House Passes Reauthorization Of America Competes Act

The House of Representatives passed a bill that keeps three key basic science agencies on a budget-doubling path and bolsters federal support for science education and innovation. After two failed attempts over a two-and-a-half week period, the House passed the America Competes Reauthorization Act (H.R. 5116) by a vote of 260 to 150 on May 28.

"Today, we took the action necessary to see consideration of this bill completed," said the bill's author, House Science & Technology Committee Chairman Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.). The original bill signed by President George W. Bush in 2007 was set to expire this fall.

The approved reauthorization bill keeps research budgets for the Department of Energy's Office of Science, the National Science Foundation, and the National Institute of Standards & Technology on track to double over a ten year period concluding in 2017. Specifically, H.R. 5116 authorizes funding levels for theses agencies for the next five years; congressional appropriators will still need to allocate the money each year.

Additionally, the bill will support science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education by helping coordinate federal activities and improving education at all levels. And to foster innovation, H.R. 5116 reauthorizes DOE's high-risk energy technology development program, the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, and authorizes DOE's collaborative Energy Innovation Hubs.

Republicans opposed this bill on the basis of its estimated $86 billion price tag. Led by House Science & Technology Committee ranking minority member Ralph Hall (Texas), they tried unsuccessfully to shorten the reauthorization term and to cut some of the programs the bill authorized.

"While I am glad we were finally able to reauthorize many of the important research and education programs in this bill, the bill that passed today spends too much money, authorizes duplicative programs, and shifts focus away from the bill's original intent," Hall said in a May 28 statement.

H.R. 5116 now moves to the Senate for consideration.