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May 23, 2007

Committee Advances Legislation on Energy Research and Health Information Technology

(Washington, DC) – The House Committee on Science and Technology today approved four pieces of legislation with goals of furthering federal research and development in the energy and healthcare information technology arenas.

Among the bills marked up today by the full Committee was H.R. 364, to provide for the establishment of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, the third piece from Chairman Bart Gordon’s (D-TN) innovation package to clear the Committee.

The bill was adopted by a bipartisan vote of 25-12.

“U.S. dependence on traditional energy sources and outdated technologies has put us in a perilous position – we can not afford to wait until we face severe disruptions to fossil energy supplies or serious impacts from climate change to address this challenge,” Gordon said.

As amended, the measure authorizes $4.9 billion for fiscal years 2008-2012 to establish an ARPA-E within the Department of Energy, modeled after the Department of Defense’s DARPA. It is based on the recommendations made in the National Academies 2005 report, “Rising Above the Gathering Storm,” which was written at the request of a bipartisan group of Congressional lawmakers, including Chairman Gordon.

The mission of ARPA-E would be to help decrease U.S. dependence on oil by rapidly developing and commercializing transformational, clean energy technologies. The agency would recruit the best and brightest science and technology researchers and allow them unprecedented flexibility to develop cutting-edge technologies to be pushed from the lab into the public domain for consumption.

“Establishing a nimble agency with a minimal amount of administrative layers is key to transforming R&D from lab projects into market-ready technologies.” added Gordon. “This is a bold step to take but we have to be willing to make the tough but firm commitments to get the job done.”

A Manager’s Amendment offered by Chairman Gordon was adopted by the Committee, as was an amendment offered by Rep. Bob Inglis (R-SC) – in collaboration with Chairman Gordon – that would help protect ARPA-E funding from earmarks and set aside funds to assist with tech transfer.

An amendment offered by Ranking Member Ralph Hall (R-TX) was defeated. The amendment would have moved the ARPA-E concept to within DOE rather than as an established independent entity. Other amendments to defund ARPA-E and sunset the program before its benefits could be fully realized were also defeated.

Members also approved H.R. 1467, the 10,000 Trained by 2010 Act, introduced by Technology and Innovation Subcommittee Chairman David Wu (D-OR). The measure is designed to better educate and train health care professionals in using information technology (IT).

“While everyone is talking about adopting these systems, no one is addressing the workforce concerns. There are insufficient numbers of health information technology professionals and a lack of programs to train current doctors and nurses,” Wu said. “A workforce capable of innovating, implementing and using electronic health systems will be critical to the successful transition. Education will be key to digitizing the health care industry.”

Specifically, H.R. 1467 authorizes the National Science Foundation to award grants to colleges and universities to research and support the education and training of healthcare informatics personnel through newly-established degree programs or multi-disciplinary Health and Medial Informatics Research Centers.

H.R. 632, the H-Prize Act of 2007, would create a prize program at the Department of Energy for advances in hydrogen technologies to be administered through a private, non-profit entity. Prizes are one tool the federal government can use to stimulate efforts to overcome technical hurdles in using hydrogen as transportation fuel.

“An economy based on energy outside of fossil fuels is no longer implausible,” said Committee Vice-Chair Daniel Lipinski (D-IL), who introduced the bill, along with Rep. Inglis. “Significant progress has been made, and with additional encouragement given to research and development, hydrogen fuel technology can be an everyday reality. Hydrogen energy has the potential to increase our nation’s energy security, fight climate change, improve our air quality, and maintain our economic competitiveness – and the H-Prize will help take us there.”

The final bill passed by the Committee today is H.R. 1716, the Green Energy Education Act of 2007, authored by Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX). The bill authorizes DOE to partner with the National Science Foundation to help universities to develop the next generation of engineers and architects to work effectively together to produce buildings incorporating the latest in energy efficient technologies.

H.R. 1716 is designed to raise awareness and education about energy efficient technologies and design practices among building professionals.

These bills now move to the full House for consideration.

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