stage
commercialization of critical civilian technologies;
``(2) provide financial assistance to critical civilian
technology projects at eligible technology firms and eligible
joint ventures; provided, however, that the Department of
Commerce members of the Licensing Committee shall determine
whether the products, processes, and service provided by
firms assisted by a licensee in fact will assist in
developing United States critical technologies;
``(3) demonstrate to the Licensing Committee credible
procedures for ensuring that investments are made in critical
technology projects for which eligible technology firms
cannot obtain necessary financing solely through commercial
capital markets; and
``(4) work with the Licensing Committee to establish
methods to identify and evaluate projects to be assisted by
the licensee, using, as appropriate, the existing expertise
of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and
other organizations, including Regional Centers for the
Transfer of Manufacturing Technology, universities, and other
research institutions.
``(e) Payments.--All amounts received by the Small Business
Administration from the payment of dividends, any profit
allocation, the redemption of securities pursuant to this
section, and any fees paid to the United States by a civilian
technology investment company licensed pursuant to this
section, shall be deposited in the Treasury, in accordance
with the joint regulations and the requirements of the
Federal Credit Reform Act of 1990.
``(f) Operating Plan Effective Date; and Evaluation.--(1)
The Secretary and the Administrator, acting through the
Licensing Committee, shall jointly and in consultation with
State and local governments, industry, and the financial
community, prepare and submit to Congress within one year
after the date of enactment of this title, an operating plan
and draft joint regulations to carry out this section. In
preparing such a plan, the Secretary and Administrator shall
consider and evaluate alternative approaches to help
technology firms and joint ventures in the United States
develop and commercialize critical civilian technologies. As
part of their report, they shall make recommendations to
Congress as they deem appropriate.
``(2) Except for the requirements set forth in subsection
(a) and paragraph (1) of this subsection, the provisions of
this section shall not take effect until 6 months after the
date of the issuance of the report required in paragraph (1).
``(3) After appropriations are provided for the Pilot
Program authorized under this section, the Licensing
Committee, in consultation with industry and the financial
community, shall evaluate annually the effectiveness of the
Program and submit an annual report to appropriate committees
of Congress on the findings resulting from such evaluation.
Such report shall contain, on a confidential basis,
appendices which include, but are not necessarily limited to,
the type and amount of assistance provided to licensees under
this section, key characteristics of such licensees, the
number and size in net worth of the technology firms and
joint ventures (and the participants comprising them)
assisted by each licensee, the amount of assistance provided
to each eligible technology firm or eligible joint venture,
and the types of technology each eligible technology firm or
joint venture is developing and commercializing. Such report
also shall contain an analysis of the Pilot Program's impact
on the Small Business Administration's Small Business
Investment Company program.
``(4) Five years after appropriations have been provided
for the Pilot Program authorized under this section, the
General Accounting Office, in consultation with industry and
the financial community, shall evaluate the effectiveness of
the Program and submit a report to appropriate committees of
Congress on the findings resulting from such evaluation. Such
evaluation shall include an analysis of the Pilot Program's
impact on the Small Business Administration's Small Business
Investment Company program.
``(g) Definitions.--As used in this section, the term--
``(1) `appropriate committees of Congress' means the
Committee on Science, Technology, and Space and Committee on
Small Business of the House of Representatives and the
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and
Committee on Small Business of the Senate;
``(2) `critical civilian technology' means a technology not
exclusively military which is identified in one or more of
the biennial national critical technologies reports required
under section 603 of the National Science and Technology
Policy, Organization, and Priorities Act of 1976 (42 U.S.C.
6683);
``(3) `eligible joint venture' means a joint research and
development venture or joint production venture, as defined
in section 2 of the National Cooperative Research Act of 1984
(5 U.S.C. 4301)--
``(A) which meets the requirements of section 28(d)(9) of
the National Institute of Standards and Technology Act (15
U.S.C. 278n(d)(9));
``(B) whose purpose in seeking financing is the development
of products, processes, and services based on critical
civilian technologies; and
``(C) which meets size standards set by the Licensing
Committee, which size standards need not comply with the
Small Business Act or the Small Business Investment Act of
1958, or any regulation promulgated thereunder of
interpretation thereof;
``(4) `eligible technology firm' means a company--
``(A) which meets the requirements of section 28(d)(9) of
the National Institute of Standards and Technology Act (15
U.S.C. 278n(d)(9));
``(B) whose purposes in seeking financing is the
development of products, processes, and services based on
critical civilian technologies; and
``(C) which meets size standards set by the Administrator;
``(4) `finance and investment expert' means an individual
who has administered or participated in a venture capital or
similar financing program, or has operated a venture capital
company; and
``(5) `licensee' means a civilian technology investment
company licensed by the Licensing Committee pursuant to this
section.''.
TITLE IV--ADDITIONAL COMMERCE DEPARTMENT PROVISIONS
SEC. 401. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE TECHNOLOGY ADVISORY BOARD.
The Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980 (as
amended by sections 211 and 213 or this Act) is further
amended by inserting after section 103 (as added by section
211 of this Act) the following new section:
``SEC. 104. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE TECHNOLOGY ADVISORY BOARD.
``(a) Establishment.--There is established a Department of
Commerce Technology Advisory Board (in this section referred
to as the `Advisory Board'), the purpose of which is to
advise the Secretary, Under Secretary, and Director on the
plans, programs, and policies of the Technology
Administration, including ways in which to--
``(1) promote the development and rapid application of
advanced commercial technologies, including advanced
manufacturing technologies such as skill-based production
technologies;
``(2) strengthen the programs of the Technology
Administration; and
``(3) generally improve the global competitiveness of
industries within the United States.
``(b) Composition.--The Advisory Board shall be composed of
at least 17 members, appointed by the Under Secretary from
among individuals who, because of their experience and
accomplishments in technology development, business
development, or finance are exceptionally qualified to
analyze and formulate policy that would improve the global
competitiveness of industries in the United States. The Under
Secretary shall designate one member to serve as chairman.
Membership of the Advisory Board shall be composed of--
``(1) representatives of--
``(A) United States small businesses;
``(B) United States manufacturers;
``(C) research universities and independent research
institutes;
``(D) State and local government agencies involved in
industrial extension;
``(E) national laboratories;
``(F) industrial, worker, and technical and professional
organization; and
``(G) financial organization; and
``(2) other individuals that possess important insight to
issues of national competitiveness.
The Under Secretary shall make an effort to ensure the
appointment of socially and economically disadvantaged
individuals (within the meaning of section 8 (a) (5) and (6)
of the Small Business Act, and including women) to the
Advisory Board.
``(c) Meetings.--(1) The chairman shall call the first
meeting of the Advisory Board not later than 90 days after
the date of enactment of this section.
``(2) The Advisory Board shall meet at least once every 6
months, and at the call of the Under Secretary.
``(d) Travel Expenses.--Members of the Advisory Board,
other than full-time employees of the United States, shall be
allowed travel expenses in accordance with subchapter I of
chapter 57 of title 5, United States Code, while engaged in
the business of the Advisory Board.
``(e) Consultation.--In carrying out this section, the
Under Secretary shall consult with other agencies, as
appropriate. The Advisory Board, as appropriate, shall
establish communication and coordination mechanisms with
other Federal advisory committees to help ensure integrated
Federal private consideration of technology and manufacturing
policies and programs.
``(f) Termination.--Section 14 of the Federal Advisory
Committee Act shall not apply to the Advisory Board.
``(g) Secretarial Discretion.--Notwithstanding any other
provision of this section, the Secretary shall have the
discretion to decide whether to establish the Advisory Board
or create a more cost-effective way to achieve the goal of
closer cooperation with industry. If the Secretary exercises
such discretion and establishes an alternative mechamism, the
Under Secretary shall make an effort to ensure the
participation of socially and economically disadvantaged
individuals (within the meaning of section 8(a)(5) and (6) of
the Small Business Act, and including women) in the
alternative mechanism.''.
SEC. 402. INTERNATIONAL STANDARDIZATION.
(a) Findings.--The Congress finds that--
(1) private sector consensus standards are essential to the
timely development of competitive products;
(2) Federal Government contribution of resources and more
active participation in the voluntary standards process in
the United States can increase the quality of United States
standards, increase their compatibility with the standards of
other countries, and ease access of products manufactured by
United States manufacturers to foreign markets; and
(3) the Federal Government, working in cooperation with
private sector organizations including trade associations,
engineering societies, technical organizations, and other
standards-setting bodies can effectively promote Federal
Government use of United States consensus standards and,
where appropriate, the adoption and Federal Government use of
international standards.
(b) Standards Pilot Program.--Section 104(e) of the
American Technology Preeminence Act of 1991 (Public Law 102-
245; 106 Stat. 10) is amended--
(1) by inserting ``(1)'' before ``Pursuant to the'';
(2) By striking ``matching funds'' and inserting in lieu
thereof ``financial contributions deemed appropriate by the
Secretary''; and
(3) by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
``(2) As necessary and appropriate, the Institute shall
expand the program established under section 112 of the
National Institute of Standards and Technology Authorization
Act for Fiscal Year 1989 (15 U.S.C. 272 note) by extending
the existing program to include other countries that request
assistance with standards-related activities from official
representatives of the United States Government. The
Institute may enter into additional contracts with non-
Federal organizations representing United States companies
described in section 28(d)(9)(B) of the National Institute of
Standards and Technology Act (15 U.S.C. 278n(d)(9)(B)) or
with United States-based professional societies and other
standards-setting bodies that participate in the development
of standards. Such contracts shall require cost sharing
between Federal and non-Federal sources for such purposes. In
awarding such contracts, the Institute shall seek to promote
and support the dissemination of United States technical
standards to additional foreign countries and shall seek, as
the Director deems appropriate, to promote the adoption of
international standards supported by United States industry,
and shall seek to assist private sector developers of
standards, including engineering societies which participate
in the development of standards in expediting the development
of domestic and other standards which enable the introduction
of technologies, products, or technology-based services which
are being delayed due to the lack of available standards. The
Institute and such contractors shall, in carrying out the
preceding sentence, cooperate with governmental bodies,
private organizations (including standards setting
organizations and industry), and multinational institutions
that promote economic development. The organizations
receiving such contracts may establish training programs to
bring to the United States foreign standards experts for the
purpose of receiving in-depth training in the United States
standards system.''.
(c) Report on Global Standards.--(1) Section 508(a) of the
American Technology Preeminence Act of 1991 (15 U.S.C. 3701
note) is amended--
(A) by inserting ``standards development and
international'' after ``a thorough review of international'';
(B) by redesignating paragraphs (1) through (5) as
paragraphs (2) through (6), respectively; and
(C) by inserting before paragraph (2), as so redesignated,
the following new paragraph:
``(1) Current and potential future roles of the Federal
Government in the development and promulgation of domestic
and global product and process standards.''.
(2) The Secretary, in consultation with the Institute and
the Department of Commerce Technology Advisory Board
established under section 104 of the Stevenson-Wydler
Technology Innovation Act of 1980 (as added by section 401 of
this Act) and with, as appropriate, the active participation
of the private sector, shall submit to the Congress a report
describing the appropriate roles of the Department of
Commerce in aid to United States companies in achieving
conformity assessment and accreditation and otherwise
qualifying their products in foreign markets, through the
development and promulgation of domestic and global product
and quality standards, and through Department of Commerce
programs related to conformity assessment and accreditation
procedures based upon such standards, including a discussion
of the extent to which each of the policy options provided in
the March 1992 Office of Technology Assessment report on
global standards, contributes to meeting the goals of--
(A) increasing the international adoption of standards
beneficial to United States industries; and
(B) improving the coordination of United States
representation at international standards setting bodies.
SEC. 403. MALCOLM BALDRIGE AWARD AMENDMENTS.
(a) Restriction.--Section 111(c)(3) of the Stevenson-Wydler
Technology Innovation Act of 1980, as so redesignated by
section 213(5) of this Act, is amended to read as follows:
``(3) No award shall be made within any category or
sucategory if there are no qualifying enterprises in that
category or subcategory.''.
(b) Categories in Which Award May Be Given.--(1) Section
111(c)(1) of the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act
of 1980, as so redesignated by section 213(5) of this Act, is
amended by adding at the end the following new subparagraph:
``(D) Educational institutions.''.
(2)(A) Within 2 years after the date of enactment of this
Act, the Secretary shall submit to Congress a report
containing--
(i) criteria for qualification for a Malcolm Baldrige
National Quality Award by various classes of educational
institutions;
(ii) criteria for the evaluation of applications for such
awards under section 111(d)(1) of the Stevenson-Wydler
Technology Innovation Act of 1980, as so redesignated by
section 213(5) of this Act; and
(iii) a plan for funding awards described in clause (i).
(B) In preparing the report required under subparagraph
(A), the Secretary shall consult with the National Science
Foundation and other public and private entities with
appropriate expertise, and shall provide for public notice
and comment.
(C) The Secretary shall not accept applications for awards
described in subparagraph (A)(i) until after the report
required under subparagraph (A) is submitted to Congress.
SEC. 404. COOPERATIVE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENTS.
Section 202(d)(2)(A) of the Stevenson-Wydler Technology
Innovation Act of 1980, as so redesignated by section 213(7)
of this Act, by inserting ``including Federal test and
evaluation facilities,'' after ``by a Federal agency,''.
SEC. 405. PROGRAM EVALUATIONS.
Section 101 of the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation
Act of 1980, as so redesignated by section 213(2) of this Act
and as amended by this Act, is further amended by adding at
the end the following new subsection:
``(g) Program Evaluations.--(1) The Secretary, through the
Under Secretary, shall--
``(A) provide for the conduct of research and analyses to
advance knowledge of the ways in which the economic
competitiveness of United States companies can be enhanced
through Federal programs established under the National
Competitiveness Act of 1994 or the amendments made by that
Act; and
``(B) as appropriate, provide for evaluations of Federal
technology programs established or expanded under the
National Competitiveness Act of 1994 or the amendments made
by that Act in order to judge their effectiveness and make
recommendations to improve their contribution to United
States competitiveness.
``(2) All executive departments and agencies shall assist
the Secretary in carrying out this subsection as appropriate.
``(3) Nothing in this subsection shall authorize the
release of information to, or the use of information by, the
Secretary or Under Secretary in a manner inconsistent with
law or any procedure established pursuant thereto.
``(4) The head of any Federal agency may detail such
personnel and may provide such services, with or without
reimbursement, as the Secretary may request to assist in
carrying out the activities required under this
subsection.''.
SEC. 406. STUDY OF SEMICONDUCTOR LITHOGRAPHY TECHNOLOGIES.
Within 9 months after the date of enactment of this Act,
the Critical Technologies Institute established under section
822 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year
1991 (42 U.S.C. 6686) shall, after consultation with the
private sector and appropriate officials from other Federal
agencies, submit to Congress a report on advanced lithography
technologies for the production of semiconductor devices. The
report shall include the Critical Technologies Institute's
evaluation of the likely technical and economic advantages
and disadvantages of each such technology, an analysis of
current private and Government research to develop each such
technology, and any recommendations the Critical Technologies
Institute may have regarding future Federal support for
research and development in advanced lithography.
SEC. 407. CLEARINGHOUSE ON STATE AND LOCAL INITIATIVES
Section 105(a) of the Stevenson-Wydler Technology
Innovation Act of 1980, as so redesignated by section 213(5)
of this Act, is amended by striking ``Office of Productivity,
Technology, and Innovation'' and inserting in lieu thereof
``Technology Administration''.
SEC. 408. WIND ENGINEERING RESEARCH PROGRAM.
(a) Short Title.--This section may be cited as the ``Wind
Engineering Program Act of 1994''.
(b) Findings.--Congress finds and declares the following:
(1) Hurricanes and tornadoes kill more Americans and
destroy more property than any other natural disaster.
(2) Each year, in the United States, extreme winds cause
billions of dollars of damage to homes, schools, and other
buildings, roads and bridges, electrical power distribution
networks, and communications networks.
(3) Research on wind and wind engineering has resulted in
improved methods for making buildings and other structures
less vulnerable to extreme winds, but additional research
funding is needed to develop new, improved, and more cost-
effective methods of wind-resistant construction.
(4) Federal funding for wind engineering research has
decreased drastically over the last 20 years.
(5) Wind research has been hampered by a lack of data on
near-surface wind speed and distribution during hurricanes,
tornadoes, and other severe storms.
(6) Many existing methods for wind-resistant construction
are inexpensive and easy to implement but often they are not
applied because the construction industry and the general
public are unaware of such methods.
(7) Various Federal agencies have important roles to play
in wind engineering research, but at present there is little
interagency cooperation in this area.
(8) Establishment of a Federal Wind Engineering Program
would result in new technologies for wind-resistant
construction, broader application of such technologies in
construction, and ultimately decreased loss of life and
property due to extreme winds.
(c) Purpose.--The purpose of this section is to create a
Wind Engineering Program within the National Institute of
Standards and Technology, which would--
(1) provide for wind engineering research;
(2) serve as a clearinghouse for information on wind
engineering; and
(3) improve interagency coordination on wind engineering
research between the National Institute of Standards and
Technology, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, the National Science Foundation, the Federal
Aviation Administration, and other appropriate agencies.
(d) Establishment.--Within the National Institute of
Standards and Technology, there shall be established a Wind
Engineering Program which shall--
(1) conduct research and development, in cooperation with
the private sector and academia, on new methods for
mitigating wind damage due to tornadoes, hurricanes, and
other severe storms;
(2) fund construction and maintenance of wind tunnels and
other research facilities needed for wind engineering
research;
(3) promote the application of existing methods for, and
research results on, reducing wind damage to buildings that
are usually incompletely- or non-engineered, such as single
family dwellings, mobile homes, light industrial buildings,
and small commercial structures;
(4) transfer technology developed in wind engineering
research to the private sector so that it may be applied in
building codes, design practice, and construction;
(5) conduct, in conjunction with the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration, post-disaster research following
hurricanes, tornadoes, and other severe storms to evaluate
the vulnerability of different types of buildings to extreme
winds;
(6) serve as a point of contact for dissemination of
research information on wind engineering and work with the
private sector to develop education and training programs on
construction techniques, developed from research results, for
reducing wind damage;
(7) work with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, the Federal Aviation Administration, and
other agencies as is appropriate, on meteorology programs to
collect and disseminate more data on extreme wind events; and
(8) work with the National Science Foundation to support
and expand basic research on wind engineering.
SEC. 409. ENVIRONMENTALLY SENSITIVE CONSTRUCTION
TECHNOLOGIES.
(a) Short Title.--This section may be cited as the
``Environmentally Sensitive Construction Act of 1994''.
(b) Findings and Purpose.--Congress finds the following:
(1) As the world economy develops, environmental concerns
are becoming increasingly critical.
(2) Developing the world economy through the use of
environmentally sound technologies will pay dividends for
years to come.
(3) The United States should be a leader in developing
environmentally sound technologies.
(4) As shelter is a basic human need, the development of
environmentally sound construction techniques should be a
priority area.
(5) Establishment of a Federal Environmentally Sensitive
Construction Program within the Institute would result in new
technologies for environmentally sensitive construction,
broader application of such technologies in construction, and
an improved world economy and environment.
(c) Establishment.--Within the Institute, there shall be
established a Federal Environmentally Sensitive Construction
Program which shall--
(1) conduct research and development, in cooperation with
the private sector and academia, on construction materials
and techniques which result in structures which pose low
environmental and health risks for their occupants and
minimize waste generation and other environmental problems;
(2) as appropriate and permitted by appropriations, support
academic research projects in regions around the Nation to
develop and demonstrate environmentally sensitive
construction; and
(3) disseminate information on environmentally sensitive
construction technology.
SEC. 410. AMERICAN WORKFORCE QUALITY.
