Dear Chairs Shaheen and Rogers and Ranking Members Moran and Cartwright:
America’s economic and security needs depend upon our ability to remain at the forefront of technological frontiers—not only identifying the next advances in key sectors but also translating those innovations into the products, businesses, and careers that will shape the future of the global economy.
In the past, the U.S. enjoyed technological and economic leadership across the world, but decades of declining investment in research and development, offshoring of supply chain production, and increasing investment by China and other nations in critical research and markets has left America in a more precarious economic and security position than we have experienced since the early 1900s.
As Congress envisioned in the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act, the Regional Technology and Innovation Hubs program would boost America’s overall competitiveness and security by catalyzing significant improvements in the capacity of disparate U.S. regions to develop world-leading centers of economic activity in key technology areas—creating tremendous new economic opportunities for the people in these regions along the way.
The U.S. has a few hubs that already are world-leading in their technology activity: Silicon Valley and software or Boston and biotechnology are two examples. Many regions of the country have strengths in one or more elements of a thriving innovation economy, such as commercially-relevant research or a tech-focused industry cluster, but need the investment the Tech Hubs program can provide to fully-realize their potential as we compete against China and other countries in the global economy.
Recognizing the scale of investment that achieving this vision would require, Congress produced a bipartisan authorization of Tech Hubs as a $10 billion program over five years. Unfortunately, funding for the program has not demonstrated a similar understanding that early and significant investment is critical to America’s success, with Congress appropriating just five percent of this amount in the first two years.
The U.S. Department of Commerce opened the first program competition in 2023, and more than 190 regional consortia, comprised of industry, workforce, education, nonprofit, and government partners, sought recognition as a Tech Hub. Commerce designated 31 regions as Tech Hubs across eight key technology areas and plans to provide $40-70 million to at least five of these hubs during 2024.
While these figures demonstrate substantial national interest and federal action around Tech Hubs, it should be only a humble beginning to what the program must become if we are going to address the threats posed by other global actors to America’s economy and security. Achieving the CHIPS and Science Act’s vision ensuring global competitiveness requires sustained investment across the important programs created in the legislation. For Tech Hubs, this means dedicated support on the scale of the program’s $10 billion authorization.
As you develop the appropriations bills for FY 2025, we ask you to prioritize Regional Technology and Innovation Hubs and provide an appropriation that matches the program’s authorized level—which would be approximately $5.5 billion as we consider the third fiscal year since authorization. The U.S. needs to see more regions leading in the global economy, and this requires more regions at the cutting-edge of important technology sectors. The earlier we make an investment in our regions, the sooner we can see the benefits.
We thank you again for your continued support and consideration.
