TASK FORCE ON AMERICAN INNOVATION
IIIIiiIiiiiiINNOVATION
Aerospace Industries Association
Agilent Technologies
Alliance for Science & Technology Research
in America
American Association for the Advancement
of Science
American Astronomical Society
American Chemical Society
American Geophysical Union
American Institute for Medical and
Biological Engineering
August 12, 2015
The Honorable Cory Gardner
Committee on Commerce,
Transportation and Science
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
The Honorable Gary Peters
Committee on Commerce, Transportation
and Science
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
American Institute of Physics
American Mathematical Society
Dear Senators Gardner and Peters:
American Physical Society
American Society for Engineering Education
American Statistical Association
Applied Materials, Inc.
ASME
Association for Computing Machinery
Association of American Universities
Association of Public and Land-grant Universities
Association of University Research Parks
On behalf of the Task Force on American Innovation (TFAI), we wish to thank you for
soliciting input as you consider how the Committee on Commerce, Transportation and
Science should proceed with reauthorization of the America COMPETES Act. TFAI is an
alliance of America’s leading companies and business associations, research university
associations, and scientific societies that advocates on behalf of federal funding of basic
research in the physical sciences and engineering.
Autodesk
The Babcock & Wilcox Company
Battelle
Business Roundtable
Center for Policy on Emerging Technologies
As you consider any COMPETES legislation, we urge you to keep in mind these points:

Federal investments in research continue to lay the groundwork for new industries,
new companies, and new jobs for Americans. Indeed, technological innovation, much
of which emerges from advances based on federally funded research, has long been
responsible for a significant portion of the country’s economic growth.

Innovation is therefore critical to economic security, and economic security is essential
to national security. Our economic competitors in Asia and Europe are steadily and
significantly increasing their investments in scientific research, with the aim of seizing
global leadership in science and innovation, a role played by the United States for
more than two-thirds of a century.

America COMPETES has provided the nation with a strong, coherent vision for
advancing innovation and economic competitiveness, and TFAI believes any
reauthorization of COMPETES should be consistent with that vision. Accordingly, as
you consider COMPETES legislation, we urge you to provide strong and sustainable
authorization levels for the key agencies under COMPETES. We also urge you to
provide for an authorization of meaningful length, preferably a five-year authorization,
in order to encourage predictability and stability for the agencies and the science
community.

Further, we urge that COMPETES legislation make clear that federally funded
research should be guided by the best science – and not by politics. Given the
complexity of the research ecosystem, where advances in one area of science can drive
breakthroughs in seemingly unrelated fields, it is imperative that the full range of
scientific inquiry be supported, and not curtailed, in any legislation.
Computing Research Association
Computing Technology Industry Association
Council for Chemical Research
Council of Graduate Schools
Council of Scientific Society Presidents
Council on Competitiveness
Cray Inc.
Dow Chemical Company
Federation of American Societies for
Experimental Biology
The Geological Society of America
Google, Inc.
IBM Corporation
IEEE-USA
IPC - Association Connecting Electronics Industries
Industrial Research Institute
Infineon Technologies
Information Technology Industry Council
Innovation Advocates
Intel Corporation
Jellen Ventures
Luna Innovations, Inc.
Materials Research Society
Microsoft Corporation
National Association of Manufacturers
National Center for Manufacturing Sciences
National Center for Women &
Information Technology
National User Facility Organization
Northrop Grumman Corp.
Procter & Gamble Company
Qualcomm
SEMI
Semiconductor Industry Association
Semiconductor Research Corporation
Silicon Valley Leadership Group
Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
We are attaching two documents that reflect the broad-based support among industry,
scientific, and higher education organizations for strong, sustained support of federally
funded research:
Southeastern Universities Research Association
TechAmerica
TechNet
Technology CEO Council
Telecommunications Industry Association
Texas Instruments Incorporated
The Science Coalition
www.innovationtaskforce.org
1. A statement of principles for reauthorization of America COMPETES endorsed by a wide range of business,
higher education, and science organizations, including TFAI; the TFAI endorsement, consistent with the
coalition’s purpose, is focused on the funding principles;
2. The recent “Innovation: An American Imperative” statement, signed by leading industry CEOs and endorsed
by over 200 industry, science, and university organizations, which demonstrates significant, broad-based
support for steady and sustained real annual growth in funding of at least four percent for scientific research;
as the statement declares, this level of investment would help stave off an innovation deficit and ensure that
the U.S. remains the global innovation leader.
We also commend to you a brochure prepared by this task force that highlights many of the ways in which
research supported by key federal agencies, including the COMPETES agencies, continues to pay huge dividends
to the American people and our economy.
We very much appreciate the opportunity to provide this input to you, and we stand ready to work with you on
any legislation developed by your committee.
Sincerely,
Brian Raymond
Director, Technology and Domestic
Economic Policy
National Association of Manufacturers
Co-Chair, Task Force on American Innovation
Gene Irisari
Director, Government Relations
Texas Instruments
Co-Chair, Task Force on American Innovation