WASHINGTON—Today the Senate passed an historic bill that will lower costs and create jobs. As Americans are worried about the state of the economy and the cost of living, the CHIPS bill is one answer: it will accelerate the manufacturing of semiconductors in America, lowering prices on everything from cars to dishwashers. It also will create jobs – good-paying jobs right here in the United States.
It will mean more resilient American supply chains, so we are never so reliant on foreign countries for the critical technologies that we need for American consumers and national security. I want to thank Senators in both parties for their hard work on this legislation.
For decades, some “experts” said we needed to give up on manufacturing in America. I never believed that. Manufacturing jobs are back.
Thanks to this bill, we are going to have even more of them. The House should promptly pass it and send this bill to my desk.
These diverse, deeply experienced scientists and experts will play a key role in shaping America’s future — and will prepare us to lead the world in the 21st century and beyond.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
WASHINGTON ― President-elect Joe Biden announced his White House science team — a deeply respected group of diverse and eminently qualified scientists who will marshal the force of science to drive meaningful progress in the lives of people. They will help the Biden-Harris administration confront some of the biggest crises and challenges of our time, from climate change and the impact of technology on society to pandemics, racial inequity and the current historic economic downturn.
The president-elect announced that Dr. Francis Collins will continue in his role as Director of the National Institutes of Health. The president-elect also wrote a letter to Dr. Eric Lander, the Presidential Science Advisor-designate and nominee for Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, tasking him to work broadly and transparently with the diverse scientific leadership of American society and make recommendations on how the Biden-Harris administration can harness the full power of science and technology on behalf of the American people. As a part of this announcement, the president-elect is elevating the role of the Presidential Science Advisor to the Cabinet level for the first time.
President-elect Joe Biden said, “Science will always be at the forefront of my administration — and these world-renowned scientists will ensure everything we do is grounded in science, facts, and the truth. Their trusted guidance will be essential as we come together to end this pandemic, bring our economy back, and pursue new breakthroughs to improve the quality of life of all Americans. Their insights will help America chart a brighter future, and I am grateful they answered the call to serve.”
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris said, “From the coronavirus pandemic to our climate crisis, this past year has reaffirmed the importance of listening to scientists when it comes to meeting the unprecedented challenges facing the American people. These world-renowned scientists and experts reflect the very best of our nation and we are sending a clear message by naming them to these important roles: in our administration, decisions will be informed by the best available science and evidence.”
The science team includes:
Dr. Eric Lander
Dr. Eric Lander will be nominated as Director of the OSTP and serve as the Presidential Science Advisor. The president-elect is elevating the role of science within the White House, including by designating the Presidential Science Advisor as a member of the Cabinet for the first time in history. One of the country’s leading scientists, Dr. Lander was a principal leader of the Human Genome Project and has been a pioneer in the field of genomic medicine. He is the founding director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, one of the nation’s leading research institutes. During the Obama-Biden administration, he served as external Co-Chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Dr. Lander will be the first life scientist to serve as Presidential Science Advisor.
Dr. Alondra Nelson will serve as OSTP Deputy Director for Science and Society. A distinguished scholar of science, technology, social inequality, and race, Dr. Nelson is president of the Social Science Research Council, an independent, nonprofit organization linking social science research to practice and policy. She is also a professor at the Institute for Advanced Study, one of the nation’s most distinguished research institutes, located in Princeton, NJ.
Dr. Frances H. Arnold and Dr. Maria Zuber will serve as the external Co-Chairs of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). An expert in protein engineering, Dr. Arnold is the first American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Dr. Zuber, an expert in geophysics and planetary science, is the first woman to lead a NASA spacecraft mission and has chaired the National Science Board. They are the first women to serve as co-chairs of PCAST.
Dr. Francis Collins will continue serving in his role as Director of the National Institutes of Health.
Kei Koizumi will serve as OSTP Chief of Staff and is one of the nation’s leading experts on the federal science budget.
Narda Jones, who will serve as OSTP Legislative Affairs Director, was Senior Technology Policy Advisor and Counsel for the Democratic staff of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.
The following announcements for the new White House science teams were made by the transition team this week.
