[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 90 (Tuesday, June 3, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4971-S4973]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Ms. COLLINS (for herself and Mrs. Clinton):
  S. 3078. A bill to establish a National Innovation Council, to 
improve the coordination of innovation activities among industries in 
the United States, and for other purposes; to the Committee on 
Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
  Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the National 
Innovation and Job Creation Act, a bill which aims to spur the adoption 
of new technologies and practices that can accelerate economic growth 
and build a secure foundation for good, high-paying jobs. I am pleased 
that Senator Clinton joins me in offering this legislation.
  We are all familiar with the fiscal challenges our Nation will face 
in the coming years. Over the next 2 decades, more than 75 million 
members of the Baby Boom generation will leave the workforce and enter 
retirement. The loss of their participation in the workforce, coupled 
with our Social Security obligations and rising healthcare costs, will 
put enormous strains on our economy. So too will competition from other 
countries, brought about by increased international trade and 
globalization. If we do not act to strengthen our competitiveness, our 
nation's ability to create good, high-paying jobs will be severely 
tested.
  Indeed, there are already troubling signs that our economy's 
competitive edge has been dulled, and we are losing ground to other 
nations. In just the last 4 months, we've seen 340,000 jobs lost across 
the country. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are 1.6 
million more workers unemployed today than in 2001, and 800,000 more 
workers unemployed than just

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one year ago. Our trade deficit is now 6.5 percent of GDP--the highest 
in history--while manufacturing continues its decades-long decline, 
accounting for only 12.1 percent of GDP in 2006. We now import more 
high-technology products than we sell to other nations, and even in 
agriculture, where America has long been the world leader, our trade 
surplus is dropping toward zero.
  Even the service sector is not immune from the effects of 
international competition. With the increased telecommunications 
capacity provided by trans-oceanic fiber-optic networks, geographic 
proximity to the market is no longer necessary for services such as 
back-office operations, call-centers, and software development.

  As the Brookings Institute pointed out in a series of recent white 
papers on the topic of Innovation, ``the growth of international trade 
and the globalization of production make it increasingly important for 
the United States to innovate to maintain its standard of living.'' 
They explain that low-wage countries will always find it easier to 
compete with America for labor-intensive work that is difficult-to-
automate, but that does not mean that we must surrender whole 
industries to China and India, nor does it mean that we must fear the 
inevitable loss of high value-added jobs that depend upon research and 
development, and advanced technology.
  Rather, it means that we must build upon what has always given 
America its competitive edge--innovation. This means taking what has 
already been invented, and putting it to use. It is only by doing this 
that we can raise our productivity rate, and ultimately, continue to 
create the high-paying jobs that Americans need and deserve.
  Last year, with the passage of the America COMPETES Act, we took an 
important step toward bolstering research and education that can serve 
as the foundation for future innovation. But we must go beyond this, to 
help enterprises understand innovative technologies and services that 
can make them more competitive, and to help them overcome the barriers 
they face in adopting these innovations.
  That is what the bill Senator Clinton and I are introducing today 
aims to do. The bill creates a National Innovation Council in the 
Executive Office of the President, to take the lead in coordinating 
existing Federal efforts on innovation, and to help support those 
efforts at the State and local level. Six Federal programs that share 
innovation-based missions would be relocated to the NIC. These are: The 
Manufacturing Extension Partnership Program (the ``MEP''), the 
Technology Innovation Program, Partnerships for Innovation, the 
Industry-University Cooperative Research Center Program, the 
Engineering Research Center Program, and the Workforce Innovations in 
Regional Economic Development program, known as the ``WIRED'' program.
  The operation and funding of these existing programs would be 
unaltered by my legislation, but the NIC would lead these programs to 
coordinate their activities where feasible.
  The NIC would operate several grant programs to support efforts to 
spread innovation and create good jobs. Chief among these would be a 
grant program to support innovation-based economic development 
partnerships in every State. The NIC would also provide grants for the 
diffusion of technology in every state, operating through the existing 
MEP program.

