United States: The Need for Continuity

Issues in Science and Technology (Kahin and Hill) - For the nation to achieve its ambitious goals, it must establish a permanent home for innovation policies and programs in the Department of Commerce...A national innovation strategy naturally involves many agencies and many policy mechanisms, ranging from mission-driven funding programs to tax credits to patents to regulatory insights. Yet the strategy does not address the need for agency capacity-building, coordination, and sustained public policy development...The United States also needs a permanent institutional framework for innovation that can outlive the stimulus package and survive through election cycles, independent of the presence at the top of talented individuals with good ideas.

The Obama strategy makes the case that innovation policy should be a key element of economic policy. However, in the present environment of 10% unemployment and slow growth, the short-term demand for jobs upstages the possibilities of acting on the strategy’s long-term vision. Other than discussions of the opportunity provided by the impending expiration of the program authorizations under the American COMPETES Act, there is little evidence that the administration or Congress is considering major actions to follow up on the strategy articulated in fall 2009.