Eric S. Lander, Ph.D., OSTP Director and Presidential Science Advisor
Eric Lander is one of the leading and most highly cited scientists in the country, and was one of the principal leaders of the Human Genome Project. He played a pioneering role in the reading, understanding, and medical application of the human genome — including developing powerful methods for discovering the molecular basis of human diseases.
Lander is president and founding director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, one of the leading non-profit biomedical research institutes in the world, which brings together biologists, clinicians, chemists, engineers, mathematicians, software engineers and computational scientists to propel the understanding and treatment of diseases — and which, since March 2020, has also been a major COVID-19 viral testing lab, processing about 1 in every 30 COVID-19 tests nationwide in recent months and focusing on the needs of public and non-profit settings.
Lander served as co-chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) during the Obama-Biden administration. He served as a member of the Defense Innovation Board, advising the Secretary of Defense on matters related to technological and organizational innovation. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Medicine, and has received many awards, including the MacArthur Fellowship and the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences. He was appointed to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences by Pope Francis in 2020. Lander is also Professor of Biology, MIT and Professor of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School. He received his bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and his DPhil from the University of Oxford.
Alondra Nelson, Ph.D., OSTP Deputy Director for Science and Society
Alondra Nelson, President of the Social Science Research Council and Harold F. Linder Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, is an acclaimed researcher and author who explores questions of science, technology, and social inequality.
Nelson serves on the Board of Trustees of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Russell Sage Foundation, and on the Board of Directors of the Teagle Foundation and the Data & Society Research Institute.
Nelson is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the National Academy of Medicine. Nelson received her B.A. from the University of California, San Diego, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She earned her Ph.D. from New York University in 2003. She lives in New York City with her husband and stepson.
Frances H. Arnold, Ph.D., Co-Chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology
Frances Arnold, Ph.D. is the Linus Pauling Professor of Chemical Engineering, Bioengineering and Biochemistry and Director of the Rosen Bioengineering Center at the California Institute of Technology. Arnold is the first American woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2018). Active in technology transfer, Arnold co-founded three biotechnology companies in sustainable chemistry and agriculture and has been inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
Arnold is a Director of Illumina and Alphabet. Arnold received the Charles Stark Draper Prize of the National Academy of Engineering and the National Medal of Technology and Innovation from President Obama. Arnold was the first woman to be elected to all three National Academies (of Science, Medicine, and Engineering); she was appointed to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences by Pope Francis in 2019. Arnold received her B.S. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Princeton University and her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.
Maria Zuber, Ph.D., Co-Chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology
Maria Zuber, MIT’s vice president for research and E. A. Griswold Professor of Geophysics, is responsible for research administration and policy. She oversees MIT Lincoln Laboratory and more than a dozen interdisciplinary research laboratories and centers. She leads MIT’s Climate Action Plan. Zuber has held leadership roles associated with scientific experiments or instrumentation on ten NASA missions, notably serving as principal investigator of the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission.
Zuber is the first woman to lead a science department at MIT and the first to lead a NASA planetary mission. She has won numerous honors, including membership in the National Academy of Sciences and American Philosophical Society, and fellowship in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2013, President Obama appointed Zuber to the National Science Board, and in 2018 she was reappointed by President Trump; she served as board chair from 2016 to 2018. Zuber earned a B.A. in astronomy and geology from the University of Pennsylvania and an Sc.M. and Ph.D. in geophysics from Brown University.
Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., Director of the National Institutes of Health
Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., will continue in his role as Director of the National Institutes of Health. He was appointed the 16th Director of the NIH by President Barack Obama, confirmed by the Senate, and sworn in on August 17, 2009. On June 6, 2017, President Donald Trump selected Collins to continue to serve as the NIH Director. Collins oversees the world’s largest supporter of biomedical research, spanning basic to clinical research. He plays a pivotal role in the national response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Collins is a physician-geneticist noted for his landmark discoveries of disease genes and his leadership of the international Human Genome Project, which culminated in April 2003 with a mapping of all the genes of the human genome. He served as director of the National Human Genome Research Institute at NIH from 1993-2008.
Collins is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in November 2007, and received the National Medal of Science in 2009. In 2020, he was elected as a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (UK) and was named the 50th winner of the Templeton Prize.
