§3718 President’s Council on Innovation and Competitiveness

Summary

The President must create a President’s Council on Innovation and Competitiveness. The Council will watch how laws and programs that affect innovation are put into action, such as those about research funding, taxes, immigration, trade, and education. It must advise the President about global trends and how to spend federal money on education, job training, and research. Working with the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, the Council must make a way to use measurements to judge the effect of policies on U.S. innovation. The Council must find opportunities, recommend actions for agency heads, track progress with metrics on talent, investment, and infrastructure, and send an annual report to the President and Congress. The Council will be made up of the heads of major departments and agencies: Commerce; Defense; Education; Energy; Health and Human Services; Homeland Security; Labor; the Treasury; NASA; the SEC; the National Science Foundation; the U.S. Trade Representative; the Office of Management and Budget; the Office of Science and Technology Policy; the EPA; the Small Business Administration; and any other agencies the President names. The Secretary of Commerce will be Chair. The Chair must coordinate with the National Economic Council, National Security Council, and National Science and Technology Council and call meetings twice a year. The first meeting must happen no later than 6 months after August 9, 2007. The Council must write a comprehensive agenda to strengthen innovation across the federal and state governments, academia, and business. That agenda must assess R&D strengths and weaknesses, give recommendations to keep the United States a world leader (including ways to increase participation of individuals identified in section 1885a or 1885b of title 42 in STEM), and suggest ways to strengthen innovation across sectors. The National Academy of Sciences must give a list of 50 recommended advisors within 30 days after August 9, 2007, and the President must name 50 advisors within 30 days after that list is sent. The Council must submit the agenda to the President and Congress no later than 1 year after August 9, 2007, and update it at least once every 2 years. The President may also assign these duties to an existing council instead.