Innovation

Innovation Agenda

As Co-Chair of the New Democrat Coalition Taskforce on Innovation and Competitiveness, I have been deeply involved in creating an innovation agenda that focuses on math and science education, supports manufacturing and clean energy, and works to help ensure America can compete in a 21st Century global economy.

America COMPETES

The first in many steps of reauthorizing the Innovation Agenda, Congress voted in May 2010 for significant investments in science, education and innovation in an effort to spur job growth and economic competitiveness  as part of the bipartisan America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010, H.R. 5116.  The Act will strengthen U.S. scientific and economic leadership, support employers, and create jobs through investments in science, innovation, and education.  

The America COMPETES Reauthorization Act is an important investment in our long-term economic future and will help make sure our country remains the most innovative and creative in the world. It will strengthen science, technology, engineering, and math education, support basic research at our science agencies, universities and technical colleges and help foster innovation and creativity in our workforce—all of which are crucial to creating the jobs of the future, improving our quality of life, and ensuring our nation can compete and be a leader in a global economy.

Over 750 organizations have endorsed the legislation including the University of Wisconsin, 3M, Cummins Inc., Rockwell Automation, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, the Business Roundtable, the Council on Competitiveness, the Association of American Universities, the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, and the National Venture Capital Association.

See a video of me speaking on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives on the America COMPETES Act.

The Taskforce on Innovation and Competitiveness

As part of the taskforce, I plan to help develop principles and recommendations to help achieve the following:

• Funding the Innovation Agenda – Our research investment should be increased to fund fully the America COMPETES Act and to meet President Obama’s goal of doubling our basic research investment. This investment should encourage high-risk research, support young scientists, and create new research incentives such as innovation prizes;

• Achieving Universal Broadband Access – America lags substantially behind other developed nations in broadband deployment and adoption. We must remedy this through Universal Service reform, provider and consumer incentives, and education;

• Strengthen Small Innovative Businesses — The SBIR program stimulates research at small innovative companies to create the next generation of creative commercial products. This program should be reauthorized and improved to further this goal.

• Educating and Expanding STEM Workforce – Math and science education must be improved to expand our STEM workforce. We must eliminate financial obstacles by expanding scholarships and fellowships for students in those fields. Our immigration laws should be updated to allow highly skilled foreign students with degrees in STEM fields to stay here when they graduate to supplement the domestic workforce;

• Reform the Patent System — The PTO has a backlog of about 1 million patent applications, and it takes, on average, almost two to three years for a patent to get approved or rejected. We must increase resources at the Patent and Trademark Office to expand the number of highly qualified examiners to reduce patent review time and improve patent quality while spurring innovation.

Rep. Kind also serves as co-chair of the board of The Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank at the cutting edge of designing innovation policies and exploring how advances in information technology will create new economic opportunities to improve the quality of life.