ITIF Recommends Policies to Promote Innovation, Productivity, and Competitiveness Before House Democratic Caucus
WASHINGTON—U.S. workers and enterprises are falling behind in the global innovation, productivity, and competitiveness race, and Congress should enact a series of policies to reverse the trends, argued Stephen Ezell, vice president for global innovation policy at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. Ezell’s comments today came at a panel convened by House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer to explore ways to spur creation of high-wage, private-sector jobs.
“If we want the U.S. economy to truly flourish again, then we need to focus on policies that bolster the three fundamental drivers of our economic well-being: innovation, productivity, and competitiveness,” said Ezell. “Those are the keys to job creation, wage growth, and overall quality of life in the 21st century. America once was the undisputed leader on each account, but recently we have faltered across the board.”
Ezell recommended four policy areas that Congress should focus on to jumpstart U.S. growth:
- Reauthorize the U.S. Export-Import Bank to support U. S. exporters and U.S. jobs as they face more global export credit competition.
- Invest in manufacturing innovation and education, including establishing manufacturing universities and expanding the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation, to better equip our workforce and restore American leadership in advanced manufacturing products and processes.
- Spur technology transfer and commercialization, including dedicating federal research funding to technology commercialization and establishing an office to coordinate federal technology transfer efforts, to turn U.S. research into new U.S. companies and jobs.
- Unlock the economic potential of the Internet of Things (IoT), including developing a strategy for deploying IoT technologies throughout the economy, enabling the government to become an early adopter of IoT through public-private partnerships, and making government data publicly available, to leverage this important platform and its potential economic impact.
“Restoring America’s world-leading position in innovation, productivity growth, and competitiveness is an attainable goal, but only if we implement smart public policies,” said Ezell. “With our recommendations, Congress can unlock the innovative power and productivity growth potential of the public and private sectors alike.”
Read Ezell’s full comments here.