  The NIC would also oversee a new ``Cluster Development'' program 
which would operate alongside the six existing programs I have already 
mentioned. I want to focus for a moment on this aspect of my proposal 
since cluster development is so essential to our ability to keep and 
create good, high-paying jobs in the face of international competition.
  ``Clusters'' are geographic areas where interrelated economic 
activity is taking place. Businesses that locate in a cluster build the 
foundation they all rely on to succeed, even as they compete with one 
another. Because of this, clusters are often at the heart of strong 
regional economies. Silicon Valley in California, Route 128 around 
Boston, and the Research Triangle Park in Raleigh-Durham, North 
Carolina, are famous examples of clusters in the high-tech sector. But 
cluster development is not just a phenomenon of the high-tech 
industry--successful clusters can and do arise in any sector of the 
economy. Think insurance in Connecticut, theme parks in Florida, movies 
in Hollywood, and boatbuilding in Maine. Each of these ``clusters'' is 
built around a skilled labor force that can command good wages, and is 
ready to compete with the best the world has to offer.
  In Maine, cluster development has been championed by Karen Mills, the 
primary author of the Brookings Institute's white paper ``Clusters and 
Competitiveness.'' From her work in helping Maine secure $15 million in 
WIRED funding to further develop the composite and boatbuilding 
clusters in a project that hopes to create 2,500 high-quality jobs over 
the next 5 to 7 years, to her current position as chair of Maine's 
Council on Competitiveness and the Economy, Karen's hard work and 
dedication on cluster development is unsurpassed.
  The WIRED grant has enabled Maine to make great progress on cluster 
development, but more must be done nationally. As Karen explained in 
the Brookings white paper, our Nation's network of cluster initiatives 
is ``thin and uneven,'' and consequently ``many U.S. industry clusters 
are not as competitive as they could be, to the detriment of the 
nation's capacity to sustain well-paying jobs.'' Because of this, ``too 
many workers are losing decent jobs, and too many regions are 
struggling economically.''
  The Cluster Development program we are proposing in this bill is 
modeled after the Department of Labor's WIRED program. It would 
identify geographic regions where cluster activity is taking place or 
can develop, and provide assistance to local and regional efforts to 
build on those clusters.
  I look forward to working with my colleagues on this and other 
proposals to bolster innovation, strengthen our Nation's 
competitiveness, and most of all, help preserve the foundation for 
high-quality jobs in the face of the coming economic challenges.
  Mrs. CLINTON. Mr. President, today I introduce the National 
Innovation Act of 2008, a bill that will strengthen America's 
leadership in technology and manufacturing innovation, while helping to 
keep and create more jobs here at home. I would like to recognize my 
colleague, Senator Collins, for her leadership on this bill, and I 
thank her and her staff for all their hard work.
  Our Nation is at a crossroads. Every day we hear of more jobs being 
sent oveaseas and new technology centers growing halfway across the 
world. In this increasingly global economy, we need to have the tools 
and the knowledge to compete and succeed. There is no doubt that 
technology and innovation will be the foundation of the new economy. 
And America must be at the forefront of this new, innovation economy.
  The National Innovation Act is a comprehensive plan to spur the 
growth of innovative technologies to increase America's productivity 
gains and economic growth. It builds on the longstanding bipartisan 
commitment to improve our Nation's competitiveness by strengthening our 
innovation infrastructure.
  This new legislation creates a ``National Innovation Council'' to 
coordinate Federal innovation policy, and to help support efforts at 
the State and local level to accelerate the adoption of innovation 
technologies throughout the economy. It will include six existing 
Federal programs which share this important innovation-based mission.
  The National Innovation Act also establishes a CLUSTER Information 
Center and a Cluster Grant Program. The CLIC will collect, develop, and 
disseminate analysis on industry clusters throughout all 50 States, 
provide technical assistance guides for regional cluster development, 
and develop initiatives and programs.
  Since I took office, I have devoted time and energy into trying to 
help the economically distressed communities throughout New York State, 
particularly those in upstate New York that were once economically 
vibrant but now are facing a declining economy. This legislation will 
help revitalize communities in upstate New York and across the country 
who have been hit hard by manufacturing and job loss by establishing 
regional economic clusters. It will bring innovation to every corner of 
America. Communities can

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use cluster grants to build on the strengths of their particular 
regions by utilizing the skills and knowledge base of local businesses, 
economic developers, colleges and universities, scientists, nonprofits, 
and the public sector.
  In order to secure the future of America's economy we must create 
new, good-paying jobs here at home. Investing in new technologies and 
industries will expand our workforce, ensuring America remains 
competitive in the global economy and putting us on a course toward 
growth and prosperity for future generations.
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