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BUILDING A NETWORK FOR 

MANUFACTURING INNOVATION 

HEARING 

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY 

COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE, SPACE, AND 

TECHNOLOGY 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH CONGRESS 

FIRST SESSION 

DECEMBER 12, 2013 

Serial No. 113–59 

Printed for the use of the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology 

( 

Available via the World Wide Web: http://science.house.gov 
(II) 

COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE, SPACE, AND TECHNOLOGY 

HON. LAMAR S. SMITH, Texas, Chair 

DANA ROHRABACHER, California 

RALPH M. HALL, Texas 

F. JAMES SENSENBRENNER, JR., 

Wisconsin 

FRANK D. LUCAS, Oklahoma 

RANDY NEUGEBAUER, Texas 

MICHAEL T. MCCAUL, Texas 

PAUL C. BROUN, Georgia 

STEVEN M. PALAZZO, Mississippi 

MO BROOKS, Alabama 

RANDY HULTGREN, Illinois 

LARRY BUCSHON, Indiana 

STEVE STOCKMAN, Texas 

BILL POSEY, Florida 

CYNTHIA LUMMIS, Wyoming 

DAVID SCHWEIKERT, Arizona 

THOMAS MASSIE, Kentucky 

KEVIN CRAMER, North Dakota 

JIM BRIDENSTINE, Oklahoma 

RANDY WEBER, Texas 

CHRIS COLLINS, New York 

VACANCY 

EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON, Texas 

ZOE LOFGREN, California 

DANIEL LIPINSKI, Illinois 

DONNA F. EDWARDS, Maryland 

FREDERICA S. WILSON, Florida 

SUZANNE BONAMICI, Oregon 

ERIC SWALWELL, California 

DAN MAFFEI, New York 

ALAN GRAYSON, Florida 

JOSEPH KENNEDY III, Massachusetts 

SCOTT PETERS, California 

DEREK KILMER, Washington 

AMI BERA, California 

ELIZABETH ESTY, Connecticut 

MARC VEASEY, Texas 

JULIA BROWNLEY, California 

MARK TAKANO, California 

ROBIN KELLY, Illinois 

SUBCOMMITTEE ON RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY

HON. LARRY BUCSHON, Indiana, Chair 

STEVEN M. PALAZZO, Mississippi 

MO BROOKS, Alabama 

RANDY HULTGREN, Illinois 

STEVE STOCKMAN, Texas 

CYNTHIA LUMMIS, Wyoming 

DAVID SCHWEIKERT, Arizona 

THOMAS MASSIE, Kentucky 

JIM BRIDENSTINE, Oklahoma 

CHRIS COLLINS, New York 

LAMAR S. SMITH, Texas 

DANIEL LIPINSKI, Illinois 

FEDERICA WILSON, Florida 

ZOE LOFGREN, California 

SCOTT PETERS, California 

AMI BERA, California 

DEREK KILMER, Washington 

ELIZABETH ESTY, Connecticut 

ROBIN KELLY, Illinois 

EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON, Texas 
(III) 

C O N T E N T S 

December 12, 2013 

Page 

Witness List ............................................................................................................. 2 

Hearing Charter ...................................................................................................... 3 

Opening Statements 

Statement by Representative Larry Bucshon, Chairman, Subcommittee on 

Research and Technology, Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, 

U.S. House of Representatives ............................................................................ 8 

Written Statement ............................................................................................ 9 

Statement by Representative Daniel Lipinski, Ranking Minority Member, 

Subcommittee on Research and Technology, Committee on Science, Space, 

and Technology, U.S. House of Representatives ............................................... 10 

Written Statement ............................................................................................ 11 

Statement by Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson, Ranking Member, Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, U.S. House of Representatives .... 13 

Written Statement ............................................................................................ 13 

Witnesses: 

PANEL I 

Mr. Jonathan Davis, Global Vice President of Advocacy, SEMI 

Oral Statement ................................................................................................. 15 

Written Statement ............................................................................................ 18 

Dr. Richard A. Aubrecht, Vice Chairman of the Board, Vice President, Strategy & Technology, Moog Inc. 

Oral Statement ................................................................................................. 22 

Written Statement ............................................................................................ 24 

Dr. Stephan Biller, Chief Scientist Manufacturing Technology, GE Global 

Research 

Oral Statement ................................................................................................. 28 

Written Statement ............................................................................................ 30 

Dr. Stan A. Veuger, Resident Scholar, American Enterprise Institute for 

Public Policy Research 

Oral Statement ................................................................................................. 38 

Written Statement ............................................................................................ 40 

PANEL II 

The Honorable Tom Reed, Member, U.S. House of Representatives 

Oral Statement ................................................................................................. 68 

Written Statement ............................................................................................ 66 

The Honorable Joseph P. Kennedy, III, Member, U.S. House of Representatives 

Oral Statement ................................................................................................. 70 

Written Statement ............................................................................................ 72 
Page

IV 

Appendix I: Additional Material for the Record 

Submitted letters for the record by The Honorable Joseph P. Kennedy, III, 

Member, U.S. House of Representatives ............................................................ 78 

Submitted statement of Representative Lamar S. Smith, Chairman, Committee on Science, Space, and Technology ......................................................... 116 

Discussion draft ....................................................................................................... 88 
(1) 

BUILDING A NETWORK FOR 

MANUFACTURING INNOVATION 

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2013 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 

SUBCOMMITTEE ON RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY

COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE, SPACE, AND TECHNOLOGY, 

Washington, D.C. 

The Subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10:05 a.m., in Room 

2318 of the Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Larry Bucshon 

[Chairman of the Subcommittee] presiding. 
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Chairman BUCSHON. Good morning. The Subcommittee on Research and Technology will come to order. We are going to have a 

little bit of a change of order today, because, on our first panel, 

Congressman Tom Reed is in a markup in another Committee that, 

he is delayed, and couldn’t testify first, so we are going to go to our 

second panel. 

So I would like to welcome everyone to today’s hearing, titled 

‘‘Building A Network For Manufacturing Innovation.’’ In front of 

you are packets containing the written testimony, biographies, and 

truth in testimony disclosures for today’s witnesses. I will recognize 

myself for five minutes for an opening statement. 

I am pleased to call to order this morning’s hearing to examine 

the need for a manufacturing innovation network, and to review 

H.R. 2996, the Revitalization American Manufacturing Innovation 

Act of 2013, authored by Representative Tom Reed of New York 

and Representative Joe Kennedy of Massachusetts. I am pleased 

that Congressman Reed and Congressman Kennedy will be joining 

us later today as witnesses to discuss their proposed legislation. 

Nationally, manufacturing supports 17.2 million jobs, with 12 

million Americans, or roughly nine percent of the workforce, employed directly in manufacturing. Manufacturing represents approximately 11 percent of the American economy, and has the 

greatest multiplier effect of any major sector in the American economy. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, each dollar 

spent in manufacturing generates an additional $1.35 in spending. 

In Indiana, there are nearly 10,000 manufacturers, employing more 

than a half a million workers, which represents 1/6 of Indiana’s 

workforce. Not surprisingly, my state ranks first in manufacturing 

employment, and second in manufacturing as a gross state product. 

The 8th District of Indiana is home to many of these manufacturers, and I have seen the work being done firsthand at manufacturers like Berry Plastics, Toyota Motor Corporation, and ALCOA. 

Along with the many manufacturers in our district, universities 

like Vincennes University, University of Evansville, and University 

of Southern Indiana offer degrees related to advanced manufacturing, and work closely with these entities to develop a talented, 

well trained workforce. 

H.R. 2996 would establish a 600 million dollar new program 

based on the President’s Fiscal Year 2013 and Fiscal Year 2014 

budget request for the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation. H.R. 2996 would establish a network for manufacturing innovation, building a public-private partnership through Centers for 

Manufacturing Innovation. 

Nearly half of the government spending in 2012 was spent automatically on mandatory entitlement programs. And, here in Washington, D.C., we are having an ongoing discussion about reining in 

the spending on the mandatory programs in order to prevent budget cuts to government programs, such as research and development, that also may affect such proposals as H.R. 2996. 

I look forward to hearing from all of our witnesses, and their 

thoughts about the proposed legislation, and I thank them for joining us today. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Bucshon follows:] 
9 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF SUBCOMMITTEE ON RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY

CHAIRMAN LARRY BUCSHON

I am pleased to call to order this morning’s hearing to examine the need for a 

manufacturing innovation network and to review H.R. 2996, the Revitalize American Manufacturing and Innovation Act of 2013, authored by Representative Tom 

Reed of New York and Representative Joe Kennedy of Massachusetts. 

I am pleased Congressman Reed and Congressman Kennedy are joining us today 

as witnesses to discuss their proposed legislation. 

Nationally, manufacturing supports 17.2 million jobs—with 12 million Americans, 

or roughly nine percent of the workforce, employed directly in manufacturing. Manufacturing represents approximately 11 percent of the American economy, and has 

the greatest multiplier effect of any major sector in the American economy. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, each dollar spent in manufacturing generates an additional $1.35 in spending. 

In Indiana, there are nearly 10,000 manufacturers employing more than half a 

million workers, which represents one sixth of Indiana’s workforce. Not surprisingly, 

my state ranks first in manufacturing employment and second in manufacturing as 

a gross state product. 

The 8th district of Indiana is home to many of these manufacturers and I have 

seen the work being done firsthand at manufactures like Berry Plastics, Toyota 

Motor and Alcoa. Along with the many manufacturers in our district, universities 

like Vincennes University, the University of Evansville and the University of Southern Indiana offer degrees related to advanced manufacturing and work closely with 

these entities to develop a talented and well-trained workforce. 

H.R. 2996 would establish a $600 million new program, based on the President’s 

FY13 and FY14 budget request for the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation (NNNMI). H.R. 2996 would establish a network for manufacturing innovation 

building public-private partnerships through Centers for Manufacturing Innovation. 

Nearly half of government spending in 2012 was spent automatically on mandatory entitlement programs. Many in Washington D.C. refuse to discuss and enact 

real reforms that will rein in spending on mandatory spending programs in order 

to prevent budget cuts to government programs such as research and development 

on the discretionary side, affecting programs like the proposal in H.R. 2996. 

I look forward to hearing from all of our witnesses on their thoughts about the 

proposed legislation, and I thank them for joining us here today. 
10 

Chairman BUCSHON. Now I will recognize the Ranking Member, 

gentleman from Illinois, Mr. Lipinski, for his opening statement. 

Mr. LIPINSKI. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for holding 

this hearing, and I think that—I want someone to count up the 

hearings. I believe we—hard to believe anyone has had more hearings than we have had in the Subcommittee, but that is great, because we are looking at a lot of very important issues to the country, such as this one on manufacturing. I am looking forward to 

hearing from Mr. Reed and Mr. Kennedy about their bill. And, 

prior to that, hearing from our expert witnesses here in front of us, 

who are going to testify as the Subcommittee continues its examination of what we can do to revitalize America’s manufacturing 

sector. 

The legislation we are discussing today is based in large part on 

the proposed National Network for Manufacturing Innovation, or 

NNMI. I have been a strong supporter of the NNMI concept, and 

I am proud to be a co-sponsor of H.R. 2996. Although we have 

heard time and time again about the crucial link between economic 

growth and a vibrant U.S. manufacturing sector, I think these facts 

bear repeating. At 60 percent of all exports, manufacturing is the 

largest contributor to U.S. trade. Manufacturing employs more 

than 11 million Americans in jobs providing above-average pay and 

benefits. The sector adds approximately $1.6 trillion to our Gross 

Domestic Product. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, 

manufacturing has a larger multiplier effect than any other major 

economic activity. One dollar spent in manufacturing generates 

$1.35 in additional economic activity. And, finally, manufacturing 

accounts for nearly 70 percent of private sector research and development. 

