Date: 1998-08-04
Speaker: EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Mr. Chairman. I move to strike the requisite number of words. Mr. Chairman. I rise in strong opposition to this amendment. In spite of the fact that the large companies make most of their contributions to Republicans. I rise in support of the ATP program because it is key to the economic growth. The capability to generate. diffuse. and employ new technologies in the face of rising technical competence and competition around the world will determine in a large measure the Nations ability to succeed and prosper in the 21st century. These programs give these U.S. firms an incentive that accelerates the development of technologies that. because they are risky. are unlikely to be developed in time to compete in rapidly changing world markets. For Americans. the real payoff is the economic growth fueled by the introduction of future products and industrial processes based on the ATPsponsored research. The ATP is a competitive. peerreviewed. costshared program with industry. Their sole aim is to develop highrisk. potentially highpayoff enabling technologies that otherwise would not be pursued because of technical risks and other obstacles that discourage private investment. The ATP has proven to be an effective mechanism for motivating companies to look farther out onto the technology horizon. By discarding the ATP. we would destroy progress made in encouraging farlooking. risksharing research and development of new enabling technologies. We are fortunate that people long before us took a chance and made sure that that research was done that created the technologies that we are working with now. We have a responsibility to not eliminate the ATP because it would destroy the momentum created for a new type of industryled industry. government. university partnership. a partnership with appropriate roles. appropriate goals. and exciting prospects for our U.S. economic gain. Government and industry have always made substantial commitments to ATP. Its demise would show the government to be a capricious and unreliable partner. But to ensure economic growth and jobs into the next century. the country depends on U.S. industry to put science and technology to work. Throughout this century. the United States has built whole new industries upon a flourishing science and technology base created by the Federal Government and private firms. Publicprivate partnerships have resulted in the birth of new industries such as computers and biotechnology. and world leadership in others such as aerospace. telecommunications. and pharmaceuticals. However. times have changed. Today. Federal agencies are more focused on science and technology that is essential to their missions. Even though there is an even greater focus on technology transfer. there is greatly reduced spinoff from missionrelated research. Company research and development has shifted to narrower. more focused work. Large firms no longer pour billions into the development of highrisk. broadbased .technologies that other firms can build on. such as GE. AT&T. Bell Labs and IBM once did. While it may be true. as some would say. that large firms are able to pay for their own R&D. it is also true that they will not 1Say for longerterm. higherrisk. broadly applicable technology if other firms are going to benefit from the research without paying for it. ATP fills a critical niche in the Nations science and technology portfolio. Large and small firms are an important part of the mix. along with universities and national labs. Part of the reason that large firms need to be involved with ATP partnerships is because. in large measure. that is where the technology is. The United States and its citizens stand to benefit more in this equation than the individual firms. In addition. small firms and universities. about half the ATP awards go to small firms. frequently want larger firms in the partnership to provide critical business and marketing skills or to provide complementary technologies needed for further development. So large firms also frequently ante up the extra funding that allows universities and others to participate and to provide the organizational staff for collaborations. A program like the ATP program sweetens the pot to induce firms to form partnerships to develop important technology that would not be developed otherwise. It is one element in a strategy to bridge the gap between public R&D. largely basic science and mission driven. and private research .and development. largely focused on :products and lowrisk science and technology. Important. high risk. enabling technologies exist in large firms as well as small. Just as in small firms. many of these technologies will only be developed if the Government and industry share the risk and the benefits.