(a) Workforce Activities.--In addition to existing
responsibilities and authorities prescribed by law, the
Secretary, through the Director and after consultation with
the Secretary of Labor, shall ensure that Regional Centers
for the Transfer of Manufacturing Technology and
Manufacturing Outreach Centers utilize, when appropriate,
their expertise and capability to assist managers and workers
of manufacturers in the United States in effectively
utilizing and operating advanced manufacturing technologies
and modern technologies--
(1) by making available assessments of the needs of
manufacturers in the United States for worker training in the
effective utilization and operation of specific technologies
the manufacturers have adopted or are planning to adopt;
(2) by making available to manufacturers in the United
States information on commercially and publicly provided
worker training services, including those provided by United
States sources of technologies, in the effective utilization
and operation of specific technologies the manufacturers have
adopted or are planning to adopt; and
(3) by providing information to client firms and their
workers to enable them effectively to utilize and operate
specific technologies that the firms have adopted or plan to
adopt.
(b) Workforce Analysis and Information Dissemination.--In
addition to existing responsibilities and authorities
prescribed by law, the Secretary, through the Director and in
consultation with the Secretary of Labor and other
appropriate Federal officials and with leaders of industry
and labor, shall assist managers and other workers of
manufacturers in the United States in effectively utilizing
and operating advanced manufacturing technologies and modern
technologies--
(1) by establishing and managing a clearinghouse for
information, to be available through an appropriate entity to
the Regional Centers for the Transfer of Manufacturing
Technology, to the Manufacturing Outreach Centers when they
are established, to other technology training entities, or
directly to manufacturers, on the best available training
material and services for the effective utilization and
operation of specific advanced manufacturing technologies and
modern technologies;
(2) by encouraging United States providers of advanced
manufacturing technologies and modern technologies for
manufacturers to develop training material specifically
designed for the managers and other workers responsible for
utilizing and operating such technologies; and
(3) by establishing as an important criterion in the
assessment of advanced manufacturing technologies and modern
technologies the availability of training material
specifically designed for the managers and other workers
responsible for utilizing and operating such technologies.
SEC. 411. SEVERABILITY.
If any provision of this Act or the amendments made by this
Act, or the application thereof to any person or
circumstance, is held invalid, the remainder of this Act and
the amendments made by this Act, and the application thereof
to other persons or circumstances, shall not be affected
thereby.
SEC. 412. USE OF DOMESTIC PRODUCTS.
(a) Prohibition Against Fraudulent Use of ``Made in
America'' Labels.--(1) A person shall not intentionally affix
a label bearing the inscription of ``Made in America'', or
any inscription with that meaning, to any product sold in
or shipped to the United States, if that product is not a
domestic product.
(2) A person who violates paragraph (1) shall not be
eligible for any contract for a procurement carried out with
amounts authorized under this Act, or under any amendment
made by this Act, including any subcontract under such a
contract pursuant to the debarment, suspension, and
ineligibility procedures in subpart 9.4 of chapter 1 of title
48, CFR, or any successor procedures thereto.
(b) Compliance with Buy American Act.--(1) Except as
provided in paragraph (2), the head of each agency which
conducts procurements shall ensure that such procurements are
conducted in compliance with sections 2 through 4 of the Act
of March 3, 1933 (41 U.S.C. 10a through 10c, popularly known
as the ``Buy American Act'').
(2) This subsection shall apply only to procurements made
for which--
(A) amounts are authorized by this Act, or by any amendment
made by this Act, to be made available; and
(B) solicitations for bids are issued after the date of
enactment of this Act.
(3) The Secretary, before January 1, 1995, shall report to
the Congress on procurements covered under this subsection of
products that are not domestic products.
(c) Purchase of American Made Equipment and Products.--(1)
It is the sense of Congress that any recipient of a grant
under this Act, or under any amendment made by this Act,
should, when practical, purchase only American made equipment
and products when expending grant monies.
(2) In allocating grants under this Act, or under any
amendment made by this Act, the Secretary shall provide to
each recipient a notice describing the statement made in
paragraph (1) by the Congress.
(d) Definition.--For the purposes of this section, the term
``domestic product'' means a product--
(1) that is manufactured or produced in the United States;
and
(2) at least 50 percent of the cost of the articles,
materials, or supplies of which are mined, produced, or
manufactured in the United States.
SEC. 413. PERSONNEL.
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the personnel
management demonstration project, established under section
10 of the National Bureau of Standards Authorization Act for
Fiscal Year 1987 (15 U.S.C. 275 note), is extended until
December 31, 1998.
TITLE V--AUTHORIZATIONS OF APPROPRIATIONS
SEC. 501. TECHNOLOGY ADMINISTRATION.
(a) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized
to be appropriated to the Secretary, to carry out the
activities of the under Secretary and the Assistant Secretary
of Commerce for Technology Policy, in addition to any other
amounts authorized for such purposes, for the Office of the
Under Secretary--
(1) $6,000,000 for fiscal year 1994;
(2) $11,300,000 for fiscal year 1995, of which $2,000,000
are authorized for program evaluations under section 101(g)
of the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980, as
added by section 405 of this Act; and
(3) $14,000,000 for fiscal year 1996.
(b) National Technical Information Service Facilities
Study.--As part of its modernization effort and before
signing any lease for a new facility, the National Technical
Information Service, in consultation with the General
Services Administration, shall study and report to Congress
on the feasibility of accomplishing all or part of its
modernization by signing a long-term lease with an
organization that agrees to supply a facility and supply and
periodically upgrade modern equipment which permits the
National Technical Information Service to receive, store, and
manipulate in electronic form, and print, electronically-
created documents and reports and to carry out the other
functions assigned to the National Technical Information
Service.
SEC. 502. NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF STANDARDS AND TECHNOLOGY.
(a) Intramural Scientific and Technical Research and
Services.--(1) There are authorized to be appropriated to the
Secretary, to carry out the intramural scientific and
technical research and services activities of the Institute,
$240,988,000 for fiscal year 1994, $320,000,000 for fiscal
year 1995, and $350,000,000 for fiscal year 1996.
(2) Of the amounts authorized under paragraph (1)--
(A) $1,000,000 for each of the fiscal years 1994, 1995, and
1996 are authorized only for the evaluation of nonenergy-
related inventions;
(B) $8,054,000 for fiscal year 1994 and $8,113,000 for each
of the fiscal years 1995 and 1996 are authorized only for the
technical competence fund; and
(C) $5,000,000 for each of the fiscal years 1994, 1995, and
1996 are authorized only for the standards pilot project
established under section 104(e) of the American Technology
Preeminence Act of 1991 (Public Law 102-245; 106 Stat. 10).
(b) Facilities.--In addition to the amounts authorized
under subsection (a), there are authorized to be appropriated
to the Secretary $62,000,000 for fiscal year 1994,
$110,392,000 for fiscal year 1995, and $112,000,000 for
fiscal year 1996, for the renovation and upgrading of the
Institute's facilities. The Institute may enter into a
contract for the design work for such purposes only if
Federal Government payments under the contract are limited to
amounts provided in advance in appropriations Acts.
(c) Extramural Industrial Technology Services.--(1) In
addition to the amounts authorized under subsections (a) and
(b), there are authorized to be appropriated to the
Secretary, to carry out the extramural industrial technology
services activities of the Institute--
(A) for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership,
$40,000,000 for fiscal year 1994, $70,000,000 for fiscal year
1995, and $100,000,000 for fiscal year 1996;
(B) for the Advanced Technology Program, $200,000,000 for
fiscal year 1994, $475,000,000 for fiscal year 1995, and
$575,000,000 for fiscal year 1996; and
(C) for quality programs at the Institute, $2,800,000 for
fiscal year 1994, $10,000,000 for fiscal year 1995, and
$10,000,000 for fiscal year 1996.
(2) The Secretary shall ensure that audits are performed by
outside auditors on the programs for which funds are
appropriated pursuant to this subsection. The summary results
of such audits shall be submitted to Congress by the end of
each of the fiscal years 1994 and 1995, and not more than
$2,000,000, or 2 percent of the aggregate amount made
available under this subsection, whichever is greater, shall
be used in each such fiscal year for performing the audits.
(d) Transfers.--(1) Funds may be transferred among the line
items listed in subsection (a) and among the line items
listed in subsection (c) so long as--
(A) the net funds transferred to or from any line item do
not exceed 10 percent of the amount authorized for that line
item in such subsection;
(B) the aggregate amount authorized under subsection (a) is
not changed; and
(C) the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
of the Senate and the Committee on Science, Space, and
Technology of the House of Representatives are notified in
advance of any such transfer.
(2) The Secretary may propose transfers to or from any line
item listed in subsection (a) exceeding 10 percent of the
amount authorized from such line item, but such proposed
transfer may not be made unless--
(A) a full and complete explanation of any such proposed
transfer and the reason therefor are transmitted in writing
to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the President
of the Senate, and the appropriate authorizing committees of
the House of Representatives and the Senate; and
(B) 30 days have passed following the transmission of such
written explanation.
(e) Wind Engineering.--(1) There are authorized to be
appropriated to the Institute for the purposes of section 408
of this Act, $1,000,000 for fiscal year 1994 and $3,000,000
for each of the fiscal years 1995 and 1996.
(2) Of the amounts appropriated under paragraph (1), no
less than 50 percent shall be used for cooperative agreements
with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the
National Science Foundation, and the Federal Aviation
Administration, or other agencies, for wind engineering
research, development of improved practices for structures,
and the collection and dissemination of meteorological data
needed for wind engineering.
(4) Environmentally Sensitive Construction Program.--There
are authorized to be appropriated to the Institute for the
purposes of section 409, $1,000,000 for fiscal year 1994 and
$3,000,000 for fiscal year 1995.
SEC. 503. ADDITIONAL ACTIVITIES OF THE TECHNOLOGY
ADMINISTRATION.
In addition to the amounts authorized under sections 501
and 502, there are authorized to be appropriated to the
Secretary to carry out additional duties of the Under
Secretary--
(1) for the establishment and management of a technology
training clearinghouse, $2,000,000 for each of the fiscal
years 1994 and 1995 and $3,000,000 for fiscal year 1996;
(2) for the support of policy experiments relating to
intelligent manufacturing systems, $2,000,000 for fiscal year
1995 and $4,000,000 for fiscal year 1996;
(3) for carrying out responsibilities for technology
monitoring and competitiveness assessment, $10,000,000 for
each of the fiscal years 1994 and 1995 and $12,000,000 for
fiscal year 1996;
(4) for the National Technical Information Service
revolving fund, $20,000,000 for each of the fiscal years 1995
and 1996; and
(5) for the purpose of carrying out the technology
financing pilot program under section 306, $2,000,000 for
fiscal year 1994 to prepare the operating plan and promulgate
regulations required under that section and $50,000,000 for
each of the fiscal years 1995 and 1996 to carry out the
provisions of that section.
SEC. 504. NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION.
In addition to such other sums as may be authorized by
other provisions of law to be appropriated to the Director of
the National Science Foundation, there are authorized to be
appropriated to that Director, to carry out the provisions of
section 221, $50,000,000 for fiscal year 1994 and $75,000,000
for each of the fiscal years 1995 and 1996.
SEC. 505. AVAILABILITY OF APPROPRIATIONS.
Appropriations made under the authority provided in this
title shall remain available for obligation, for expenditure,
or for obligation and expenditure for periods specified in
the Acts making such appropriations.
TITLE VI--INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY APPLICATIONS
SEC. 601. SHORT TITLE.
This title may be cited as the ``Information Technology
Applications Act of 1994''.
SEC. 602. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE.
(a) Findings.--Congress finds and declares the following:
(1) High-performance computing and high-speed networks have
proven to be powerful tools for improving America's national
security, industrial competitiveness, and research
capabilities.
(2) Federal programs, such as the National High-Performance
Computing Program established by Congress in 1991, have
played a key role in maintaining United States leadership in
high-performance computing, especially in the defense and
research sectors.
(3) High-performance computing and high-speed networking
have the potential to revolutionize many fields, including
education, libraries, health care, and manufacturing, if
adequate resources are invested in developing the technology
needed to do so.
(4) The Federal Government should ensure that the
technology developed under research and development programs
such as the National High-Performance Computing Program can
be widely applied for the benefit of all Americans, including
Americans with disabilities.
(5) The Federal Government, in cooperation with computer
users, private industry, and others, should support research
and development projects which will provide large economic
and social benefits. These projects, designed to address
major National Challenges, should include the development of
computing tools for teaching, digital libraries of electronic
information, computer systems to improve the delivery of
health care, and computer and networking technology to
promote United States competitiveness. These applications
should be designed and operated in ways which protect privacy
and intellectual property rights.
(b) Purpose.--It is the purpose of this title to expand the
scope of the National High-Performance Computing Program to
identify and promote the development of applications of high-
performance computing and high-speed networking which will
provide large economic and social benefits to the Nation.
SEC. 603. INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY APPLICATIONS.
(a) Findings, Purpose, and Definitions of High-Performance
Computing Act.--The High-Performance Computing Act of 1991
(15 U.S.C. 5501 et seq.) is amended--
(1) in section 2, by amending paragraph (4) to read as
follows:
``(4) High-capacity and high-speed computer networks would
provide researchers and educators with access to computer and
information resources and act as test beds for further
research and development.'';
(2) in section 3--
(A) by amending paragraph (1)(A) to read as follows:
``(A) accelerate the creation of a universally accessible
communications network for the Nation;'';
(B) in paragraph (1)(C), by striking ``available for use
through the Network'';
(C) in paragraph (1)(G), by inserting ``and National
Challenges'' after ``Grand Challenges''; and
(D) by striking ``and'' at the end of paragraph (1)(I); by
striking the period at the end of paragraph (2) and inserting
in lieu thereof ``; and''; and by adding after paragraph (2)
the following new paragraph:
``(3) promoting the widest possible application of high-
performance computing and high-speed networking by--
``(A) identifying and addressing specific National
Challenges, and generally expanding Federal support for
research and development of high-performance computing and
high-speed networking, in order to--
``(i) improve education at all levels, from preschool to
adult education, including the development of new educational
technologies;
``(ii) build digital libraries of electronic information
accessible over computer networks;
``(iii) improve the provision of health care, including
furnishing health care providers and their patients with
better, more accurate, and more timely information; and
``(iv) increase the productivity of the Nation's industry,
especially in the manufacturing sector; and
``(B) improving coordination of Federal efforts to deploy
these technologies in cooperation with the private sector as
part of an advanced national information infrastructure.'';
(3) in section 4, by striking paragraph (4); by
redesignating paragraph (5) as paragraph (7); and by
inserting after paragraph (3) the following new paragraphs:
``(4) `information infrastructure' means a network of
communications systems and computer systems designed to
exchange information among all citizens and residents of the
United States;
``(5) `National Challenge' means a technical or operational
difficulty or problem which, if successfully solved, will
result in an application of high-performance computing or
high-speed networking that will provide large economic and
social benefits to a broad segment of the Nation's populace;
``(6) `Network Program' means the National Research and
Education Network Program established under section 102;
and''.
(b) National High-Performance Computing Program.--Section
101 of the High-Performance Computing Act of 1991 is
amended--
(1) in subsection (a)(2)--
(A) by amending subparagraphs (A) and (B) to read as
follows:
``(A) foster and encourage competition and private-sector
investment in networking within the telecommunications
industry:
``(B) encourage--
``(i) a diversity of public and private sources for
information products and services based on government
information; and
``(ii) the dissemination of government information to the
public on a timely, equitable, and affordable basis and in a
manner that will promote the usefulness of the information to
the public;''; and
(B) by striking ``and'' at the end of subparagraph (H); by
striking the period at the end of subparagraph (I) and
inserting in lieu thereof a semicolon; and by inserting after
subparagraph (I) the following new subparagraphs:
``(J) provide for the development and, as appropriate,
implementation of applications of high-performance computing
and high-speed networking, through projects which address
National Challenges in the fields of education, library
science, health care, manufacturing, provision of government
information, and other appropriate fields;
``(K) identify each Program agency's responsibility for
addressing National Challenges in high-performance computing
and high-speed networking; and
``(L) provide for the development, to the extent
technologically feasible, of technology to protect privacy,
security, and intellectual property rights (including
copyrights).'';
(2) in subsection (a)(4)C), by inserting ``development of
applications technology,'' after ``development,''; and by
inserting ``Program established in section 102'' after
``Network''; and
(3) in subsection (a)(4), by striking ``and'' at the end of
subparagraph (D); by striking the period at the end of
subparagraph (E) and inserting in lieu thereof a semicolon;
and by adding at the end the following new subparagraphs:
``(F) include a summary of the achievements of Federal
efforts during the preceding fiscal year to develop
technologies needed for an advanced information
infrastructure;
``(G) identify steps agencies are taking to develop
technology to protect privacy, security, and intellectual
property rights (including copyrights) for computer networks;
and
``(H) provide any recommendations regarding additional
action or legislation which may be required to assist in
achieving the purposes of this title.''; and
(4) by inserting after subsection (c) the following new
subsection:
``(d) Copyright Law.--Nothing in this Act shall be
construed to modify or otherwise change any provision of
title 17, United States Code.''.
SEC. 604. APPLICATIONS FOR EDUCATION AND LIBRARIES.
(a) National Science Foundation Activities.--Section 201 of
the High-Performance Computing Act of 1991 (15 U.S.C. 5521)
is amended--
(1) in subsection (a), by striking ``and'' at the end of
paragraph (3); by striking the period at the end of paragraph
(4) and inserting in lieu thereof a semicolon; and by adding
at the end the following new paragraphs:
``(5) the National Science Foundation and the Department of
Education, in cooperation with other appropriate agencies,
shall provide for the development of advanced computing and
networking technology for use in education at all levels; and
``(6) the National Science Foundation, the Department of
Education, and other appropriate agencies shall provide for
the development and use of technologies needed for
digital libraries of computerized data and information
and, as appropriate, may work with private and nonprofit
institutions to develop prototype digital libraries to
serve as test beds for advanced computing systems,
software, standards, and methods.''; and
(2) in subsection (b), by striking ``$305,000,000'' and
inserting in lieu thereof ``$339,000,000''; and by striking
``$354,000,000'' and inserting in lieu thereof
``$404,000,000''.
(b) National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Activities.--(1) Section 202(a) of the High-Performance
Computing Act of 1991 (15 U.S.C. 5522(a)) is amended to read
as follows:
``(a) General Responsibilities.--As part of the Program
described in title I, the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration shall--
``(1) conduct basic and applied research in high-
performance computing, particularly in the field of
computational science, with emphasis on aerospace sciences,
earth and space sciences, and remote exploration and
experimentation; and
``(2) provide for the development of technologies needed
for digital libraries and electronic information.''.
(2) Section 202(b) of the High-Performance Computing Act of
1991 (15 U.S.C. 5522(b)) is amended by striking
``$134,000,000'' and inserting in lieu thereof
``$154,000,000''; and by striking ``$151,000,000'' and
inserting in lieu thereof ``$181,000,000''.
(c) Role of Department of Education.--Section 206 of the
High-Performance Computing Act of 1991 (15 U.S.C. 5526) is
amended to read as follows:
``SEC. 206. ROLE OF THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION.
``(a) General Responsibilities.--As part of the Program
described in title I--
``(1) the Secretary of Education is authorized to conduct
basic and applied research in computational research with the
emphasis on the coordination of activities with libraries,
school facilities, and educational research groups with
respect to the advancement and dissemination of computer
science and the development, evaluation, and application of
software capabilities; and
``(2) the Department of Education, in cooperation with the
National Science Foundation and other agencies as
appropriate, shall provide for the development of advanced
computing and networking technology at all educational
levels; the development and use of technologies needed for
digital libraries of computerized data and information; and
the development and implementation of training programs for
teachers, students, and librarians in the use of local and
national computer networks.
``(b) Authorizations of Appropriations.--From sums
otherwise authorized to be appropriated to the Department of
Education, there are authorized to be appropriated for the
purposes of carrying out responsibilities under subsection
(a) of this section, $11,900,000 for fiscal year 1994;
$22,100,000 for fiscal year 1995; and $2,300,000 for fiscal
year 1996.''.