Behind all these facts and figures is a strong link between manufacturing and innovation. And let’s be honest, our Nation’s competitive edge is slipping. We have to take note of countries such as 

Korea, Japan, and Germany that have a larger share of the advanced manufacturing sector than the United States. These nations, and others, are investing heavily in manufacturing and innovation, and they are doing so in a much more comprehensive way 

than we are. It is not as if the Federal Government isn’t doing any 

good work in the areas I mentioned, but if we want to create the 

environment that will produce the high paying jobs of the future, 

and help this country keep its competitive edge, then we need to 

do more to support and expand advanced manufacturing. 

The legislation we are discussing today has the potential to do 

just that. The manufacturing institutes created under the proposal 

can serve as centers of manufacturing excellence, accelerating innovation in the transition of cutting edge manufacturing technologies 

and processes to the marketplace. They can also serve as a nexus 

for addressing our manufacturing talent shortage. I think it is important for our manufacturing workforce, from scientists and engineers, to production workers and technicians, to have access to and 

experience with new, innovative technologies. 

H.R. 2996 is modeled after the successful Fraunhofer Institutes 

in Germany. Many experts believe Germany has been able to withstand a global financial crisis in large part due to its focus on innovative technologies as a key driver of economic growth. The 
11 

Fraunhofer Institutes are widely considered to be a central and key 

component of the country’s high tech strategy. Based on Germany’s 

success, a number of countries, including Britain and France, have 

adapted the Fraunhofer model to improve the competitiveness of 

their manufacturers. And, in fact, sources ranging from a recent 

National Research Council report, to groups like the National Association of Manufacturers, have called for the establishment of a 

similar network of public-private manufacturing centers in the 

United States. 

Simply put, made in America equals American jobs and a strong 

economy. Now, when our position as a global leader in science and 

technology is being threatened, we can’t afford to lose our capacity 

to create the breakthrough technologies of tomorrow. Mr. Chairman, we must adopt smart policies and encourage innovation, and 

investment in manufacturing. I believe H.R. 2996 is a smart policy. 

I look forward to working with you, and all of my colleagues, to advance legislation like this to help keep American manufacturing 

strong. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back the balance of my time. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Lipinski follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF SUBCOMMITTEE ON RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY

RANKING MINORITY MEMBER DANIEL LIPINSKI

Thank you Mr. Chairman for holding this hearing. I am happy that we have Mr. 

Reed and Mr. Kennedy with us today to talk about their bill, and I look forward 

to hearing from them and all of our witnesses who are here to testify as the Subcommittee continues its examination of American manufacturing and efforts to revitalize this critical sector. The legislation we are discussing today is based in large 

part on the proposed National Network for Manufacturing Innovation or NNMI. I 

have been a strong supporter of the NNMI concept and I’m proud to cosponsor H.R. 

2996. 

Although we’ve heard time and time again about the crucial link between economic growth and a vibrant U.S. manufacturing sector, I think these facts bear repeating: 

At 60 percent of all exports, manufacturing is the largest contributor to U.S. 

trade. Manufacturing employs more than 11 million Americans in jobs providing 

above average pay and benefits. The sector adds approximately $1.6 trillion to our 

gross domestic product. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, manufacturing has a larger multiplier effect than any other major economic activity—$1 

spent in manufacturing generates $1.35 in additional economic activity. And finally, 

manufacturing accounts for nearly 70 percent of private sector research and development. 

Behind all of these facts and figures is the strong link between manufacturing 

and innovation. And let’s be honest, our nation’s competitive edge is slipping. We 

have to take note of countries such as Korea, Japan, and Germany that have a larger share of the advanced manufacturing sector than the United States. These nations and others are investing heavily in manufacturing and innovation and they 

are doing so in a much more comprehensive way than we are. 

It’s not as if the federal government isn’t doing any good work in the areas I mentioned, but if we want to create the environment that will produce the high-paying 

jobs of the future and help this country keep its competitive edge, then we need to 

do more to support and expand advanced manufacturing. 

The legislation we are discussing today has the potential to do just that. The manufacturing institutes created under the proposal can serve as centers of manufacturing excellence, accelerating innovation and the transition of cutting-edge manufacturing technologies and processes to the marketplace. They can also serve as the 

nexus for addressing our manufacturing talent shortage. I think it is important for 

our manufacturing workforce—from scientists and engineers to production workers 

and technicians—to have access to and experience with new, innovative technologies. 
12 

As I understand it, H.R. 2996 is modeled after the successful Fraunhofer Institutes in Germany. Many experts believe Germany has been able to withstand the 

global financial crisis in large part due to its focus on innovative technologies as a 

key driver of economic growth. The Fraunhofer Institutes are widely considered to 

be a central and key component of the country’s high-tech strategy. 

Based on Germany’s success, a number of countries, including Britain and France 

have adapted the Fraunhofer model to improve the competitiveness of their manufacturers. And in fact, sources ranging from a recent National Research Council report to groups like the National Association of Manufacturers have called for the 

establishment of a similar network of public-private manufacturing centers in the 

United States. 

Simply put, ‘‘Made in America’’ equals American jobs and a strong economy. Now 

when our position as a global leader in science and technology is being threatened, 

we can’t afford to lose our capacity to create the breakthrough technologies of tomorrow. 

Mr. Chairman, we must adopt smart policies that encourage innovation and investment in manufacturing. I believe H.R. 2996 is a smart policy. I look forward 

to working with you and all of my colleagues to advance legislation like this that 

will help keep American manufacturing strong. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman and I yield back the balance of my time. 
13 

Chairman BUCSHON. Thank you, Mr. Lipinski. I now would like 

to recognize the Ranking Member of the Full Committee, Ms. Johnson, for her opening statement. 

Ms. JOHNSON. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I would like 

to compliment and praise my colleagues, Mr. Kennedy and Mr. 

Reed, for their bipartisan work to advance the legislation we are 

considering this morning. The purpose of H.R. 2996 is conveyed in 

the legislation’s title, the Revitalize American Manufacturing and 

Innovation Act. I am supportive of this legislation, and its purpose 

to revitalize American manufacturing, because I strongly believe 

that if the United States is to remain competitive in the long term, 

we need to ensure that American companies maintain their capacity to manufacture innovative products right here at home. 

The key to maintaining this capacity is through strategic investments in advanced manufacturing research, development, and education. While the United States is struggling to sustain its competitive edge, other countries are focusing their full attention on manufacturing, they are implementing the policies and programs necessary to build the 21st century economies now. We simply cannot 

afford to stand on the sideline and watch our competitors pass us 

by. A vibrant manufacturing sector is just too important. 

That is why, earlier this year, I introduced the Advancing Innovative Manufacturing Act of 2013, or the AIM Act. My legislation 

also brings the public and private sectors together to tackle the research needs of the industry. Additionally, the AIM Act focuses on 

ensuring that small and medium sized manufacturers have the 

tools they need to innovate. 

Because the decline of U.S. manufacturing is a threat to the middle class jobs in our economy, the Democratic discussion draft of 

the America Competes Reauthorization Act includes a number of 

manufacturing related provisions. In fact, the proposal we are considering today is a part of that discussion draft. We need our manufacturing sector to be the most sophisticated in the world, using 

transformative technologies and manufacturing processes. By doing 

this, we can maintain our global leadership. 

And I am hopeful that, as this Committee considers the reauthorization of NSF, NIST, and DOE’s Office of Science, we can 

come together across the aisle to include policies that will stimulate 

American manufacturing and American jobs. Mr. Chairman, on a 

daily basis, many times we hear about spending so much on Medicaid, spending so much on other aid programs. Well, Mr. Chairman, until we pass legislation of this sort, we will be increasing 

those rolls, rather than eliminating them. I hope that this legislation can move forward. And I thank you, and yield back the balance of my time. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Johnson follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF FULL COMMITTEE RANKING MEMBER

EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’d like to praise my colleagues, Mr. Kennedy and Mr. 

Reed for their bipartisan work to advance the legislation we are considering this 

morning. The purpose of H.R. 2996 is conveyed in the legislation’s title, the Revitalize American Manufacturing and Innovation Act. 
14 

I am supportive of the legislation and its purpose to revitalize American manufacturing because I strongly believe that if the United States is to remain competitive 

in the long-term, we need to ensure that American companies maintain their capacity to manufacture innovative products here at home. 

The key to maintaining this capacity is through strategic investments in advanced 

manufacturing research, development, and education. 

While the United States is struggling to sustain its competitive edge other countries are focusing their full attention on manufacturing. They are implementing the 

policies and programs necessary to build 21st century economies now. We simply 

cannot afford to stand on the sideline and watch our competitors pass us by. A vibrant manufacturing sector is just too important. 

That is why, earlier this year I introduced the Advancing Innovative Manufacturing Act of 2013—or the AIM Act. My legislation also brings the public and private sectors together to tackle the research needs of industry. Additionally, the AIM 

act focuses on ensuring small and medium-sized manufacturers have the tools they 

need to innovate. 

Because the decline of U.S. manufacturing is a threat to middle class jobs and 

our economy, the Democratic discussion draft of the America Competes Reauthorization Act includes a number of manufacturing-related provisions. In fact, the proposal we are considering today is a part of that discussion draft. 

We need our manufacturing sector to be the most sophisticated in the world, 

using transformative technologies and manufacturing processes. By doing this, we 

can maintain our global leadership. I am hopeful that as this Committee considers 

the reauthorization of NSF, NIST, and DOE’s Office of Science we can come together across the aisle to include policies that will stimulate American manufacturing and American jobs. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman and I yield back the balance of my time. 
15 

Chairman BUCSHON. Thank you, Ms. Johnson. If there are Members who wish to submit additional opening statements, your statements will be added to the record at this point. 

I am now going to introduce our panel of witnesses, and then we 

will hear their testimony. Our first witness is Mr. Jonathan Davis, 

Global Vice President of Advocacy for SEMI, the global industry association serving 2,000 member companies in the nano and micro 

electronics manufacturing supply chains. Prior to this, Mr. Davis 

served as the head of the Semiconductor IC Business Unit. Mr. 

Davis earned a five year architecture degree from Kansas State 

University College of Architecture, and designed and studied at the 

University of Missouri at Columbia School of Journalism. 

Our second witness is Dr. Richard Aubrecht, Vice Chairman of 

the Board, and Vice President for Strategy and Technology at 

Moog, Incorporated. Dr. Aubrecht began his career at Moog in 1969 

as a design and development engineer. Dr. Aubrecht studied at the 

Sibley School of Mechanical Engineering at Cornell University from 

1962 to 1969, where he earned his Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Doctorate degrees. 

Our third witness is Dr. Stephan Biller, Chief Scientist for Manufacturing Technologies at GE Global Research. He is responsible 

for GE’s global advanced manufacturing strategy, and the development of GE’s smart manufacturing initiative across GE businesses. 

Dr. Biller received a degree in electrical engineering from the 

RWTH Aachen in Germany, and a Doctorate in Industrial Engineering and Management Science from Northwestern University, 

and an MBA from the University of Michigan. 

