Mid-term elections changes key Senate committees

As a result of last month's midterm national elections, the composition of several key U.S. Senate committees will change when the 110th Congress convenes in January 2007. Among the most notable changes are these:

• Environment and Public Works (EPW): Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., will take over the chair from Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., in what some on Capitol Hill have termed "a 180 degree change." Two previous members of EPW, Barak Obama, D-Ill., and Harry Reid, D-Nev., will be departing the committee while incoming freshmen Sens. Ben Cardin, D-Md., Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., will join the EPW panel.

• Appropriations: New members will include Sens. Jack Reed, D-R.I., Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., and Ben Nelson, D-Neb. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., will step down from the Appropriations Committee to devote full time to the Majority Leader position to which he was elected recently. Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.V., will take over as chair of the Appropriations Committee.

• Energy and Natural Resources: Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., will rotate off the committee, while Sens. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Jon Tester, D-Mont., will join the committee's ranks. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., will assume the chair.

• Armed Services: Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., will become chair of this committee. New members include Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., and Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va. Sen. John Warner, R-Va., will become the ranking member of this committee and with Sen. Webb being added to the roster. Virginia will have the opportunity to be dually represented.

• Commerce: Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., will rotate off the Commerce Committee to the Rules Committee. Missouri's Sen. Claire McCaskill will serve on Commerce and Armed Services, while Sen. Amy Klobuchar from Minnesota will serve on Commerce and Agriculture.

Funding for American Competitiveness Initiative in doubt

At the beginning of the year, the prospects appeared bright for a major increase in funding for basic research in science and engineering. The administration and members of key authorization and appropriation committees supported research investments at the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy's Office of Science, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, as proposed in the American Competitiveness Initiative (ACI).

But as the end of the 109th Congress neared, Congress still had not passed the major appropriations bills that fund these key agencies. The results of the midterm election may convince members to settle on stopgap measures called "continuing resolutions," instead of passing full appropriations for fiscal year 2007. Continuing resolutions usually fund government programs at the previous year's levels, meaning that ACI funding would not be allocated to the three agencies. Hoping to avoid that outcome, a number of organizations are making a last-minute push for Congress to finish these appropriation measures before the end of the Congressional session in early December.

Past ASME position statements on the American Competitiveness Initiative can be found at www.asme.org/NewsPublicPolicy/GovRelations/
PositionStatements.

Additional information about innovation and competitiveness policy is at www.engineeringpolicy.org/Innovation_US_
Economic.cfm.

U.S. signs ITER agreement

Raymond Orbach, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Undersecretary for Science, joined with counterparts from China, the European Union, Japan, the Republic of North Korea, and the Russian Federation in signing the agreement to build the collaborative fusion reactor project, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER).

"Signing this agreement brings us one step closer to a viable source of fusion power," Orbach said. "ITER also is the first stand-alone, truly international, large-scale scientific research effort in the history of the world. It will surely serve as a model for future collaborative large-scale science projects," he added.

ITER will be constructed in Caharache, France, and is scheduled for completion in 2015. The European Union, as the host, will provide about 45 percent of the construction phase funding. The United States, as a non-host partner, will participate in the construction phase at the level of about 9 percent.

The U.S. contribution to ITER will consist of about 80 percent in-kind components, and about 20 percent in cash to a central fund and for personnel assigned to the project at the ITER site. The total value of the U.S. contribution is $1.12 billion.

DOE has already transmitted the final text to Congress, triggering the 120-day review required by the Energy Policy Act of 2005. For additional information about ITER, go to www.doe.gov/news/4486.htm.

Council on Competitiveness releases Competitiveness Index

The Council on Competitiveness has released a new benchmarking report entitled "Competitiveness Index: Where America Stands." The report compares two decades of U.S. economic data against emerging global economies, and confirms that the United States has among the highest levels of productivity and standards of living and is the most globally competitive of the world's large economies.

While the Competitiveness Index makes no specific recommendations, it highlights several key issues critical to America's future competitiveness. The report notes that American economic prosperity depends on improved education, as globalization alters the criteria for competitiveness. "Higher-order thinking and knowledge will trump industrial-age efficiency as traditional skills are becoming less relevant," according to the report.

More information about the report can be found on the Council of Competitiveness Web site at www.compete.org.

— Joshua Craft
ASME Government Relations

 

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