SEC. 605. APPLICATIONS FOR MANUFACTURING AND INFORMATION.
Section 204 of the High-Performance Computing Act of 1991
(15 U.S.C. 5524) is amended--
(1) in subsection (a)(1), by striking ``and'' at the end of
a subparagraph (B), and by inserting after subparagraph (C)
the following new subparagraph:
``(D) develop, refine, test, and transfer, in coordination
with other agencies when appropriate, advanced computer-
integrated, electronically-networked manufacturing
technologies and associated applications; and'';
(2) in subsection (a), by striking the period at the end of
paragraph (2) and inserting in lieu thereof ''; and''; and by
adding at the end the following new paragraph:
``(3) the Secretary of Commerce and, as appropriate, other
Federal officials shall, in consultation with the
Superintendent of Documents, identify and support projects to
develop and apply high-performance computing and high-speed
networking technologies to provide improved public access to
information generated by Federal, State, and local
governments, including environmental monitoring
information.''; and
(3) in subsection (d)--
(A) in paragraph (1), by inserting ``(other than Advanced
Manufacturing Program activities)'' after ``Program'' and by
striking ``and'' at the end of the paragraph;
(B) by striking the period at the end of paragraph
(2) and inserting in lieu thereof ``; and;'' and
(C) by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
``(3) to the Secretary of Commerce to carry out Program
activities under subsection (a)(3), $30,000,000 for fiscal
year 1994 and $50,000,000 for fiscal year 1995.''.
SEC. 606. APPLICATIONS IN ENERGY AND OTHER AREAS.
Section 203 of the High-Performance Computing Act of 1991
(15 U.S.C. 5523) is amended by adding at the end the
following new subsection:
``(f) Applications.--(1) The Secretary of Energy shall,
consistent with the Program, develop, test, and apply high-
performance computing and high-speed networking technologies
in areas within the Department's missions, including--
``(A) energy demand management and control, including
vehicle efficiency and utilization, energy efficiency in
commercial and residential buildings, and industry energy use
and practices;
``(B) environmental monitoring, modeling, and remediation;
``(C) manufacturing;
``(D) materials;
``(E) the generation of electricity and the production and
consumption of oil, natural gas, and coal; and
``(F) other areas in which the Department's computing
expertise may assist industry and others, including
applications in health care, education and training,
financial services, and law enforcement.
``(2) The Secretary of Energy shall provide for cooperative
projects involving the Department of Energy and one or more
Department of Energy laboratories and appropriate non-Federal
entities in carrying out this subsection.
``(3) In carrying out projects under paragraph (2), the
Secretary of Energy shall, where appropriate, seek to address
the technical and other considerations critical to further
development of the technologies and applications useful for a
national information infrastructure.
``(4) There is authorized to be appropriated to the
Secretary of Energy for purposes of this subsection,
$50,000,000 for fiscal year 1994, $100,000,000 for fiscal
year 1995, and $150,000,000 for fiscal year 1996.''.
SEC. 607. APPLICATIONS FOR HEALTH CARE; ACCESS TO NETWORKS.
The High-Performance Computing Act of 1991 (15 U.S.C. 5501
et seq.) is amended--
(1) by redesignating sections 207 and 208 as sections 209
and 210, respectively; and
(2) by adding after section 206 the following new sections:
``SEC. 207. ROLE OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN
SERVICES.
(a) General Responsibilities.--As part of the Program
described in title I, the Secretary of Health and Human
Services shall, through the Public Health Service, the
National Institutes of Health, the National Library of
Medicine, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
in cooperation with the National Science Foundation and other
appropriate agencies, develop and support the development of
interoperable technologies for applications of high-
performance computing and high-speed networking in the health
care sector. In developing these technologies, emphasis shall
be placed on applications that can produce significant
savings in national health care costs. Such technologies
shall, when feasible, build on existing Federal programs for
developing information technology applications in the health
care sector.
``(b) Authorization of Appropriations.--From sums otherwise
authorized to be appropriated, there are authorized to be
appropriated to the Department of Health and Human Services
for the purposes of this section, $9,000,000 for fiscal year
1993, $30,000,000 for fiscal year 1994, and $50,000,000 for
fiscal year 1995.
``SEC. 208. ACCESS TO NETWORKS.
``(a) Connections Program.--The National Science
Foundation, the Department of Education, Department of
Commerce, particularly the National Telecommunications and
Information Administration, and other appropriate agencies
shall--
``(1) foster the creation of computer networks, including
but not limited to high-performance computer networks, in
geographical areas which will connect institutions of higher
education, elementary and secondary schools, libraries and
depositary libraries, and Federal, State, and local
governments to each other; and
``(2) provide for connection of such networks to other
networks.
``(b) Training.--The National Science Foundation, the
Department of Education, the Department of Commerce,
particularly the National Telecommunications and Information
Administration, and other appropriate agencies shall provide
for programs to train teachers, students, librarians, and
Federal, State, and local government personnel in the use of
local and national computer networks. Training programs for
librarians shall be designed to provide skills and training
materials needed by librarians to instruct the public in the
use of hardware and software for accessing and using local
and national computer networks.
``(c) Report.--The Director shall, within 1 year after the
date of enactment of the Information Technology Applications
Act of 1994, submit a report to Congress which shall
include--
``(1) findings of an examination of the extent to which the
education and library communities and State and local
governments have access to local and national networks;
``(2) a statement of the extent to which connections to
local and national networks exist for the education and
library communities and State and local governments;
``(3) an assessment of the factors limiting access by
schools, libraries, and State and local governments to local
and national networks and an estimate of the cost of
providing universal access for those institutions to those
networks; and
``(4) recommendations for collaborative programs among
Federal, State, and local governments and the private sector
to expand connectivity to local and national computer
networks for educational institutions, libraries, and
Federal, State, and local governments.
``(d) Authorization of Appropriations.--To carry out the
purposes of this section, there are authorized to be
appropriated--
``(1) to the National Science Foundation, $5,000,000 for
fiscal year 1994 and $12,500,000 for fiscal year 1995; and
``(2) to the Department of Education, $5,000,000 for fiscal
year 1994 and $12,500,000 for fiscal year 1995.''.
SEC. 608. HIGH-PERFORMANCE COMPUTING AND APPLICATIONS
ADVISORY COMMITTEE.
Section 101(b) of the High-Performance Computing Act of
1991 (15 U.S.C. 5511(b)) is amended to read as follows:
``(b) High-Performance Computing And Applications Advisory
Committee.--The Director shall establish an advisory
committee on high-performance computing and applications
consisting of non-Federal members, including representatives
of the research, elementary and secondary education, higher
education, and library communities, consumer and public
interest groups, network providers, and the computer,
telecommunications, information and publishing industries,
and other groups who use networks, who are specially
qualified to provide the Director with advice and information
on high-performance computing and on applications of
computing and networking. The Director shall consider the
recommendations of the advisory committee in reviewing and
revising the Program. The advisory committee shall provide
the Director with an independent assessment of--
``(1) progress in implementing the Program;
``(2) the need to revise the Program;
``(3) the balance between the components of the activities
undertaken pursuant to this Act;
``(4) whether the research, development, and demonstration
projects undertaken pursuant to this Act are helping to
maintain United States leadership in computing and networking
technologies and in the application of those technologies;
``(5) whether the applications and technologies developed
under the Program are successfully addressing the needs of
targeted populations, including assessment of the number of
users served by those applications; and
``(6) other issues identified by the Director.''.
SEC. 609. NATIONAL RESEARCH AND EDUCATION NETWORK PROGRAM.
Section 102 of the High-Performance Computing Act of 1991
(15 U.S.C. 5512) is amended to read as follows:
``SEC. 102. NATIONAL RESEARCH AND EDUCATION NETWORK PROGRAM.
``(a) Establishment.--As part of the Program described in
section 101, the National Science Foundation, the Department
of Defense, the Department of Energy, the Department of
Commerce, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration,
the Department of Education, and other agencies participating
in the Program shall, in consultation with the Superintendent
of Documents, support the establishment of the National
Research and Education Network Program. The Network Program
shall consist of the following components:
``(1) Research and development of software and hardware for
high-performance computing and high-speed networks.
``(2) Support of experimental test bed networks for--
``(A) developing and demonstrating advanced networking
technologies resulting from the activities described in
paragraph (1); and
``(B) providing connections and associated network services
for purposes consistent with this Act.
``(3) Provision of support for researchers, educators,
students, libraries, and other appropriate institutions in
order to ensure their access and use of networks.
``(4) Federal networks for linking Federal agency
facilities and personnel to each other and to non-Federal
networks.
``(b) Program Requirements.--The Network Program shall--
``(1) be closely coordinated with the computer hardware,
computer software, telecommunications, and information
industries, and network users in government, industry, and
research and educational institutions;
``(2) foster and encourage competition and private sector
investment in networking within the telecommunications
industry;
``(3) promote and encourage research and development
leading to the creation of data transmission standards,
enabling the establishment of privately developed high-speed
commercial networks;
``(4) provide for the appropriate application of Federal
laws that provide network and information resources security,
including those that protect intellectual property rights,
control access to data bases, and protect national security;
``(5) enable interoperability of Federal and non-Federal
computer networks, to the extend appropriate, in a way that
allows autonomy for each component network;
``(6) promote the research and development of high-capacity
and high-speed computing networks, including related
applications; and
``(7) demonstrate, in cooperation with users and others in
the private sector, how advanced computers, high-capacity and
high-speed computing networks, and data bases can contribute
to the national information infrastructure.
``(c) Network Access Plan.--The Federal agencies
participating in activities under this section shall develop
a plan with specific goals for implementing the requirements
to subsection (a)(3), including provision for financial
assistance to educational institutions, public libraries, and
other appropriate entities. This plan shall be submitted to
the Congress not later than one year after the date of
enactment of the Information Technology Applications Act of
1994. Each year thereafter, the Director shall report to
Congress on progress in implementing subsection (a)(3).
``(d) Department of Defense Responsibilities.--As part of
the Program, the Department of Defense, through the Advanced
Research Projects Agency, shall support research and
development of advanced fiber optics technology, switches,
and protocols.
``(e) Information Services.--The Director shall assist the
President in coordinating the activities of appropriate
agencies to promote the development of information services
that could be provided over computer networks consistent with
the purposes of this Act. These services may include the
provision of directories of the users and services on
computer networks, data bases of unclassified Federal data,
training of users of data bases and computer networks, and
technology to support computer-based collaboration that
facilitates research and education. In carrying out this
section, the Director shall consult with the Superintendent
of Documents in order to facilitate compatibility of
information systems and eliminate unnecessary redundancy.
``(f) Use of Grant Funds.--All Federal agencies and
departments are authorized to allow recipients of Federal
research grants to use grant funds to pay for computer
networking expenses.
``(g) Use of Program Funds.--(1) Each agency in the
Program, when using Program funds for the procurements of
communications networking services for Program activities,
shall develop, provide access to, or use communications
networks through the acquisition of commercially available
network services or through contracting for customized
services when such acquisition cannot satisfy agency
requirements. Nothing in this section shall be construed to
modify or otherwise change the Federal Property and
Administrative Services Act of 1949.
``(2) In using Program funds to provide grants or
assistance to non-Federal entities for the support of
communications networking services, the head of each agency
in the Program shall provide funding only to non-Federal
entities which agree to develop, provide access to, or use
communications networks--
``(A) through the acquisition of commercially available
communications networking services; or
``(B) if no such services are satisfactorily available,
through contracting for customized services, with the
determination of satisfactory availability including
consideration of geographic access to and affordability of
service, and timeliness and technical performance standards
in providing services.
In neither subparagraph (A) or (B) may the grantee use
Federal funds for purposes other than the purposes for which
they are awarded.
``(3) The provisions of this subsection shall apply only to
procurements, grants, or agreements for assistance entered
into by Program agencies for Program activities after the
date of enactment of the Information Technology Applications
Act of 1994.''.
SEC. 610. SUPPORT FOR COMPUTER EDUCATION PROGRAMS.
(a) Education Project.--The Administrator of the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (hereafter in this
section referred to as the `Administrator') shall establish a
Computer Technologies for K-12 Education Project (hereafter
in this section referred to as the `Project') to test and
demonstrate educational applications of advanced computer
technologies, including but not limited to high-performance
computing technologies, in public school systems providing
precollege education. The Project shall award, on a
competitive basis, grants to plan, deploy, manage, and
operate advanced educational applications of computer
technologies in K-12 public school systems in the United
States in response to proposals requested by the
Administrator. The Administrator shall ensure that non-
Federal funds committed to support such proposals shall
amount to not less than 30 percent of the Federal grant from
the Project.
(b) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized
to be appropriated to the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration $8,000,000 for each for the fiscal years 1994
and 1995, to carry out the provisions of paragraph (1). No
funds shall be awarded under the Project other than through
the competitive process established by the Administrator
pursuant to this section.
SEC. 611. SUPPORT FOR STATE-BASED DIGITAL LIBRARIES.
(a) Program To Support Digital Libraries.--The National
Science Foundation, in consultation with the Department of
Education, the Department of Commerce, the Advanced Research
Projects Agency, the Library of Congress, the Superintendent
of Documents, and other appropriate agencies, is authorized
to initiate a competitive, merit-based program to support the
efforts of States and, as appropriate, libraries to develop
electronic libraries. In carrying out this section, the
National Science Foundation shall consult with the
Superintendent of Documents in order to facilitate
compatibility for Federal information systems and eliminate
unnecessary redundancy. These libraries shall provide
delivery of and access to a variety of databases, computer
programs, and interactive multimedia presentations,
including educational materials, research information,
statistics and reports developed by Federal, State, and
local governments, and other information and informational
services which can be carried over computer networks.
(b) Authorization of Appropriations.--To carry out the
provisions of this section, there are authorized to the
Director of the National Science Foundation $10,000,000 for
fiscal year 1994, and $25,000,000 for fiscal year 1995.
(c) Copyright Law.--Nothing in this section shall be
construed to modify or otherwise change any provision of
title 17, United States Code.
SEC. 612. SUPPORT FOR COMPUTING ACTIVITIES AT TRIBAL
COLLEGES.
The Director of the National Science Foundation shall
design and implement a pilot program to provide financial
assistance, through competitive selection processes, to
States in which are located two or more tribally-controlled
community colleges. The objective of the pilot program shall
be to institute interactive telecommunications systems among
such tribally controlled community colleges in such States,
so as to assist the tribal community in education, job
training, and other appropriate activities.
SEC. 613. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION SUPPORT FOR COMPUTER
EDUCATION PROGRAMS.
(a) Education Project.--In addition to the general
responsibilities set forth in section 206 of the High-
Performance Computing Act of 1991 (15 U.S.C. 5526), the
Department of Education, in cooperation as appropriate with
other Federal agencies, shall establish a project to test and
demonstrate educational applications of advanced computer
technologies, including but not limited to high-performance
computing and networking technologies, in school systems
providing precollege education. This project shall award, on
a competitive basis, grants to plan, deploy, manage, and
operate advanced educational applications of computer
technologies in response to proposals requested by the
Secretary of Education. The Secretary of Education shall
ensure that non-Federal funds committed to such proposals
shall amount to not less than 30 percent of the Federal
grant.
(b) Authorization of Appropriations.--From sums otherwise
authorized to be appropriated to the Department of Education,
there are authorized to be appropriated to carry out the
provisions of this section, $8,000,000 for each of the fiscal
years 1994 and 1995. No funds shall be awarded under the
provisions of subsection (a) other than through the
competitive process established by the Secretary of Education
pursuant to this section.
TITLE VII--FASTENER QUALITY ACT AMENDMENTS
SEC. 701. FASTENER QUALITY ACT AMENDMENTS.
(a) Technical Amendments.--(1) Section 3 of the Fastener
Quality Act (15 U.S.C. 5402) is amended--
(A) in paragraph (8), by striking ``Standard'' and
inserting in lieu thereof ``Standards''; and
(B) in paragraph (14), by striking ``which defines or
describes'' and all that follows through ``of any fastener''.
(2) Section 5(b)(1) of the Fastener Quality Act (15 U.S.C.
5404(B)(1)) is amended by striking ``section 6; unless'' and
inserting in lieu thereof ``section 6, unless''.
(3) Section 7(c)(2) of the Fastener Quality Act (15 U.S.C.
5406(c)(2)) is amended by inserting ``to the same'' before
``extent''.
(b) Clarifying Amendments.--(1) Section 5(a)(1)(B) of the
Fastener Quality Act (15 U.S.C. 5404(a)(1)(B)) is amended by
striking ``subsections (b) and (c)'' and inserting in lieu
thereof ``subsections (b), (c), and (d)''.
(2) Section 5(a)(2)(A)(i) of the Fastener Quality Act (15
U.S.C. 5404(a)(2)(A)(i)) is amended by striking ``subsections
(b) and (c)'' and inserting in lieu thereof ``subsections
(b), (c), and (d)''.
(3) Section 5(c)(4) of the Fastener Quality Act (15 U.S.C.
5404(c)(4)) is amended by inserting ``except as provided in
subsection (d),'' before ``state''.
(4) Section 5 of the Fastener Quality Act (15 U.S.C. 5404)
is amended by adding at the end the following new subsection:
``(d) Aternative Procedure for Chemical Characteristics.--
Notwithstanding the requirements of subsections (b) and (c),
a manufacturer shall be deemed to have demonstrated, for
purposes of subsection (a)(1), that the chemical
characteristics of a lot conform to the standards and
specifications to which the manufacturer represents such lot
has been manufactured if the following requirements are met:
``(1) The coil or heat number of metal from which such lot
was fabricated has been inspected and tested with respect to
its chemical charactistics by a laboratory accredited in
accordance with the procedures and conditions specified by
the Secretary under section 6.
``(2) Such laboratory has provided to the manufacturer,
either directly or through the metal manufacturer, a written
inspection and testing report, which shall be in a form
prescribed by the Secretary by regulation, listing the
chemical characteristics of such coil or heat number.
``(3) The report described in paragraph (2) indicates that
the chemical characteristics of such coil or heat number
conform to those required by the standards and specifications
to which the manufacturer represents such lot has been
manufactured.
``(4) The manufacturer demonstrates that such lot has been
fabricated from the coil or heat number of metal to which the
report described in paragraphs (2) and (3) relates. In
prescribing the form of report required by subsection (c),
the Secretary shall provide for an alternative to the
statement required by subsection (c)(4), insofar as such
statement pertains to chemical characteristics, for cases in
which a manufacturer elects to use the procedure permitted by
this subsection.''.
(c) Sale of Fasteners Subsequent to Manufacture.--Section 7
of the Fastener Quality Act (15 U.S.C. 5406) is amended--
(1) in subsection (e)(1)--
(A) by striking ``or any person who purchases any quantity
of fasteners for resale at wholesale'' and inserting in lieu
thereof ``, importer, or private label distributor''; and
(B) by striking ``or such person'' and inserting in lieu
thereof ``, importer, or private label distributor'';
(2) by adding at the end of subsection (e) the following
new paragraph:
``(3) Notwithstanding paragraph (1), fasteners may be sold
to an end user in commingled lots if--
``(A) any packaging of such fastener includes a conspicuous
disclaimer message indicating that the fasteners are
manufactured and tested in compliance with this Act but have
been commingled with like items from different lots; and
``(B) the person selling such fasteners has a written
statement from the end user purchasing such fasteners
granting permission to the seller to provide commingled lots.
A written statement described in subparagraph (B) shall be
kept on file for at least 10 years for any later review or
audit.''; and
(3) by amending subsection (f) to read as follows:
``(f) Subsequent Purchaser.--It shall be unlawful for any
person to sell fasteners, of any quantity, to any end user
who requests lot traceability, unless the container of
fasteners sold is conspicuously marked with the number of the
lot from which such fasteners were taken.''.
Mr. HOLLINGS. Mr. President, I am pleased that the Senate today is
considering a substitute amendment which I am offering to S. 4, the
National Competitiveness Act of 1993. This important bill has a single
purpose: To help industry to promote American economic growth and jobs.