And our final witness is Dr. Stanley Veuger, Resident Scholar at 

the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. His 

academic research focuses on political economy and applied microeconomics. Before joining AEI, Dr. Veuger was a teaching fellow at 

the Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard College, and the Universitat 

Pompeu Fabra. He is a graduate of Altrec University and Erasmus 

University at Rotterdam, and holds a Masters in Economics from 

the Universitat Popeu Fabra—that is hard to say—as well as a 

Master’s and Doctorate in Economics from Harvard University. 

Welcome to all of our witnesses. As you should know, the spoken 

testimony is limited to five minutes, after which Members of the 

Committee have five minutes each to ask questions. Your written 

testimony will be introduced into the record of the hearing. 

I now recognize our first witness, Mr. Davis, for five minutes for 

his testimony. 

TESTIMONY OF Mr. JONATHAN DAVIS, 

GLOBAL VICE PRESIDENT OF ADVOCACY, SEMI 

Mr. DAVIS. Chairman Bucshon, Ranking Member Lipinski, and 

Members of the Committee, thank you for allowing me to be here 

to testify before you today on the need to strengthen advanced 

manufacturing in the United States through public-private partnerships, like the ones authorized in H.R. 2996, the Revitalize American Manufacturing and Innovation Act. 

SEMI is a global industry association with about 500 U.S. member companies that serve the semiconductor manufacturing supply 

chain. Semiconductors are small integrated circuits, or ICs, more 
16 

commonly known as computer chips, but today these chips power 

far more than computers. They are the essential enabling technology for all electronics and electronic systems. Computers, cell 

phones, tablets, TVs, automobiles, medical devices, and components 

in systems for national defense and security. 

SEMI represents a manufacturing supply chain that is heavily 

dependent on innovation and commercialization to perpetuate an 

incredibly advanced pace of technological development. On average, 

SEMI North American member companies re-invest 10 to 15 percent of their annual revenues into research and development each 

and every year. The cost to commercialize technology continues to 

increase as we compete with global competitors supported by foreign government investment. Governments around the world understand the strategic value of complete manufacturing supply 

chains. Many are supporting efforts to assist homegrown manufacturers to compete with U.S. companies, while also providing powerful incentives for U.S. manufacturers to move offshore. 

In the case of semiconductor manufacturing equipment, we see 

intense efforts by foreign governments to commercialize next-generation technology outside of the United States. In Europe, they 

have launched the 10/100/20 strategy that will supply 10 billion 

Euros from the EU to leverage large investments by industry, with 

a goal of 20 percent market share. In China, the twelfth five–Year 

Plan from 2011 to 2015 from the Central Government calls for 

$600 billion for seven priority technology areas, two of which include semiconductor related equipment. Taiwan and Korea also 

have robust funding support in efforts to strengthen their local 

supply chains for their important national industries. This localization effort often results in direct pressure on U.S. technology providers to relocate to their regions. Often, for both financial, or customer relations reasons, the pressure to relocate overseas is formidable. 

We understand that the U.S. faces its own budgetary fiscal challenges related to discretionary and non-discretionary funding. Mandatory funding continues to grow, while non-discretionary funding 

becomes smaller, and that model simply isn’t sustainable. It is our 

hope that Congress will find the correct balance between discretionary and non-discretionary programs so that worthy policy objectives, such as H.R. 2996, can be debated, and we hope implemented. 

We believe that 2996, the Revitalize American Manufacturing 

and Innovation Act, provides the needed leadership by the United 

States government to compete with foreign governments, and to 

strengthen and grow strategically important manufacturing industry. This legislation provides public-private partnership model that 

we believe will strengthen the supply chains of numerous strategic 

manufacturing industries. 

The legislation doesn’t help one company, or one university. It 

enables an entire vertical supply chain for specific manufacturing 

industries. We believe that is the proper role for the Federal Government to take, assist an entire industry, with everyone, including 

academia, state and local governments, and industry putting skin 

in the game. 2996 authorizes the creation of Centers for Manufacturing Innovation. Each center will focus on a specific technology 
17 

for the commercialization of manufactured goods. Such a model allows for pre-competitive research, or pilot scale manufacturing 

product development. 

As I said earlier, SEMI member companies’ cost to commercialize 

the next generation of technology into then manufactured product 

is extremely expensive. Having a shared manufacturing pilot line 

for all companies, including large and small, that are part of the 

supply chain saves resources for everyone. It is especially important for small and medium suppliers, who cannot afford the high 

cost to commercialize technology. The legislation is technology neutral. The government cannot require specific technologies. Rather, 

they will be competed through a merit based solicitation process. 

One of the technologies our member companies produce are light 

emitting diodes, and I see mine is red now, so I will refer you to 

my written testimony, and be happy to answer questions. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Davis follows:] 
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Chairman BUCSHON. Thank you, Mr. Davis. 

I will now recognize our next witness, Dr. Aubrecht, for his testimony, five minutes. 

TESTIMONY OF DR. RICHARD A. AUBRECHT, 

VICE CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD, 

VICE PRESIDENT, 

STRATEGY & TECHNOLOGY, MOOG INC. 

Dr. AUBRECHT. Thank you very much for this opportunity to testify. Let me start by giving a little background on Moog. We are 

headquartered in Buffalo, New York. We have been in business for 

about 60 years. We were actually a spin-out of Cornell University 

to begin with. Our primary products and technologies relate to precision motion control. We supply flight controls for aircraft. We 

have all the flight controls on the F–35. We have the same position 

with Boeing on the 787, and with Airbus. This is the first time Airbus has ever gone outside Europe for that sort of control system. 

And just recently we won the same kind of a program at Embraer 

in Brazil. 

We are a global company, about $2–1/2 billion in sales, 13,000 

employees. We are a manufacturing company. We have had a history of 60 years of being on the leading edge of the technology, but 

what enables that is to be a leading edge manufacturer. It is not 

just a matter of being able to design things. You have got to be able 

to make things. And so, with our global perspective—I travel all 

over the world. We have locations in 30 countries around the world, 

15 manufacturing locations around the world, seven locations in 

the United States, and so I am very aware of the competitive nature of international manufacturing. And what we—a lot of what 

we sell overseas we make overseas, but we also export a lot from 

our facilities here in the United States. 

I am in full agreement with the premise outlined in the Dear 

Colleague letter. Manufacturing is very important in the U.S. economy, and it also is highly dependent upon the skilled technicians, 

and machinists, and electronic technicians that put our products together every day. Currently we are facing a significant increase in 

our need for training. We had a great growth period in the 1970s 

and ’80s. A lot of these people are retiring over the next ten years, 

so we have significant need at this point in time for improved 

training. 

I believe the question we should be asking today is not do we 

need more training, but how to more effectively provide training. 

This Act is about productivity, and about innovation, and I would 

suggest to think about how you can be more productive and innovative in training. Recently, in the last five or six years or so, there 

have been—what are called massive open online courses have been 

developed. There are 100 universities that have joined consortia, 

such as Udacity, and—ExEd is the other one, and they are redoing 

the model for providing education. And it seems to me that you 

could take that model and use that for providing a lot of the basic 

training that you need for manufacturing technicians of all kinds, 

machinists, electronic technicians, software programmers. It can be 

done online. That is the whole premise of that sort of training. 
23 

The reason for doing it is that you can get the very best lecturers 

to put the courses together, and then provide them asynchronously 

to people all over the country. So you have got an ability to be able 

to deliver wherever it is. We have some of our facilities in Murphy, 

North Carolina. There are no training facilities in Murphy, North 

Carolina. This would enable us to be able to provide courses to 

these sort of people all over. The other is it is asynchronous, so people can do it on their time. You don’t have to show up at 7:00 on 

Tuesday and Thursday evening, and drive 100 miles to go to the 

course. 

So, to me, the Federal Government could play a very key role in 

seeding that sort of capability, work with people like Coursera and 

ExEd that have put these programs together. They have the technology already worked out to provide the courses. What is needed 

is somebody to pull that together and provide the seed funding. 

There is also, it seems to me, a number of natural partners for all 

of that. There are—the companies who manufacture the equipment, they already have training programs in place, but they are 

all in place programs. You have to travel to wherever their training 

centers are, very expensive to do that. The other are—part of what 

is mentioned in the material for the Act is talking about supply 

chain management. There are two associations of people and supply chain managers. They already have training and certificate programs. You could work with them and provide their kind of training online all over the country. 

So it seems to me, when you think about innovation, you want 

to think about, how is it we can provide more training at a much 

lower cost? The universities that have gone into this already have 

seen that their—the cost per student goes down by an order of 

magnitude. It is down less than ten percent of what it costs to do 

it in place. And the other countries that I travel to aren’t even 

thinking about this at this point, even at the university level. So 

if the United States wanted to gain a significant advantage in 

training for manufacturing, this would be one way of doing, use 

it—use the online capabilities that are already there. 

In summary, I think the government could very effectively take 

that sort of a role, and provide the necessary risk capital, is the 

way I think of it, to be able to get some sort of thing going. It is 

not going to happen unless somebody like that steps in and does 

it. The industry will support it once it is there, but you have to 

have somebody who takes and pulls it together. And, as I say, 

there are natural partners. You don’t have to start from ground 

zero. 

So thank you very much. 

[The prepared statement of Dr. Aubrecht follows:] 
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Chairman BUCSHON. Thank you, Dr. Aubrecht. 

I will recognize now Dr. Biller for five minutes for his testimony. 

TESTIMONY OF DR. STEPHAN BILLER, 

CHIEF SCIENTIST MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY, 

GE GLOBAL RESEARCH 

Dr. BILLER. Chairman Buchson, Ranking Member Lipinski, 

Members of the Committee, it is a privilege to share with you today 

GE’s thoughts on the creation of the NNMI program, and the establishment of Centers of Manufacturing Innovation, or CMIs. 

GE Global Research was America’s first industrial research lab, 

established in 1900. For more than 100 years, it has been the cornerstone of innovation for GE, and a proud contributor to the U.S. 

lab manufacturing revolution that helped shape and define the 

20th century. Today we would like to share GE’s thoughts on 

launching an NNNMI, and the critical role such an initiative can 

play in helping American companies be leaders in the next manufacturing revolution that is rapidly defining the 21st century. 

Innovation has always been one of our nation’s greatest assets, 

but if the United States is going to be a leader in manufacturing 

moving forward, the country needs to embrace new trends that are 

driving our ability to compete. 

Mr. LIPINSKI. Dr. Biller, could you pull the microphone closer? 

Dr. BILLER. Is this better? 

Chairman BUCSHON. That is much better. 

Dr. BILLER. I am sorry. Okay. To become more competitively 

globally, government support for innovation has to become more 

targeted, involve more partners, and commit to longer time horizons that are closer to commercialization. Other developed high 

wage countries, such as Germany and Japan, have long taken such 

an approach, and found much success, considering their levels of 

manufacturing employment. Similarly, the launch of the NNMI 

would embrace this innovation model, and significantly improve 

the competitiveness of U.S. manufacturing. 

The success of the NNMI will depend on having a healthy ecosystem of centers of manufacturing innovations, or the CMI’s, with 

participants from academia, government, and industry. We believe 

that it is paramount to U.S. manufacturing competitiveness that 

the CMIs help small and medium enterprises, the SMEs, introduce 

novel manufacturing technology into the U.S. manufacturing supply chain more rapidly. To provide these SMEs with the best possible framework to succeed, we recommend adapting a 

SEMATECH-like collaboration model that provides broad access to 

state-of-the-art equipment, draws leadership of CMIs from industry, and leverages CMIs as a training ground to develop an advanced manufacturing workforce. We believe the NNMI can provide the broad framework that strengthens the U.S. industrial base 

position as a global manufacturing leader. 

