Innovate America Act
Latest action. Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
Innovate America Act - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to: (1) revise the definition of "basic research," for purposes of the research tax credit, to remove the prohibition against such research having a specific commercial objective; and (2) provide a tax credit for charitable contributions of equipment to secondary schools and technical and community colleges.
Directs the Secretary of Commerce to establish the the Innovation Technology Development Loan Guarantee Program to help small and medium-sized high growth technology companies operating in a business life cycle phase in which technological, market, or regulatory uncertainty constrains available capital, and unable to progress to the next phase because of such constraints.
Directs the Secretary of Education to award grants to state educational agencies in order to expand science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) secondary schools.
Requires the Director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) to provide awards to four-year degree-granting educational institutions which have: (1) dramatically increased their percentage and number of students intending to major in a STEM subject and who graduate with a degree in such subject; and (2) sustained such increase for more than five years.
Directs the President to ensure that not less than 10% of all federal funds available each fiscal year for undergraduate student research opportunities are used to fund research opportunities for postsecondary students during the students' first academic year or the summer following such year.
Directs the Secretary of Commerce to establish and maintain a website that connects federally funded researchers who have ideas for technologies they believe could be commercialized with persons expressing an interest in working with such researchers.
Requires the NSF Director to administer a Technology Commercialization Awards Pilot Program through which promising technology advances derived from NSF research grants shall be eligible for funding to move the technology through the prototype and demonstration phases.
Directs the Secretary of Commerce to establish a manufacturing assistance program for small and medium-sized domestic manufacturers to promote the manufacturing of goods in the United States and enable those manufacturers to be competitive in global markets.
The summary continues for 2 more paragraphs. Read it in full on Congress.gov
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Introduced in Senate" stage on January 31, 2011. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.
Where is it in the process, and what happens next?
4 steps remain before this bill could become law.
The record's latest action, on January 31, 2011: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
- Clearing the committees it was referred to, and being scheduled for a floor vote
- Passage by the Senate
- Passage by the House
- The President's signature. If the President vetoes it, two-thirds of both chambers must vote to override.
How likely is it to become law?
Civibrief does not forecast outcomes and this page has no opinion about this one. What the record supports is a base rate, which is a fact about the whole pile, not a prediction about this measure.
In the 112th Congress (2011-12), 283 of the 10,618 bills and joint resolutions introduced became law, about 2.7 percent. That count covers every measure at every stage, including the many that never left committee.
This one is not there yet: 4 steps are still outstanding, listed above.
Has anyone actually voted on it?
No. No roll call in this Congress cites this measure. That is the ordinary outcome: most measures never reach a recorded floor vote, and a committee ends most of them simply by not acting.
A vote is not the only thing that happens to a measure. Hearings, markups, and referrals are all recorded actions, and none of them is a vote of the full chamber.
Who is behind it?
Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) introduced it on January 31, 2011, and 5 members have since signed on as cosponsors.
They come from both major parties: 3 Democrats, 2 Republicans.
Cosponsoring is a formal signature on the text. It is not a commitment to vote for the measure, it does not bind anyone's party, and a long list of cosponsors is a measure of attention rather than of prospects.
How long has it been in play?
It was introduced on January 31, 2011, 5701 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 5701 days ago, on January 31, 2011.
Measures do not carry over. Anything the 112th Congress has not finished by January 3, 2013 dies when the term ends, and has to be introduced again from the start in the next Congress.
Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.
Vote history
- SenateIn committee, no floor vote yet
- HouseAwaits Senate passage
- PresidentAwaits both chambers