The bill accomplishes this goal by strengthening the technology and
manufacturing assistance programs of the Department of Commerce [DOC],
by furthering manufacturing research and education at the National
Science Foundation [NSF], and by authorizing research in new
applications of high-performance computing. I introduced S. 4 last year
with the support of both the distinguished majority leader and several
of our colleagues, and last May the Commerce Committee approved it
without objection.
background
There are many important reasons to pass this bill. S. 4 is important
because technology is important. Technology is the engine of economic
growth. In an increasingly competitive world economy, American industry
appropriately views technology as a strategic advantage. Professors
Roger Noll of Stanford and Linda Cohen of the University of California
recently summarized, in a 1991 book, the evidence on this point when
they wrote that the consensus among economists is that improvement in
knowledge, including technological change, is:
probably the most important source of growth in per capita
national income. Moreover, societies with high wages can
continue to experience high rates of growth only if they are
continuously on the edge of the technical frontier. If know-
how is roughly the same everywhere, rapid growth in a high-
wage society is unlikely to be sustained in competition with
a low-wage society. As an empirical matter, the most
economically advanced nations tend to be the principal
producers and exporters of the most technically sophisticated
products.
Since technology is vital to economic growth, and since the Federal
Government spends $70 billion a year on research and development, it
stands to reason that the Government should make its research and
development programs as useful as possible to industry.
S. 4 reflects this awareness by reauthorizing and strengthening
existing programs which fall within a bipartisan technology policy
tradition that dates back to at least 1980. The Reagan administration
proposed the Federal Technology Transfer Act, and the Bush
administration requested funds for the DOC programs reauthorized in S.
4. President Bush's administration summed up the consensus well in its
September 1990 statement on U.S. technology policy, when it said that
the Federal Government has a responsibility to participate:
with the private sector in precompetitive research on
generic, enabling technologies that have the potential to
contribute to a broad range of government and commercial
applications. In many cases these technologies have evolved
from government-funded basic research, but technical
uncertainties are not sufficiently reduced to permit
assessment of full commercial potential.
Furthermore, early last year President Clinton announced a
major technology policy initiative, and his commitment to furthering
this policy is reflected in his recent fiscal year 1995 budget request.
This bipartisan policy calls for research cooperation between
industry on the one hand and universities, Federal agencies, and
Government laboratories on the other hand, and has been promoted by
many specific laws and programs in addition to DOC technology programs,
which have received bipartisan support. These include the Bayh-Dole Act
of 1980, which encourages university-industry cooperation; the Federal
Technology Transfer Act of 1986, which facilitates cooperation between
Federal laboratories and industry; continued support for aeronautical
research at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration [NASA];
NSF-sponsored engineering research centers; and dual-use Department of
Defense initiatives such as Sematech and the technology reinvestment
project. These laws and programs have certain common features: Federal
research programs that are more useful to companies; competitive, peer-
reviewed selection processes for technology grants; and a focus on
precompetitive research on high-risk but valuable technologies, coupled
with a strict prohibition against using Federal money to help companies
to develop or make commercial products.
The bipartisan interest in these programs also is reflected in
general congressional action over the years to aid industry. For 200
years, ever since Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton wrote his
famous ``Report on Manufactures,'' bipartisan majorities of Congress
have passed bills to promote industry. Earlier Congresses have approved
agricultural research and extension; the research and development tax
credit; Export-Import Bank loans, aeronautical research; programs at
the National Institutes of Health; funding for Sematech; university
research; and Federal laboratory technology transfer, to name a few.
Congress has long supported industry, realizing the importance of these
programs in helping industry to increase profits and create jobs. S. 4
continues in that bipartisan tradition. It is a bill to promote
industrial development and economic growth, and its bipartisan support
indicates the continuing interest in these programs. In the last
Congress, S. 1330--a precursor to S. 4--passed the Senate by unanimous
consent, and last year the Senate Commerce Committee reported S. 4
without a dissenting vote.
S. 4 promotes these bipartisan proposals without adding to the
deficit. The administration is proposing an fiscal year 1995 budget for
S. 4's technology programs within the tough new budget cap that freezes
discretionary spending. Funds are being reallocated within the research
and development budget to make that budget more useful in an era with
the cold war is over and economic growth is now the Nation's highest
priority.
Some might argue that S. 4 is industrial policy. Critics of Federal
technology programs often imply that these programs provide, or will
provide, massive subsidies to prop up individual companies and help
them to make products. This argument is nonsense. All of these programs
prohibit the use of Federal money to develop or make commercial
products--we are not picking winners and losers, or anything of that
sort.
The need for S. 4 is clear. According to a 1990 report by the
Department of Commerce during the Bush administration, America is
losing, or losing badly, relative to Japan and Europe in many of the
key new emerging technologies. By the year 2000, world markets for
products based on these technologies could total $1 trillion annually.
The United States also lags in the deployment of new manufacturing
technologies. The United States has 350,000 small manufacturing firms
with 500 or fewer employees; yet the Nation ranks far below other
industrialized nations in the adoption of advanced machine tools and
other technologies.
Up to now, the U.S. Government's research and development budget has
reflected the priorities of the cold war. According to official NSF
statistics, as recently as 1992 the Federal Government spent 59 percent
of its research and development on defense and only 0.3 percent for the
direct support of industrial development. Our major economic
competitors, however, have chosen to emphasize the support of the new
basic industrial technology. Their percentages of government research
and development money used to support industry are impressive: in
Germany, 13.3 percent; in France, 12.6 percent; in Italy, 14.3 percent.
Other nations also provide major assistance to help their small
manufacturers--Japan funds 170 assistance centers, for example. Today,
with the cold war over and economic growth a higher priority than ever,
it is appropriate--indeed imperative--that we use some of the Federal
Government's $70 billion annual research budget to support the
development of the new basic technologies and manufacturing practices
that are absolutely central to national prosperity.
S. 4's programs also are of the highest quality. I am proud of the
programs that S. 4 reauthorizes and strengthens. The DOC programs are
industry-led, cost-shared, and peer-reviewed. There is no pork, and
these activities enjoy a stellar reputation. Moreover, these programs
have the right focus. They support industry's efforts to perfect
important new high-risk technologies and to improve basic
manufacturing. However, they never subsidize the development or
production of commercial products, which is appropriately left to the
private sector.
In a world in which wealth and jobs go to those countries that can
commercialize new inventions most quickly, and improve manufacturing
most rapidly, these programs are major investments in our Nation's
economic future. Given their clear value and high quality, they have
broad support from major industry coalitions and engineering groups,
such as the National Association of Manufacturers, American Electronics
Association, and Computer Systems Policy Project, to name a few. The
support for S. 4 shows its importance to the Nation's future.
major provisions
At the heart of S. 4 are, first, a clear restatement of DOC's mission
in support of U.S. manufacturing and, second, reauthorizations for the
three main activities of DOC's National Institute of Standards and
Technology [NIST]. These three activities are the Advanced Technology
Program [ATP], which aids industry-led efforts to speed the development
of new technologies; the manufacturing extension partnership [MEP], in
which NIST supports State efforts to help small and medium-sized
manufacturers to improve performance, save jobs, and boost profits; and
the research and technical service programs at NIST's laboratories,
which since 1901 have given U.S. industry the precise measurement and
process control technologies necessary to make products quickly,
precisely, and cost effectively. S. 4 also authorizes expanded
activities at the National Science Foundation [NSF] in support of
manufacturing education and research. All of the grant programs which I
have mentioned--the ATP, the MEP, and NSF's support for manufacturing--
are competitive, merit-reviewed programs. They enjoy a strong
reputation for quality, careful evaluation, and fairness.
In addition, title VI of S. 4 authorizes a computer applications
research program, originally proposed by Vice President Gore when he
chaired the Commerce Committee's Science Subcommittee. This initiative,
which also emphasizes competitive grant procedures, will support
innovative demonstration projects run by computer users and vendors to
develop and test new applications of high-performance computing. An
emphasis is placed on research that contributes to the Nation in areas
of particular public concern, including education, health
care, manufacturing, and libraries. This initiative will help to ensure
that the fundamental computing research that the Government is already
supporting will be applied effectively in these key areas, helping to
deliver better services to the public as well as boost the
competitiveness of the U.S. computer industry.
the substitute amendment
The text now before the Senate is a substitute amendment. It follows
the reported version of S. 4 closely, and incorporates refinements that
resulted from our conversations with interested Members and the
administration. There are several important features of the substitute.
First, the essence of the original NIST and NSF provisions has been
kept. The substitute reauthorizes NIST programs, expands the ATP to the
point where it can make significant contributions to industry's
technology efforts, makes needed technical amendments to NIST programs,
and expands NIST's existing, and proven, manufacturing extension
programs. S. 4 as amended still will enable NIST to expand its support
for U.S. technology and manufacturing.
For example, NIST currently supports seven State-sponsored
manufacturing technology centers [MTC's] around the country. Roughly
analogous to agricultural extensions, these centers provide valuable
advice to interested small manufacturers. Early evaluations show that
the assistance provided by these centers has helped small manufacturers
to improve technology and work practices, boost sales and exports, and
increase jobs. Japan operates over 170 such centers, with apparent
great success. The President has proposed to increase the number of
MTC's and create a new generation of smaller manufacturing outreach
centers [MOC's], which will be based at junior colleges and other local
groups around the country. S. 4 as amended authorizes that expansion.
When properly funded, the legislation will create a national network of
State and local-led centers that can assist all interested small
manufacturers. That network will be an important step in trying to save
small American firms--and small-firm jobs--that are now facing intense
foreign competition.
The NSF portions of the substitute are the same as the reported
version, with the addition of a provision allowing for one new activity
to support student internships at small manufacturing companies. The
substitute, like the reported bill, contains a pilot program to support
venture capital firms which help to support new technology ventures.
This provision has been modified, however, as the result of discussions
between DOC and the Small Business Administration and among Senators
Rockefeller, Bumpers, and Pressler.
The revised S. 4 computer title contains the same basic provisions as
before, and also includes clarifying language on one key provision--the
section ensuring that Federal support for computer networks does not
create unfair competition to commerical phone companies, while still
providing that Federal agencies remain free to operate their own
internal mission networks.
conclusion
Mr. President, I want to thank the many individuals and groups which
helped us to craft this legislation. I thank in particular our ranking
member, Senator Danforth, for his leadership on his side of the aisle;
Senator Mitchell, our principal cosponsor, and Senator Rockefeller, our
Science Subcommittee chairman. In the House, Chairman George Brown and
his colleagues on the Science Committee have worked closely with us on
this bill for over 2 years. In addition, John Dingell. We have had the
support and apparent guidance of our distinguished Vice President and
Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown with respect to all Commerce matters.
We worked closely with him and with the administration on information
and communication. All of these Members and their staffs have
contributed greatly to this legislation and deserve much credit.
From the beginning, S. 4 was written not only to support industry but
also in close cooperation with industry and worker organizations. In
this regard, special thanks goes to several groups. The National
Coalition for Advanced Manufacturing, the National Association of
Manufacturers, the Modernization Forum, the Work and Technology
Institute, the American Society for Training and Development, the
Engineering Societies, and, very importantly, the Advanced Technology
Coalition, let by the American Electronics Association, Honeywell
Corp., and others, have contributed greatly to this product.
In preparing the computer title, the Computer Systems Policy Project,
the American Electronics Association, and a range of educational groups
and telecommunications companies, as well as the Vice President's
office and the Office of Science and Technology Policy [OSTP], worked
with us to perfect legislative language. The Secretary of Commerce and
DOC technology officials, as well as officials from OSTP, the National
Economic Council, and the Office of Management and Budget have worked
hard to make this a sound bill and to ensure that the programs
authorized in the legislation will be of the highest quality.
For over 40 years after World War II, the Federal Government's large
budget focused on the needs of the cold war and a few other specific
Government missions. Even though our trading partners focused most of
their research and development funding on industrial development, we
assumed the burden of world leadership in confronting communism and
devoted very little of our research and development resources directly
to helping our civilian manufacturing industries and workers to succeed
in an increasingly competitive world economy. As recently as only a few
years ago, less than 1 percent of the U.S. Government research and
development budget went to support the technology efforts of general
civilian industry. Our economic competitors have pursued very different
priorities.
Now the United States faces a new era--one of diminished military
threat and greatly increased economic competition. The economic
challenge has become relentless. Despite leading the world in science
and new inventions, our country faces major trade deficits, factories
all too often moved overseas, workers face wrenching changes, and we
continue to see other countries commercialize American inventions. If
the United States is to obtain jobs and profits from the industries of
the future, and if we are to help small as well as large manufacturers
across the land to restore competitiveness, we must act now.
The President and Members on both sides of the aisle are committed to
investing in long-term economic growth. As one vital step in this
effort, we must strengthen Federal civilian technology and
manufacturing programs and, even more importantly, we must shift budget
resources away from old research and development priorities to the
urgent needs of today. Technology programs, properly designed and
funded, can strengthen the U.S. economy, and S. 4 is a major building
block in the new American national technology policy. This new
technology policy--combined with stronger trade policies, improved
training and education, and long-term deficit reduction--can help to
make the difference in determining whether this Nation and our people
prosper or decline in this harsh world economy.
I thank my colleagues for their contributions and support, and urge
the Senate to pass S. 4 as amended.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Murray). The Senator from Missouri.
Mr. DANFORTH. Madam President, my hope is that for the next day or so
while S. 4 is considered in this Chamber we as a Senate will have the
opportunity to address fundamental questions about the relationship
between the Federal Government and the private sector. I really believe
that Senator Hollings, with his very strong leadership, has brought
before the Senate a very important question.
I must say to my chairman that while I was not terribly enthusiastic
about S. 4 as it winded its way through the Commerce Committee, I
viewed it at the time as somewhat more innocuous than I view it now. I
think now particularly, given the status of the GATT agreement that has
been negotiated by our country and other countries of the world, the
issue that has been raised in S. 4 is one that is of really tremendous
significance to our country. I believe it is one that should be debated
on the floor of the Senate.
So my hope is that for the next couple of days--I do not think this
is going to be on the floor of the Senate for a very long time, but my
hope is that for the next couple of days Senators will focus on the
question that is raised by this legislation. The question really is
summed up in the words ``industrial policy.''
I hope Members of the Senate will ask themselves what should be the
appropriate relationship between the Federal Government and the private
sector of America. To what degree should the Federal Government be
weighing in with particular industries, to what extent should the
Government of the United States be subsidizing particular industries,
particularly high-technology industries, deciding those industries that
have promise and putting Federal resources behind those industries.
Now, all of us believe in science. All of us are very proud of the
technological abilities of Americans. All of us believe that the future
of our country and the future of our economy is related to the ability
of Americans to produce new kinds of products and to bring those
products to the market.
So the question that will be before us for the next day or so has
nothing to do with whether we believe in science. We do believe in
science. It has nothing to do with whether we believe in advanced
technology. We do believe in advanced technology. The only issue is
what is the Federal Government supposed to do about it? How does the
Government relate to the private sector? Does the Government weigh in?
Does the Government attempt to help out, to identify those industries
that are promising and to help those industries, or instead is the
better approach of the Federal Government, frankly, to get out of the
way?
We have addressed this question in the Commerce Committee in
connection with telecommunications; the so-called infrastructure issue
in telecommunications has been before us for a number of years. I think
it was back in 1991 that then Senator, now Vice President, Gore
introduced a bill, and the bill was the telecommunications
infrastructure bill. The basic approach of that bill was that the
Federal Government should spend money in creating a telecommunications
infrastructure for America.
That idea has changed, and it has changed very dramatically. Right
now, the Commerce Committee has before it, under the leadership of our
chairman, a bill which does not have the Government in the business of
developing infrastructure but, rather, the Government is getting out of
the way. The Government under our legislation would deregulate
telecommunications. It would allow the telephone companies to get into
the cable business and the cable companies to get into the telephone
business. Government would say we are not going to regulate so heavily.
We are going to get out of the way, and we are going to let the private
sector do its job.
It is a major shift in philosophy between then Senator Gore's
infrastructure idea of 3 years ago and the infrastructure concept that
is now before the Commerce Committee. It is a difference between a very
involved and directive Federal Government and a Federal Government that
allows the private sector to function. Now we have before us
legislation which creates new expansions of the Federal Government's
relationship with the private sector, significant increases in funding
so that the Federal Government can pick favored industries and the
Federal Government can subsidize those industries, particularly with
respect to the doing of research.
I believe that before we do this, we should debate it so that this
greatest of all deliberative bodies can reach a decision on the basis
of due deliberation. Do we really believe in Government subsidies for
research? Do we really believe that the Government subsidization of
research is the way to move the country forward, the private sector
forward toward the future? Or do we believe that the Government and its
subsidies is not the best approach?
All of us have supported governmental subsidies for research. The
Federal Government does research. The Federal Government does research
through grants to universities. The Federal Government does research
through the National Institutes of Health and through the Defense
Department. The Federal Government buys research into weapons systems
and supports general research on matters of health.
But the kind of research that is advanced by this legislation is a
different sword. This is targeted research. It is research designed to
affect specific industries and to bring about results within those
specific industries. And, therefore, there is a fundamental difference
between basic research or defense research designed for a purpose and
the sort of industrial policy, product-oriented research, sector-
oriented research that is so much a part of this legislation.
I would like to say to the Senate that my own interest in this issue,
which as I indicated earlier was mild until very recently, accelerated
very dramatically as I focused on what the administration brought about
in the negotiation of the GATT agreement; what the administration
brought about in negotiating the GATT agreement last winter, after the
Congress adjourned after the last session of Congress.
Without advance knowledge, I think, on the part of any of us, the
administration altered a longstanding position of past administrations
with respect to permissible subsidies that governments can put in place
around the world for favored industries.
And the administration, at its insistence in the trade negotiations,
the GATT negotiations, brought about the so-called ``green lighting''
of research and development subsidies. Heretofore the kinds of specific
product-oriented subsidies that we are talking about were subject to
countervailing duty. Under the subsidies code as it has existed and as
it currently exists, if a country subsidizes research and subsidizes
development, those subsidies are subject to countervailing duty.
Injured countries, countries whose products have been injured and whose
economy has been injured by the subsidies granted by other governments,
can impose countervailing duties in order to offset or to penalize the
subsidy. That practice, that subsidies code, is being dramatically
altered as a result of the GATT agreement, and it is being dramatically
altered under the leadership and at the insistence of the Clinton
administration.
So if the GATT agreement is agreed to, if it actually comes into
being, henceforth research subsidies up to 75 percent of their cost and
development subsidies up to 50 percent of their cost can be subsidized
by governments without any countervailing duties being possible.
This is a major change and it is a change that was insisted upon by
the Clinton administration. And the rationale for the change is set
forth in a memorandum dated November 27, 1993.
I ask unanimous consent that the memorandum be printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
GATT and Development Subsidies
The following addresses the question of reducing GATT
disciplines on development subsidies in light of the known
positions of U.S. industry and the possible economic effects
of this action. Annex I briefly describes the current
treatment of development subsidies under the 1979 GATT
Subsidies Code, the U.S. countervailing duty (CVD) law, and
the Dunkel Draft Subsidies Code.
Industry Perspectives on `'Development''
Going into the Uruguay Round, only the aerospace and
consumer electronics industries provided specific advice on
how government subsidies to research and development should
be treated. The table below compares the position of those
industries with the results of the draft Uruguay Round
subsidies text.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Industry position Draft text
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Basic research......... 100 percent green...... 50 percent green.
Applied Research....... 100 percent yellow..... 25 percent green.
Development............ 100 percent red........ 100 percent yellow.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Since the draft text was issued, many advisory groups have
reiterated or refined their advice on R&D. The ACTPN
Industrial Subsidy Task Force issued guidance last December
which recommended collapsing basic and applied research under
a new, single ``research'' definition, for which 100 percent
of government assistance would be made non-actionable.