Last year GE was very pleased when the first innovation institute was established under the NNMI, in additive manufacturing, 

or NAMI, in Youngstown, Ohio, and is proud to be an industry 

partner. Already NAMI is beginning to show how big companies 

like GE can connect and work effectively with small and medium 

companies to push new advancements. 
29 

In the same way that CMIs should draw upon the unique skills 

of academia, government, and industry, it is equally important for 

each of the CMIs’ governing boards to draw its membership from 

academia, government, and industry. When it comes to day-to-day 

operations, however, the leaders for each institute, and a number 

of their staff, should be recruited from private industry, and have 

demonstrated experience in the insertion of advanced manufacturing technology into production. We believe that is really the key. 

This will ensure that industry sees the benefit of engagement with 

CMIs, and participants in these institutes, on a long term basis. 

Many large companies, like GE, have continued to use apprenticeship programs to build the skilled workforce of tomorrow. The 

skills gap, however, is not limited to producing a production workforce. The proportion of science and engineering workforce older 

than 50 has risen significantly in recent years as well. We must 

also place emphasis on replenishing the advanced manufacturing 

researchers that will be necessary to develop tomorrow’s technology 

breakthroughs. The NNMI is really an ideal place to do that. 

Regarding the design of these CMIs for broad impact, GE would 

like to make the following recommendations. Each Center for Manufacturing Innovation should focus its effort on addressing the fundamental technical barriers that prevent manufacturers from 

broadly adopting specific technologies. To accomplish this, each 

CMI should adopt an inclusive SEMATECH-like approach that includes participants from each part of the manufacturer’s supply 

chain. The equipment within each of these CMIs should be made 

available to all companies so they can conduct manufacturing trials 

to reduce implementation risks, and improve the productivity and 

competitiveness of their manufacturing operations, very much like 

the Fraunhofer Institutes in Germany. 

At the same time, companies that provide advanced technology 

equipment to the CMIs should be allowed to count these in-kind 

contributions toward membership or participation fees. This will 

ensure that the CMIs will always have access to state-of-the-art 

equipment. The advisory boards that provide direction to the CMIs 

should be comprised of individuals from industry, government, academia, but the leadership teams should be recruited from industry, 

and should have experience in the insertion of advanced manufacturing technology. Additionally, the NNMIs should create a mechanism for collaboration, technology transfer, and the aspect of sharing. 

Finally, working with community college and universities, CMIs 

should provide internships to train the future advanced manufacturing workforce. Furthermore, mechanisms should be created to 

allow private sector employees to collaborate at the CMIs for long 

term assignments. The NNMIs represent, really, a significant opportunity for the United States to restore its manufacturing prowess and improve its competitiveness. GE is really committed to creating an industrial manufacturing ecosystem by working with 

other organizations to form these CMIs. 

Thank you, and I look forward for your questions. 

[The prepared statement of Dr. Biller follows:] 
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Chairman BUCSHON. Thank you, Dr. Biller. 

I now recognize Dr. Veuger for five minutes for his testimony. 

Welcome. 

TESTIMONY OF DR. STAN A. VEUGER, 

RESIDENT SCHOLAR, 

AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE FOR 

PUBLIC POLICY RESEARCH 

Dr. VEUGER. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, Mr. Ranking Member, I 

would like to thank you for the opportunity to testify today before 

the Committee. I am here to discuss the need for a manufacturing 

innovation network, as proposed in H.R. 2996. H.R. 2996 proposes 

to appropriate $600 million to—for establishing a network for manufacturing innovation consisting of Centers for Manufacturing Innovation. These centers are meant to address challenges in advanced manufacturing to retain or expand industrial production 

and jobs in the United States. They must do so in areas determined 

by the Secretary of Commerce to be of importance in attaining 

these goals, and they must feature representatives from multiple 

entities from a broad range of categories. 

The Secretary of Commerce’s decision as to which Centers are 

worthy of federal funding will be—decides these overall goals on 

criteria including the involvement of small and medium sized manufacturing firms, as well as on how the Center for Manufacturing 

Innovation will strengthen and leverage the assets of a region. 

Now, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the manufacturing sector employs some 12 million workers in the United 

States, down from almost 20 million in the late 1970s. It is about 

half a million more than at the end of 2009, but still about two million fewer than before the start of the Great Recession. These figures do not suggest what is commonly referred to as a true Renaissance of U.S. manufacturing, but a look at sales manufacturers’ 

sales figures provides much more of an underpinning to such a 

view of U.S. manufacturing. 

According to the Census Bureau, manufacturing sales are indeed 

back where they were at their previous peak. After falling by about 

25 percent during the recession, they had rebounded by July of this 

year. What this suggests, of course, that most of the recent resurgence of manufacturing in the United States has been highly capital intensive. That is, output is increasing without much new hiring. It has been true for decades. It is mostly a product of technological progress, and does not appear to be a trend that is about 

to reverse. 

It is also certainly not a phenomenon that is unique to the 

United States. Even Germany, touted for its positive trade balance—manufacturing products in H.R. 2996, have seen manufacturing employment as a share of total employment plummet over 

the past 40 years. These broad long term developments, driven by 

technological change more than domestic public policy, are important to consider when analyzing the state of manufacturing today. 

It seems unlikely manufacturing will regain its old central role in 

the labor market in our modern economy, and striving to reverse 

the trends highlighted before us is likely to be costly, and ultimately fruitless. 
39 

Now, new spending initiatives, like the manufacturing innovation network proposed here, look even less attractive if we also consider the state of the Federal Government’s finances. Over the past 

40 years mandatory spending, particularly on entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare, has escalated rapidly. 

Less than 20 percent of the Federal budget now goes toward programs other than Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP, other 

safety net programs, defense, and interest payments, and almost 

half of that—half of the remaining 20 percent pays for benefits for 

federal retres and veterans. This development puts immense pressure on discretionary spending programs, some of which are quite 

crucial to the nation’s future. Instead of allocating funds to new 

manufacturing innovation initiatives, I prefer that current spending on scientific and medical research be maintained, that some of 

the more unfortunate sequestration cuts in those areas be reversed. 

More importantly, to preserve such important programs, Congress 

needs to commit to serious entitlement reform in order to keep entitlement spending from further crowding out all other spending. 

At the same time, setting the stage for enduring American competitiveness is certainly within the realm of the possible. By removing uncertainty about a country’s fiscal policies, but providing tax 

and regulatory relief to both manufacturing and non-manufacturing firms, by training workers to be able to function in today’s 

globalized economy, and by benefitting from the domestic oil and 

gas industry’s newfound health, the United States can continue to 

be home to extraordinarily successful innovative firms in manufacturing and elsewhere. 

In sum, I believe that there is a variety of ways in which to address, or at least alleviate, some of the problems often attributed 

to the decline of manufacturing in the United States. None of these 

are cure-alls, but some of them—though possibly politically difficult 

are more genuinely beneficial than others, including corporate tax 

reform and entitlement reform. Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Dr. Veuger follows:] 
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Chairman BUCSHON. Thank you, Dr. Veuger, for that testimony. 

I would like to thank all the witnesses for their testimony, and remind the Members that the Committee rules limit questioning for 

five minutes. The Chair, at this point, will open the round of questioning, and I recognize myself for five minutes. 

Dr. Aubrecht, I am interested since your company is so global, 

if you had two or three things that are really potentially 

disadvantaging the United States versus the rest of the world 

when it comes to manufacturing, what would those be? 

Dr. AUBRECHT. Regulations would be the one that would head 

my list. 

Chairman BUCSHON. And—or—what—I mean, what direction do 

you think the rest of world’s going when it comes to these type of 

things, like regulation, taxation, or—let me just give you an example. There is a business in my district, a large company, that, when 

I talked to the CEO, and he told me what his offer was to move 

his company to a foreign country, it almost seemed like an offer 

you couldn’t refuse, except for the fact that American manufacturers want to stay in America, and they want to employ U.S. citizens. 

But, on the face of it, it was—it seemed like a pretty difficult offer 

to refuse, although they did. What are the few things that you 

think that America can—that we should be doing that will make 

us be able to compete with offers like that, or from around the 

world, I mean, just in general? Other than regulation, as you said. 

Dr. AUBRECHT. Well, the whole topic of the day is on innovation 

and manufacturing, and as I—focused on was the training aspect 

of the whole thing. Our assets walk out the door every night, and 

you need to maintain the capability of the people in the organization, from the design engineers, down to the people that are putting the product together on a daily basis. And in terms of productivity, our American workforce that we have in Buffalo is the best 

that we have anywhere in the world. 

At the same time, the Buffalo economy is not doing all that well. 

We put an ad in the paper or online for somebody, we get 100 applicants for one spot. And—so I think the—our experience that way 

is not typical for a lot of American manufacturers. We are able to 

get the people and retain the people. We have less than one percent turnover in the company. But, as I say, we have people retiring, and now trying to find other younger people to come in and 

replace them, we are having to do a lot more training. We have had 

apprentice programs we have run with the community college. We 

have also become a much more global company. If you go back 20 

years, 90 percent of our manufacturing was done in Buffalo, New 

York, and today we are down to maybe 25 percent because we 

made the acquisitions, we put facilities in other places in the 

United States, and we are finding the training capabilities in those 

places are not as good. 

The flipside of that is—you are—talking earlier about the 

Fraunhofer Institutes, I spent three years living in Stuttgart, and 

worked with the Fraunhofer Institutes there. That provides a great 

advantage. One of the real advantages that Germany has is not 

just that kind of a capability, but the training programs that they 

have that start in what you think of as 9th grade in the United 

States. People come out—we can hire people at 19 and put them 
49 

in front of a half a million dollar machine tool, and they know what 

to do with it. And we can’t do that here in the United States. That 

is the thing we need to improve on, is the skills to be able to actually execute. We have got great design engineers, great capability, 

but the question is, how well do you execute that? 

I would also suggest that one of the other things you ought to 

think about with this is about—they say we do about $2–1/2 billion. 700 million of that is sales that ultimately end up to the U.S. 

Government. So our productivity is of great interest to you as well, 

in terms of how much do you get for your defense spending dollars. 

And so I would think that that would be another place that you 

ought to be thinking about it, is how is it you could link with other 

people who are customers in the government for the products we 

end up producing. 

Chairman BUCSHON. Thank you. And I also serve on the Education and Workforce Committee, which this is a challenge that 

that Committee’s working on, as—trying to figure out K through 12 

education, and where—like you pointed out, where we can make 

some adjustments that when people finish high school, that they 

already have a significant amount of skill, if that is their area that 

they want to pursue, and have those options available to them at 

the high school level—— 

Dr. AUBRECHT. Um-hum. 

Chairman BUCSHON. —and come out with up front better training. And I think we are going to start doing a better job of that. 

We have gotten a little bit behind, but I think we are going to 

catch up. So that definitely is important. 

I am going to—to all witnesses—I will start with Mr. Davis. We 

have held a number of hearings in the Subcommittee, and we are 

considering legislation to reauthorize funding for basic research at 

NSF, NIST, and the DOE Office of Science. As you know, we are 

facing difficult budget times, and what recommendations would you 

have for policymakers in prioritizing Federal spending on advanced 

manufacturing programs? 

Mr. DAVIS. Thank you, Congressman. Clearly, I think in the context of today’s discussion, our industry views the research and development that is oriented towards commercialization, how we take 

innovation and make sure that those innovations propel economic 

growth, jobs, and prosperity in the United States. 

