1) CAPITOL HILL WATCH

• Housing Bill Could Mean 1000s of Job in the Energy Industry
• IEEE-USA Commends House Members for Introducing Bill Granting Permanent
  Resident Status to Foreign Nationals who Earn Ph.D. in United States
• New Bill Will Simplify Tax Credit
• House Committee to Investigate FugureGen
• Subcommittee Examines How to Effectively Commercialize Nanotechnology Research for Public Good

2) WHITE HOUSE & EXECUTIVE AGENCY WATCH

• 2008 EPSCOR Grants Announced

3) REPORTS, SPEECHES & DOCUMENTS OF NOTE

• Reducing the Impact of Disaster
• GAO Reports

4) U.S. COURTS ACTIVITY

• U.S. Court Puts Rules That PTO Rules Exceeded the Agency's Authority

5) U.S. STATES WATCH

• Maryland Repeals Computer Services Tax
• National Governors Association Clean Energy Initiative

6) AWARDS & GRANTS

7) CONFERENCES, FELLOWSHIPS, PROGRAMS & INTERNSHIPS FOR ENGINEERS, and STUDENTS and SCHOLARS OF ENGINEERING

8) LATEST IEEE-USA & IEEE ACTIVITIES

• IEEE-USA's Recent Policy Communications
• Running for Public Office?
• IEEE-USA Public Policy Priority Issues - 110th Congress, 2d Session (2008)
• IEEE-USA Entrepreneurs Committee: TechMatch
• Track IEEE-USA's Progress
• IEEE-USA In The News

9) OTHER ITEMS OF POSSIBLE INTEREST

1) CAPITOL HILL WATCH

• Housing Bill Could Mean 1000s of Job in the Energy Industry

Last week, the Senate overwhelmingly passed H.R.3221 (84 to 11), a bipartisan housing package by Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), leaders of the Senate Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs Committee. Despite some negative comments from White House Press Secretary Dana Perino indicating that H.R. 3221 "is not a bill that we could support," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said he received assurances from the president that he would not veto the bill. Perino had asserted that the measure would "likely do more harm than good by bailing out lenders and speculators and passing on costs to other Americans who play by the rules and honor their mortgage debt obligations."

The House is assembling its own mortgage and housing package, which includes provisions that provide for zero-interest loans for first-time home buyers and tax credits to spur development of more low-income housing. The package is fully offset.

The Senate-passed bill offers tax breaks to home builders and other businesses suffering losses in the current economic slump, and incentives to individuals to buy foreclosed properties. Its core provisions would cost $10.9 billion over 10 years, with no offsets.

Both bills include tax breaks for the renewable energy industry. The Senate adopted 88-8, an amendment by Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and John Ensign (R-Nev.) to extend expiring tax breaks for renewable energy and energy efficiency for one year at a cost of $6 billion, which would not be offset. The House supports extension of the expiring renewable energy tax breaks but has insisted repeatedly that the cost must be offset.

Staff at the American Wind Energy Association estimate that without an extension of the tax breaks, 116,000 jobs are at risk -- 76,000 in wind and 40,000 in solar -- along with $19 billion in clean energy investment.

• IEEE-USA Commends House Members for Introducing Bill Granting Permanent
  Resident Status to Foreign Nationals who Earn Ph.D. in United States

IEEE-USA commended Congressmen Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) and Michael McCaul (R-Tex.) for introducing the New American Innovators Act (H.R. 5634). H.R. 5634 exempts from numerical limitations on employment-based visas (green cards), any foreign national who has earned a Ph.D. from a U.S. educational institution within the previous three years. This facilitates their transition from temporary student (non-immigrant) status to legal permanent resident (immigrant).

"IEEE-USA supports efforts to bolster U.S. competitiveness by providing an easy and accessible way for foreign-born scientists and engineers who have earned doctorate degrees in the United States to become citizens," IEEE-USA President Russ Lefevre said. "Many of these skilled workers will start companies that have the potential to boost the U.S. engineering enterprise through innovation and job creation."