However, the ACTPN also recommended that the term
``development'' be defined--so as to make clear what activity
was not exempted from subsidy disciplines--and that the
language make clear that the creation of prototypes was to be
considered a development activity.
Over the past year, U.S. Trade and technology officials
also consulted with a number of industries which participate
in technology partnerships with federal agencies. Some of
those partnership activities probably involve
``development,'' such as the advanced battery consortium with
U.S. automakers. although these groups expressed concern
about the impact of subsidy rules on their partnership
activities, their concern extended as much to the manner in
which research was greenlighted as to the manner in which
development was not. Moreover, the aircraft industry's
preoccupation with the treatment of development arises out of
concrete experience with the Airbus consortium, whereas the
anxiety of other industries about coverage of R&D probably is
more reflective of a ``fear of the unknown'' than a studied
assessment of how their international competitive position
would be affected if assistance for development were exempted
from subsidies disciplines.
how could one ``greenlight'' development?
The easiest way to ``greenlight'' development is to
indicate that 100 percent of government assistance for
research and development is non-actionable. The only
logistical problems posed by this option are how to
distinguish R&D from other production activities and discern
which operating costs are related or allocable to R&D.
However, this approach would overlook the fact that
assistance for product development is apt to be far more
distortive of the conditions of competition than most
government subsidies. If the United States is considering
such a step, it should first rethink its overall policy
objective of disciplining government subsidies.
Short of a total greenlight, one must weigh the benefits
and risks of moving both horizontally (i.e., broadening the
non-actionable definitions) and vertically (i.e., raising the
permitted level for non-actionable assistance). First, we
could consider including a reference to prototype creation in
the applied research definition. This would have the
advantage of giving the EC part of what it wants (the EC's
own R&D rules are expressed in this way) without establishing
a formal precedent that development is non-actionable. On the
down side, it would make prototype creation 100 percent non-
actionable (based on last week's decision to raise the levels
for two research categories to 100 percent).
Alternatively, we could establish a definition for
development and make government assistance for such activity
non-actionable up to a negotiated level. This would allow us
to discourage government development subsidies beyond a given
level, but it would reintroduce many of the problems we have
just decided to avoid by raising the research ceilings to 100
percent. That is, the notification and administration of
subsidy programs is made much more difficult as soon as one
limits to a specific percentage the amount and kinds of costs
that may safely be subsidized.
economic affects
Analysis of the economic effects of removing subsidies
disciplines on development assistance depends on two things:
Whether subsidies (i.e. targeted government support) are or
are not effective and efficient methods of industrial
development which help to confer a real competitive
advantage.
The relative abilities and willingness of the U.S. and
foreign governments to provide subsidies in a thoughtful and
effective manner.
The first item is assumed to be true; otherwise we would
not wish to use subsidies ourselves, or be concerned about
their use by others.
If the green category of the Dunkel draft Subsidies Code is
expanded to include development subsidies, the USC will
ostensibly choose between matching or exceeding foreign
subsidies or accepting the reduced competitiveness of U.S.
manufacturers. If the first choice is made, budget resources
will have to be made available or the choice is illusory, and
the reduction of subsidies discipline would create a net loss
to the U.S. economy, as others could subsidize and we would
not.
The overall effect on the economy can be positive only as
long as we remain willing and able to exceed foreign
subsidies, and to be selective in the particular areas
subsidized. If we simply match others' subsidies the economic
effect will be neutral, unless the lag time involved in
following the lead of others actually places us in a slightly
disadvantageous position. In any case, we should not allow
foreigners to influence, by their choices, which sectors we
subsidize. We will need to get out in front so that our
choices are directed by our priorities, and not through
reaction to particular U.S. industries seeking subsidies
equivalent to those of their foreign competitors. Thus, a
decision to reduce subsidies disciplines requires a
commitment to be subsidy leaders, both in choosing
beneficiary sectors and amounts given, if we are to ensure
positive economic effects for the United States. Because the
Code will be in effect for many years, the commitment must
also be long-term.
Choosing to decrease disciplines but not match foreign
subsidies is not a real choice at all. If we could not or
would not match foreign subsidies, there would be no reason
to give ``green-light'' status to development subsidies,
unless we were certain that subsidies do not work, and that,
in any event, their use by others could not harm us. The
latter conclusion would be inconsistent with our position on
agricultural subsidies and countervailing duties. If we
believe that subsidies do work, but we do not have the
resources to play, or do not wish to engage in a subsidies
war, we would maintain GATT disciplines on subsidies.
Annex I--Domestic and International Treatmemt of Development Subsidies
1979 code
The 1979 Code grants no special status to development
subsidies. While it prohibits export subsidies by developed
countries (except for agriculture), all other subsidies are
``actionable''. That means that an aggrieved party may refer
a subsidy to a GATT panel to determine if the subsidy is
causing adverse effects to its interests. However, since the
Code does not contain definitions of ``subsidy'' or ``adverse
effects'' and provides no guidance as to what should be done
if both are found, it in fact provides little meaningful
discipline on development or any other types of subsidies,
other than those granted for export. It is not surprising
that there have been no successful challenges of development
or other actionable subsidies on industrial products. The
process has been used only on prohibited subsidies, and
there, the ability of losers to block adoption of panel
reports makes even a victory problematic.
u.s. law
The U.S. countervailing duty law provides that if
subsidized imports into the United States cause injury, a
duty equal to the subsidy shall be imposed. This law has been
used effectively many times by domestic industry and is
extremely useful at offsetting subsidies on imports.
Development subsidies have not been frequent targets however.
Most cases have related to general assistance, such as
grants, low interest loans, equity infusions, and special tax
treatment for exports or other export subsidies. However,
since U.S. law is limited to imposing duty on imports, it is
of no help to domestic industry facing subsidized competition
in export markets.
the dunkel draft subsidies code
Recognizing the impotence of the GATT Subsidies Code
disciplines and the limited reach of U.S. CVD law, the U.S.
negotiation goals were to strengthen the former and avoid
weakening the latter. The negotiations resulted in the
``stop-light'' approach. Subsidies were divided into three
categories: Prohibited (Red), Actionable (Yellow) and Non-
Actionable (Green). Development subsidies are Yellow in the
current draft. While this is the same status they had in the
1979 Code, the Dunkel draft, by defining subsidy and adverse
effects, and requiring removal of the subsidy or its adverse
effects if the panel agrees, and making panel reports binding
on parties, makes subsidies disciplines real rather than
theoretical. Subsidies in the green category are non-
actionable, i.e., they are not subject to investigation by
GATT panels or national CVD laws. The green category
currently includes research and subsidies and regional
development subsidies.
Mr. DANFORTH. Madam President, I would like to read from page 4 of
the memorandum. U.S. Trade Representative Mickey Kantor tells me that
this memorandum came out of the U.S. Commerce Department. It says as
follows:
If the green category--
That is, the permissible subsidy--
of the Dunkel draft Subsidies Code is expanded to include
development subsidies, the ISG--
Which is the U.S. Government--
will ostensibly choose between matching or exceeding foreign
subsidies or accepting the reduced competitiveness of U.S.
manufacturers. If the first choice is made, budget resources
will have to be made available or the choice is illusory, and
the reduction of subsidies discipline would create a net loss
to the U.S. economy, as others could subsidize and we would
not.
The overall effect on the economy can be positive only as
long as we remain willing and able to exceed foreign
subsidies, and to be selective in the particular areas
subsidized. If we simply match others' subsidies the economic
effect will be neutral, unless the lag time involved in
following the lead of others actually places us in a slightly
disadvantageous position. In any case, we should not allow
foreigners to influence, by their choices, which sectors we
subsidize. We will need to get out in front so that our
choices are directed by our priorities, and not through
reaction to particular U.S. industries seeking subsidies
equivalent to those of their foreign competitors. Thus, a
decision to reduce subsidies disciplines requires a
commitment to be subsidy leaders, both in choosing
beneficiary sectors and amounts given, if we are to ensure
positive economic effects for the United States. Because the
Code will be in effect for many years, the commitment must
also be long-term.
Madam President, this was the position taken by somebody in the
Commerce Department at the time that the GATT agreement was being
negotiated. It talks about the necessity, if we are to green light the
subsidies, of the United States being a subsidy leader. We are to lead
the way in this new world of subsidies. And if we are going to have
international subsidies, we had better lead the way or else Airbus is
going to be replicated over and over again. What happened with Airbus
was that our aircraft manufacturers, for one reason or another, did not
want to press the issue of countervailing duty.
The Europeans were able to subsidize research and development of
Airbus to the tune of over $26 billion, so that Airbus has never made
any money, and Airbus has now about one-third of the international
market on commercial aircraft. I think this is likely to happen over
and over again.
What I want to do in this debate is to try my best to focus our
attention on the issue. If we are going to get into the business of
outsubsidizing the Europeans or the Japanese or whoever else, let us at
least do so with our eyes open to reality. It is the judgment of this
Senator that governmental subsidies will never work as well as the
marketplace.
It is the judgment of this Senator that governmental officials will
never be the shrewd venture capitalists that we will find in the
marketplace. Why is that? It is because, first of all, I do not believe
there is any special genius that resides in Washington, DC. I do not
think people who work for the Federal Government in Washington
necessarily have a wisdom that is special to Washington. I do not
believe we have a wisdom that exceeds the wisdom of the marketplace.
Beyond that, Madam President, we are politicians, and politicians
apply grease to the squeaky wheel. We are less likely to make decisions
on the basis of merit than on the basis of political considerations,
such as: In what district does the company seeking the subsidy reside?
In which State does it reside? We have seen this with respect to
Government subsidies for education, Government grants for research and
education. We have told ourselves in legislative language that we are
going to do it by peer review. But when it comes down to it, we do not
do it by peer review.
I am concerned that Government subsidies for research and development
in the private sector are going to gravitate toward those parts of the
private sector with the most political clout. Oftentimes, those are not
going to be the small varying operators but increasingly are going to
be those entrenched operations where, in a particular congressional
district, the demise of that operation would be viewed as politically
and economically a terrible thing.
Venture capitalists make decisions on the basis of the merits. If a
program is not panning out, a venture capitalist will just stop it, cut
the losses. I have not noticed our ability to cut losses around here.
We do not get rid of programs. We are notorious for not getting rid of
programs. We keep them going year after year. Inertia. One of the major
forces that exists in Washington, DC, is inertia. In a world of high
technology and rapid change, inertia is exactly what we cannot stand.
Inertia is what is going to be created if we rely on Government to pick
what is going to be subsidized and what is not going to be subsidized.
I have to say that I am especially concerned about the GATT
agreement. I am especially concerned, because I believe that this green
lighting of subsidies, this permitting of subsidies, has created for us
and will create for us in the future the horns of a dilemma. Either we
are not going to keep up with the rest of the world and we are going to
see Airbus repeated over and over again in all kinds of different
industries, or we are going to get in a subsidies war and who knows
where the money is going to come from, and all of the problems that I
have attempted to outline are going to come about.
I hope we can do something about this GATT agreement. With respect to
S. 4, Madam President, it is industrial policy. There is no other way
to express it. It is the picking of winners and losers. It is creating
a fund of money with which somebody in Washington is going to be able
to say to industry ``A'': You were favored. And to industry ``B'': You
were not favored.
I do not think that we in Washington are particularly adept at making
those decisions. Therefore, I think that we should recognize the issue
and we should defeat this bill.
Mr. HOLLINGS addressed the Chair.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from South Carolina.
Mr. HOLLINGS. Madam President, that is an astounding conclusion, that
we should defeat the bill, particularly in light of the statement just
made about peer review.
This bill was commenced 6 years ago, when I included as an amendment
on the Trade Act the provisions for the restructuring of the National
Bureau of Standards into the National Institute of Standards and
Technology, instituting the advance technology program, the regional
manufacturing technology centers, modeled on the hugely successful
agriculture programs, whereby we have the land grant colleges, the
regional research centers, the extension service, the experimental
stations.
If I wanted to plant a victory garden at my home on McComb Street
here in Washington, I could call the farm extension agent this
afternoon, and he would have somebody there at 8 o'clock in the morning
to give me a soil test. It is that detailed and that responsive and
that successful. That was 6 years ago.
The distinguished Senator from Missouri and I did have discussions
relative to this particular measure, beginning in detail, some 4 years
ago, when we both agreed that this should not be a porkbarrel program,
we should not politically make the decisions in Washington, as the
Senator has referred to. We wanted to make absolutely sure this would
not end up in earmarking in subcommittees--I pick one and you pick one
and so on--that we would insist on peer review, and that we include,
and still have included in the measure before us, the National Academy
of Engineering.
We are not talking about politicians picking winners, Madam
President. We are talking about industy picking winners. Private
industry must come forward with at least half a pocket full of money,
at least 50 percent. In general now, through experience, that equates
on their part to about 70 to 75 percent. The Government's contribution
in that research cannot exceed, under the law, 50 percent, and
generally speaking will be a mere 25 percent. This will be an industry
initiative, with merit review by the National Academy of Engineering.
And the bill itself passed the Commerce Committee, of which the Senator
was chairman and now is ranking member, passed the House of
Representatives, and in June 1992, 2 years ago, we had met in
conference and had conferenced the disputed portions between the House
and the Senate, and had a bill ready on the floor that last month for
again a unanimous consent with no objection.
But the other side of the aisle, and the best I can tell--and this is
my reasoning, because I had to do the shepherding as chairman of the
committee--was that the campaign committee on the other side of the
aisle determined that I was running for reelection and in no sense did
they want me to have this as a fine issue to run upon. We were not
going to pass any Hollings bill. There is only a month. So they went
from pillar to post, from post to pillar, from pillar to post, and they
kept me running around, and they said: ``I do not really have a hold on
it, Fritz. Maybe you ought to talk to so-and-so.'' And then I talked to
so-and-so.
Anyway, we did not get any bill passed, but it was unanimous in the
committee, on the floor of the Senate, and ready to be reported again;
and again, in May of last year, it was unanimous out of the Commerce
Committee, and has been on the calendar all that time.
Yes, the Senator wants to get into a GATT argument. This is not GATT.
He is on the Finance Committee.
I happen to oppose GATT for different reasons. One particularly about
the sovereignty and how we are going to control our own affairs.
Article I, section 8 of the Constitution says the Congress of the
United States shall regulate foreign commerce--not the World Trade
Organization; not this group nor that group nor the next group; not
GATT.
So I have similar arguments about GATT. But this is not the time for
GATT. But this should not be permitted to hold up this measure.
We have dutifully gone, as I enunciated here in my opening comments
to everyone, to the House colleagues who were interested in it, in
giving leadership; to the Senate colleagues, the leadership not only in
our committee, but in the Finance Committee, the Small Business
Committee, the Subcommitee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and
Education, and we have worked this out. We have a bill that should not
even be debated. It ought to be passed by consent.
But if they want to argue trade philosophy and how we are changing
it, then you are on to one of my favorite subjects: the philosophy of
the Founding Fathers on trade.
It has been a rather uphill battle for this particular Senator to get
this crowd sobered up on the matter of picking winners and losers. That
is all we have been doing when you get industrial policy.
When I say you are going to have a minimum wage, I am not letting the
market forces determine the minimum wage. I am saying the people's
representatives in Washington will determine that minimum wage. When I
say we are going to have to have Social Security, I am not letting the
market forces, who are so wise, determine it. I am letting the people's
representatives in Washington determine the pensions and Social
Security of this particular society.
When I set up Medicare and Medicaid, another industrial policy, I am
not letting market forces for the particular manufacturing industry
determine that particular policy and whether the venture capital can
support it or not, and we are cutting losses and not cutting losses.
Oh, no. We are saying let the people's representatives in Washington
decide with respect to Medicare and with respect to Medicaid.
When I say that you ought to have a safe workplace, oh, no, do not
let the market forces decide what is safe. Society got sick and tired
of workers being cut up and injured and the market forces turning a
blind eye to it. So America demanded the industrial policy of the
people's representatives in Washington deciding that we are going to
have a safe working place. Then they also decided we were not going to
have the market forces decide with respect to safe machinery. They
constantly had to get safeguards, we thought, because the market would
not do it. So we let the people's representatives in Washington, with
the Occupational Safety and Health Act, determine safe machinery in
having inspections under the Department of Labor.
We have seen unfettered market forces at work. I have an old-time
picture of little 11- and 12-year-olds tied to looms in the textile
industry, as dictated by market forces. We said: No, we were not going
to let the market forces do it. We wanted a humane industrial policy
relative to child employment where we were not going to have them tied
to that loom.
You ought to be a Governor of one of the States and go over to the
adult education center. We had, in my time, 378,000 functional
illiterates, adults who could not read and write, and I would go to the
program we put in, and give a high school diploma, finally, or an
elementary school diploma, finally, to a 78-year-old with tears
streaming down her cheeks, saying, ``Thank you, Governor. For the first
time, I can read the newspapers. I worked 50 years in the mill, and all
I got was a gold watch and I still could not read. But now I can read
the newspaper.''
Why? Because this society, we as a people, in order to form a more
perfect Union, said: To heck with the worst abuses of market forces; we
are going to have the people's representatives in Washington determine
the industrial policy with respect to child labor.
When it came to the matter of plant closing notices, well, plants
would just pick up and go off to Mexico with no notice at all. And they
said we were not going to let the market do it because we know what
happens. They pick up and go and just leave everybody high and dry
after working 30 years and 40 years, with health care gone and
everything else. So we said: Wait a minute. You have to have plant
closing notice. We are not going to let the market forces do that, and
the venture capital to decide the right and wrong. We want the people's
representatives to determine that particular industrial policy.
Back in the first days of our Republic we were told just exactly what
the distinguished Senator is saying, only in a different way. We were
told, in a sort of economist's jargon--David Ricardo, Economics 101,
``The Doctrine of Comparative Advantage.'' The Brits corresponded with
Alexander Hamilton, and they told Mr. Hamilton: ``Now, you fledgling
country, you have your freedom. You are a nation state now. And what
you should do is trade with us what you produce best and we will trade
back with you what we produce best.'' Free trade, free trade; market
forces; no industrial policy.
In response, Alexander Hamilton wrote the book, ``Report on
Manufacturers,'' and there is one copy left over here at the Library of
Congress. In a line--I wish I had time to read that booklet to this
august body--Hamilton said, ``Bug off.'' He said, ``we're not going to
remain Britain's colony.''
And the second bill--the first had to do with the oath of office--the
second bill that passed this Congress on July 4, 1789, was a trade
bill, a tariff bill, a tariff of 50 percent on 30 articles, beginning
with iron, textiles, going right on down the list. The Congress said,
``We are going to build our own productive capacity. We are not going
to remain your colony and ship to you the timber and the coal and the
iron ore and the wheat and the foodstuff and you furnish us the
finished products. No way. No way.''
Lincoln did the same thing with the transcontinental railroad opening
up the West. And it was told then to Lincoln, ``Now, we ought to get
that steel from the factories in Great Britain.'' He said, ``No. We are
going to build our own steel plants and when we get through we will not
only have the railroad, we will have our own steel production, too.''
The best example, of course, is the protective quotas on agriculture
and wheat, oats, barley, and the other things under Franklin Delano
Roosevelt, where we put in price supports--subsidies, if you please--
not relying on the marketplace. If you leave it to the marketplace,
with Mother Nature coming in with floods, hurricanes, earthquakes,
storms, and droughts, and everything like that, you would have no
agricultural production. No one, no venture capital, as the Senator
said, would ever invest in it. Yes, that is right. Venture capital
would cut all its losses and cut out agricultural production.
So, instead, we said we are going to have support prices and we are
going to have import quotas to protect those supports. We are going to
have an industrial policy in agriculture and not leave it to the
market. The politicians in Washington support it 100 percent now. Look
at their votes, Republican and Democrat.
