Contact: Eben BurnhamSnyder (Markey) 2022242742

Giselle Barry (Markey) 2022242742

Creates privatepublic partnerships to get American ideas out of the labs and into factories

 

WASHINGTON (November 13, 2013) - It's become a familiar refrain in American commerce an invention created in America, invested in by Americans, gets sent overseas to be built with foreign labor. Today, Senator Edward J. Markey (DMass.) introduced a bill to get American inventors, investors, professors, and producers all on the same page by creating several local innovation hubs around the country that aim to bridge the last hurdles between innovation and manufacturing.

 

The bill the ConsortiaLed Energy and Advanced Manufacturing Networks Act would create 6 or more of these hubs by encouraging local universities, clean tech businesses, investors, and experts in commercialization to link together and apply for matching federal funds. The bill would open up $100 million in matching funds, with rigorous costshare requirements to ensure that taxpayers are only partnering on the best ideas in which the private sector also has significant capital committed.

 

"For more than a century, America's innovation community has been the foundation of our hightech economy and generated broadbased growth to create jobs and support a strong middle class. This legislation will encourage a new generation of innovators and manufacturers to work together so American ideas are Americanmade," said Senator Markey. "This bill will help innovative and potentially disruptive technologies actually reach the market, creating jobs and providing badly needed competition in industries where incumbents may be failing to innovate."

 

America has already seen the benefits of regional innovation ecosystems in places like Boston, Cambridge and the Route 128 Corridor, Silicon Valley, and the Research Triangle in North Carolina. The geographic proximity of institutions in these areas improves the flow of information between scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs, and it facilitates the sharing of skilled human resources and facilities. 

 

This legislation introduced today by Senator Markey builds on provisions he included in both the WaxmanMarkey climate and energy bill that passed the U.S. House of Representatives in 2009, and the America COMPETES reauthorization bill that passed the House of Representatives in 2010. Today, the Senate Commerce Committee, on which Senator Markey serves, is holding a hearing on the role of manufacturing hubs in driving technology innovation and creating domestic manufacturing jobs.

 

Full text of the legislation can be found HERE .