Kei Koizumi, OSTP Chief of Staff
Kei Koizumi (he/him) is the Lead for the National Science Foundation Agency Review team and a member of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) Agency Review team on the Biden-Harris Transition. Prior to the Transition, he was Senior Advisor for Science Policy at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). In the Obama-Biden administration, Mr. Koizumi was Assistant Director for Federal Research & Development and Senior Advisor to the National Science and Technology Council at OSTP. He was also the OSTP representative to the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
Previously, he was previously the Director of the AAAS R&D Budget and Policy Program. Born in Providence, Rhode Island, he is from Columbus, Ohio, and now lives in Washington, D.C. with his husband Jeffrey Dutton, who is currently serving overseas with the U.S. Foreign Commercial Service. Mr. Koizumi is a graduate of Boston University and George Washington University.
Narda Jones, OSTP Legislative Affairs Director
Narda Jones most recently served as the Senior Technology Policy Advisor for the Democratic staff of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. She started working in the United States Senate in 2014 after spending over a decade in senior roles at the Federal Communications Commission.
Previously, Ms. Jones worked at the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office and the Minneapolis City Attorney’s Office. She was also part of the inaugural class of the AmeriCorps Legal Fellowship program and spent her fellowship time aiding homeless families secure housing and public benefits in St. Paul, Minnesota. Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Ms. Jones is a graduate of Wesleyan University and Brooklyn Law School.
“Continued American leadership in Artificial Intelligence is of paramount importance to maintaining the economic and national security of the United States.”
President Donald J. Trump
WHITE HOUSE (02.11.19) — In his 2019 State of the Union address, President Trump stressed the importance of investing in the cutting-edge Industries of the Future. Emerging technologies are driving the creation of the Industries of the Future, and none more so than artificial intelligence (AI). AI technologies are transforming nearly every area of our lives, from transportation to healthcare to education to security. Even now at the earliest stages of commercializing these technologies, we have seen the power and potential of AI to support workers, diagnose diseases, and improve our national security.
Americans have profited tremendously from being the early developers and international leaders in AI. However, as the pace of AI innovation increases around the world, we cannot sit idly by and presume that our leadership is guaranteed. We must ensure that advances in AI remain fueled by American ingenuity, reflect American values, and are applied for the benefit of the American people.
The American AI Initiative
Today, President Trump is doing just that by signing an Executive Order launching the American AI Initiative. This Initiative will focus the resources of the Federal government to develop AI in order to increase our Nation’s prosperity, enhance our national and economic security, and improve quality of life for the American people. This initiative takes a multi-pronged approach to accelerating our national leadership in AI, and includes five key areas of emphasis:
1. Investing in AI Research and Development (R&D)
The initiative focuses on maintaining our Nation’s strong, long-term emphasis on high-reward, fundamental R&D in AI by directing Federal agencies to prioritize AI investments in their R&D missions. These investments will strengthen and leverage America’s unique and vibrant R&D ecosystem of industry, academia, and government, and prioritize Federal AI spending on cutting-edge ideas that can directly benefit the American people.
2. Unleashing AI Resources
The initiative directs agencies to make Federal data, models, and computing resources more available to America’s AI R&D experts, researchers, and industries to foster public trust and increase the value of these resources to AI R&D experts, while maintaining the safety, security, civil liberties, privacy, and confidentiality protections we all expect. This action will drive our top-notch AI research toward new technological breakthroughs and promote scientific discovery, economic competitiveness, and national security. These efforts will work in concert with the President’s Management Agenda and implementing the Open, Public, Electronic, and Necessary, (OPEN) Government Data Act.
3. Setting AI Governance Standards
As part of the American AI Initiative, Federal agencies will foster public trust in AI systems by establishing guidance for AI development and use across different types of technology and industrial sectors. This guidance will help Federal regulatory agencies develop and maintain approaches for the safe and trustworthy creation and adoption of new AI technologies. This initiative also calls for the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to lead the development of appropriate technical standards for reliable, robust, trustworthy, secure, portable, and interoperable AI systems.
4. Building the AI Workforce
To prepare our workforce with the skills needed to adapt and thrive in this new age of AI, the American AI Initiative calls for agencies to prioritize fellowship and training programs to help American workers gain AI-relevant skills through apprenticeships, skills programs, fellowships, and education in computer science and other growing Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields. This action will help educate the AI R&D workforce our Nation needs to create and embrace new AI technologies.