Chairman BUCSHON. Dr. Veuger, do you want—any comments on 

that? And then I am going to be out of time. Am I out of time? I 

am out of time. 

I now yield to the Ranking Member, Mr. Lipinski, for his questioning. Thank you. 

Mr. LIPINSKI. Thank you. I want to thank all of our witnesses for 

their testimony. And, in—pointing out that this bill really proposes 

that this is going to be a public-private partnership led by industry, 

and I think that is very important, and that Mr. Davis had brought 

up that this will assist an entire industry. I think those are important things to understand about this bill. 

And, Dr. Aubrecht, certainly couldn’t agree with you more on the 

need to do better with training, and I am glad to hear in Buffalo 

that the supply of workers, and qualified ready workers is there, 
50 

but I certainly hear from manufacturers in Chicago that that is not 

necessarily the case, and I think we need to do more on that. 

But I wanted to ask Dr. Biller, as proposed in this legislation, 

the main purpose of the centers for manufacturing is to close the 

gap between R&D activities in deployment of technological innovation in domestic production of goods. I have—it has been—one of 

my biggest issues for me is to do what we can at the Federal level 

to help to close that gap. We have great R&D that goes on in this 

county, and, unfortunately, so much of it does not get deployed into 

innovation, and some of it that does isn’t—is not done here. 

So, in your testimony, you mentioned that Federal Government 

support has to involve more partners, and be committed to longer 

time horizons. You also indicate that research collaborations need 

to continue to later stages of R&D, closer to commercialization. So 

I wanted to ask, does the legislation address the needs you have 

identified in your testimony, and why is it important that research 

supported by the centers get to the production level, or later stages 

of R&D? 

Dr. BILLER. It is really all about getting over that Valley of 

Death we have been talking about between—for technology at readiness level four to seven, which is really what the Fraunhofer Institutes and the SEMATECH model essentially addressed. So it is important for companies like General Electric that we have access to 

that, but I think it is even more important that we create an ecosystem of small and medium enterprises that have access to that 

kind of technology, because they have neither the skills, nor the 

money, to develop technology through that Valley of Death. 

And, just as we have seen now in the additive manufacturing 

space, where the creation of an ecosystem allows us to draw upon 

an innovation capability from a much broader supply base, we need 

to think about how we are going to create that ecosystem of a much 

broader supply base with SMEs and traditional manufacturing, 

which is probably 99 percent of current manufacturing, and additive being maybe one or less. 

So, to us, to stay globally competitive, and particularly in the 

United States, it is very, very important that we get our small and 

medium enterprise through that Valley of Death, and give them access to advanced manufacturing technologies. And I think that is 

where the NNMIs can play a key role in accomplishing that. So 

that is why we are so supportive of this model. And, again, in Germany and Japan, you have SMEs being so successful, and being 

world leaders, because they have support, like the Fraunhofers, or 

the Japanese equivalent. 

Mr. LIPINSKI. Okay. And, sir, getting back to the public-private 

partnerships, why are these so—and you have talked about a few 

things. Are there other things you could talk about, why these are 

so attractive to industry? 

Dr. BILLER. If we think—if you think about, for example, the suggested DMDI Institute on digital manufacturing innovation, there 

the SMEs need to learn simulation capabilities, capabilities to design product in virtual—launch the factories in a virtual environment, thereby increasing innovation, decreasing cost. They have to 

integrate with the large companies in a digital space. They currently don’t have the engineers trained to do that. They currently 
51 

don’t have the software available to them to do that. We need to 

think of these CMIs as a commons essentially, where we are going 

to train our SMEs, as well as develop technology, and give them 

access to that, so that they stay globally competitive. For us it is 

always, you know, the best thing is make what you sell, that— 

thereby you are the closest to your customer, your product engineers are together with your manufacturing engineers. And we 

need to think of manufacturing as a requirement for product innovation. That is why we think it is so important. 

Mr. LIPINSKI. And as manufacturing leaves this country, that is 

the great fear, that innovation will also leave the country, as the 

people who are doing innovation are moved over, or it is all done 

where the manufacturing’s done outside the country, so—thank 

you. I yield back. 

Chairman BUCSHON. Thank you. I now recognize Mr. Schweikert 

for five minutes for his line of questioning. 

Mr. SCHWEIKERT. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to sort of 

back up, and maybe even move slightly more conceptually. 

Gentlemen, if you were to lay out in front of me and say, here 

is where we are finding innovation, creativity, sort of break 

through concepts as much as technology, and I don’t mean it geographically, I mean it organizationally, are you finding it coming 

out of the universities? Are you finding it coming out of small manufacturers? Are you finding it when a half a dozen engineers from 

Intel go off and start their own business? Where is that ecosystem 

of the—sort of the cutting edge ideas? Where is it coming from? Mr. 

Davis, start there. 

Mr. DAVIS. So if I could say all of the above, and I think that 

is one of the attractive elements of this legislation, is it tries to leverage the synergies between private enterprise, universities, state 

and federal governments, small and medium sized enterprises. 

Mr. SCHWEIKERT. Well, but—back to the—very precise in the 

question. Where do you see the innovation actually happening? 

Mr. DAVIS. So innovation and invention are two different things, 

in my mind. I think invention happens in fundamental research in 

universities, where basic breakthroughs occur. Innovation becomes 

the application of—— 

Mr. SCHWEIKERT. The adoption of? 

Mr. DAVIS. Yeah, the adoption and application of those inventions in commercial ways. So I think, from an industry association 

perspective, we see innovation happening with companies—— 

Mr. SCHWEIKERT. Okay. 

Mr. DAVIS. —ideas to market. 

Mr. SCHWEIKERT. Doctor? 

Dr. AUBRECHT. For us it is primarily our design engineers. Our 

fundamental business model is to get very close to our customers, 

and find out what their problem is. This is a classic Clayton 

Christensen, find out what your problem—customer’s problem is, 

and go solve it. And it is that interface with our customers, and 

that dialogue that happens between the—our—design engineers for 

our customers and our engineers, that is where the innovation happens. When we were doing the 787 program, we had 25 of our engineers working in Boeing’s Seattle facility for about four years to design our flight controls right into the aircraft. There is a tremen-
52 

dous amount of innovation that came out of that. The experience 

that our people get doing that is what is led us to do the next generation for other aircraft, then. 

Mr. SCHWEIKERT. Okay. So your smart people went on site with 

your customer? 

Dr. AUBRECHT. Exactly, and that is where we see the most 

sources of the innovation, is working with your end customer, and 

understanding what their problem is, and having your people work 

with them. It is the same with manufacturing. It is getting our 

manufacturing people to work with—sometimes it is universities, 

sometimes it is the equipment manufacturers—talking to the 

equipment manufacturer about—your machine is doing this great, 

however, if you did this with it—and, again, it is the same sort 

of—— 

Mr. SCHWEIKERT. Well, that is the translation of the knowledge 

that is been gained. I am sort of trying to understand where those 

ideas are germinating. 

Dr. AUBRECHT. It is the same kind of conversation. 

Mr. SCHWEIKERT. Okay. Dr. Biller? 

Dr. BILLER. I agree wholeheartedly with Dr. Aubrecht. It happens in the factories, when our researchers go to those factories, 

try to figure out where the pinpoints—what are the problems? For 

us, our factories are the customers. And then, conversely, when we 

go into our supply chain, we help our SMEs and our business partners in the same way. We are trying to find out what the problem 

is, go after the problem. Innovation really happens for manufacturing on the plant floor, with smart people, including academics, 

including people from government labs, including people from industrial research labs. 

Mr. SCHWEIKERT. Okay. Doctor? This is easy. I can just sort of 

go, Doctor, Doctor—— 

Dr. VEUGER. I think I would agree with the all of the above answer that I think all of the previous speakers have given. And I 

think that is what makes it hard to justify the federal government 

giving preference to certain processes, certain groups, certain 

places over others, and to, you know, to place, admittedly, a large 

part of the economy, but still one sector of one industry over others. 

Mr. SCHWEIKERT. Can—actually, can you elaborate on that? Because it is touching on—one of my concerns is often, when a piece 

of legislation like this, that is very well meaning, does—because of 

the financial incentives and mechanics built into that, do you start 

to silo where innovation actually starts to be developed because of 

the financial incentives there. So, Doctor, please continue there. 

Dr. VEUGER. I mean, I would—I mean, it seems clear that a bill 

like this, in a way, subsidizes innovation in manufacturing over all 

other innovation and R&D. I mean, that may be something you 

want to do for some reason, but it is—I mean, it is certainly true 

that there is an element of prioritization there. 

Mr. SCHWEIKERT. Okay. And, with that, Mr. Chairman, I am out 

of time. Thank you. 

Chairman BUCSHON. Thank you. I now recognize Dr. Bera—— 

Mr. BERA. Great. Thank you—— 

Chairman BUCSHON. —five minutes. 
53 

Mr. BERA. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and, you know, I want to 

thank my colleague, Mr. Kennedy, for bringing this important piece 

of legislation to the forefront. It is incredibly timely that we are 

talking about how we revive the manufacturing sector, and how we 

create jobs. I had a town hall with my constituents back in Sacramento County last night, a telephone town hall, and in that I 

heard from a number of folks that, you know, are consistently looking for jobs. I heard from one young veteran who returned, all she 

wants is to find a job. She is not asking for Unemployment benefits 

or anything, she just wants to find a job. I also heard from a desperate couple that is been out of work for two years, and they are 

incredibly worried about Unemployment benefits being cut off, but 

they are not asking for an extension. They need that extension, but 

they want a job. They have been looking for jobs. 

Now, Dr. Aubrecht, you touched on part of our challenge, this 

skills mismatch. There are plenty of jobs out there, but our workforce, our graduates, are not trained to meet those jobs, so we do 

have to double the effort to make sure we are addressing that skills 

mismatch. You know, another challenge is—maybe Mr. Davis 

touched on this, or all of you touched on it, is inconsistent Federal 

policy. I mean, we have not defined, you know, what our goal is, 

how we are going to make those investments, what kind of a regulatory framework we are going to do, so we can create that—those 

jobs, so we can make those investments, so our kids, our graduates, 

are able to fill those needs. In addition, we have seen dramatic reductions on our investment in R&D, and that creates another challenge for us. 

And then Mr. Lipinski touched on, you know, this issue of technology transfer, you know, how we quickly get these ideas out of 

our academic institutions, and out of R&D, into, you know, industry so we can commoditize them, and grow industries. That said, 

we do have some assets, and some natural advantages. I think, Dr. 

Veuger, you touched on this energy Renaissance that is coming. 

That will make our manufacturing base much more competitive. 

Dr. Biller, you touched on—I think the term you used was make 

it where you sell. And, you know, as I have been talking to some 

international multinationals, they are considering locating their 

manufacturing sector here in the United States because the advantages that they have in lower costs of labor, we are about to potentially outweigh those advantages, given they are selling to our market. You know, if they build it here, they don’t have the cost of 

transport, and we have much lower energy costs, plus we do have 

the rule of law and so forth here. So there are some advantages 

there. We are still the most innovative economy. 

I haven’t asked a question yet, but on that sector of investment 

in R&D, and on technology transfer, coming out of an academic 

background myself, and any of you can answer this question, what 

can we do to allow industry to partner much more closely with our 

academic institutions to make it easier to take those ideas to market as quickly as possible? Maybe Dr. Aubrecht? 

