WASHINGTON, Feb. 18, 2003 — A long-awaited bill in the U.S. House of Representatives that would put muscle on the federal government’s nanotechnology efforts was introduced late last week.

The Nanotechnology Research and Development Act of 2003 (PDF, 64.4 KB) would establish the federal government’s first permanent interagency research and development program that focuses on the industry.

Introduced by Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y., the powerful chairman of the House Science Committee, the bill would:

• Establish the overall program, which would coordinate federal nanotechnology research, development, education, technology transfer and commercial application activities. The program would dole out grants to researchers, establish interdisciplinary research centers and build advanced technology facilities that could be used by nanotechnology researchers.
• Put together a research program to identify societal and ethical concerns related to nanotechnology. It would require that this research be incorporated, as much as possible, into federal nanotechnology projects.
• Organize an interagency committee, chaired by the director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, that will oversee the planning, management and coordination of all federal nanotechnology R&D.
• Establish a presidentially appointed advisory committee, made up of people outside of government, to assess the program.
• Establish a National Nanotechnology Coordination Office with full-time staff to support the interagency committee and the advisory committee.

“Nanotechnology may be the ‘smallest’ field of science — the manipulating of individual atoms,” Boehlert said in a prepared statement. “But I’ve come to understand that in science and technology, few things could actually be ‘bigger’ than nanotechnology — in terms of its potential to revolutionize scientific and engineering research, improve human health and bolster our economy. This bill will ensure that the federal government is investing significantly, and most importantly wisely, in this growing field.”

The bill is likely to be roughly mirrored by a companion bill in the Senate. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., introduced a nearly identical bill to Boehlert’s in the Senate last year. The bill was supported unanimously by the full Commerce Committee, but the full Senate never got around to considering the bill before the 107th Congress was over.

That bill then had to start from scratch, and this time Wyden was no longer the chairman of the Senate Science, Technology and Space subcommittee. With the Republicans now in control of the Senate, Sen. George Allen, R-Va., has taken the lead on the nanotechnology bill, joined by Wyden. An Allen spokeswoman said nanotechnology is a top priority for Allen, but she could not predict when he would introduce the bill.

The nanotechnology industry backs Boehlert’s bill, just as it did Wyden’s bill last year.

“It’s a great first step,” said Mark Modzelewski, executive director of the NanoBusiness Alliance, a nanotechnology trade association based in New York. “It’s important to get early legislation passed and get Capitol Hill engaged on the issue. We’ll have things we’ll want to see in bills in the future that aren’t in this one, but it is a good first step.”

The next nanotechnology bill, Modzelewski said, needs to take into account “how quickly (nanotechnology) is becoming a business, and it needs to make more effort to engage with commerce and education.”

Outside of the bill’s particulars, “the most important thing for the nanotechnology community is that Congress actually put authorizing language in the bill, that it put the spotlight on nanotechnology and made it a major national priority,” said Dan Ritter, a lobbyist with the law firm Preston Gates & Ellis. “This is all positive.”

The House is scheduling a hearing on the bill for mid-March, Modzelewski said.

Modzelewski said he believed the bill would likely pass this year. Before that, though, it must get through the House appropriations process, get through the Senate and be vetted and endorsed by the White House.

“The bigger mystery is how much it will get played with,” Modzelewski said. “In the Senate it was moving very straightforwardly. Everybody was pleased with it as it stood. The House seems to be proceeding that way, but I wonder if people will put a lot of attachments to it. It will be interesting to watch how the gamesmanship of Capitol Hill will affect nanotechnology.”

Mike Roco, director of the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI), championed the bill, calling it a “recognition of the importance of the field.”

Roco, though, was less enthusiastic about the bill’s call for a new oversight committee composed of people outside of government.

“The advisory committee has to be discussed by (the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy),” Roco said. That body, he said, may find that the President’s Council of Advisors of Science and Technology (PCAST) — an advisory board that oversees the broad federal science and technology agenda — “can already do this.”

“The opinion is we already have pretty good coordination, and PCAST already has this role,” he said. “But we are waiting to see what will happen.”