Building Careers and Shaping Public Policy

22 September 2005

The Honorable Ted Stevens
Chair, Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation
522 Hart Building
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Chairman Stevens:

I am writing on behalf of The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers-United States of America (IEEE-USA) to urge the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation to act expeditiously to pass H.R.250, the Manufacturing Technology Competitiveness Act of 2005. This bill passed the House of Representatives on 21 September 2005. H.R.250 would give a much needed boost to strengthen this country's competitiveness in the manufacturing sciences and technology.

We strongly support the goal of this bill to amend the National Institute of Standards and Technology Act (NIST Act) to establish: (1) a pilot program of collaborative manufacturing research grants; (2) manufacturing sciences research fellowships; (3) manufacturing extension center competitive grants; and (4) standards education grants to develop higher education curricula on the role of standards in engineering, business, science, and economics. These programs are vitally important to ensure the U.S. stays competitive in the manufacturing technology in an increasingly global marketplace.

The bill also reauthorizes and strengthens the Manufacturing Extension Program (MEP) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The MEP has a proven track record of promoting innovation and economic growth. The MEP has helped over 150,000 small and mid-size businesses to grow, modernize, and improve productivity. The MEP program is instrumental to revitalizing the manufacturing industry and to creating and keeping jobs in the U.S. Given the significant benefit it provides to American innovation, economic prosperity and job creation, strengthening the MEP at this time would be the right thing to do.

Manufacturing science and technology have long been neglected in this country. Recently we have seen more and more high-tech industry moving their manufacturing offshore to parts of Asia. This bill is a step in the right direction to reinvigorate the U.S. manufacturing base and to keep manufacturing jobs in America. We strongly encourage you to support this important legislation.

IEEE-USA is an organizational unit of the IEEE. It was created in 1973 to advance the public good and promote the careers and public-policy interests of the more than 220,000 technology professionals who are U.S. members of the IEEE. The IEEE is the world's largest technical professional society.

For more information, go to www.ieeeusa.org. The IEEE-USA staff contact in the Washington, DC office is Bill Williams at +1 202 785 8331 or bill.williams@ieee.org.

Sincerely,

Gerard A. Alphonse
President, IEEE-USA