Dr. AUBRECHT. Yeah. One of my other involvements—I am a 

trustee at Cornell. I have been a trustee there for about 25 years, 

and one of my primary interests there has been technology transfer. And I have looked at models elsewhere around—some of my 
54 

other trustee colleagues have looked at models elsewhere around 

the country. There was an experiment that was run in the California university system about ten years ago. Berkeley lives in the 

same neighborhood as Stanford. Stanford had a tremendous 

amount of industry sponsored research. Berkeley had relatively little, and it all had to do with licensing. And what Berkeley did was 

to run an experiment and allow the researchers to do royalty-free 

non-exclusive licenses. And, as a result of that, in a relatively short 

time period, Berkeley went from under $10 million to over $100 

million a year in industry sponsored research. And it seems to me 

it is the same sort of model. 

There are places where that doesn’t work. If you think about 

medical research for drugs, drugs—a drug company is going to 

want to have an exclusive license, otherwise they are not going to 

put a billion dollars into developing a drug. But for a lot of other 

things, what they found is—they put together industry consortia— 

we are currently partnering with about six universities that have 

industry sponsored consortia, and a lot of those it is royalty-free 

non-exclusive licenses. It is a pre-competitive sort of research that 

ends up going on. And if you look at the research that the federal 

government sponsors, coming out of the NSF, or NIH, or whatever, 

it seems to me that more of that ought to be done with royalty-free 

non-exclusive licenses. 

What happens is researchers get together, or the engineers are 

talking to each other, that is great. They can see the problem, they 

get it defined, and then they spend a year and a half with the attorneys trying to work out a contract. This is nuts. So do it royaltyfree non-exclusive wherever possible. And it seems to me you could 

roll that into the legislation for NSF and NIH to say, we want royalty-free non-exclusive licenses. We want the scientists and engineers talking to each other, not the attorneys. 

Mr. BERA. Great. Sounds great. 

Chairman BUCSHON. I would agree with Dr. Aubecht. 

Mr. BERA. Okay. 

Chairman BUCSHON. I now recognize Mr. Collins for his questioning. 

Mr. COLLINS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and Dr. Aubrecht. Very 

good to see you again today. Moog is in my district, if you will, in 

East Aurora, but also they have their rocket facility up in Niagara 

Falls, which is also in my district, so I like to think at some point 

in time we may have more rocket scientists in the 27th Congressional District than in any other in the country. 

And I have toured your facility, so here is my question. And I am 

involved in manufacturing and in high tech businesses, and many 

case, it is the IP that makes you who you are. 

Dr. AUBRECHT. Um-hum. 

Mr. COLLINS. So Moog, a multi-billion dollar corporation, does 

R&D all the time. You protect what you do with IP. That is what 

differentiates you, whether it is rocket engines, or a new fuel 

source, or whatever. And now we are talking about something like 

the antithesis to that, that you are going to sit down in an industry 

group, so this isn’t going to be a Moog facility, and in that jointly 

develop technology where you don’t have a competitive edge any 

longer. And I am—being, you know, I very much support this, I am 
55 

co-sponsoring this legislation, but the naysayers might say, you 

know, help me through that loop of what you do now. You protect 

your IP at all costs, and now you are going to go try to leapfrog 

somewhere, and you don’t have any IP. Help us through that a little bit. 

Dr. AUBRECHT. So to me it is a question of, you know, you talked 

about technology readiness level. When you are down with the 

technology, one and two, three sort of level, that is pre-competitive 

kind of stuff most of the time, and while you can generate some 

IP coming out of that, what is really important is the intellectual 

engagement of the scientists and the engineers at that point in 

time to see what is possible and with a lot of the innovation that 

happens today, it is not just in one field. Where we are innovating, 

where usually people are involved with five or six or seven disciplines, and the question is how you bring them together and provide a way that people can openly exchange their ideas. 

Mr. COLLINS. Can you give like an example, like something that 

somebody can grab hold of and say, okay, now I got it? You are a 

little bit conceptual there. 

Dr. AUBRECHT. Okay. Aircraft flight controls. It is the computer, 

but it takes people who understand the software architecture, the 

digital programming for all of that, how it is going to function in 

the aircraft, you need to have the aerodynamicists involved, you 

have to have the structural engineers involved. They all need to 

come together and be able to say, here is what the fundamental 

problem is and then the people who have the specific technologies 

in digital hardware and digital software and systems engineering 

can go create a new product. And that is where the IP is created. 

So you can have—we have conversations with all sorts of people 

in those other disciplines out of pre-competitive. We are not telling 

them where we are going to head with it, but ultimately there are 

ideas that come out of that. We have this kind of relationship with 

MIT right now. It is all pre-competitive sort of things that we are 

taking those ideas and learning how to implement them. To me it 

is the intellectual engagement that really drives all of that, and so 

with this sort of legislation what you’d like to do in these centers 

is to provide that sort of independent zone where people can trade 

ideas and talk about things before they are, before you create IP 

that you consider is going to be proprietary. 

Mr. COLLINS. And so one follow-up question. Since this is at max 

seven years of funding—— 

Dr. AUBRECHT. Uh-huh. 

Mr. COLLINS. —50/50 federal government and either industry or 

states, and then the money is gone. And from what I am hearing 

this isn’t going to be a facility that is going to be making things, 

having sales, making profits, covering their own costs. So it is a 

cash burn operation, technology one, two, three. So what happens 

at the end? Does it go out of existence since it is not generating 

income and the money’s gone? What happens after seven years. 

Anybody want to—— 

Mr. DAVIS. I will take a shot at trying to answer both those questions. You had asked for an example of how companies might want 

to participate and preserve their IP. In my industry, a state-of-theart, high-volume manufacturing facility for integrated circuits can 
56 

cost 5 or $6 billion or more because of the high capital equipment 

costs. 

So if you are a small or medium-sized enterprise that is trying 

to develop a new process or introduce a new material or test a kind 

of component, it is very difficult to engage. The cost of entry is so 

high that it is very difficult. 

But a shared facility would enable multiple entities to use that 

facility to develop processes that could then be commercialized, differentiated, and have IP associated with it. 

So the pre-competitive sharing of facilities is a great asset. 

Mr. COLLINS. So in that situation because it is shared, could you 

envision that, you know, after the seven year timeframe industry 

would say they are almost like a trade association? We are going 

to assess a certain amount of dues to keep this going after year 

seven. It is working great. We see the value of it. Is that—— 

Mr. DAVIS. Absolutely, Congressman. I think that is one example 

of a sustaining model that could very well work wherein an established facility then becomes essentially rented out for people that 

want to—— 

Mr. COLLINS. Okay. 

Mr. DAVIS. —test processes. 

Mr. COLLINS. I can see that. My time is expired. Thank you very 

much. 

Chairman BUSCHON. You are welcome. In fact, at—in my district 

there is a battery innovation center outside of Great Naval Surface 

Warfare Center in Westgate, which is doing exactly what you are 

talking about where multiple people from different areas are talking about trying to innovate on the next generation of energy storage so to speak and batteries. And it is, I think it is going to be 

successful. 

With that I recognize Ms. Esty for five minutes. 

Ms. ESTY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to thank you for 

holding this hearing and to my colleagues, Mr. Kennedy and Mr. 

Reed for introducing this legislation which I am looking forward to 

being a cosponsor of. 

I am from Connecticut, one of the homes of manufacturing, and 

these issues are of critical importance. I have companies such as 

Click Bond and Industrial Heater Corporation, who are engaged in 

this effort. These are small manufacturing companies, frequently 

family owned, who have held on through the recession by investing 

their family money to keep going. So this issue about workforce development is critically important. 

You have touched on and sort of referred to the importance on 

colocation, whether it is for innovation for small companies but also 

being near your customer, which seems to me is a very important 

issue of why if we are going to get the benefit of innovation in manufacturing, it needs to be done in the United States. That has important elements that not captured by flying our engineers to the 

plants in China because I have heard that from companies and 

why, in part, not just the energy dynamic changing but also the importance of having that close innovation happening right there on 

the plant floor. 

So, Dr. Biller, I would like you if you could expand a little bit 

more on the apprenticeship programs. I have introduced a piece of 
57 

legislation, the First Step Act, to try to support apprenticeship and 

training programs, that critical piece between not quite ready 

workforce and the workforce I know we need on the plant floor that 

I hear from manufacturers that have openings right now even with 

the high unemployment rate in Connecticut. 

So can you talk about how these apprenticeship programs are 

working and what we could do at the Federal level to help scale 

those up and disseminate those? 

Dr. BILLER. Yeah. So GE has partnered with about 190 companies to establish the Get Skills to Work Program basically trying 

to get about 100,000 veterans into the workforce, and then we are 

working with community colleges and trying to define the skills we 

need within our, that applies to our GE, energy business, it applies 

to our business in Massachusetts on aviation. We have to define 

those skills specifically for these people that they can use them 

within the factories. 

If we want to scale this, and I think I read your legislation, I 

think it is a very good idea. We want to make sure that we get certification that is truly certification. So if I look at a piece of paper 

that says I am certified in X, Y, Z, I know what that means, and 

so it appears to me that a national institute could certify that and 

thereby giving employers the assurance that a person who has such 

a certificate can really do a certain job. 

So I think that will be the way to scale it, provide community 

colleges with a level of certification that they then implement. 

Ms. ESTY. Thank you, because in part we have been approaching 

this as you probably know in Connecticut looking at veterans as 

well, trying to get certification on the military side that translates 

to civilian. 

Dr. BILLER. Yes. 

Ms. ESTY. And nationalized certification that allows transporting 

those skills from company to company and around the country and 

we’d love to follow up with any of you on that point because I do 

think that is a critical missing component that in our Federal system if you compare with say Germany or other countries that are 

nationalized, that that has hampered us in our mobility, in our 

ability to make sure our community colleges and other training facilities have, if it is welding, level one, everyone knows exactly 

what that means, so you as an employer know what that means. 

You know where your employee is starting because I think this is 

a critical component. 

Are there other pieces—something I would like some of you to 

mention, we had an earlier hearing this year where we talked 

about the basic importance of R&D and frankly, a consistent funding stream and really looking at these innovation corridors in Silicon Valley and 128 and Boston, which were really fueled by the 

Department of Defense, which had very large sums of money for 

a very long period of time that allowed the sort of free-flowing R&D 

from which other things could spin out but also had specific tasks 

assigned. And I know we are trying to do this around batteries 

right now, around energy storage. If any of you would like to comment on the importance of that, sort of consistency of funding 

streams on the basic level but then task specific to try to go from 

there. 
58 

Dr. BILLER. I think it is really critical that we look at consistent 

funding. Starting and stopping wastes at least a year every time 

you do it, and so, you know, in a five year program it wastes 20 

percent of U.S. taxpayers’ money if that is how you want to do it. 

So consistency is really critical. 

I want to come back to the previous question of Mr. Collins, who 

talked about how do we sustain this. I have been a member of the 

Center of Intelligent Maintenance for about 13 years where we 

started with very little government funding and over time we have 

recruited many, many members, I think 50 or 60 companies, each 

putting in $40,000 a year, and that became a very—so the government funding was maybe 1 or two percent of the total funding, and 

it was, again, a pre-competitive situation. We developed algorithms 

for maintenance, for machines, and for vehicles, and then we took 

that inside the companies and implemented that. It is the implementation in this case where really the competitiveness starts, not 

in the development of the actual algorithms and TRL one, two, 

three. 

Ms. ESTY. Thank you very much. 

Chairman BUSCHON. I now recognize Mr. Hultgren for his line of 

questioning. 

