COMMITTEE PREPARES FOR NANOTECHNOLOGY REAUTHORIZATION 

WASHINGTON D.C.- April 16, 2008 – The Science and Technology Committee today held a hearing to discuss draft legislation that proposes changes to the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI).  The legislation is based on recommendations from the National Academy of Sciences, witness testimony from previous Committee hearings, and the President’s Council of Advisors for Science and Technology (PCAST), which currently serves as the advisory committee for the NNI.

Although Ranking Member Hall (R-TX) could not attend today’s hearing, in a statement submitted for the record, he urged that any proposed changes to the NNI must allow the program flexibility, noting that the multi-agency program is already working well.  “My main interest is to make sure that we are careful to allow a multi-agency program, which seems to be working well, to continue to have the flexibility needed to do its work without being too prescriptive,” Hall said.  “We can tweak it a bit, but we certainly do not need to fix something that is not broken and, in fact, serves as a good model for how an interagency program should work.”

Hall continued, “I hope that we can continue to work together to ensure that the reauthorization of this vital program can move forward in a bipartisan fashion and with bipartisan support.”

Last week, PCAST released its second review of the NNI, evaluating the coordination, planning, and review mechanisms intended to ensure that the involved agencies are effectively supporting program and government goals.

Noting that PCAST’s recent report makes some recommendations for improvement, Mr. Floyd E. Kvamme, Co-Chair of PCAST, said that “NNI as currently structured is a very productive and effective program and a model of interagency coordination.”

He continued, “A clear strategy has been developed for nanotechnology-related environment, health and safety (EHS) research, and EHS guidelines are being presented to guide industry. International cooperation is happening. The National Nanotechnology Coordinating Office and NNI participating agencies have responded to past recommendations from PCAST as well as the Academies and have strengthened the program.”

Echoing the importance of EHS research in order to enable a smooth pathway for the nano-industry along with public acceptance of new technologies, Dr. Vernon Ehlers (R-MI), Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Research and Science Education, praised the elevated EHS component of the draft legislation.  However, he also urged caution in this respect, saying, “At the same time, I want to make sure we craft policy which allows for EHS research to be embedded into product development. We know that each nano-product and process may behave differently, and therefore independent EHS research may not always inform a seemingly parallel project.”

The Committee will be reauthorizing the NNI later this year.

Also testifying at today’s hearing were: Mr. Sean Murdock, Executive Director, NanoBusiness Alliance; Dr. Joseph Krajcik, Associate Dean for Research and Professor of Education, University of Michigan; Dr. Andrew Maynard, Chief Science Advisor, Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies, Woodrow Wilson Center; Dr. Raymond David, Manager of Toxicology, BASF Corporation on behalf of the American Chemistry Council; and Dr. Robert R. Doering, Senior Fellow and Research Strategy Manager, Texas Instruments and on behalf of the Semiconductor Industry Association.

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