I 

109TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1491 

To provide for the establishment of the Nanomanufacturing Investment 

Partnership, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

APRIL 6, 2005 

Mr. HONDA (for himself, Mr. GORDON, Mr. KUHL of New York, Mr. VAN

HOLLEN, Mr. ETHERIDGE, Mr. CUMMINGS, Mr. HINOJOSA, Mr. INSLEE, 

and Mr. RUPPERSBERGER) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Science 

A BILL 

To provide for the establishment of the Nanomanufacturing 

Investment Partnership, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Nanomanufacturing 

5 Investment Act of 2005’’. 

6 SEC. 2. NANOMANUFACTURING INVESTMENT PARTNER7 SHIP. 

8 (a) ESTABLISHMENT.—If $250,000,000 is made 

9 available for such purposes from the private sector within 
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1 2 years after the date of enactment of this Act, the Sec2 retary of Commerce shall establish the 

3 Nanomanufacturing Investment Partnership, in partner4 ship with such private sector investors. 

5 (b) PURPOSE.—The Nanomanufacturing Investment 

6 Partnership shall provide funding for precommercial 

7 nanomanufacturing research and development projects, 

8 but not for basic research projects, through funding mech9 anisms described in subsection (c) in a manner so as to 

10 advance the commercialization of nanomanufacturing 

11 technologies to address critical scientific and engineering 

12 needs of national importance, especially with respect to 

13 projects that would not be adequately funded or pursued 

14 by the private sector or pursuant to the 21st Century 

15 Nanotechnology Research and Development Act or other 

16 law, and to increase the commercial application of feder17 ally supported research results. To the extent that a suffi18 cient number of viable applications have been submitted, 

19 at least 85 percent of the funding provided by the 

20 Nanomanufacturing Investment Partnership under this 

21 section shall be provided to startup companies. 

22 (c) FUNDING MECHANISMS.—The 

23 Nanomanufacturing Investment Partnership may provide 

24 funding through direct investment in nanomanufacturing 

25 firms, contracts, loans or loan guarantees, unsecured sub-
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1 ordinated debt, or any other mechanism designed to ad2 vance nanomanufacturing technologies. 

3 (d) RETURN ON INVESTMENT.— 

4 (1) REQUIREMENT.—Each transaction through 

5 which the Nanomanufacturing Investment Partner6 ship provides funding under subsection (c) shall pro7 vide for the return to the Nanomanufacturing In8 vestment Partnership of fair and reasonable 

9 amounts resulting from the commercialization of 

10 technologies developed with the funding provided by 

11 the Nanomanufacturing Investment Partnership. 

12 (2) DISTRIBUTION.—Amounts received by the 

13 Nanomanufacturing Investment Partnership pursu14 ant to paragraph (1) shall be distributed as follows: 

15 (A) Except as provided in subparagraph 

16 (B), amounts shall be distributed to all inves17 tors in the Nanomanufacturing Investment 

18 Partnership, including the Federal Government, 

19 in proportion to their monetary contribution to 

20 the Nanomanufacturing Investment Partner21 ship. 

22 (B) After the total monetary investment of 

23 the Federal Government has been recovered 

24 under subparagraph (A), the Federal share of 

25 distributions under this paragraph shall be re-
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1 duced to 7 percent of the proportional distribu2 tion under subparagraph (A), and the remain3 ing amounts shall be distributed proportionately 

4 to all non-Federal investors. 

5 (e) COST SHARING.—Each applicant for funding as6 sistance from the Nanomanufacturing Investment Part7 nership for a project shall be required to provide a portion 

8 of the cost of the project. 

9 (f) PEER REVIEW.—Each application for funding as10 sistance for a project from the Nanomanufacturing Invest11 ment Partnership shall be peer reviewed. 

12 (g) ADMINISTRATION.—The Secretary of Commerce, 

13 based on guidance from the Advisory Board established 

14 under section 3 and on the results of peer review under 

15 subsection (f), shall make awards of funding under this 

16 Act. 

17 (h) PROGRESS REPORTS.—The Nanomanufacturing 

18 Investment Partnership shall require periodic project 

19 progress reports from recipients of funding under this Act. 

20 SEC. 3. ADVISORY BOARD. 

21 (a) ESTABLISHMENT.—The Secretary of Commerce 

22 shall establish an Advisory Board to assist the Secretary 

23 in carrying out this Act, including by establishing require24 ments for progress reports under section 2(h). The Advi25 sory Board shall consist of— 
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1 (1) representatives of each investor providing 

2 more than $10,000,000 to the Nanomanufacturing 

3 Investment Partnership, whose votes shall— 

4 (A) be distributed proportional to the size 

5 of their investment in the Nanomanufacturing 

6 Investment Partnership; and 

7 (B) collectively amount to 40 percent of 

8 the votes on the Advisory Board; and 

9 (2) independent experts on nanomanufacturing 

10 and finance appointed by the President from among 

11 representatives of government, industry, and aca12 demia, whose votes shall collectively amount to 60 

13 percent of the votes on the Advisory Board. 

14 (b) TERMS.—Members of the Advisory Board ap15 pointed under subsection (a)(2) shall be appointed for 3 

16 year terms, except that the President shall make some ini17 tial appointments for terms of 1 year and some for terms 

18 of 2 years, in order to ensure continuity of membership 

19 on the Advisory Board. 

20 SEC. 4. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 

21 There are authorized to be appropriated to the Sec22 retary of Commerce for the Nanomanufacturing Invest23 ment Partnership $750,000,000, to remain available until 

24 expended. 

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