Reps. Gordon and Costello Press Administration for Data on the S&T Workforce
On September 22, 2004, Rep. Bart Gordon (D-TN) urged the White House to follow up on recommendations contained in a report it commissioned on data regarding the U.S. scientific, technical, engineering, and mathematics workforce. Rep. Gordon, Ranking Member of the Committee on Science, was joined by Rep. Jerry Costello (D-IL) in asking Dr. John Marburger, Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), to outline the White House’s planned actions.
The June 2004 RAND report, The U.S. Scientific and Technical Workforce: Improving Data for Decisionmaking, highlights the fact that information available to policy-makers, and to students and professional workers, is not adequate to make informed decisions either about policies for the S&T workforce or about individual career opportunities. The RAND report recommended that federal agencies take eight priority actions to improve data collection on the S&T workforce.
Reps. Gordon and Costello have been at the forefront of efforts to gather information on the root causes of the off-shoring of technical jobs, and on the job market for scientists and engineers. During both Committee and House consideration of H.R. 3598, the Manufacturing Technology Competitiveness Act, they offered provisions to provide a basis for objectively analyzing the off-shoring issue. In both instances, the provisions were rejected by the Republican majority.
Rep. Gordon noted: "In Washington, government-commissioned reports all too often end up on a shelf. If Congress and the Administration are going to make sensible policy decisions on the issue of off-shoring, we will need the best data available. The RAND report should not be consigned to a shelf - the Administration needs to follow up aggressively on RAND’s recommendations to improve the collection of these critical data."
Related Subcommittees
Next Article Previous Article