“What They Are Saying”: Endless Frontier Act
WASHINGTON – Yesterday, U.S. Senators Todd Young (R-Ind.) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced the reintroduction of their bipartisan Endless Frontier Act. The bill is a bold initiative to solidify the United States’ leadership in scientific and technological innovation through increased investments in the discovery, creation, and manufacturing of technology critical to national security and economic competitiveness. Since reintroduction, industry leaders across the U.S. have touted their support for the bipartisan bill.
The Endless Frontier Act further targets support to ensure new research investments translate into more American industries and manufacturing and high-tech jobs in regions across the country to become global centers of emerging technology.
The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) said, “Manufacturing is the backbone of the American economy. The introduction of the #EndlessFrontierAct is an important step to increasing manufacturing competitiveness here in the U.S.”
Stephen Ezell, Vice President for Global Innovation Policy for Information Technology
& Innovation Foundation (ITIF) said, “ITIF commends the introduction of the Endless Frontier Act, a seminal piece of legislation taking definitive steps to restore American competitiveness in 10 key advanced-technology industries of the future, such as biotech, clean energy, and semiconductors. The Endless Frontier Act provides $100 billion over 10 years for the research, development, and commercialization of these technologies. The legislation puts technology commercialization on an equal footing with scientific research in America’s national innovation system by creating a new technology directorate at the National Science Foundation. Further, drawing on policy recommendations from ITIF and Brookings, the legislation seeks to empower regional competitiveness across the United States by providing $10 billion over five years to create 10 to 15 regional technology hubs, positioning them to become leading centers for the research, development, and production of leading-edge technologies. Overall, the Act represents vital legislation preparing America for the intense global competition—including with China—for leadership in the advanced-technology industries of the future. This is a much needed measure to succeed in the race against China.”
Jason Oxman President and CEO of global tech trade association ITI said, “To remain competitive on the international stage, the United States must continue to expand its investments in research, development, and technological advancement. We’re grateful to Senators Schumer (D-NY) and Young (R-IN) for their bipartisan leadership in sponsoring the Endless Frontier Act. By directing resources to research in technology areas critical for the future and to areas across the country through regional technology hubs, the bill promises to create new jobs and opportunity in communities throughout the United States. We urge the U.S. Senate to quickly take up and pass this measure.”
Bobby Franklin, President and CEO of National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) said, “The Endless Frontier Act is a bold, bipartisan proposal that will grow the American economy and increase economic opportunity by enhancing American innovation capacity. If effectively implemented, this legislation will meaningfully increase federal basic research investment and technology commercialization activity, improve our nation’s long-term economic competitiveness, create new industries and high-quality 21st century jobs, and increase economic growth in communities across the country. We thank Senator Schumer and Senator Young for recognizing the venture capital industry’s importance in achieving our shared goals of prioritizing the nexus between technological progress and new company formation to advance economic opportunity. We look forward to working with policymakers to move this important piece of legislation through Congress.”
Peter McPherson, President of Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) said,“We applaud Senators Schumer and Young and Representatives Khanna and Gallagher for their introduction of the Endless Frontiers Act. This landmark bill would achieve extraordinary strides for the U.S. scientific enterprise and help ensure the U.S. remains the unparalleled leader of innovation for decades to come. We thank the senators and representatives – and their colleagues who signed on as original cosponsors – for allowing APLU, the public university community, and partner organizations to provide input on this monumental legislation.”
Barbara R. Snyder, President of Association of American Universities (AAU) said, “We applaud Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Sen. Todd Young (R-IN), and Reps. Ro Khanna (D-CA) and Mike Gallagher (R-WI) for reintroducing the bipartisan Endless Frontier Act. We also thank the cosponsors of this critically important legislation. The revised bill recognizes that our nation’s future prosperity and leadership are inextricably linked to scientific innovation. It would authorize the creation of a new directorate at the National Science Foundation; create important new programs within that agency to expand our nation’s research capacity; and advance research in areas essential to our nation’s economic competitiveness, health, and security.”
Craig Albright, Vice President, Legislative Strategy at BSA | The Software Alliance said,“America’s long-term national security and economic interests depend upon retaining leadership in the development of cutting-edge technologies. At a time when global competitors are seeking advantages through increased investments in R&D, it’s a critical time for the US to update its strategy to ensure it retains its lead. Through strategic investments to spur the development of the technologies of the future – including 5G, AI, and quantum computing – the Endless Frontier Act takes a forward-looking approach to help ensure the US remains the global hub for innovation. This is a great step towards increased investments in AI, and at the same time government and industry can work together to foster public trust in the technology. NIST’s work to develop a National AI Risk Management Framework will go a long way towards identifying best practices for mitigating potential risks in AI systems.”
John Neuffer, President and CEO of the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) said,“Semiconductors are fundamental to America’s economy, national security, and global competitiveness, and the country that leads in chip technology will have a big leg up in deploying the game-changing technologies of the future. We applaud introduction of the Endless Frontier Act and thank its sponsors for their bipartisanship and leadership in promoting American innovation and competitiveness, and we look forward to working with the Biden administration and Congress to further this effort by investing boldly in domestic semiconductor manufacturing and research.”
Kent Rochford, CEO of SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, said, “SPIE has long been a supporter of applied research and the practical applications of light. These areas of science continue to impact our lives with real-world products and technologies. This new role proposed for the NSF, with its focus on technology advancement and commercialization, would have an immensely positive impact on the optics and photonics community as well as on the US economy. It is our hope that this new directorate, with its substantially different approach to research funding and development, will increase the number of optics and photonics-related technologies emerging from labs and being used in real world applications.”
In addition to Senators Young and Schumer, and Representatives Khanna and Gallagher, theEndless Frontier Act is cosponsored in the Senate by Senators Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), and Mitt Romney (R-Utah).
The Endless Frontier Act bill text can be found here and a summary can be found here.