[Advanced Tech]

[Defense]

[Education]

[Environment]

[Health]

[Science]

• Since World War II, Americans have demonstrated an unwavering, bipartisan commitment to U.S. leadership in technology - building our future on common ground.

• Technological leadership is a key ingredient in President Clinton's economic strategy.
  It is no accident that industries that grew from federal investments -- in agriculture, aeronautics, computers, biotechnology, and medical devices, to name a few -- dominate world markets today. Indeed, over the past 50 years, innovation has been responsible for as much as half of the Nations's economic growth.

• Yet, today, America's technological future is at stake. To balance the budget, Congress has proposed to slow federal R&D spending by a third over the next seven years and eliminate or severely cut critical industry-led technology programs that are working to ensure America's technological future. The President's balanced-budget maintains these vital interests.

• Meanwhile, the importance of technology to global competitiveness increases. A recent Census study confirmed that companies that use advanced technologies are more productive and profitable, pay higher wages, offer more secure jobs, increase employment, grow more rapidly, and are more likely to export than those that do not.

• This is exactly the wrong time to cut investment in R&D. Japan currently invests 35% more in than the U.S. on a per capita basis in civilian technology; and Germany invests 30% more. And, Japan plans to double the country's R&D spending by 2000. Premier U.S. high-tech companies continue to reduce long- term R&D investments, instead focusing on short term product commercialization.

• Industry-led, cost-shared R&D programs work for the American people. American business, faced with brutal and relentless foreign competition, cannot be expected to devote sufficient resources to long-term, high-risk R&D whose benefits are difficult for any single firm to capture. Instead, American business and the government must work together to leverage their resources and ensure adequate investment in the technologies that will sustain and fuel future economic growth and job creation.

• Congressional attacks on technology don't stop at civilian technology; they threaten public health, public safety, the environment, and education. The Republican plan makes extreme cuts into research to ensure food safety, improve air traffic control, understand environmental change, and to advance educational technologies. By doing so they take direct aim at the Administration's efforts to improve the lives of Americans.

• President Clinton's vision--and the technology efforts for which he is fighting-- represents the common ground on which this Nation's future will be built. That is why his balanced-budget proposal will best sustain the future of this nation.

Laura Tyson, Chairwoman of the National Economic Council, speaks on the topic of building future prosperity through advancing technology. [Audio Files]

Sources: The data presented here was collected from the President's Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 1996; The President's Economic Plan: A Balanced Budget That Puts People First; and the FY 1996 Budget Overview from several Congressional committees unless otherwise noted.