America is finally poised to begin to go on offense in the contest for technology leadership in the future. Both federal chambers have passed a bill purportedly aimed at elevating the competitiveness of the United States. The United States House of Representatives passed the America COMPETES Act on February 4, 2022, that now must be reconciled with the bill’s Senate counterpart, the United States Innovation and Competition Act of 2021 that passed on June 8, 2021. There is perhaps no greater priority facing the nation than to preserve its innovative edge upon which its prosperity and security depends. Playing defense is insufficient. The final bill has the potential to put America on offense.

Each bill includes a mixture of provisions not directly relevant to advancing America’s competitiveness that are beyond the scope of this paper. They both include provisions vital to bolstering American innovation and sadly other provisions anathema to competitiveness. As the conference committee convenes it should retain those elements that will truly help American innovation stay a step ahead and steer clear of provisions harmful to competitiveness.

This paper seeks to state the case for action within the construct of a historical framework for elevating national innovation. It will identify categories of provisions to retain, perhaps even bolster and some provisions to jettison in the conference report for a competitiveness bill.