Mr. HULTGREN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you all for 

being here. This is a very important conversation and discussion 

that we need to be having where we are talking about competitiveness for the United States, specifically in manufacturing and especially in high tech manufacturing, and we need to do everything we 

can here in Congress to be working with you to be helping with 

that. 

So I know in my home state, Illinois, we have got statistics say 

578,200 manufacturing jobs and 1.8 million jobs are tied in directly 

to manufacturing. A little over 12 percent of Illinois GDP is attributable to manufacturing, making it the largest share, and yet significant challenges manufacturing is facing right now. I know we 

have discussed in this Subcommittee over the last months the disconnect between many academic institutions and industry that 

often makes it more difficult to train our next generation’s workforce. 

There are also obvious tax and regulatory issues U.S. industries 

face. I know I have heard excluding labor costs it is still 20 percent 

more expensive to manufacture in the United States compared to 

other trading partners. 

So my question, first, would address to all of you if you could 

make a comment. I know the goal of the proposed network is to aid 

high-tech manufacturing in the U.S., and I absolutely agree that 

we need to encourage this. Some might say, though, if any amount 

of Federal spending on science and technology, they question 

whether that would help manufacturing as much as significant regulatory and tax reform potentially would help manufacturing. I 

wonder if you could provide us with your thoughts on this, as well 

as how to create the optimal environment to support high tech 

manufacturing and job creation here in the U.S. 

I throw that out to any of you if you have thoughts. I know it 

is a big question. 
59 

Mr. DAVIS. That is a big question, Congressman. Thank you for 

that. A month ago or so Speaker Boehner visited one of our member company facilities in Ohio, not in Silicon Valley. It was a subsidiary of a Silicon Valley company that made very highly-specialized components, which sort of speaks to the complex nature of 

supply chains. And it was very interesting when Speaker Boehner 

asked about how he sees priorities, mentioned that the application 

of research and development, that he understood that particularly 

from some of the enterprises in his district, and I think that is an 

essential point from an industry perspective is being able to harness the synergies of research and development, get over the Valley 

of Death, and commercialize. And that can happen in synergistic 

ways in Centers such as the ones defined by this legislation. 

Mr. HULTGREN. Any other thoughts? 

Again, just boiling the question down. I mean, I absolutely agree 

and want, you know, basic talk all the time of encouraging research and developments and want to make sure we have got that 

commitment, but also what I hear from my manufacturers is they 

want to do that, but the biggest weight they feel is regulatory burden and tax burden. So—sorry for the feedback. Hopefully we will 

get that taken care of. But any thoughts on that? You know, again, 

we would like both, but to me what I am hearing is a prioritization 

on regulatory reform and tax reform. Would you agree, disagree? 

Dr. BILLER. We would certainly agree that regulation reforms 

would greatly help in any state, Illinois, Michigan, New York. I 

think any state we—that would be certainly beneficial, but I also 

want to point out, you know, you make the point between research 

and development. So we are doing—we are the best country in the 

world in research. I don’t think anybody would doubt that. We are 

not the best country in development, and so we are researching for 

the world and giving it away in TRL four to seven, and, you know, 

from an investment perspective we really need to go longer and 

maybe more focused and thereby we would reap for the Nation the 

benefits of the research we are doing in one to three. I am not for 

cutting research. I am just for let’s think about how we prioritize 

that in a way that we are not doing research only. We also move 

through that Valley of Death and get to the development. 

Mr. HULTGREN. Yeah. I think we all want that. Another thing I 

talk about all the time on the Committee is what, when times are 

tough and certainly they are right now, what can only federal government do, and that is where I think basic scientific research is 

something, and it is very difficult to put together a business plan 

that makes sense for basic scientific research. It is still tough for 

development, but it is a little easier if you have kind of the understanding of why something works to apply it and make our lives 

better for it. 

So that is—I would love to do both, I would love to have the resources we need for both, but I think that is the challenge, making 

sure we still are strong on the research side while also pushing as 

opportunity comes and resources come to find ways to work with 

industry to continue development. So I totally agree. 

My time is winding down. Real quick question, may I, Chairman? 

Mr. Davis, just quickly, you touched on some other foreign government subsidies for your industry that lure away American compa-
60 

nies. I wonder if you can expound on what these incentives are but 

more importantly what impact they might have on the U.S. economy and if there is any national security implications of these supply chains moving overseas? 

Mr. DAVIS. Well, speaking primarily for the commercial aspect, 

I think what we see increasingly in foreign governments is a choice 

to compete and a decision to move from making stuff to designing 

stuff, to move up the value chain. China’s five year plan is very 

specific in identifying, unambiguous in identifying key technology 

areas to make substantial investment. So I think some of the ways 

in which foreign governments appear to provide great clarity is 

being specific about the kinds of industries that they want to develop and cultivate. Certainly as industry migrates overseas and 

the research and development and the capacity to manufacture 

moves with it, there are certainly national security implications. 

Mr. HULTGREN. Again, my time has expired. Thank you, Chairman. You wouldn’t mind if we could follow up with questions we 

might have just to get a little bit more detail. I know our time is 

limited here today, but thank you so much. I appreciate you being 

here and all the information you have shared. 

Thank you, Chairman, for your generosity. 

Chairman BUSCHON. I now recognize Ms. Kelly for her questioning. 

Ms. KELLY. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you for being here 

today. I am also from Illinois and represent the south side of Chicago and further south, and manufacturing is one of my biggest 

employers, but we are suffering in my area from unemployment 

higher than even the State of Illinois’ average. 

You talk about in your testimony, Dr. Biller, the importance of 

small and medium-sized manufacturers and indicate that the Centers for Manufacturing Innovation proposed by the legislation can 

help small and medium enterprises introduce novel manufacturing 

technology into the U.S. supply chain more rapidly. 

What do you think are some of the specific challenges faced by 

some of the smaller manufacturers? 

Dr. BILLER. Well, let’s try and take the idea of creating a new 

product and a new product line in the virtual space, because that 

is really where the development is going, that people are creating 

something in a computer-aided design. Then they are moving 

through computer-aided manufacturing, computer-aided engineering. Everything happens essentially in the computer. It is all digital. 

And so now our suppliers, especially the smaller ones, might 

lack, A, access to such tools because they are expensive, and B, access to engineers who can operate those tools, even if they had 

those tools. So for us it is really critical that those SMEs get 

trained in these skills and that they have access maybe on a, you 

know, buy-by-the-drink way through an institute way so that they 

can actually continue to be our suppliers or become our supplier. 

What we want at General Electric, we want to have as competitive 

a supply base as possible. It helps us, it helps the nation, helps the 

suppliers, it helps everybody. And so we think that is really critical 

that we get to such an environment where people have access to 

that, and if we don’t allow SMEs to acquire such skills, then we 
61 

will see what we have seen before, that companies will leave because they have such skills in other countries and let’s make no 

mistake about it. You know, China, Germany, Japan, they are all 

helping the SMEs to get such suppliers. Fraunhofer have been in 

existence for, you know, 60 or 70 years, continuously, basically 

serving as a transfer mechanism from one SME to the next by developing the technologies in these Federal institutes. 

So we think this is really required to continue to have an SME 

and maybe even to expand the SME base and hopefully help your 

district to get to a better employment level. 

Ms. KELLY. Right, because it is more of the small and mediumsized manufacturers that really hire the area residents and that, 

like has been said already, that people have a great concern about 

not being able to replace people when they retire because people 

don’t have the skills. 

Dr. BILLER. Yes. 

Ms. KELLY. Thank you. 

Chairman BUSCHON. Thank you. I now ask unanimous consent 

for Mr. Kennedy to participate. 

Without objection the Chair now recognizes Mr. Kennedy for five 

minutes. 

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. Chairman, thank you. I appreciate that. I appreciate the time today and your patience and generosity to add me 

on. I also want to thank you for holding this hearing and for—a 

big round of thanks to the Ranking Member as well, Mr. Lipinski, 

for all of his support, not just for the bill but for advanced manufacturing and the concept behind this bill for quite some time, sir, 

so thank you very, very much. 

Mr. Collins, thank you for your questions for making the time, 

and for your support of the legislation as well, and I saw Mr. Reed 

pop in. I know he is going to be here, back momentarily. 

To the witnesses, thank you very, very much for your time. 

Thank you for your testimony. I have, Mr. Chairman, with me a 

number of letters of support from some outside organizations that 

I wanted to submit for the record if I could, so I ask with unanimous consent—— 

Chairman BUSCHON. Without objection. 

[The information appears in Appendix I] 

Mr. KENNEDY. —to the record. Thank you very much, and they 

are from the Motor and Equipment Manufacturers’ Association, the 

National Association of Manufacturers, the Information Technology 

and Innovation Foundation, which includes Alcoa, Ansys, Applied 

Materials, Autodesk, DuPont, National Modeling and Simulation 

Coalition, Owens Illinois, Rockwell Automation, TechSolve, Cal 

Berkeley, Cal Irvine, University of Southern California, One Voice 

representing the National Tooling and Machining Association, and 

the Precision Metal Forming Association, Precision Machine Products Association, DOW, and the Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International, otherwise known as SEMI. Mr. Davis, thank 

you very, very much. 

I wanted to speak briefly, you will be hearing from me in another 

couple of minutes, so I will try to keep it brief. A number of comments from I think the witnesses and from my colleagues here I 

think took the holistic view of the challenges facing the U.S. manu-
62 

facturing industry from regulation taxes uncertainty, overall global, 

or excuse me, economic uncertainty here in the United States and 

globally, the training issue that has come up time and, again, sir, 

as well as energy costs and the potential innovation surrounding 

energy costs that could lead to at least a support for bringing some 

of the manufacturing processes back home. 

I wholeheartedly agree with all of those observations and critiques. This bill obviously attempts to try to get at a small part of 

this but I think a critical part nonetheless, and Mr. Biller, I was 

hoping to get you to elaborate a little bit seeing as GE is involved 

in one of these pilot programs in Youngstown, Ohio, that you already mentioned already the Ohio National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute focused on additive manufacturing otherwise known as perhaps more colloquially 3D printing. 

I just was hoping that you could discuss a little bit more about 

how big companies like GE can work effectively with smaller and 

medium-sized enterprises to fill that gap that you I think so eloquently described that Valley of Death that exists for so many companies out there. If you could just give us a little bit of an overview 

from your experience. 

Dr. BILLER. Sure. So GE has been a founding member of the 

NAMII, the National Institute for Additive Manufacturing, Youngstown, Ohio. The great thing about this institute is I think we have 

close to 100 companies participating in this program and so this allows us to work closely with the suppliers. We can understand better what their capability is. We can help them understand what capability we are looking for when we are looking for a supplier. It 

allows us to grow our own capability, additive manufacturing for 

production is a fairly new field, so it will allow us to have access 

to people who are being trained in additive manufacturing as well 

as our suppliers who have access to people who are coming out of 

school or who have been employees at that center and typically the 

employees at these centers, they cycle through the center, they stay 

for two years and then they move on to go work in industry typically or in academia. 

And so creating that kind of environment where people can get 

together and say, here, this is as a Nation where we want to go 

in terms of additive manufacturing. We all agree that this pre-competitive, and here is where we can move the needle from it being, 

you know, very new technology and unestablished technology, technology where we don’t understand the pure properties, where we 

don’t understand how to produce this at a lower cost and so forth 

to a level where it becomes competitive and where we get a supply 

base and in fact, establish a supply base in additive manufacturing. 

It is a very new field, and so I think was really an ideal first CMI. 

