Nov. 19, 2003 — Wedged among wrangling over judicial nominations, an energy policy and other political hot potatoes, a long-awaited nanotechnology bill finally won U.S. Senate approval Tuesday.
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The Senate passed a version of its 21st Century Nanotechnology Research and Development Act that was negotiated with the U.S. House of Representatives’ Science Committee. The full House, which passed its own nano bill in May, is expected to vote on the compromise legislation this week and then go to President Bush for his expected signature.
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The bill (S. 189) gives nanotech a permanent home in the federal government, putting the National Nanotechnology Initiative into law and authorizing nearly $3.7 billion over four years for research and development programs coordinated and reviewed among several federal agencies. The legislation also authorizes creation of an American Nanotechnology Preparedness Center to study of the emerging technology’s potential societal and ethical effects.
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Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y., the bill’s sponsor in the House and chairman of the Science Committee, said today that the House could take up the Senate bill “in the next 24 hours,” although a committee aide said it could slip to the end of the week. Boehlert said the bill has the support of Republicans and Democrats and should easily pass.
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“This historic initiative will ensure that America is a competitive leader in the nanotechnology revolution,” Sen. George Allen, R-Va., one of the bill’s chief co-sponsors, said in a statement. “Nanotechnology is an innovative field that is forever changing the way we approach scientific and engineering challenges.”
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The version of the bill passed by the Senate authorizes about $1 billion less than the amount approved by the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. In addition, it does not include funding for fiscal year 2004.
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Senate and House negotiators decided to cut funding for 2004 given that most of fiscal year 2004 appropriations bills, which actually fund government programs, have been approved or are on their way to being passed by Congress, according to a spokesman for Sen. Ernest Hollings of South Carolina, the top Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee.
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The lawmakers also opted not to include authorized funds for a handful of agencies as called for in the original version of S. 189 because of jurisdictional concerns, he said. The agencies include the Agriculture, Justice and Homeland Security departments as well as the National Institutes of Health.
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The biggest winners in the legislation passed by the Senate include the National Science Foundation and the Energy Department, which would receive the bulk of the authorized funding called for in the bill. The measure, however, also authorizes funding for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Environmental Protection Agency.
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Tim Kyger, the Washington representative for the Foresight Institute, a nanotech think tank, said he was pleased to see the bill includes two provisions that were particularly important to his organization. They included a feasibility study on molecular manufacturing and a more expanded definition of nanotechnology that “covers the idea of molecular machinery and manufacturing.”
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Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., first introduced a nanotech bill last year in the Senate. The Commerce Committee supported it, but the full Senate never acted before the 107th Congress adjourned. Wyden introduced it again earlier this year with Allen, who took over from Wyden as chairman of the Senate Science, Technology and Space subcommittee.
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The legislation had been expected since the Senate Commerce Committee endorsed it in June. In recent weeks, passage was held up on what some Senate staffers called “nanoscale details,” including backroom debates over whether a center devoted to studying societal and ethical issues would hinder the emerging industry’s progress.
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The bill has the backing of industry trade group NanoBusiness Alliance, whose leaders lobbied and advised on its behalf. Executive Director Mark Modzelewski told Small Times recently that the bill legitimizes nanotech in the corridors of political power.
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“We wanted to see a recognition by official government, even though downstream our members will certainly benefit from it,” he said. “Symbolically, it becomes a focus of the government, not just a presidential initiative.”