IEEE Members Go to Washington to Learn About Engineering R&D

by Bill Williams

On 5 and 6 April, members of the IEEE attended the third annual Engineering Research and Development Symposium at the Hart Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C. Hosted by IEEE-USA, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), the United Engineering Foundation and other engineering organizations, the event is designed to educate the engineering community on how the federal budget process works, federal engineering R&D priorities for the coming year, and the critical impact federal R&D funding has on the economy, national security and engineering jobs.

More than 200 engineers from 16 organizations attended the day-and-a-half event, which featured an exceptionally distinguished lineup of federal lawmakers, academic and industry leaders, and other renowned experts on federal technology budget issues. Speakers included President Bush’s science adviser, Dr. John Marburger, Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), and Representative Rush Holt (D-N.J.).

The recurring theme throughout the symposium's proceedings was the austere federal budget situation and the resulting fiscal belt-tightening in the Fiscal Year 2006 budget. Many of the federal agencies that fund America’s investment in science and technology innovation, such as the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Department of Energy (DOE), and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, are feeling the pinch and are having to make very difficult funding decisions. Non-defense R&D spending is essentially flat across the board. And with the exception of NASA, which has increased funding for the international space station and moon-and-Mars missions, nearly all other non-defense R&D agencies would see their funding decline.

The first day, keynote speaker, Senator Jeff Bingaman, spoke of the urgent need for U.S. engineers to become politically active to protect their interests or risk losing their dominance to a quickly emerging, foreign high-tech industry, especially in Asia. Sounding an ominous note, the Senator warned that the threat to the U.S. preeminence in science and technology (S&T) by emerging nations has serious implications for the U.S. economy.

Senator Bingaman pointed out that recent downward trends in U.S. investment in S&T are coming at time when other countries are ramping up considerably their high-tech funding. As a result, third-world nations such as China and India are gaining rapidly on the United States in terms of technology infrastructure, capacity and even education. “The paradigm of the United States creating the cutting edge technology,” said Senator Bingaman, “is being turned on its head.”

Dr. Marburger provided the Bush Administration perspective of the budget. While admitting that the budget deficits and funding contingencies for the war in Iraq make the sustained yearly increases in most areas of R&D difficult to sustain,  Marburger characterized the state of S&T in the United States as “quite strong.”

Touting what he called a “big jump” in federal spending for S&T, Marburger noted that the current U.S. investment in S&T funding level of $132 billion is three times that of Japan, and half the sum of all European investment combined. However, he did echo the warning of Senator Bingaman that U.S. technology will have to adapt to a rapidly changing world situation to remain at the forefront. “All technical fields are in a state of transition, amounting to a revolution in S&T by globalization, changing international patterns, and rapid advancement,” said Marburger. “The reality is that the world is changing, and we’ll have to change our priorities accordingly.”

In a panel moderated by IEEE-USA's Vice President for Technology Policy Activities, Dr. Russell Lefevre, attendees also learned about the President’s S&T budget request for FY 2006 and got a glimpse of how the federal budget process works from two S&T budget experts: Kei Koizumi, director, R&D Budget and Policy Programs for the American Association for the Advancement of Science; and David Trinkle, of the administration’s Office of Management and Budget.

On the second day of the symposium, members attended their choice of “breakout sessions” from various federal agencies, including NASA, NSF, DOE and the Department of Homeland Security, among others, where representatives from the agencies gave more detailed presentations outlining their respective budget requests and funding priorities for FY 2006.

According to Lefevre, the message that the symposium organizers hoped attendees took away from this event is, “Decisions are being made in Washington on a regular basis on science and technology issues that will have tremendous impact, not only on the lives and careers of engineers, but also on the economy, quality of life, and even the security of this country. Engineers simply have to get involved in the public policy process to help decision-makers get it right. The stakes are too high for us to abdicate this important responsibility.”

Symposium speaker presentations can be downloaded at Swww.engineeringpolicy.org/R&D/RDAgenda2005.html.

Bill Williams is IEEE-USA's legislative representative for technology policy activities. Comments may be submitted to todaysengineer@ieee.org.