And when it came to oil in 1954, under Eisenhower, he said, ``Look,
we will not have sufficient capacity.'' He was much like Winston
Churchill in World War I. ``By way of national security, we have to
have a capacity for oil to get our Navy to sea and protect the security
of this country.'' And so, under Eisenhower, in 1954-55, we passed
protective oil quotas, industrial policy by politicians in Washington
and not, my dear friends, not the market forces, because politicians
will only react, as they say, with political considerations.
You bet your boots we are swayed by political considerations. That is
the body politic. I am proud to be here. I know the populist tactic of
demeaning the Congress and demeaning the Government, and riding
politicians on a rail outside--term limitations and all that nonsense.
But I can tell you, yes, ``We the people, in order to form a more
perfect union,'' we got together. This is the one gift we have given
free man the world around, democratic self-rule. And those
considerations by politicians here have been made by both parties, by
Republican Presidents, by Democratic Presidents, down the line since
the beginning. We built this industrial empire with protectionism.
They do not want to listen to that. They do not want to hear it
because these global multinationals and big banks and retailers are
calling the shots. We currently have some $70 billion in research. Much
of that $70 billion, I would say a majority, is in the aeronautics
industry. The majority of it has been used by Lockheed, Boeing,
McDonnell Douglas, and the aircraft business.
We are trying to meet competition, and the competition is helping its
industry. And that is what Roosevelt did in the days of the Depression.
In order to keep the banks open, he closed the doors. In order to save
the farms, he planted under the crops. And today, in order to remove a
subsidy or barrier, you have to raise a subsidy or barrier and then
remove them both. That is the proper governmental role.
We have not been able to do away with Japan's governmental
involvement with industry. We talk about managed competition. The
Japanese have been the masters of it. It has worked. They are richer
than you and me.
They were totally distraught. We had the only industry, the only
wealth at the end of World War II. We taxed ourselves to rebuild that
Pacific rim with the Marshall plan, and it worked. We sent over our
technology, and it worked.
But they did not put in--oh, no--they did not put in antitrust
policies. In America, we said, ``Wait a minute. These big combines will
come and have predatory pricing and monopolistic practices.'' So here
we put in the Sherman Antitrust Act and we put in the other antitrust
provisions.
In contrast, Japan put in protrust--protrust. They said, ``Oh, no.
Here is how we are going to finance it, through the Ministry of
Finance. Here is how we are going to direct it, through the Ministry of
International Trade & Industry [MITI]. And they have been doing the
financing and they keep you off Main Street. You do not open a door on
that Main Street unless the other people in the block vote for you to
do it.
We cannot break into the Japanese market because we go whining, ``We
saved you and rebuilt you from World War II. Now, why don't you be nice
to us? Be fair. Be fair.''
Whoever heard anybody in business being fair? Business' job is to
make a profit. If I can take this pad of paper here and charge you 5
cents for it and you buy it, fine. If I can charge you $5 and get it,
that is the market forces.
And the market forces today include Government participation in the
particular policies that have market force.
The Senator says this bill represents a major shift in philosophy.
But what we have here is what we have always had and what he has voted
for and what we have continued to have. He was a leader on Sematech. He
had been a leader over in the Finance Committee on trade matters.
But I would implore the colleagues, let us not muck up this bill with
Finance Committee problems and GATT. I am going to be ready to debate
that at the appropriate time. But do not come now, after we have a
unanimous vote and have it all worked out on both sides of the aisle
with all Senators of good will to get a technology authorization that
is less than 2 percent of the $70 billion in this Government's
investment total.
Agriculture has far more; $40 billion over in Defense; Energy has way
more in research. We found out when we invented VCR's that we did not
commercialize our technologies. Our scientists won the Nobel Prize but
the Japanese correlated 22 entities and they won the profits. They
learned how to commercialize.
We see they are doing as we have done over 100-and-some years now in
agriculture with the land grant colleges, America's success story. We
still outproduce the world on that particular score.
Now, despite the fact that the distinguished Senator has made up his
mind, having voted for it twice, let it go by on unanimous consent over
a 2-year period, he says that something happened in GATT to change
things. The Senator says, ``I want to do something about this GATT
agreement.'' Let us do that on the GATT agreement and not this bill. I
plead with him to let this measure go forward now so we can. I do not
know of any amendments. But what we ought to be doing now is not
starting a GATT debate, unless we are going to bring GATT out here and
bring out the attendance sheets and bring out the letters that
apparently the Senator has and whatever it is. In that instance I think
we are going to agree right quickly.
My particular economy, the economy that I represent in the State of
South Carolina, the textile industry, was a donor industry. We did not
get a foot in the door. We had letters. We will show the letters
promising a 10-year phaseout of the multifiber arrangement. We did not
get that. We did not get any entry in. We got them coming in and
cleaning our clock. We were not to get into their markets. They did not
strengthen the dumping provisions we wanted and those kinds of things.
On the sovereignty question, we are ready to debate GATT when that
comes. But this is a technology bill. It is ongoing now. It is a slight
increase. It still does not come up to near the research moneys we have
at all these other divisions of Government. It is not a major shift in
philosophy. Heavens above. We have never left matters strictly to
market forces. We already have an industrial policy, and always have.
That was the hue and cry of the previous administration in 1988.
Instead, the Congress almost overwhelmingly, by 93 votes, passed these
measures--bipartisan--in this, saying it was not industrial policy.
That question was raised when we debated it on the trade bill. Since
that time the Bush administration changed its mind and requested funds
for it because they reviewed it and saw we had peer review in there,
that it was industry-initiated; not Government or politicians picking
and choosing, but rather the industry was doing it.
So, I hope we can move forward. If we are going to debate that, I
hope we will hold that up until the GATT treaty comes, which has to be
submitted sometime this year. The distinguished Senator is a leader on
the Finance Committee. As a leader on that Finance Committee, I am sure
his views are going to be respected, as they have been before. Then
they will report out something and we will have some of those
recommendations, perhaps. And that can be included in the documents
when we adopt or reject GATT, whatever it is.
But this technology policy is for the Government to move forward now
and help us commercialize our technology, help small industries that
cannot afford Price Waterhouse or Booz, Allen, or another study group.
If you are General Electric and you think of a particular initiative
and you go to the board, the board can say, ``Yes, we ought to look at
that. We will hire such-and-such a research firm, $5 million, and give
them 6 months and tell them to report back here by January 1.'' Small
business cannot do that. It has to look to the Government. And we look
to see whether that is sound public policy.
That does not interfere. This could not make a beep in the market as
compared to the influence of market forces, but it makes all the
difference in the world with respect to the competitiveness of our
industry in this country and the retention of our work force.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Missouri.
Mr. DANFORTH. Madam President, I do not think this is as small an
issue as my chairman has led us to believe it is. I think this is more
than a ``beep.'' I think this is a very big question and that it is a
question in the minds of many people in our country and many Members of
the Senate that is in flux.
I spoke a few weeks ago with a very thoughtful Member of the Senate
from the other side of the aisle. I was talking to this individual
about the basic question of the Government's participation in business
research and development. This person said to me, very frankly,
``Honestly, I just have not thought it out.'' I think that is true with
a lot of people in the Senate. We have not really thought it out. I
believe we should think it out. Because if we do not think it out then
incrementally we will move in the direction of accepting Government
subsidies for research and development as being the way we function.
I am concerned that other Members of the Senate will, in years to
come, be in exactly the same position that my chairman has so ably
explained that I am in. Over a period of years, saying either openly or
tacitly, ``This is all right. This is the kind of legislation we should
pass.'' And then having it hit you between the eyes at some future
date, as it did when I reflected on the Uruguay Round, the GATT
agreement, that things I went along with tacitly without really
thinking out were just plain wrong. It was a mistake. It was not the
direction we should move in.
So my hope in this debate is to try to keep other Senators from the
same mistakes that I made and to try to ask ourselves, as a Senate and
as a country, how do we really feel about the Government subsidizing
business research and development? That is the issue.
Is it a good idea or is it not a good idea? Does it help the country
for the Government to get into the business of picking those industries
which should be subsidized and saying you are the future and we in
Government are going to put our thumb on the scale in favor of your
industry? Is that a good approach? Or is it not a good approach?
I can understand the Senator saying research is so important,
Government has to help; technology is so important, that Government has
to help. I understand that. I think it is even a commendable sentiment,
to say if something good is out there or something promising is out
there, surely we in Government should nurture it and support it with
our dollars. That is a position to take. If we are going to take that
position let us do so recognizing the consequences.
I do not mean, as my chairman has suggested, to in any way demean
politicians. I spend a fair amount of my time going around to various
groups saying that in my opinion the bashing of politicians is totally
overdone and misplaced. Some of the best people I have ever known in my
life have served in Government and in politics and in the United States
Senate. I do not demean them. All I am saying is to have a very high
regard for politicians is not necessarily the same as saying that,
therefore, politicians should take the place of the market.
To have the highest regard for Members of the Senate, to have the
highest regard for those who are in nonelective parts of our Government
is not the same as entrusting those people with the decisionmaking
power that should be in the marketplace.
The question is not whether you like politicians or do not like
politicians; the question is: What kinds of decisions are marketplace
decisions and what kinds of decisions are governmental decisions or
political decisions? That is the issue now before the U.S. Senate. That
is the issue raised very ably by the chairman of the Commerce Committee
and by the supporters of S. 4.
Some would say, well, Japan does it. Japan recognizes the close
relationship between Government and business. Japan recognizes that
there should be great coordination and identity of interests between
Government and business, and Japan has done very well. So maybe we
should be like Japan. I think that is an argument that my chairman has
made. MITI has done it. We should be like MITI. This bill has, in fact,
programs for our Commerce Department to spend money to help industries,
high-technology industries, in research and development. Let us turn
the U.S. Department of Commerce into MITI USA. Why not? Let us be like
Japan.
I think there are two arguments. The first is that I am not sure MITI
is all that great. It has made mistakes. MITI tried to keep Sony out of
the electronics market. It tried to keep Honda and Mazda out of the
automobile business. It picked the wrong technology for high-definition
television. Governmental decisionmakers can make mistakes. So can
private decisionmakers. The problem is that it is often harder for
Government to extricate itself from bad mistakes than it is for the
private sector to extricate itself from bad mistakes.
So one argument against trying to be like Japan is that MITI is
hardly a model of perfection. And the second argument is, this is not
Japan. This is not Japan. We are not the same homogenous, regimented
country that Japan is. Maybe some people lament that fact, but most of
us do not. Most of us say, let us be American, and the strength of
America is that market forces work.
The United States of America still is the most admired country in the
world. For all of our self-criticism, we are, not because we have the
biggest Government or the wisest bureaucracy or governments that are
best able to make the fine-tuning decisions for our economy that might
be made, but because the American people out there doing the job,
spending the dollars, making the decisions, do operate as the invisible
hand which directs the course of the economy. So I do not think we
should try to be like MITI.
Does all this mean that the Government of the United States should be
passive; that S. 4 is nothing? Is it my argument that Government does
nothing at all or should do nothing at all, totally laissez-faire? I do
not make that argument. I make the argument that we should not weigh in
with specific grants to specific high-technology industries to try to
foster those industries.
But there are other, more generic ways that Government can help the
economy without being so directive. How can we do that? One we
mentioned earlier. Basically, it is the approach of deregulation, and
it is the approach that we are taking with respect to
telecommunications, where Government acts as an impediment to what
should be happening out there in the marketplace. Let Government clear
away the impediment. That is one approach.
Another is to look at our Tax Code, to look at our Tax Code with
respect to whether we are doing what we should be doing in order to
foster the economy. I am one of the parents--and it is a good idea so I
guess a lot of people claim parenthood--I am one of the parents of the
research and development tax credit. We have been debating for a long
time whether to make it permanent. Of course the research and
development tax credit should be a permanent tax credit. It should not
be extended for a year or 2 or 3 at a time. Why is that? Because the
testimony that has come before the Finance Committee is that businesses
make research decisions on about an 8-year cycle, not a 1- or 2- or 3-
year cycle. We can make other improvements in the R&D credit. There is
a bipartisan group of Senators who have introduced legislation to do
just that.
So there are things that we can do to help research and to help
development. But to help research generically, as with the R&D tax
credit, is not the same as weighing in on behalf of specific and chosen
industries in the detailed way that is envisioned by S. 4. It is just
an entirely different kind of approach.
One final point, and it is whether somehow I am jumping the gun on
the GATT debate. I believe that the issues raised by the proposed
changes in the subsidies code in the GATT agreement are precisely the
same as the issues raised by S. 4. I believe that the time has come to
focus on how to address those issues. Every Republican Senator signed a
letter to Mickey Kantor, the U.S. Trade Representative, asking the
administration what the administration's intentions are with respect to
how we can handle the new world of green-lighted subsidies; what is our
administration's intention with respect to Government subsidies? And
Mickey Kantor answered that no decisions had been made; there are not
any intentions. That is really flying blind. If we insist on provisions
in the GATT agreement which allow for R&D subsidies and then we do not
say, ``Well, here is our intention with respect to subsidies,'' that is
just operating with our eyes closed.
Then we have S. 4, which is specifically a program to create and
expand Government subsidies for businesses doing research and
development.
I believe that just as there is a state of flux that exists in the
Senate, there is a state of flux that exists within the administration.
I believe there are people within the administration, and probably the
President himself, who believes that the Government should invest--and
that is the word people use now with respect to spending--that
Government should be investing in the future.
I also believe that there are people within the administration who
are not yet sold on the idea of Government investing in private sector
research and development. I believe--although I am not sure, but just
sort of on the basis of scuttlebutt--with respect to the subsidies code
provisions that were insisted on by the administration, there were
differences within the administration on that.
What I am suggesting is we are now involved in a national
consideration on this whole question of subsidies. Better to be
involved in that consideration in a very direct and open way than to do
it by stumbling along, by accident. So I think that exactly the issues
that we are going face on the GATT agreement and should be faced before
April 15, when the signing deadline comes, I believe these are exactly
the same issues that should be debated in this Chamber. That is what
this body is for. It is a major question for the future of the country,
and it involves the relationship between the Federal Government and the
private sector. It is about as fundamental as questions of taxing and
spending. What do we think about the Federal Government? How confident
are we in the Federal Government? Do we believe that this is where the
money is and this is where the genius is and this is where the
decisions should be made?
If we decide that we should be subsidizing business research and
development by a total of $2.8 billion over 2 years, there is no way
that that is not going to manipulate decisions in the private sector.
It is the purpose of doing it. There is no way we can spend that kind
of money without manipulating decisions that are made out there in the
private sector.
How do we feel about that? Is that the way we want it? Do we really
believe that that is Government at its best, that the role of
Government is to make these kinds of decisions? Do we really believe
that we have that kind of genius, that we can create that kind of
leadership? Or do we believe that the leadership exists out there in
the country and all kinds of entrepreneurs and inventors and scientists
and people out there trying to get the venture capital and people who
are supplying the venture capital, do we believe that is where the
basic strength and the genius of the country is?
That is an important debate, and it is not jumping the gun. It is
just saying let us open our eyes right now in connection with this
bill, and not blunder along month after month, decision after decision
and, before you know it, we have embarked upon a course which seems to
be the permanent course for the country.
If we want industrial policy, then let us decide it on this bill. If
we do not want industrial policy, let us decide that in voting on this
bill.
So I think it is an important issue. I do compliment my chairman for
bringing it to the Senate. It has been a great, great privilege for me
to work with Senator Hollings over so many years, 2 years of which I
was the chairman of the Commerce Committee, the golden age of the
committee, and now 8 years or so since Senator Hollings has been the
chairman. It has just been a wonderful relationship and still is. But I
think within wonderful relationships you can have wonderful debates,
and I believe this is an opportunity for a very important debate.
Mr. HOLLINGS addressed the Chair.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Feinstein). The Senator from South
Carolina.
Mr. HOLLINGS. The distinguished Senator is correct. They were the
golden years, and we continued the golden years. And that is what sort
of nonpluses the Senator from South Carolina in that I remember even in
that committee, working on the Chrysler bailout, he and I supported it.
There have been other bailouts, subsidies for industry. In fact, I will
have to look at the record, but I am sure he had a bill called the
Aeronautical Technology Consortium Act. He and others cosponsored that
and likened it to Sematech, and on down the line.
That is what gets me, because all of a sudden, having supported what
he is now so severely characterizing in the harshest and most lurid
terms--calling industrial policy a new departure, a new philosophy.
Nothing new about it. It is a necessity here in the fierce global
competition.
I think they ought to explain how they can support aerospace
research, but not research for anyone else. The truth of the matter is
S. 4 is not for a particular industry. It is peer review research by
the National Academy of Engineering, research that would go to all of
industry. It is not in the sense, as characterized by the Senator, that
it is for this particular industry, we are going to pick this winner or
pick this loser. We are looking.
Let me give a good example. It disappointed me in a way because my
textile friends came in a couple of years ago, and they were looking
under the Advanced Technology Program for a consortium of what they
characterized as advanced technology. The asked the Advanced Technology
Administration over in the Commerce Department for a grant, or at least
a joint effort of research. It was reviewed by the National Academy of
Engineering and found wanting. They did not qualify. It had mainly to
do with the refinement of computerization but not advanced technology.
Did not qualify.
Madam President, they turned around and went out to California to
Livermore, and when they ended up they announced a $350 million
research program. That is bigger than the Advanced Technology Program
for all of industry. But here, the crowd from my own backyard, they
know how to go where the money is, and they went out there and they got
it and they got the program going. They announced it down in Raleigh,
NC, had a big press conference and everything else and it is ongoing.
We did not talk then about this being a new philosophy. But I wish to
emphasize that this is not, as has been described, a new departure here
where we are going to pick winners and losers constituting industrial
policy. It is in line with other major programs we have passed on a
bipartisan basis.
Consider the basic list of these programs passed by overwhelming
bipartisan votes: The Agricultural Research and Extension Program, the
aerospace research at NASA, the nuclear energy projects including last
year's vote on the integral fast reactor, the Department of Energy's
$8.5 billion budget for civilian energy research, cost-shared
cooperative agreements between industry and Federal laboratories,
notably the Department of Energy, the National Institutes of Health,
the National Institute of Standards and Technology; DOD, Department of
Defense cost-shared programs to create dual-use technologies including
the technology reinvestment project, Sematech, the National Institutes
of Health's biomedical research which helped create the American
biotechnology industry, the National Science Foundation's cost-shared
Engineering Research Centers, small business innovation research
grants, a major program just reauthorized last year.
These programs are standard operating procedure of the Federal
Government supported overwhelmingly by both parties.
Do not come now, when you get a little technology bill to try to
bolster the information highway, to bolster advanced research, to try
to bolster commercialization of technology, to try to help small
industry, and all of a sudden say, ``Wait a minute now; this is a
radical new departure.'' It is nothing of the kind.
It is not a new departure, Madam President, when they support
agricultural price supports and other financial aid to farmers. Export-
Import Bank loans to finance exports of aircraft, a billion there,
right there in the Senator's own backyard, McDonnell Douglas, right
there in St. Louis, the research and experimentation tax credit and, as
the distinguished Senator said, investment tax credit, the research and
development tax credit, the full range of SBA programs; the Lockheed
bailout, the Chrysler bailout.
Madam President, when it comes to these things, look at the
industries themselves, representing 329,000 engineers, 3,500 electronic
firms, 13,500 companies, and 5 million workers. This bill is supported
by the American Electronics Association; the National Association of
Manufacturers; the Modernization Forum; the Microelectronics and
Computer Technology Corp.; Honeywell, Inc.; the National Society of
Professional Engineers; Business Executives for National Security; IEEE
USA; Semiconductor Equipment Materials International; Institute for
Interconnecting and Packaging Electronic Circuits; Wilson and Wilson;
American Society for Training and Development; Catapult Communications
Corp.; Dover Technologies; Texas Instruments, Inc.; Columbia
University; Motorola; Intel Corp.; Cray Research; Electron Transfer
Technologies; Electronic Data Systems; American Society of Engineering
Education; U.S. Western, Inc.; Electronic Industries Association;
Carrier Computer Co.; Southeast Manufacturing Technology Center; Convex
Computer Corp.; Association for Manufacturing Technologies;
Semiconductor Research Corp.; American Society of Engineering; AT&T.
