Town Hall meeting highlights public policy and issues of interest to engineering community

During a Town Hall meeting on April 15, Connecticut Congressman John B. Larson explained how engineers can contribute to the legislative process and gave the audience of approximately 70 people an update of funding in several areas of interest to engineers.

As a member of the House Science Committee and the House Armed Services Committee, Larson is involved in aerospace, energy, and education issues as well as and the authorization of funding for their related programs.

In her opening remarks and welcome of Larson, ASME President Susan H. Skemp said, "The overriding goal of ASME emphasizes the engineer's responsibility to the public interest. Engineers contribute to the policymaking process by providing government decision-makers with technical information needed to make the most informed decisions on technical and related issues."

ASME organizes Town Hall meetings in different locations throughout the year to promote the active involvement of engineers in the public policy debate.

Congressman John B. Larson

 

 

Larson hailed the Town Hall Meeting, which was held in the Wilde Auditorium on the University of Hartford campus, as a means of accomplishing ASME's overriding goal because it is an opportunity for engineering members and students to engage in debate on public policy issues.

Larson, whose district is home to both United Technologies Corp. and its Pratt & Whitney Division, noted that both private industry and federal funds dedicated to research and development have decreased from $30 billion in 1985 to under $14 billion, and that this has coincided with a similar downward trend in the aerospace market which, during the same time, decreased from 70 percent of the global market to less than 50 percent.

"The United States has let research spending slide while European aerospace competitors have benefited from financial help from their governments," Larson said. "Unless we invest in research and technology, we will continue to lose our critical mass of highly skilled engineers. Then who will build the F-22s and Joint Strike Fighters of the future, and where will that base come from?"

Larson, along with Rep. Randy Forbes (R-Va.), have introduced the "Aeronautics Research and Development Revitalization Act of 2003," a five year authorization bill which would increase NASA's aeronautics research and development budget $1.15 billion by 2007. Funding for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) would also increase to $550 million by 2007.

The legislation would serve to develop and demonstrate technologies that would enable American industry to build commercial aircraft that would have no adverse noise impacts on the communities surrounding the airports, would be highly fuel-efficient, and would have low emissions of carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxide.

Continued funding for NASA's aerospace programs and the Department of Energy's hydrogen and fuel cell programs are major priorities for Larson. Earlier this year, he introduced legislation that would authorize $1.2 billion over five years for the hydrogen and fuel cell technology initiative proposed by President Bush in his State of the Union address in January.

The bill, H.R. 1395, would fully authorize funding for the President's fiscal year 2004 Hydrogen, Fuel Cells, and Infrastructure Technologies budget request at $182 million and provide an additional $1.018 billion across the following four years to fully fund the initiative through fiscal year 2008.

To promote the active involvement of engineers in the public policy debate, the following organizations participated in this Town Hall Meeting: the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers Inc., the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the ASME Board on Government Relation, ASME Region 1, ASME's Hartford Section and Student Section, the University of Hartford, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and the Society of Automotive Engineers.

For more information about Town Hall meetings contact Reese Meisinger at (202) 785-3756 or e-mail him at meisingerr@asme.org.

 

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