America’s strengths in science, engineering, and technology are at the heart of our national prosperity and our hopes of solving the world’s most pressing challenges, including climate change and economic growth. And yet, for decades, the federal government has under-invested in science and technology.
Now, there’s a golden opportunity to do better, and we must seize it on a bipartisan basis.
The federal CHIPS and Science (CHIPS) Act, enacted with bipartisan support last summer, puts the United States on a path toward greater investment in high-tech research and development (R&D), marking a clean break from the past.
According to the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, in 22 of the 28 years before 2018, federal R&D spending on science and technology made up a smaller share of gross domestic product (GDP) than the year before, sinking to just 0.61…