America COMPETES Acts: FY2008 to FY2013 Funding Tables
Released: 2014-10-31T00:00:00

Introduction

Changing economic, social, and political conditions at home and abroad have led some analysts to question whether the United States will remain globally competitive in the coming decades. The possibility that the United States has lost or could lose its historical advantages in scientific and technological advancement—and the prosperity and security attributed to that advancement—has become a primary rationale for a portfolio of otherwise disparate federal programs, policies, and activities. Sometimes identified as "innovation" or "competitiveness" policy, these programs, policies, and activities address research and development, education, workforce development, tax, patent, immigration, economic development, telecommunications, or other policy issues perceived as critical to the U.S. scientific and technological enterprise.

The 2007 America COMPETES Act ( P.L. 110-69 ) is an example of this type of policymaking. Designed to "invest in innovation through research and development, and to improve the competitiveness of the United States," the law authorized $32.7 billion in appropriations between FY2008 and FY2010 for programs and activities in physical sciences and engineering research and in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. Congress reauthorized certain provisions of P.L. 110-69 —including funding for physical sciences and engineering research and STEM education—when it passed the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010 ( P.L. 111-358 ). The 2010 COMPETES Act authorized $45.5 billion in appropriations between FY2011 and FY2013.

Given the pivotal role that funding levels played in the design, implementation, and congressional debate about the COMPETES Acts, policymakers have paid close attention to trends in these accounts. This report, which was written to aid Congress in tracking these trends, includes two tables summarizing authorization levels and funding for selected COMPETES-related accounts across both authorization periods (i.e., FY2008 to FY2010 and FY2011 to FY2013). Readers interested in an analysis of the COMPETES Acts and related policy issues are referred to the following publications:

CRS Report R41819, Reauthorization of the America COMPETES Act: Selected Policy Provisions, Funding, and Implementation Issues , by [author name scrubbed]. CRS Report R42642, Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Education: A Primer , by [author name scrubbed] and [author name scrubbed]. CRS Report R42470, An Analysis of STEM Education Funding at the NSF: Trends and Policy Discussion , by [author name scrubbed]. CRS Report R41951, An Analysis of Efforts to Double Federal Funding for Physical Sciences and Engineering Research , by [author name scrubbed]

CRS Report R43061, The U.S. Science and Engineering Workforce: Recent, Current, and Projected Employment, Wages, and Unemployment , by [author name scrubbed]

This report has been updated to reflect FY2009 to FY2013 final funding for COMPETES-related accounts.