In an April 1st guest column on The Huffington Post, Kennedy wrote:

"American universities regularly graduate American students of the highest
quality, and our economy has reaped the benefits for decades. But American
universities also produce foreign graduates of equally high quality. Our
economy has benefited from their talents as well. In fact, between 1995 and
2005 one quarter of all start-up engineering and technology firms in the
United States had at least one foreign-born founder. By 2005, these
companies produced $52 billion in sales and employed 450,000 workers."

See the entire column at
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-patrick-kennedy/bring-on-the-best-and-the_b_94383.html.

IEEE-USA's support of H.R. 5634 is consistent with a letter it signed with the Semiconductor Industry Association in October 2007. In it, both groups called on Congress to facilitate the retention of highly skilled immigrants. See http://www.ieeeusa.org/communications/releases/2007/101107.asp
In contrast to the New American Innovators Act, the H-1B non-immigrant admissions program only provides companies with temporary (3-6 years) access to workers from abroad and thus does not address the long-term staffing needs of U.S. industry. Some of these companies, as noted recently in BusinessWeek, "bring low-cost workers to the U.S., train them in the offices of U.S. clients, and then rotate them back home after a year or two so they can provide tech support and other services from abroad."

• New Bill Will Simplify Tax Credit

Many of America's leading innovative companies use the popular R&D tax credit, but unfortunately, the process for using the credits has become much too complicated and cumbersome. A new legislative plan from Congressman Jerry McNerney (D-CA) - who also happens to be a wind energy entrepreneur - seeks to remedy this situation. His bill, the Innovation Tax Credit Act (H.R. 5681) would address these challenges by making the R&D tax credit permanent. At present, the credit is temporary and requires regular renewal by Congress. This process leads to uncertainty for the credit's future existence. Computing the credit is also quite complicated. HR 5681 would simplify the process by consolidating the current batch of five related credits into one simplified tax credit that will ultimately provide a credit for up to twenty percent of the cost of qualified R&D expenditures. Read McNerney's press release here.

• House Committee to Investigate DOE's Abandonment of FugureGen

FutureGen is intended to demonstrate technologies that capture and sequester greenhouse gas emissions, and to produce hydrogen from a coal-fired power generation plant.  The Administration unveiled the project in February 2003 as part of their effort to showcase new technologies to address climate change and energy security.  On January 31, 2008, the Department of Energy (DOE) announced a significant departure from this clean coal initiative. Chairman of the House Committee on Science and Technology Bart Gordon (D-TN) is troubled by this and asked for the Government Accountability Office to investigate.

• Subcommittee Examines How to Effectively Commercialize Nanotechnology Research for Public Good

As part of the Committee's reauthorization process for the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI), the House Committee on Science and Technology's Subcommittee on Research and Science Education held a hearing to examine how well the initiative is supporting activities to make sure that the results of nanotechnology research are translated into commercial products and processes.  The 21st Century Nanotechnology Research and Development Act of 2003 authorized the NNI and the National Nanotechnology Coordination Office (NNCO) to provide technical and administrative support to the NSET for this coordination.  The total estimated NNI Budget for FY2008 was $1.49 billion.

2) WHITE HOUSE & EXECUTIVE AGENCY WATCH

• 2008 EPSCOR Grants Announced

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced it will invest up to $5.2 million in basic research projects with 12 universities from across the country.  In an effort to ensure America remains the world leader in scientific research and innovation, universities selected will pair with a DOE national laboratory to maximize expertise.  These research projects, ranging from advanced solar cells to hydrogen energy systems, are a part of DOE's Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), a federal-state partnership program designed to lead the world in meeting the nation's growing energy needs through increased competition in energy-related research and development across the nation.

3) REPORTS, SPEECHES & DOCUMENTS OF NOTE

• Reducing the Impact of Disaster

The National Science and Technology Council's Subcommittee on Disaster Reduction (SDR) released a series of hazard-specific implementation plans that identify opportunities to reduce the impact of disasters through a greater scientific understanding and technology application. Press Release

The Subcommittee on Disaster Reduction (SDR) is an element of the President's National Science and Technology Council and facilitates national strategies for reducing disaster risks and losses that are based on effective use of science and technology. Mitigating natural and technological disasters requires a solid understanding of science and technology, rapid implementation of research information into disaster reduction programs and applications, and efficient access to diverse information available from both public and private entities. Chartered in 1988, the SDR provides a unique federal forum for information sharing; development of collaborative opportunities; formulation of science- and technology-based guidance for policy makers; and dialogue with the U.S. policy community to advance informed strategies for managing disaster risks.