5. International Engagement and Protecting our AI Advantage
The Trump Administration is committed to promoting an international environment that supports AI R&D and opens markets for American AI industries while also ensuring that the technology is developed in a manner consistent with our Nation’s values and interests. Federal agencies will also develop and implement an action plan to protect the advantage of the United States in AI and technology critical to United States national and economic security interests against strategic competitors and foreign adversaries.
The American AI Initiative is accelerating our Nation’s leadership in AI. By driving technological breakthroughs in AI, breaking barriers to AI innovation, preparing our workforce for the jobs of the future, and protecting America’s advantage in AI we are ensuring that AI technologies continue to improve the lives of our people, create jobs, reflect our Nation’s values, and keep Americans safe at home and abroad.
— Source: The White House
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
Join the conversation — pre-register today at BDPA.org
Markets think a ‘Trillion-dollar’ technology and infrastructure stimulus may be imminent
WASHINGTON (bdpatoday)—President-elect Trump’s victory signaled widespread uncertainty and discontent surrounding economic opportunities, something which CNBC states several technology executives recently suggested their technology eventually will help to address. For example, leaders at these companies reminded employees that eBay‘s marketplace empowers buyers and sellers, LinkedIn‘s tools help people connect or find jobs, and Apple‘s devices connect people.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella reminded people in one of his LinkedIn posts that our world is witnessing democracy in action and linked to his company’s blog with recommendations for the next administration and the next Congress. According to CNET’s Marguerite Reardon, here is what little we may know about President-Elect Trump’s stand on a few important technology issues.
Net neutrality
Net neutrality became a relatively big deal in our 2008 election, but little was said during this election cycle about last year’s policy.Net neutrality is the idea that all traffic on the internet should be treated equally. This means our broadband providers, which control our access to the internet, can not block nor slow down services or applications we use via the web.
We know Trump is not a fan of the FCC’s current regulations. It is very possible that an FCC led by Republicans could eliminate all or part of the rules and strip the FCC of some of its authority. Should that happen, broadband providers could create so-called ‘fast lanes’and pass charges to Internet companies, like Netflix, different rates to deliver content and their services. Loosening regulations around telecom likely will benefit broadband and wireless carriers. The NCTA, an Internet and Television Association which lobbies for the cable industry, said it is eager to work with President-elect Trump.
Industry consolidation and broadband
President-elect Trump also seems to have taken a populist view against mergers and acquisitions (M&As). That could spell trouble for big pending mergers, including AT&T’s $85 billion takeover of entertainment giant Time Warner. When that deal was announced last month, President-elect Trump vowed to block this merger if he was elected. AT&T’s executives still like their chances of inking this deal if approved by the U.S., pointing to “investing in infrastructure” statements President-elect Trump recently made in his victory speech.
Encryption and cybersecurity
CNET reports the president-elect has only made vague statements about privacy and security, and downplayed Russia’s alleged hacking into the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and Secretary Clinton’s campaign email servers. Nonetheless, when our Justice Department haggled with Apple over unlocking the iPhone of a terrorist suspect in
the San Bernardino shooting, he then called for a boycott of Apple’s products. What he has said about cybersecurity is that there should be a review of US cyber defenses by a “Cyber Review Team.”
STEM education
Experts who have reviewed President-elect Trump’s economic agenda suggest that deficits will explode, which could eventually lead a Republican Congress to slash budgets. This could mean heavy cuts to funding for science programs and education, which runs counter to the tech industry’s call for more tech-savvy workers in today’s digital age and software-defined ecosystems.
Moreover, President-elect Trump publicly supported views that are not backed by the scientific community. He has repeated unfounded connections between vaccinations and autism and dismissed reports of climate change as a myth perpetuated by the Chinese to undermine our economy.
He appealed to voters in coal country by supporting energy policies that encourage the use of more fossil fuels and downplayed investments in renewable energy, like solar. Donald Trump also has said he would “cancel” the Paris climate agreement, the United Nations deal to curb greenhouse gases and fund adaptations to climate change, which worries many scientists.
