DC initiatives can help NM, make US competitive

From higher ed to national labs, the state can get in the game

A pivot to China was begun under former President Donald Trump and is now accelerating under President Joe Biden. Biden is pursuing a strategy of coexistence with China in four key competitive domains: military, economic, political and global governance.

Technology innovation is crucial to both economic and military competition with China. Various legislative measures are recommended to promote U.S. technology innovation.

The United States must expand domestic chip manufacturing for automotive and other applications. Congress should make sure Rio Rancho’s fab is not overlooked in the appropriation legislation for domestic chip fabs.

The Endless Frontier Act further expands the scope of the National Science Foundation, hence universities, in the technology domain. This has the potential to make universities, e.g., UNM and NMSU colleges of engineering, have much more impact on N.M. economic growth.

Much U.S. innovation has taken place on the East and West coasts by a relatively small group of white and Asian male STEM workers who have started new companies. If the United States is to compete with China, it must expand its innovation capabilities numerically, geographically, racially and by gender. Congress should make sure the College of Northern New Mexico in Española and Central New Mexico Community College in Sandoval County — both counties have large Hispanic and Native communities and are under-represented in STEM disciplines — are among those locations selected for NSF Regional Technology Centers and make sure their entrepreneurship programs have additional federal funding up to $10 million each.

Political leaders seek ways to get more private sector economic growth from the federal R&D investment at government labs and research universities. At 25% of N.M. GDP, federal R&D is New Mexico’s most important economic asset; it must become the driving force for creating new, fast-growth, private sector, high-tech firms that compete in the global economy. The Endless Frontier Act has made technology transfer from federal R&D a major emphasis. Congress must critically rewrite cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) legislation to give preference to local start-ups over existing companies, and it must create new categories of temporary employment at government-owned labs for prospective entrepreneurs.

Biden’s 30-year goal for carbon neutrality needs a pilot project to retain the longterm commitment of Americans, identify what does and doesn’t work, demonstrate that carbon neutrality is achievable and develop more domestic firms that manufacture renewable energy technology. Congress should put New Mexico on a 15-year, federally funded plan to reach carbon neutrality and create a new branch of Los Alamos National Laboratory to manage a multibillion-dollar Manhattan Project for carbon neutrality.

New Mexico has the lowest-cost renewable energy in the United States. Energy costs impact manufacturing firms’ competitiveness. Many U.S. companies that moved their manufacturing offshore are looking to relocate to the United States. Congress should offer these companies federal tax incentives to relocate to states like New Mexico, whose economies are stagnant.

U.S. graduate education attracts talented, foreign-born students for study and research. Congress should require that 25% of the research grants to universities be focused on projects that can create start-up companies. If the graduate student doing the research is an immigrant on a student visa, Congress should allow that student to be granted a green card if they start a company in an economically stagnant U.S. county.