Madam President, I could go on and on. I worked on measures before,
but I have never enjoyed such overwhelmingly broad support from so many
business groups. They know and they deal in this global competition,
these entities that we are talking about, and they know the realities
of the day. They have no use for further contemplation and study. They
have thought and worked and worked and thought and competed and
invested.
With respect to debt, I have a letter from the White House, Dr. John
H. Gibbons, assistant to the President for science and technology. I
happen to know Jack Gibbons because I have been on the Technology
Assessment Board since its beginning. There has been no more
distinguished director--totally bipartisan, unanimous votes,
Republicans and Democrats, for his confirmation. When either party
changed the chairmanship, they maintained Jack.
Of course, Jack Gibbons was unanimously endorsed by the Congress
itself. Here is what he writes to our distinguished majority leader on
March 7.
Dear Senator Mitchell: I am writing to express my full
support for the GATT agreement that has emerged from 8 years
of international negotiations of the Uruguay Round. It is an
excellent document that will promote freer and fairer trade
and enrich the nations of the world, including our own.
I am particularly pleased with the outcome of the Subsidies
Code in the GATT agreement. It puts real teeth in the
disciplining of unfair, trade-distorting production and
export subsidies. At the same time, it protects economically
desirable U.S. Government investment in research and
development from potential challenge by foreign countries.
I applaud the successful efforts by our trade negotiators
in Geneva to improve the language in the Subsidies Code
relating to Government research and development investments.
The agreement, as negotiated, protects challenge by threats
to U.S. Government programs that have long had widespread
bipartisan support. Among them are, one: Research for the
National Institutes of Health that leads to commercial
pharmaceutical or biotechnology products; two, support for
aeronautical and space research dating back to 1915 for
aeronautics from NASA; three, Sematech, the Government-
industry consortium to improve semiconductor manufacturing
technology that is widely credited with helping to restore
the U.S. industry's position as world leader; four, the
Technology Reinvestment Program, a cornerstone of our defense
conversion program; five, the Commerce Department's advanced
technology program designed to promote the growth of
knowledge-intensive, wealth-creating industries that generate
good, new jobs; six, the thousands of cooperative research
and development agreements that industry has signed with our
national laboratories to turn Government research into
technologically advanced commercial products.
We must not put these excellent programs in jeopardy. I am
proud and grateful that our trade negotiators achieved an
agreement that reflects American values and an American
approach to R&D partnerships between industry and Government
while putting the brakes on free-for-all subsidies.
With kindest regards,
John H. Gibbons,
Assistant to the President for Science and Technology.
Madam President, I do not have the GATT agreement. I have not yet
studied it in full depth. I have followed along, and with misgivings.
But we do not have the GATT agreement here today to debate. The Senator
from Missouri says that is a debate. Now we have to stop and think. He
has found a Senator that has not stopped to think. He says: Yes, maybe
I have not thought of that. And fine business. Let us think of it. Let
us testify and listen to the testimony before the Finance Committee of
which the distinguished Senator is a member. Let us see what his
committee recommends, and then let us treat with it when it comes to
the floor with the GATT debate.
Heavens, now. Do not take a bill that we worked on for 3 years, a
bill that passed unanimously 2 years ago in this body without a
dissenting vote, and over on the House side in a similar fashion. We
conferenced the bill and had it signed by all the conferees.
Republicans and Democrats had signed off on it and were ready to have
it enacted. But it got caught up in some party politics. Thereby we put
it again before the committee last year, reported it out in May of last
year unanimously, Republicans and Democrats, from the Commerce,
Science, and Transportation Committee, and now we come to the floor and
say: Wait a minute, GATT. I have changed my mind. This is a new
philosophy. We had not thought of it. This is industrial policy. There
is no peer review to this thing. It is just giving industry what they
want. We will sit around as politicians and pick winners and losers.
Not so. Not at all. We would not put our names on that kind of
legislation. We refused to do it when we enacted it in the first
authorization just a year before; just the year before last, the
authorization for the National Institute of Standards and Technology,
the Advanced Technology Program, the manufacturing research centers,
and these other things that are all included in this particular bill.
The Senator has something in mind, I understand, maybe a sense-of-
the-Senate resolution. I am ready to vote on it. Nobody is going to
delay votes. In fact, I hope that we can go ahead--I know there are not
any votes today--but lay down what they have and any other amendments,
so tomorrow we can vote and get this measure over to the House of
Representatives.
It is too bad that, when it comes time to do our jobs on technology,
on competitiveness, on research, on a program all agreed to by the
National Science Foundation and all of industry, then one particular
Member says: I do not like what they agreed to on GATT.
That is the debate and we are all going to argue GATT. If there is an
amendment on GATT, pull it up and vote on it, or whatever. But let us
try not to misrepresent this particular measure as a harem-scarem
political industrial policy where we are going to sit around as
Senators and pick winners and losers. The President will never sign
such a thing. The distinguished Presiding Officer would never vote for
such a thing. I would not either. It is not that at all.
We have been judiciously trying to make sure it did not happen that
way. In the markup--and I can tell a true story with respect to the
markup of the Appropriations Subcommittee for this particular endeavor.
There was a suggestion made that we ought to write it in. I said, ``Oh,
no, we are not going to set any precedent and write in anybody's pet
program in this appropriations bill. Otherwise, I am not taking it back
to the Senate.'' So this Senator has had to confront just exactly one
particular initiative and faced it down. We have never had in the
advance technology program the picking of a winner or loser. It is
private industry that says: On behalf of all industry similarly
situated, we think this is a program to be funded. We are willing to
pay 50 percent or more. We want it reviewed by the National Academy of
Engineering and if we pass muster, let us go to work together for all
of industry.
There is no better, well thought-out approach than that. It really is
way off base to try to put this into that shibboleth of ``industrial
policy'' that ran its course back in the 1980's when the political rule
was: When in doubt, do nothing, and stay in doubt all the time.
Mr. DANFORTH. Madam President, just a few comments in response.
First, I am not sure that it is accurate to say that this is simply
what has been voted out of the Commerce Committee. As I understand it,
there is a substitute. I do not know if it is before us or will be
brought before us. But it provides for $644 million in additional
funding over and above the bill reported out of the Commerce Committee.
Does the chairman want to respond to that? I do not know the status
of this substitute, whether it has been offered or will be offered.
Mr. HOLLINGS. The substitute is--of course, we could not have it
unless we had a majority of the committee. We asked that it be
reported. That is what we laid down. I was authorized by a majority of
the committee to put this modification in the committee amendment in
the nature of a substitute. And then we had OMB go down, and when that
particular matter became an issue, to make sure we were within all the
caps. It may be in one particular instance as reported out of the
committee--in the first instance--but it is reported out by a majority
of the committee right now. I am sure the Senator has a schedule of
this summary of the authorizations because it is a 2-year bill.
Mr. DANFORTH. Yes, I do. Madam President, it is my understanding that
this version before us is $644 million higher than what we reported out
of the Commerce Committee.
Mr. HOLLINGS. Madam President, this is a 2-year authorization. It is
1995 and 1996. Let me give you the entire authorization. It is $696
million. Let us get the bill. For 1995, it is $1.37 billion. That is
one-sixth of agriculture subsidies right this minute.
In 1996, it goes to $1.478 billion. I am not able to respond to the
exact amount because I do not know what figure the distinguished
Senator is using when he says $696 million. This is the committee bill,
and those are the figures, and that is less than 2 percent of the
research budget of the U.S. Government. The U.S. Government puts up a
grand total of $70 billion for research. We have $40 billion in
defense. We have about $7.8 billion in energy. We have nearly $2
billion in agriculture, and going down the list. So we have yet--
manufacturing accounts for over 15 percent of the employment in this
country, even up to that. I do not know about the $670 million, because
it is double that overall, $1.37 billion for 1994 and $1.478 billion
for the National Science Foundation, for the Department of Commerce
program, for the NIST funding, and you can go right down. Advance
technology programs, extension services, and so on. There was an intern
program by the distinguished Senator from Montana [Mr. Burns], of our
committee. He got his little intern program also included in there.
Mr. DANFORTH. Parliamentary inquiry. Has there been a committee
substitute that has been offered?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. I am informed the bill was reported out of
committee with an amendment in the form of a substitute. Since then,
the chairman has modified the committee substitute, which he has a
right to do.
Mr. DANFORTH. Madam President, so is the modification of the
committee substitute now before the Senate?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. That is correct.
Mr. DANFORTH. Is this presented to the Senate in the form of an
amendment to an underlying bill, or is this the bill as it now appears
before the Senate and, therefore, open to amendments in the first and
second degree?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The answer to the Senator's question is, yes,
it is open to amendment in the first and second degree and, say, an
amendment to a complete substitute.
Mr. DANFORTH. Madam President, I just wanted to make a couple of
comments in response to the points made by Chairman Hollings. The first
point is that the chairman referred to the research and development tax
credit. I know I am repeating myself because just a little while ago in
debating, I stated that one of the things we could do in order to help
American business in research is to make permanent the R&D tax credit.
The R&D tax credit--which could be made permanent and which could be
improved and should be improved --is very different from an industry
specific grant of funds, because it is generic. It applies to all
industries, and it keeps at risk dollars that are invested by the
private sector. So I do not view it as the kind of industry-specific
approach that is taken in this legislation.
With respect to the so-called Aerotech proposal, the chairman is
correct. In response to the agreement that was reached by the prior
administration with Airbus, it was the position of this Senator that
that agreement adopted the position that certain subsidies for the
aerospace industry would henceforth be permitted, very much the same as
the green-lighting and the subsidies code that has been agreed to in
the GATT would permit certain subsidies.
It was my position then and is my position now that, if the U.S.
Government is going to agree that subsidies are going to be permitted,
then we better figure out where we go from here. The position that I
took--I think it was last year, maybe the year before--was to introduce
two bills which were in the alternative. One bill would have mandated a
countervailing duty case against Airbus, and the other bill would have
said, if we are not going to have a countervailing duty bill, then we
are going to have to match them with subsidies. In other words, if you
have every country in the world functioning on the basis of subsidies,
yes, we are going to have to match them.
That is why it is important for this administration to be very open
about telling us what its proposal is with respect to future subsidies.
The worst thing that can happen to American business is if we permit
other countries to subsidize and we do not do it ourselves. That is
part of the overall debate, I believe. I think the best approach to
take is not to green-light subsidies, not to authorize subsidies, and
to file countervailing duty cases. But if we are not going to file
countervailing duty cases, then the only alternative to our getting
into this subsidy chase is to concede markets, whether it is in
aerospace or high-definition television or pharmaceuticals, or anything
else, to other countries. It is a totally unworkable situation.
So I think what this administration has done in the GATT negotiations
is to put us on the horns of a dilemma. The dilemma is either we do not
subsidize and we give up market after market, depending on what country
in the world wants to subsidize, that we will not keep up with it and
we cannot countervail; or, on the other hand, we get into the S. 4
business of trying to get into the subsidies chase.
I would rather vote for S. 4 if we are not going to countervail. If
the only choice is Aerotech and S. 4 and subsidies, we better be
prepared for subsidies in a big way or we are going to see catastrophe
in the American economy. That is not to say I like S. 4. That is not to
say I like industrial policy. It is just to say that we are entering
into a brave new world now in which subsidies are going to be the
accepted fact and there is not any possibility to do anything about
them.
The final point that I make is with respect to the long list of
industry endorsements. Yes, that is true, and it is not surprising. I
will tell you how to get industry endorsements. Promise money. If we
have $2.8 billion dangling before the industries of America saying this
is a plum and you can pluck the plum, of course they are going to
gather around to pluck the plum. I mean this is real money. It is
borrowed, and we do not have a lot of money in our Treasury now to
offer up to all these industries. So it is borrowed money. But I guess
we have accepted that funny money. We have accepted that.
I am not even making the budget argument. Maybe other Senators will
want to make it. I am not even making it. All I am saying is even if it
is funny money, $2.8 billion dangled before the outstretched arms of
American industry gets an awful lot of endorsements.
I would certainly agree that it is passing strange that business
people who are constantly complaining about Government and the excesses
of Government and the terrible problems of the Federal deficit are the
ones that say, yes, please pass this bill authorizing an additional
$2.3 billion so that we can get to the public trough, the sooner the
better. It is strange, but it is really not very surprising.
However, there are those who see the problem. For example, Mr. Don
Valentine, who is a director of Apple Computer and a venture
capitalist, was quoted as saying:
To Washington I say, please do not help us. The world of
technology is complex, fast changing, unstructured, and
thrives best when individuals are left alone to be different,
creative, and disobedient * * *
Well, that is one venture capitalist saying to Washington ``Do not
help us. Let us do our thing.'' I hope there are more like that. But I
can understand when there is money to be had, there are endorsements to
be given.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Who seeks recognition?
The Senator from South Carolina.
Mr. HOLLINGS. Madam President, the Senator says dangle money. We have
been dangling it--defense $38.1 billion, up to $40 billion; NASA $8.5
billion--dangling money--civilian energy and research and development,
$6 billion. You could go right on down about how you get people--you
dangle money.
Emerges the 2-year--it is a 1-year, $1.3 billion and the next year
$1.4 billion. And the reason for that change, a minute ago asking about
it, was $474 billion difference because the original bill had 1994 and
1995. This bill now has 1995 and 1996.
So, it is very, very modest, but it is not dangling little plums. It
says we are opening the door and we are opening that door of
opportunity by saying to you with the tough financing now and the
venture capital shortage and otherwise that if you come with a majority
of the money--and they have--if you are willing to go through peer
review where it is not just for your particular little industry but for
all of industry, we want to back you up in that kind of research. It is
in the public interest to do so.
That is what we determined, and that is why many, many businesses
without the contacts, and so forth, in Washington, generally speaking,
say: ``Out of here. We do not want to have anything to do with it.''
I have made the talk before myself many times and people being
different and everything else.
But I hope it was not the former head of Apple Computer now, who
seems to have gone broke, that he is reading from who wants to be
different. He is not different at all. We have had a lot of
bankruptcies, and he is not different if that is the kind of difference
he wants.
The Senator from Missouri asks that we get President Clinton to go to
other countries and say, ``Drop your research programs.'' That is
exactly what he says. He says now all other countries should abandon
their research programs.
How can the Clinton administration ask the other countries to do
that? Where they find it is in their self-interest and working, that is
what is done.
There is an old saying in equity that he who seeks equity must do
equity; he who comes in must come with clean hands.
How do we welcome Airbus and not make any complaint? They have just
got more of it.
For years on end every time we got the NASA space program, I know at
least for the past almost 27 years, any time that subject has come up
on the floor of this Senate we immediately talk about the spinoff and
how our aircraft industry is doing so well.
Now, apparently it is not doing as good as Airbus or whatever it is
because they are just paying it out at a total loss. Ours was DOD
research, Department of Defense research, and all that technology, all
that National Aeronautical and Space Administration research, all that
technology was going into the private Lockheeds, Boeings, McDonnell
Douglass. In addition to that, it was not helping exports. It was to
subsidize the Export-Import Bank to a tune at least of $1 billion, the
last figure I saw, and that was a debate several years ago. It was to
subsidize the exported sales of those aircraft.
So we pay for the research and we pay for the sales here as
politicians, and then we want to get sanctimonious about an alleged new
philosophy here, that this is a dangerous new departure, and we had
better ask the Senate to think about it. Nonsense.
Regarding GATT, again, I say to the Senator, I do not see what
section of the bill is in conflict. Regarding the underlying philosophy
of the bill, I would like to see the amendment to what section it is
that he dislikes, because I know he went over it the year before last
and approved it. I know he went over it last year and approved it and
supported it. I know he helped me clear the floor in order to try to
get it to the conference 2 years ago. And I know he has helped clear it
to get it up for consideration right now.
There was no question until this GATT measure came up. Now we do not
have the GATT papers before us.
But I put in the best provisions I can obtain at this particular time
in consultation with the gentleman in charge of technology, and he says
that the Clinton administration went about it in the appropriate
fashion. Trying to protect what? To protect the aircraft subsidies, as
he characterized it; to protect NIH, National Institutes of Health
subsidies; agriculture subsidies. All countries have such subsidies for
agriculture.
Now to get up and say we are just not going to play the game--this
do-nothing approach has been America's problem for the past 45 years.
We have not put in a competitive industrial policy. We intentionally
did not put it in at the end of World War II. We had the only industry.
We said, ``Heavens above, how do you expect these other economies in
Europe and Asia to revive?''
``Let them make the textiles,'' they told me. ``Let them make the
shoes. We will make the computers and the airplanes.''
Now they are making the airplanes and the computers, and the argument
comes to the floor, ``Well, let's not do anything about it,'' because
certainly it is not going to change these other countries around. We
did not enforce any of our trade bills until the current administration
came into office.
So I hoped we could move on here and try to deal with what amendments
we have. If an individual Senator has an individual problem on GATT,
then that is most appropriately addressed later, when we consider GATT.
But do not bring it up here in the middle, in the first part of March,
when we are trying to get out this legislation that has been agreed to.
This bill has been agreed to, just waiting its turn. This is not the
time to bring up the GATT agreement. GATT is going to come before us
sometime later this summer.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Who yields time? Who seeks recognition?
Mr. HOLLINGS. Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The absence of a quorum has been suggested.
The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. HOLLINGS. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. HOLLINGS. Madam President, I have before me a release today from
the National Association of Manufacturers, entitled ``NAM Says S. 4,
National Competitiveness Act Will Help Small, Medium-Sized
Manufacturers Modernize.'' Let me quote from the press release:
``Legislation almost exactly the same as S. 4, the National
Competitiveness Act, has been before the Congress during the
past two sessions. The National Association of Manufacturers
supported the basic purpose of this legislation when it was
introduced, and we continue to support it today,'' Howard
Lewis, vice president, international and economic affairs at
the National Association of Manufacturers, said Monday.
``As we have made clear over the past several years, our
support for the National Competitiveness Act centers largely
on Titles II and VI, which deal with manufacturing extensions
programs (Title II) and high performance computing and
networking (Title VI),'' he said.
``The NAM believes that a more coordinated manufacturing
extension program, building on current efforts in this area,
would help U.S. manufacturers, especially small- and medium-
sized firms, learn about and adopt new manufacturing
technologies,'' Lewis added.
``The ultimate responsibility for adopting these new
technologies and techniques lies with the private sector. The
NAM has long recognized, however, that there is an
appropriate role at all levels: Federal, State, and local,''
he emphasized.
``We believe title II of the National Competitiveness Act
would help strengthen and coordinate current manufacturing
extension programs.
``If we are to speed the development and deployment of
modern manufacturing processes to a broad cross-section of
American industry, and not just to several hundred big
companies, we need to learn from and build on our current
efforts. Title II in S. 4 would help achieve this goal,''
said Lewis.
``S. 4 also builds on bipartisan efforts to maintain the
U.S. lead in high-performance computing and networking. It
provides a good framework for areas of mutual benefit to
industry and Government research and development efforts,''
Lewis concluded.
Madam President, I think that is an outstanding statement as to the
context of this particular measure. It is just a matter of politicians
plucking plums, as has been described, but rather it is a matter of
lending a hand to small business, to boost the competitiveness of small
business.
We have talked and talked and talked. The U.S. industrial worker is
the most productive in the world. Japan is No. 8, the Netherlands is
No. 2, and Germany, No. 3.
You get the U.S. Department of Labor and the U.N. data, and they both
agree on the productivity per man-hour. But we burden industry with
minimum wage, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, unemployment
compensation, clean air, clean water, plant-closing notice, parental
leave, all of these things go in.
Before I open up my Hollings Manufacturing, I have to comply with all
of those things. That is a cost of doing business. It requires more
bureaucracy, employees to keep the records, a safety director. This is
at the heart of the great American standard of living--but it comes at
a cost in terms of competitiveness.
