03.16.15

Durbin Introduces American Innovation Bill

Bill would preserve America’s global leadership in innovation by increasing investment in basic scientific research

[CHICAGO] - With a decline in federal scientific research threatening our standing as a leader in discovery and innovation and our global competitiveness, U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) today unveiled the American Innovation Act during a speech to the Chicago research community at 1871. The American Innovation Act will put funding for basic research on a consistent, steady growth path over the next decade by providing annual budget increases of 5 percent – over and above inflation – for cutting edge research at five important federal research agencies: The National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy Office of Science, the Department of Defense Science and Technology Programs, the National Institute of Standards and Technology Scientific and Technical Research, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Science Directorate. Durbin will be formally introducing the bill in Washington today.

“The American Innovation Act will make funding for critical science research projects less political and more predictable. It will allow America’s smartest scientists and researchers to spend less time figuring out how to cut their budgets and more time finding new ways to produce clean energy and clean water and other solutions that the world needs,” Durbin said. “U.S. government support for scientific research has helped split the atom, defeat polio, conquer space, create the Internet, map the human genome and much more. I am introducing this bill so that we can continue to invest in the best ideas of our scientists and America will remain the land of the future for generations to come.”

Federal funding for R&D has been on a downward trend for the past several decades. Today, the federal government spends almost two-thirds less on research and development today than it did in 1965 as a portion of discretionary spending. Accounting for inflation, federal funding for science has lost 20 percent in purchasing power in just three years. The lack of funding has led to a $1.5 trillion investment deficit and a growing number of America’s best young researchers are taking their talents to other industries – and other countries. Durbin’s legislation aims to reverse that trend and close the nation’s invention and innovation deficit.


What makes these cuts doubly dangerous is that our competitors are not cutting their research efforts – they are scaling them up dramatically. Over the last decade, while the U.S. was increasing federal R&D investments 4 percent a year, China was increasing its R&D investments by 20 percent a year. If we stay on this course, China will be investing more in R&D than the U.S. as soon as the year 2020. According to The Science Coalition, China already performs nearly as much of the world’s high-tech manufacturing today as does the US.

The American Innovation Act complements legislation Durbin introduced last year, the American Cures Act, which would similarly provide funding growth and certainty for the National Institutes of Health and certain other agencies focused on biomedical research.

The American Innovation Act has been supported by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, The Science Coalition, Task Force on American Innovation, IBM Corporation, Association of American Universities, Association of Public and Land-grant Universities; and

The Close the Innovation Deficit campaign, a coalition of more than 120 national business, higher education, scientific, patient, and other organizations.