Mr. KENNEDY. Thank you, sir, and Mr. Davis, if I could, and I 

realize the time is brief, but you mentioned a little bit before some 

of the unique challenges I think in your comments about the speaker, about that SEMI—comes to grips with as you are trying to develop new products without being burdened by high costs and the 

high risks associated with that type of innovation and the costs associated with it. 

Could you discuss a little bit on how the semiconductor industry 

is impacted by these issues and some of the ways that hopefully 
63 

a model like this will address it even though I am 10 seconds overtime? 

Mr. DAVIS. Thank you for your leadership on this bill, Congressman, and thank you for the question. 

I think the essential thing facing manufacturers such as those in 

our association is how you maintain a pace of innovation, and innovation isn’t something you fund once, buy, and then you have got 

it. It is an ongoing process that needs to be sustained within this 

country. 

By way of example, when I think about innovative products, 

things that have changed our economy and our competitiveness, 

you look at this thing, which I believe probably every person in this 

room has one of in their pockets. Every single element of this 

smart phone that makes it smart is a product of industry collaboration and public/private partnerships. Touchscreen displays, global 

positioning system, the internet, wireless connectivity, microchips. 

All those things were products of public/private partnership. 

So the vision and leadership that this country can take through 

acts such as this lay a foundation for future prosperity in this 

country in innovation, and I am not sure if that answered your 

question specifically but—— 

Mr. KENNEDY. Beautifully, sir. Thank you, and Mr. Chairman, 

thank you for your generosity. I am sorry to cut it short. Thank you 

very much. 

Chairman BUSCHON. The gentleman is welcome. 

At this point I would like to thank the witnesses for their interesting and valuable testimony. The witnesses are excused, and we 

will take a short break while we set up our second panel. Thank 

you, gentlemen, for your testimony. Appreciate it. 

[Recess.] 

Chairman BUSCHON. All right. We will reconvene for our second 

panel of very distinguished witnesses. Our first witness is the Honorable Tom Reed, the Representative from the 23rd District of New 

York and a Member of the Ways and Means Committee, and our 

second witness is the Honorable Joseph P. Kennedy III, Representative from Massachusetts, 4th Congressional District, and a Member of the Science Committee. 

As you know witnesses’ testimony is limited to five minutes, and 

I will recognize Mr. Reed for his testimony. 

TESTIMONY OF THE HONORABLE TOM REED, 

MEMBER, U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

Hon. REED. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and Ranking 

Member Lipinski and Members of the Committee for the opportunity to weigh in and testify on this important legislation before 

you, and I do not anticipate taking the entire five minutes as I 

have submitted written testimony to the Committee. 

Again, I sincerely would like to thank you for bringing this legislation before the Committee today. I am proud to have introduced 

this legislation, the Revitalize America Manufacturing and Innovation Act with my good friend and good colleague, Congressman Joe 

Kennedy, from Massachusetts, a Member of this Committee, as 

well as working in a bicameral fashion with Senator Sherrod 
64 

Brown of Ohio and Roy Blunt of Missouri on companion legislation 

in the Senate. 

I think this is an exciting piece of legislation that is going to advance manufacturing in America. As a co-chair of the House Manufacturing Caucus here in Congress, I am a firm believer that this 

legislation will take a step in the right direction to enhancing 

American manufacturing and partnering manufacturers together 

with academia, businesses and institutions across America and in 

a public/private manner to bring products from the lab into a commercialized setting. The bill also addresses the clear workforce development issues we face in America in regards to matching up the 

skill sets of advanced manufacturing. This bill in my opinion brings 

that public/private partnership mentality together for purposes of 

innovation, workforce development, and a firm commitment to a 

philosophy that I believe in, and that we are going to make it here 

to sell it there. 

I serve on the Ways and Means Committee and do a lot of work 

on the trade front. One statistic that really jumps out to me on this 

issue, and that is people need to realize that on the world economic 

stage, 95 percent of the world’s consumers live outside of U.S. borders. That means we have to build it here, sell it there, and having 

this type of legislation will bring together those public/private partnerships that will encourage and empower U.S. manufacturing to 

be competitive and to really achieve that goal of making it here to 

sell it there. 

I come from a district of western New York as the Chairman 

knows. It is an exciting area of the world in the sense that Corning 

Incorporated is headquartered in my home town of Corning, New 

York, Corning Incorporated, and the makers of the glass many of 

us have in our iPads and our iPhones, and companies like DresserRand, Cummins, and Lufkin. They are all posed to gain from this 

legislation and the concepts that we have here put forth. 

I was proud to work with the constituent company of G. W. List 

and the Finger Lakes Community College to partner those two institutions up on a pilot demonstration project where the community 

college was using the resources of that manufacturer and that 

manufacturer was using the resources of the community college to 

create a work training program that brought kids and young adults 

from a situation where they didn’t have the skills to participate in 

that U.S. manufacturing setting, and at the end of that program 

were certified and moved right into an employment situation. 

That is what this legislation is trying to do in part on a national 

level, and we are proud to be partnering with that. 

With that I ask the Committee to weigh in favorably on this legislation, and I appreciate the effort that you have done in highlighting RAMI and the exciting opportunity that it represents 

working with a true good friend Joe Kennedy, on this legislation. 

It has been a joy, and it is been something that I think we can be 

proud of in a bipartisan, bicameral manner to advance U.S. manufacturing here in Congress. 

And with that I yield back. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Reed follows:] 
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Chairman BUSCHON. Thank you. Now recognize Mr. Kennedy. 

TESTIMONY OF THE HONORABLE JOSEPH P. KENNEDY, III, 

MEMBER, U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

Mr. KENNEDY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, again, to 

Ranking Member Lipinski, to Members of the Committee that are 

here. Thank you for the invitation to come and testify about the 

Revitalize American Manufacturing Innovation Act, otherwise 

known as RAMI, H.R. 2996, a bill that we have been working on 

very hard with my colleague, Mr. Reed, from New York, and I also 

want to thank, as I said a moment ago, Mr.—the Ranking Member, 

Mr. Lipinski, for his leadership on this issue for a long time, for 

his co-sponsorship as well as the Ranking Member of the full Committee, Ms. Johnson, and Mr. Collins as well for his co-sponsorship. 

I also wanted to recognize Senators Sherrod Brown and Roy Blunt 

for their introduction of companion legislation in the Senate. 

Back home in the Commonwealth machines are buzzing today. 

At Thermo Fisher Scientific in Franklin they are lacing together 

complex engineering processes to build air quality monitors that 

help keep our air clean around the country. At Johnson & Johnson 

in Raynham 3–D manufacturing models are becoming wax structures that ultimately give doctors the ability to conduct intricate 

spinal surgeries and create custom titanium joints for knee and hip 

replacements among many others. At General Dynamics in Taunton, cutting-edge technologies are being utilized to create lifesaving 

battlefield communication systems for our men and women in uniform. 

From the Berkshires to the Blackstone Valley, Massachusetts 

manufacturers are innovating at a breakthrough pace or excuse 

me, breathtaking pace and are carefully rebuilding what our sluggish economy needs most, stronger, more sustainable pathways to 

middle class jobs. In doing so they are promoting a model of economic development that is locally sourced and regionally driven. 

The Massachusetts story is not unique. Across the country innovation industries are transforming the American economy and giving 

our once-fading manufacturing industry new legs of innovation like 

advanced manufacturing, life sciences, information technology, and 

defense. 

For the past six months manufacturing activity has steadily expanded. In November it hit its fastest pace in two and a half years, 

and that growth is expected to continue. U.S. high tech manufacturing is the largest in the world, accounting for $390 billion of 

global value added and high tech manufacturing in 2010. 

However, the share of U.S. manufacturing in the—the U.S. share 

in the world market has declined from 34 percent in 1998, to 28 

percent in 2010, and in 2011, the trade deficit of advanced products 

was up equal to 17 percent of total U.S. trade deficit. 

There is no doubt that manufacturing has suffered mightily in 

the past few decades, but the slow and steady improvement that 

we see today is positive. In a time of growing income inequality 

and a time of still-evaporating middle class jobs and decreased economic mobility, manufacturing can and must remain the cornerstone of the American economy. 
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As policymakers if we want the success that we have seen in recent months to continue, then we must focus our efforts on better 

linking innovation and manufacturing sectors, understanding that 

the latter is critical as a vehicle for bringing the former to market. 

I am proud to be here to testify in support of this bill which Congressman Reed and I believe will help accomplish these important 

goals. The Revitalize American Manufacturing and Innovation Act 

focuses on building as MIT puts it, ‘‘industrial ecosystems that 

bring together businesses, educators, innovators under one roof to 

pursue manufacturing processes that are relevant to the local economy.’’ 

Currently very few of these coordinated regional support systems 

exist for manufacturers, innovators, and entrepreneurs outside of 

places like Cambridge, Silicon Valley, parts of New York and Ohio, 

leaving independent businesses to fend for themselves. RAMI aims 

to fix that as Congressman Reed pointed out in his testimony. 

This bill uses some public funds to fuel the creation of these regional institutes, mandating that any partnership be wholly selfsufficient within seven years. Most importantly, RAMI sets a 

strong framework and then lets local stakeholders take the reins. 

This is locally-driven, public/private partnership that should be a 

model that is fueled so much success back home in Massachusetts 

where Governor Deval Patrick has created regional networks 

around science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, otherwise known as STEM education, and advanced a statewide manufacturing collaborative. 

These efforts have allowed Massachusetts to focus on the specific 

needs and strengths of different parts of our state and avoid a topdown, one-size-fits-all approach to economic development and job 

creation. As a result, precision manufacturing and advanced manufacturing businesses are steadily growing, bringing with them solid 

middle-class jobs that hold enormous promise for industrial communities that have long been the backbone of our economy. 

Advanced manufacturing jobs in Massachusetts have an average 

annual salary of $75,000, and economists forecast over 100,000 jobs 

in this sector opening up over the next decade as older workers retire, not to mention the brand new ones that will come from any 

additional economic growth. 

Mr. Chairman, thank you very much for the opportunity to testify today. Thank you to the Committee for their consideration of 

this important piece of legislation, and I ask for all of you to look 

on it favorably as well. 

Thanks very much. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Kennedy follows:] 
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Chairman BUSCHON. Thank you very much, gentlemen, for your 

testimony, and we heard today on the first panel a lot of great 

ideas going along with your bill, and as a Member of the Education 

and Workforce Committee, from that angle also about the future of 

American manufacturing and about workforce development and 

how that really is going to start, needs to be started in K–12 education and increase our pipeline so to speak, development into 

highly-technically trained people that are filling the 21st century 

jobs. As both of you know when you go into our factories today, the 

high-tech computer work is needed. Almost everything is robotic, 

even in small manufacturing facilities, and if we are going to continue to be competitive internationally, workforce development is 

very important, as well as also I think some of the larger issues 

that we also discussed related to regulation, taxation, and everything else that we can do. 

But I have a lot of confidence in America to compete. We always 

have, and we always will, and this is a critical area that we need 

to work on. So thank you again. 

With that, the record will remain open for two weeks for additional comments and written questions, and the witnesses are excused, and the hearing is adjourned. Thank you very much. 

Mr. KENNEDY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

[Whereupon, at 11:51 a.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.] 
(75) 

Appendix I 

ADDITIONAL MATERIAL FOR THE RECORD
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SUBMITTED LETTERS FOR THE RECORD BY THE HONORABLE JOSEPH P. KENNEDY, III, 

MEMBER, U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
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