• National Science Foundation

New Data Show Strong Labor Market for Scientists and Engineers - http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=111369&org=olpa&from=news

4) U.S. COURTS ACTIVITY

• U.S. Court Puts Rules That PTO Rules Exceeded the Agency's Authority

A Virginia federal court backed pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline in its challenge of new rules which the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office unveiled in late 2007. The rules were aimed at streamlining the patent processing by limiting the number of continuation patent applications and claims that can be presented to the agency during a given examination.

U.S. District Judge James Cacheris decided that the changes are substantive in nature, and since the PTO's mandate does not extend to making sweeping modifications, the agency exceeded its rulemaking authority. The court had issued a preliminary injunction to the changes in October.

GlaxoSmithKline, which complained that about 100 of its pending applications would be jeopardized, said the judgment was "in support of innovation across all industries," adding, "It reaffirms that all who want
to patent their inventions in the United States will be allowed to seek protection on the full scope of their discoveries.

Attorneys for independent inventor who were named co-plaintiffs in the case also cheered the decision.
Steven Moore of Kelley Drye & Warren said an adverse ruling for his client "would have had a profound negative effect on patent practice, and innovation in general, and certainly would have boded even more extreme regulations being promulgated" by the PTO.

A PTO spokeswoman said the agency was disappointed with the decision and is considering its next steps. The PTO, which could appeal the ruling, continues to believe that its rules are consistent with existing statutes and would strengthen the U.S. patent system for all.

Judge Cacheris wrote in his opinion that he refrained from considering other complaints that arose during the course of litigation "because the court believes that one who judges least judges best, it will not reach the other issues raised by the parties, resting instead on the determination of a single dispositive issue.

"Biotechnology Industry Organization President Jim Greenwood, whose group filed a friend-of-the-court brief in favor of GlaxoSmithKline, said the ruling was a sound one. "Today's order underscores the need to develop a viable and workable solution to the legitimate workload challenge at the PTO."

Language to codify expanded rulemaking authority for the PTO is included in the House version of the Patent Reform bill, but not the Senate version. The PTO is expected to make a push for inclusion of
their rules in the final bill. However, as of this week, hope for passage of the legislation is all but dead.

5) US STATES WATCH

• Maryland Repeals Computer Services Tax

IEEE-USA helped IEEE member and Region 2 Director John Dentler provide testimony in favor of repealing A Maryland state tax on computer services. Read his testimony here: http://www.ieeeusa.org/policy/policy/2008/031208.pdf.

Should we be offended that the Washington Post referred to engineers as "propeller heads" while reporting on this issue?

• National Governors Association Clean Energy Initiative

As part of the National Governors Association's (NGA) Securing a Clean Energy Future Initiative (SCEF Initiative), NGA Chair Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire convened a summit in Seattle to promote clean energy research, development and demonstration (RD&D) in the states. The two-day summit featured a keynote address by Dan Kammen, distinguished professor of energy at the University of California–Berkeley, who shared insights into evaluating the return on public and private investments in clean energy RD&D and described how state clean and renewable energy research programs can bolster state economic and environmental goals.

6) AWARDS & GRANTS

• AAAS Grant Site

The American Association for the Advancement of Science has a service called GrantsNet Express.  Each week GrantsNet will provide a listing of science funding opportunities from private foundations and organizations, and new U.S. government grant announcements in the sciences. AAAS will send GrantsNet by e-mail to AAAS member subscribers. The weekly emails will include: — New science funding programs, divided into opportunities for postdocs/graduate students and undergraduates — Submission deadlines for funding opportunities scheduled in the upcoming week — New listings of funding for science-related research.

• National Science Foundation

For information on NSF Engineering (ENG) Active Funding Opportunities, visit: http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_list.jsp?org=ENG

7) CONFERENCES, FELLOWSHIPS, PROGRAMS & INTERNSHIPS FOR ENGINEERS, and STUDENTS & SCHOLARS OF ENGINEERING

22 MAY: 2008 National Summit on American Competitiveness, Chicago, IL

8) LATEST IEEE-USA & IEEE ACTIVITIES

• IEEE-USA's Recent Policy Communications

7 APR: Coalition letter to the President and Congressional leaders urging restoration of FY 2008 funding for key science and technology agencies in supplemental appropriations legislation.