Now without that standard, Japan and others have come along with a
government orchestrated assault to seize market share. They do not care
about short-term profit. They want market share.
I have asked the Secretary of Commerce to please get in and bring a
dumping case on behalf of the U.S. automobile industry. The Toyota
Cressida sells right now for approximately $21,800 in the United
States. It sells for $29,300 in downtown Tokyo. That is an $8,500
difference; it is dumping, pure and simple.
We had the figures the year before last where Japan had lost some
$3.2 billion by dumping automobiles, whereby, they made it up with over
$11.1 billion in domestic profits due to the way they orchestrate and
control their home market. So they highball it there, and they make up
those amounts otherwise, and they are trust procedures.
So we could well bring a dumping case. We could do a lot of these
other things. But for right now, recognizing small business and the
research needed, and the suggestions made and studies, consulting for
the commercialization of this technology--this is the particular
measure we have all voted for and all supported.
I yield the floor.
Mr. PRESSLER addressed the Chair.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from South Dakota.
Mr. PRESSLER. Madam President, as the Senate considers S. 4, the
National Competitiveness Act, I would like to address an issue I have
been working on for over a year. As the ranking member on the Small
Business Committee, I would like to make clear for the record the
chronology of events surrounding this controversy.
While I am troubled by a variety of provisions contained in S. 4, one
has troubled me greatly from the very start. Specifically, it is the
provision in the original bill that would have created a Civilian
Technology Investment Companies [CTIC's] Pilot Program within the
Department of Commerce. CTIC's would invest Government money in high-
risk, long-term, advanced technology projects. They would provide
venture capital to private businesses.
The problems with this pilot program are twofold. First, it would
create a new Federal program that nearly duplicates a program already
in operation at the Small Business Administration [SBA]. The SBA Small
Business Investment Company [SBIC] Program has been successfully
financing technology ventures for more than 35 years. In fact, in 1992,
25 percent of SBIC financing went directly to high-technology ventures.
SBIC success stories include Apple Computers, Cray Research, Intel
Corp., and Compaq Computers. The SBIC Program clearly has the
experience necessary to make venture capital investment work--
experience the Department of Commerce would have to build from the
bottom up. The SBA has the structure and the know-how to implement the
program immediately and efficiently.
Second, project funds may not go to the firms most in need of such
help--small- and medium-sized companies. S. 4 contains no limit on the
size of recipient companies and it specifically authorized joint
ventures. This would open the door to channeling Federal funds to
Fortune 500 companies. Are these large companies in need of taxpayer
dollars? Certainly not. Unlike big business, smaller companies are
often shut out of traditional capital markets and cannot take on the
risks of technology development alone. Scarce Government resources
should not go toward putting big businesses on the Government gravy
train. If a large company has an advanced technology product that is
just around the corner, such a company can raise capital in private
financial markets without a Government handout. If Government is going
to play the role of venture capitalist, the funds should be awarded
only to the smaller technology firms that truly need assistance.
In February 1993, I questioned Commerce Secretary Ron Brown about
CTIC's during a Commerce Committee hearing. In a written response he
asserted that, ``The CTIC proposal attempts to channel funding to
smaller high-technology companies needing less than $2 million and that
may be years away from payoff.'' Secretary Brown also agreed that the
program should be targeted toward small business.
In March of last year, I was joined by eight of my Small Business
Committee colleagues, from both sides of the aisle, in contacting
Chairman Hollings to express our reservations concerning S. 4's CTIC
provision. We all believed strongly that the SBIC Program is a more
appropriate delivery mechanism for the type of assistance envisioned by
the CTIC pilot program. These same concerns were expressed to Secretary
Brown, Budget Director Leon Panetta, Acting SBA Administrator Dayton
Watkins, and White House Aide Bob Rubin. I ask unanimous consent that a
copy of the letter sent to Secretary Brown be included in the Record
immediately following my remarks. As the letters were identical, I will
not ask for the others to be printed.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Reid). Without objection, it is so
ordered.
(See exhibit 1.)
Mr. PRESSLER. At his nomination hearing on May 6, 1993, SBA
Administrator Erskine Bowles responded to my questions about the
capability of the SBIC Program to take on the CTIC Program. He pointed
to recent legislation reforming the SBIC Program and to SBIC's
increasing emphasis on technology development. He also stated that
``SBA could easily modify the existing SBIC Program to establish a
dedicated CTIC Program . . . such a program could be operational within
1 year of the enactment of the enabling legislation and program
funding.'' Administrator Bowles estimated it would take at least 4
years for another agency to start such a program from scratch.
S. 4 was passed out of the Commerce Committee on May 25, 1993, with
the CTIC Program under the jurisdiction of the Department of Commerce.
I then filed a floor amendment to remedy the problems in the committee
version by moving the CTIC Program from the Department of Commerce to
the SBA.
The Small Business Committee held a hearing on the promotion of
critical civilian technology on June 9, 1993. The testimony of the SBIC
Program in fostering the development of high technology. One witness
testified that the May 24, 1993, issue of Business Week listed the 100
best small companies and at least 10 of these firms were financed by
SBIC's; 7 of the 10 are technology-based companies.
This issue has attracted Nationwide attention. George Will and the
Wall Street Journal have written about the limited role Government
should play in high-technology ventures. Mr. President, I ask unanimous
consent that these two articles be printed in the Record immediately
following my remarks.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
(See exhibit 2.)
Mr. PRESSLER. The National Venture Capital Association, the National
Association of Manufacturers, the National Association of Small
Business Investment Companies, Project Services International, and
Pennsylvania Small Business United all have expressed support for
housing the CTIC Program at the SBA.
I am pleased that the distinguished chairman of the Small Business
Committee, Senator Bumpers, and the Senator from West Virginia, Senator
Rockefeller, have worked with me to achieve major adjustments to the
CTIC provisions of S. 4. While certainly not perfect, this section of
the bill has been improved. The revised language creates a CTIC pilot
program jointly run by the SBA and the Department of Commerce. The
Licensing Committee created by the legislation would be made up of
representatives from both the SBA and the Department of Commerce. I
hope the vision of helping small businesses, expressed to me by
Secretary Brown in February 1993 is not lost.
Now that the CTIC Program is a joint project of the SBA and the
Department of Commerce, the Senate Small Business Committee would have
oversight authority over the program. My colleagues can be assured that
Chairman Bumpers and I will exercise that authority to ensure small
businesses are helped, not harmed, by this new program. In addition,
the bill has been modified to authorize CTIC's to share their revenue
with the Federal Government once they become profitable. The
legislation also no longer contains an open ended funding authorization
and it would require one Commerce Department member of the Licensing
Committee to have financing expertise.
I am proud to have fought this battle for small business. I also
would like to thank my good friend and chairman of the Small Business
Committee, Senator Bumpers, and Senator Rockefeller. This should not be
seen as a committee turf battle. It has been a healthy and worthwhile
debate over the proper role for the Federal Government in financing
startup critical technology. I want the record to be clear that I will
continue to fight to eliminate Government waste and to see that
taxpayer dollars are directed to their most efficient and equitable
purposes.
____
Exhibit 1
U.S. Senate,
Committee on Small Business,
Washington, DC, April 16, 1993.
Hon. Ronald H. Brown,
Secretary, U.S. Department of Commerce, Washington, DC.
Dear Mr. Secretary: As members of the Senate Business
Committee, we are concerned about the proposal to create
Critical Technology Investment Companies (CTICs) which is
contained in S. 4, the ``National Competitiveness Act of
1993.''
We commend and support the goal of maintaining the United
States' advantage in developing and marketing critical
technologies. Much of the success of American companies can
be attributed to utilizing advanced technology that is
properly integrated with highly trained labor. However, we
disagree that the establishment of CTICs, which duplicates
the Small Business Administration's (SBA) well-established
Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) program, is
necessary to accomplishing that goal.
As you may know, the advanced technology industry has been
significantly boosted by the SBIC program administered by the
SBA. The SBIC program provides almost $200 million each year
in government financing for small businesses--17 percent of
which goes to small businesses in the technology industry.
This government leverage allows for hundreds of millions of
dollars of additional private capital to be used for small
business financing. Successful companies helped by the
program include Intel Corporation, Apple Computer, Cray
Research and Compaq. A major three-year effort to reform and
improve the SBIC program resulted in legislation which was
enacted in September 1992. Once the changes are implemented,
the popularity of the program is expected to increase, likely
providing even more money for investment in high technology
companies.
Sections 322 and 323 of S. 4 would create CTICs which seems
to virtually duplicate the SBIC program and the financing
services it provides. In fact, the House companion
legislation to S. 4 incorporates much of the 1993 SBIC
legislation by reference. Also, S. 4 would require the U.S.
Department of Commerce to create a managerial apparatus
parallel to that of the SBA to administer the CTICs.
We believe the SBIC program is an appropriate delivery
mechanism for the type of assistance envisioned by the CTIC
provisions of S. 4. It is in the nation's best interest to
promote the development of advanced technology while reducing
government waste and duplicative spending. Focusing resources
on proven programs would increase the effectiveness of
federal dollars and lead to improved development of advanced
technologies in the United States.
We look forward to working with you to promote advanced
technologies effectively and efficiently. Improved
utilization of technology will help small business grow and
create more jobs for American workers.
Sincerely,
Dale Bumpers,
Dirk Kempthorne,
Paul Wellstone,
Carl Levin,
Larry Pressler,
Howell Heflin,
Robert F. Bennett,
Malcolm Wallop.
____
Exhibit 2
[From the Wall Street Journal, June 9, 1993]
SBA, Commerce Square Off on High Tech Financing
(By Jeanne Saddler)
Washington.--The Small Business Administration and the
Commerce Department are heading for a showdown over which
agency will take the lead in developing new high technology
companies.
Officials at both agencies want to head up a new government
venture-capital program for small and midsize high technology
companies that Congress may create as early as this month.
The outcome of the fight could heavily determine what size
and type of companies get funding through the new program--
and at what stage of their development. The fight could also
shed light on how much power the SBA will have in the Clinton
era.
The Senate Small Business Committee is scheduled to hold
hearings on the issue this morning. The Commerce Department
would be the winner under the proposed legislation, which the
full Senate is scheduled to take up this month and which the
House already has passed.
But the SBA and its backers in the Senate argue that the
new effort would be almost an exact duplication of the SBA's
small-business investment company program and are pressing to
wrap it into the agency's existing effort. Like the SBA
program, the new plan calls for venture capital firms to
obtain a government license and then add federal funds to
their own to boost investments in emerging companies.
The administration still hasn't decided which agency it
wants to run the new financing program. A White House
official said the administration clearly wants to expand the
Commerce Department's role in advancing high technology, but
said it is uncertain whether the department will have a role
in financing it.
The SBA knows exactly how it stands on the issue. ``I feel
very strongly the program should be here,'' says Erskine
Bowles, the new SBA administrator who previously headed his
own investment banking firm in North Carolina. ``You don't
have to be a high tech guru to decide which venture
capitalists you should deal with. I have more experience
dealing with venture capital than anyone in this
government.''
Mr. Bowles is pitted against Commerce Secretary Ronald
Brown, who has embraced the administration's effort to
advance critical technologies. Commerce officials say the
agency is studying how the program would fit in with its
``leadership role'' on civilian technology programs.
The SBA's investment-company program was started 35 years
ago, after the Russian Sputnik rocket was launched, to fund
high technology start-up businesses. But beginning in 1986,
many of the investment companies that the program sponsored
ran into serious financial trouble. The SBA had to liquidate
the assets of 191 of these concerns. Investigators blamed the
problems on the recession and poor SBA oversight. Currently
about 300 of the investment companies are operating.
The program was overhauled last year to make it focus more
on equity investments rather than loans. But Barbara
Plantholt, president and chief executive officer of Triad
Investors Corp., of Baltimore, Md., says she ``gave up on the
SBA program last fall.'' She said her venture-capital firm
had considered joining the SBA program, but decided against
it because, under the rules, the federal government must be
the first investor to get its share of the profit from an
investment. She says that rule would force the private
partners to wait even longer for a return, a prospect they
didn't like. But Ms. Plantholt said versions of the Commerce
program she's seen are too complicated.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller, one of the main proponents of putting
the new investment program in the Commerce Department, says
the SBA's program doesn't address the decline in venture
capital for early-stage investments in critical technologies.
``Only 19% of SBIC funds go to anything within the broadest
definition of technology,'' the West Virginia Democrat says.
``Further, the SBA focuses . . . only on small businesses.
But critical technology isn't found solely in small
companies.'' (Most discussions of the Commerce program have
focused on small and midsize companies, however.)
The new program would provide early-stage investment money,
or seed capital, for companies in industries such as advanced
electronics, new industrial materials and biotechnology, says
an aid to the senator. The Senate bill provides $100 million
over a two-year period for the effort, beginning in fiscal
year 1995. The SBIC program provided about $396 million in
financing last year, including about $70 million for
technology companies.
Venture capitalists have lined up on both sides of the
emotional dispute. Patricia Cloherty, president of Paricof &
Co., a New York venture-capital fund who wrote the reforms
for the SBA program that Congress later adopted, is
particularly incensed. She says the proposed Commerce
Department program would favor large businesses and would
offer them funding more cheaply, without safeguarding the
government's money.
``It giver money away with no strings attached. This is
destructive and a sure money-loser,'' says Ms. Cloherty, who
is also vice president-elect of the National Venture Capital
Association. She believes two separate government-sponsored
venture programs would invite abuse.
With the Senate scheduled to vote soon, several members of
the Small Business Committee are lobbying their colleagues to
simply broaden the mandate of the SBA's existing program
instead of creating a new one. Committee Chairman Dale
Bumpers (D., Ark.) and Sen. Larry Pressler (R., S.D.) say the
Commerce Department program would serve only big companies
that could get bank financing. ``I'm really upset about this.
To build a whole new program is silly; it's an example of
what's wrong with government,'' Sen. Bumpers says.
____
[From the Washington Post, June 10, 1993]
Government as Venture Capitalist
(By George F. Will)
At the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank here, a
recent lecturer drolly introduced himself in language
fashionable in Clinton's Washington: ``I am an excess of the
1980s.''
He is T.J. Rodgers, president and CEO of Cypress
Semiconductor, which he founded 10 years ago with one used
computer and no other employee. He is one of those who, in
Clinton's words, ``profited most from the uneven prosperity
of the last decade.'' (A question: What would ``even''
prosperity look like?)
Today he is wealthy. But forgive him that sin. His company,
which has paid $60 million in taxes, has created 1,500 jobs
for employees who have paid $150 million in taxes. They all
own Cypress stock, which has generated today's market value
of $500 million for shareholders.
``Venture experts,'' he says, ``are wrong more often than
they are right. But surely they are right more often than
Washington would be.'' If that thought is sensible, the
proposed National Competitiveness Act (H.R. 820) is not.
It would get government deeply into business as a venture
capitalist, providing loans to, and buying preferred stock
in, venture companies. This capital allocation would be done
by the Commerce Department, currently run by Ron Brown, the
former lobbyist and head of the Democratic National
Committee. H.R. 820 could be a political slush fund for
compliant companies.
If so, it might achieve the near impossible--making the
Commerce Department's record even worse than it is. More than
half the almost $1.2 billion lent by Commerce in the last two
decades is in default. In the 1970s the Economic Development
Administration at Commerce lent $471 million, of which just
$60 million has been recovered. And what is the penalty for
such failure in Washington? A reward, such as H.R. 820's
fresh infusion of taxpayers' dollars. Do you wonder why there
is so much failure in Washington?
Rep. Chris Cox (R-Calif.) notes that H.R. 820 would add
more than $1 billion to the deficit in 1995. It would do so
by authorizing the government to buy 20 percent of the equity
capital in venture firms and to guarantee the dividends on
preferred stock. ``I suppose, therefore,'' Cox says with tart
irony, ``it is fitting that this bill is called the National
Competitiveness Act, because it will give most private firms
the opportunity to compete with government-subsidized
securities.''
Or perhaps H.R. 820 should be titled The Wesley Mouch
Memorial Bill. ``This whole plan,'' says Cox, ``reeks of
special interest favoritism and make-work waste for
bureaucrats. Anyone who has read Ayn Rand's `Atlas Shrugged'
will see frightening similarities between this statist scheme
and the disastrous projects of the novel's arch bureaucrat,
Wesley Mouch.''
But Cox's preferred title for H.R. 820 is The Jurassic Park
Act because it will squander money cloning ``new industrial
dinosaurs.'' The bill's premise is that Commerce bureaucrats
and political operatives make better investment decisions
than do authentic venture capitalists and authentic investors
when putting their own money at risk.
But when private investors guess wrong, the market
liquidates their mistakes. When government capital-allocators
guess wrong (as they are bound to do much more often than
private investors, whose calculations are not colored by
politics), the government just re-labels its mistakes as
``jobs programs'' and pours in more money to keep them
afloat.
Cox quotes Don Valentine, a venture capitalist who helped
launch a number of venture companies, including Apple
Computer: ``To Washington I say, please do not help us. The
world of technology is complex, fast-changing and
unstructured. It thrives best when individuals are left alone
to be different, creative and disobedient. Go help all the
people who know how pork works and who want to be taken care
of. But please do not help us.''
Of course Cox and others have argued in vain. The
Democratic-controlled House passed H.R. 820, not to enhance
competitiveness but to concentrate yet more power in
Washington, further permeating American economic life with
the inefficiencies of politics.
Consider. Clinton wants to raise the top tax rate on the
wealthy who do a disproportionate share of the nation's
investing; and he wants to impose a 10 percent surcharge on
those who have the most to invest; and he wants to increase
the corporate rate; and he wants to keep high the capital
gains tax rate that punishes people who increase the value of
an enterprise. And yet he has the brass to say H.R. 820 is
``wise,'' presumably because venture capital formation is
inadequate. H.R. 820 is a paradigm of government fattening
itself by pretending to cure problems it causes.
So, which do you prefer, T.J. Rodgers, the self-described
``excess of the 1980s,'' or H.R. 820, a sample of the
excesses of the 1990s?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from South Carolina.
Mr. HOLLINGS. Mr. President, I am confident the Senator from South
Dakota signed off on this bill. In the new section 302, under
subsection 4(C), eligible technology firm means a company ``which meets
size standards set by the Administrator.''
That is the language we got from the distinguished Senator in the
Small Business Committee. It should be noted not only they all signed
off, but of course this Senator, as chairman, is just as vitally
concerned about the SBA and its programs and success as any. It was
only last week we had Erskine Bowles, the Administrator of the Small
Business Administration, before the Appropriations Subcommittee, which
I chair, for Small Business Administration. So we look not just at
authorizing legislation and programs from time to time, but every
dollar spent and the success of those dollars expended, and where we
might improve on the administration.
I might also add, we have one of the most outstanding Administrators
we have ever had in the Small Business Administration in Erskine
Bowles. So, yes, this bill is signed off by SBA. They have worked and
helped fashion the particular language.
So, as I understand it, there might be some other comments coming,
but if there are any amendments, I hope they will come to the floor. I
do not know what the strategy is here, being a Monday and not full
attendance, of course, where they say there are not to be any
rollcalls.
But tomorrow we will be courteous, we will be considerate and any
amendment that comes up we will give time for those to be heard on
their amendment but not just to prolong debate, just to stretch out the
final approval of this particular measure because this measure has been
waiting its turn long and long enough. I hope it is not being used as
an instrument to debate foreign or alien considerations, such as the
GATT agreement and what they did in December over in Geneva.
I know some have misgivings about GATT. That is fine business. I do,
too. Let us take that up when the GATT agreement is presented before
the Finance Committee and later on before the Senate itself.
Mr. President, I yield the floor.
Mr. BAUCUS addressed the Chair.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Montana is recognized.
Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, might I ask, what is the pending business?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. We are working on S. 4, a modified committee
amendment to S. 4.
Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak 5 minutes
as in morning business.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. The
Senator is recognized for 5 minutes.
____________________