Innovation Is The Key To Securing U.S. Competitiveness

April 28, 2008, As a young boy in Murfreesboro in November of 1957, I remember looking into the sky and seeing a blinking red dot pass overhead that struck fear into countless Americans. The Soviet Union’s launch of Sputnik and the beginning of the space race marked a period of unprecedented investment in research and math and science education in this country. That investment resulted in the development of new technologies and the advancement of innovation. As a nation, we can take pride in knowing that American scientists, researchers and entrepreneurs have been at the forefront of many of these efforts.

In March of 1958, the House Science and Technology Committee was established by Congress to face the challenges presented by the space age. In addition, President Eisenhower responded to Sputnik by calling for the establishment of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to ensure U.S. leadership in defense and aerospace technologies and prevent future technological surprises from our enemies.

Early program successes at DARPA included the Saturn rocket that put a man on the moon and propelled the United States past the Soviet Union in the technology race. The results of DARPA’s efforts can be seen today in stealth technology for warplanes, GPS technology in vehicles and the development of the Internet.

In the half century since Sputnik, the United States became a world leader in science and technology, education, research and innovation. These efforts fueled the nation’s economy and allowed each generation of Americans to inherit a better standard of living than their parents. But I fear our country is coasting on investments we made 50 years ago.

As the father of a seven-year-old daughter, I fear that today’s children will be the first generation of Americans that does not inherit a standard of living better than their parents. Today, with the rapid economic and technological advances of other countries, I fear we are now on the cusp of another Sputnik moment.

Now is the time to act. Sputnik showed us that we were not the world’s technological leader. Though the threat is different today, the challenges remain the same as they did after Sputnik – to secure our country’s international leadership in the areas of innovation and technology development. As the chairman of the Science and Technology Committee, I believe the committee has an important role to play in helping bring back the United States as the technological leader in the world.

My committee has looked to DARPA as a model for research in other areas, such as energy. Last year, legislation I authored to secure U.S. competitiveness in today’s global marketplace was signed into law. The America COMPETES Act paves the way for a DARPA-like agency at the Department of Energy. ARPA-E can defy conventional thinking on energy and pursue cutting edge research for the most pressing challenge we face today. With adequate funding and forward-thinking leadership, ARPA-E might be celebrating the same level of revolutionary results 50 years from now as DARPA has enjoyed during its 50 years of innovation.

Just one ARPA-E discovery deployed in the energy marketplace could make the U.S. more energy independent. It is a bold step, but that’s what is needed to surmount our greatest energy challenges and ensure the United States will be able to maintain its position as a global leader in innovation.