Legislative Highlights :: April 17, 2007
The “Technology Innovation and Manufacturing Stimulation Act of 2007”. Section 101. Scientific and Technical Research and Services. Authorizes $470.9 million in FY08, $497.8 million in FY09, and $537.6 million in FY10 for the NIST lab activities. Authorizes $7.9 million in FY08, $8.1 million in FY09, and $8.3 million in FY10 for the Baldrige National Quality Award Program. Authorizes $93.9 million in FY08, $86.4 million in FY09, and $49.7 million for construction and maintenance of facilities. Section 102. Industrial Technology Services Authorizes $110 million in FY08, $141.5 million in FY09, and $150.5 million in FY10 for the Technology Innovation Program (TIP), which replaces the existing Advanced Technology Program (ATP) (see Section 204). Requires that at least $45 million in each year be for new TIP awards. Authorizes $113.0 million in FY08, $122.0 million in FY09, and $131.8 million in FY10 for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP). Sets aside up to $1 million in FY08 and $4 million in FY09 and FY10 from the MEP funds for a competitive grant program established in Section 203(c). Section 201. Institute-Wide Planning Report Requires the Director of NIST to submit a 3-year programmatic planning document for NIST to the Congress concurrent with the budget submission the first year after enactment, and then to submit yearly updates with each new budget submission. Section 202. Report by Visiting Committee Changes the reporting requirement for the Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology (VCAT) to be due 30 days after the submission of the President’s budget to Congress, and requires the VCAT to comment on the NIST Director’s 3-year planning document. Section 203. Manufacturing Extension Partnership Establishes the MEP Advisory Board, which consists of 10 members appointed by the NIST Director, serving 3-year terms. 2 members must be employed by or on advisory boards of the MEP Centers, and 5 others must be from small manufacturers. None can be Federal employees. The board meets no less than twice a year, and provides the NIST Director with advice on and assessments of MEP. It also comments on the relevant sections of the NIST Director’s 3-year planning document at the same time as the VCAT. The Board is governed by the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA). Allows MEP to accept funds from other Federal agencies and from the private sector. Establishes the MEP competitive grants program for MEP Centers or consortia of Centers. The grants are peer reviewed and competitively awarded for Center(s) to conduct projects to solve new or emerging manufacturing problems. Awardees are not required to provide matching funds. Sec. 204. Technology Innovation Program Repeals the existing Advanced Technology Program (ATP) statute and creates the Technology Innovation Program (TIP). Sec. 205. Research Fellowships Raises the amount NIST can spend on research fellowships from 1 percent to 1.5 percent of the total appropriations. This will also allow for additional manufacturing research fellowships as established in Section 207. Sec. 206. Collaborative Manufacturing Research Pilot Grants Establishes a collaborative manufacturing research pilot grant program for partnerships between at least one industry and one non-industry partner, with the purpose of fostering collaboration and conducting applied research on manufacturing. The award can be no more than 1/3 of the cost of the partnership, with no more than an additional 1/3 coming from other Federal sources. Selection criteria for the awards are based on the breadth of impact of the project, the novelty and scientific merit of the proposal, and the demonstrated capability of the participants. Awards must be distributed among a range of industry sectors and firm sizes. NIST will run one pilot competition and awards will be for three years. Sec. 207. Manufacturing Fellowship Program Establishes a program of postdoctoral and senior research fellowships at NIST in manufacturing sciences. Sec. 208. Meetings of Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology Reduces the frequency of meetings for the Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology (VCAT) from quarterly to twice annually. Manufacturing Research Database Authorizes $2 million for NIST to establish a database of manufacturing research projects funded in whole or in part by the federal government. The database will be easily accessible but may charge a nominal fee for use. Section 301. Post-Doctoral Fellows Raises the cap on the number of post-doctoral fellows that NIST can accept each year from 60 to 120. Section 302. Financial Agreements Clarification Authorizes NIST to enter into grants and cooperative agreements, in addition to its current authority to enter into contracts and cooperative research and development agreements (CRADAs). Section 303. Working Capital Fund Transfers Authorizes NIST to transfer up to 0.25 percent of its total appropriations, and any funds from other agencies given to NIST to produce Standard Reference Materials, into the Working Capital Fund. Section 304. Retention of Depreciation Surcharge Allows NIST to retain the building use and depreciation surcharge fees that are charged by the General Services Administration. Section 305. Non-Energy Inventions Program Repeals an outdated statute requiring the NIST Director to establish a program to evaluate inventions. Section 306. Redefinition of the Metric System Clarifies in statute that the metric system used in the US is the modern system of metric measurement units. Section 307. Repeal of Redundant and Obsolete Authority Eliminates archaic, special-case language related to the definition of units of electrical and light measurement. Section 308. Clarification of Standard Time and Time Zones Specifies that standard time in the US is Coordinated Universal Time, and fixes technical problems in statute with the time zone definitions. Section 309. Procurement of Temporary and Intermittent Services Authorizes NIST to issue up to 200 personal services contracts per year to procure the temporary or intermittent services of scientific and technical experts and consultants. The authority expires in 2010, and the Comptroller General is required to report to the Congress on NIST’s use of this authorization. Section 310. Malcolm Baldrige Awards Raises to 18 the cap on the number of annual awards under the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Program and removes category restrictions. Passed by the House May 3, 2007
Reported by the Full Committee April 25, 2007
Reported (as amended) by the Technology & Innovation Subcommittee
April 19, 2007Introduced in the House April 17, 2007
Section-by-Section
Section 1. Short title.
Title I – Authorization of Appropriations
Title II – Innovation and Technology Policy Reforms
Eligible Company – is majority owned by US citizens or is owned by a parent company incorporated in another country provided that the company’s participation is in US economic interests, including R&D investment in the US and increasing US employment. Also, the country of incorporation must afford similar opportunities for US companies, and provide for effective protection of IP rights.
Joint Venture – includes either two separately owned for-profit companies and the lead must be a small or medium business or at least one small or medium business and one institution of higher education where either can be the lead. Joint ventures may include additional for-profit companies, institutions of higher education or other organizations such as National Laboratories and nonprofit research organizations.
High-risk, high reward research – research that has the potential to yield results with far-ranging or wide-ranging implications, addresses critical national needs, and is too novel or multidisciplinary to succeed under traditional peer review.
Title III – Miscellaneous
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