3 APR: Letter to Rep. Dennis Moore endorsing The Independent Health Record Trust Act of 2007 (H.R. 2991), legislation that encourages the development of independent (non-governmental) repositories for electronic medical records owned by the patient.

Read a full listing of IEEE-USA lobbying activities on our web site at: http://ieeeusa.com/policy/policy/index.html

• Running for Public Office?

Across the country, engineers are helping improve their communities by serving in elected offices from school board on up to the United States Congress.  Have you thought of joining them?

On May 10th, IEEE-USA - along with Scientists and Engineers for America (SEA), a coalition of engineering and scientific organizations - will host a Campaign Education Workshop to teach engineers and scientists how to run for public office.  This one day workshop to be held at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, will involve people from across the political and scientific spectrum.

Most participants will have little or no political experience, although some will possess experience to share. Workshop topics will include fundraising, messaging, working with the press and building a campaign team.

This will not be an academic conference, but rather a hands-on practical lesson in what it takes to win an election.  Sessions will be run by some of the country's top political campaign advisors, experts with decades of experience running campaigns across the country.

Engineers have a set of skills and knowledge that the political system often lacks, yet needs.  From their ability to understand complex systems and problems to their comfort with numbers, engineers are a huge asset to any town council, state legislature or school board.  Unfortunately, few engineers have taken up the challenge and actually run for office.

IEEE-USA would like to help you correct this omission. Workshop registration is $100 for IEEE members.  More information can be found at www.elections.sefora.org/agenda/.

If you have questions, please contact IEEE-USA staffer Russ Harrison at (202) 530-8326 or r.t.harrison@ieee.org.

• IEEE-USA Public Policy Priority Issues - 110th Congress, 2d Session (2008)
  

The updated public policy priorities list is available online at: http://ieeeusa.org/policy/issues/index.html

• IEEE-USA Entrepreneurs Committee: TechMatch

IEEE-USA's Entrepreneurs Committee will hold its first TechMatch Conference on May 12th in Minneapolis, MN, in collaboration with LifeScience Alley and their MedTech investment conference. The TechMatch will provide one-on-one meetings for entrepreneurs to meet with Chief Technology Officers, Venture Capitalists, and Angels.

• Track IEEE-USA's Progress

For the latest IEEE-USA Annual Report, go to: http://www.ieeeusa.org/about/annual_report/2006.pdf

For the IEEE-USA Strategic & Operational Plan, go to:

http://www.ieeeusa.org/volunteers/strategicplan/index.html

Many newly approved position statements are now available online at: http://ieeeusa.com/policy/positions/index.html

• IEEE-USA In The News

For more IEEE-USA in the News items, see: http://ieeeusa.org/communications/inthenews/default.asp.

• Its election Year!!

Make sure that you're a part of the solution. Register to vote: http://www.engineeringthevote.org/register.asp

Given the many urgent scientific and technological challenges facing America and the rest of the world, the increasing need for accurate scientific information in political decision making, and the vital role scientific innovation plays in spurring economic growth and competitiveness, NPR calls for a public debate in which the U.S. presidential candidates share their views on the issues of The Environment, Health and Medicine, and Science and Technology Policy. http://sciencedebate2008.com/www/index.php

9) OTHER ITEMS OF POSSIBLE INTEREST

None at this time.

Top of Page | What's New@IEEE | IEEE-USA

What's New @ IEEE-USA's Eye on Washington highlights important federal legislative and regulatory developments that affect U.S. engineers and their careers. In addition to this biweekly newsletter, subscribers receive legislative bulletins and action alerts on IEEE-USA priority issues, including: retirement security, employment benefits, research & development funding, computers and information policy, immigration reform, intellectual property protection and privacy of health/medical information.

You can change your IEEE-USA Eye on Washington subscription status by using the forms at http://www.ieeeusa.org/communications/emailupdates/default.asp

Copyright © 2008, The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.  Permission granted to copy for personal use or for non-commercial republication with appropriate attribution.

Updated: 14 April 2008