H-1B visas and immigration
Immigration has been one of the hallmark issues of President-Elect Trump’s campaign, but most of his suggested policies center on what his administration would do to reduce illegal immigration. When it comes to legal immigration of skilled workers, he wants to increase pay for people holding H-1Bs as part of a plan to steer more opportunities to unemployed native and immigrant workers. This due largely in part some still consider H-1B visa holders a much cheaper source for highly skilled and technical labor for domestic U.S. corporations.
Tax policy
The biggest boost to the tech industry may ultimately come from President-elect Trump’s plans to lower corporate tax rates encouraging corporations to repatriate two trillion dollars of foreign profits parked overseas and reinvest their money in the United States.
CNET reports there’s a good chance that money could be invested in the U.S., said Rob Atkinson, president of the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF). But this is not a given. In the past, when the US allowed American companies to bring in profit earned overseas, we had hoped these firms would hire more workers. Instead, most of the money went to executives and shareholders.
President-elect Trump also has called for high import taxes on products, which could drive up prices for consumers on tech goods. Last January, Trump stated in one of his stump speeches, “We are going to get Apple to build computers and things in this country instead of in other countries.” Declining to comment on Trump’s statements at that time, Apple designs its products at its Silicon Valley headquarters, but uses a Chinese contractor to build them. If Apple products were manufactured in the US, the price of an iPhone could rise to as much as $900 per unit to offset worker wages versus the $650 cost of an iPhone today.
Could slashing corporate taxes to provide workforce development and mentor-protégé incentives help train more college, vocational tech, and high school students to build computers and mobile devices with original equipment manufactures (OEMs) in the U.S.? Greg Autry, an entrepreneur researcher, predicts a shift away from the traditional start-up model, where young engineers develop a new product, get it financed and move the manufacturing overseas. He argued a Trump administration would create a regulatory and tax-friendly environment conducive to the tech sector.
“Companies like Foxconn, the Taiwanese company that manufactures Apple products will be able to expand production in the U.S. through automation,” Autry said. He added that more automation—the so-called ‘boogie man’ often described as robots stealing human jobs—would actually be a boon for OEMs and U.S. manufacturing.
“We’ve dealt with automation since the 19th century,” Autry said. “What automation does is create a lot more products for us to enjoy at a lower cost, and we get more people working more efficiently creating more products.”
Apparently, almost half of the national electorate voted along those lines—the promise of more jobs.
— Sources: cNET, CNBC, PBS, and the White House Photo: whitehouse.gov
WASHINGTON—This year’s White House Science Fair highlighted the ingenuity and entrepreneurship of the next generation of scientists, engineers, mathematicians, and innovators.
Students who attended this year’s Science Fair attempted to tackle some of our Nation’s greatest challenges – from combating climate change, to uncovering new ways to fight cancer, to discovering ways to reach farther beyond our atmosphere as a part of the Mars generation.
As part of the American AI Initiative, Federal agencies will foster public trust in AI systems by establishing guidance for AI development and use across different types of technology and industrial sectors. This guidance will help Federal regulatory agencies develop and maintain approaches for the safe and trustworthy creation and adoption of new AI technologies. This initiative also calls for the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to lead the development of appropriate technical standards for reliable, robust, trustworthy, secure, portable, and interoperable AI systems.
The Trump Administration is committed to promoting an international environment that supports AI R&D and opens markets for American AI industries while also ensuring that the technology is developed in a manner consistent with our Nation’s values and interests. Federal agencies will also develop and implement an action plan to protect the advantage of the United States in AI and technology critical to United States national and economic security interests against strategic competitors and foreign adversaries.
Moreover, President-elect Trump publicly supported views that are not backed by the scientific community. He has repeated unfounded connections between vaccinations and autism and dismissed reports of climate change as a myth perpetuated by the Chinese to undermine our economy.
CNET reports there’s a good chance that money could be invested in the U.S., said Rob Atkinson, president of the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF). But this is not a given. In the past, when the US allowed American companies to bring in profit earned overseas, we had hoped these firms would hire more workers. Instead, most of the money went to executives and shareholders.
Students who attended this year’s Science Fair attempted to tackle some of our Nation’s greatest challenges – from combating climate change, to uncovering new ways to fight cancer, to discovering ways to reach farther beyond our atmosphere as a part of the Mars generation.