On July 21, 2009, in the midst of chaotic Congressional efforts to hammer out climate and health care legislation, Senator John Kerry (D-MA) introduced a Senate version of the “National Nanotechnology Initiative Reauthorization Act of 2009.”  Like the 31-page House bill passed in mid-February, the 55-page Senate bill, S. 1482, promotes a more strategic approach to setting federal research priorities and places a greater emphasis on health and safety research as well as research into “areas of national importance.”  Notably, however, the Senate Bill expands its list of “areas of national importance beyond those identified in the House.  Where the House bill targeted “energy efficiency,” “nano-electronics,” “health care” and “water remediation” as priorities, the Senate bill expands the list to include:  

• Nano-electronics;
• Energy production, transmission, storage, use, and efficiency, including renewable energy;
• Health care;
• Water remediation and purification;
• Instrumentation for nanoscale characterization and metrology;
• Rapid production nanomanufacturing for information and intelligence, including cost-effective, green, and safe nanomaterial manufacturing methods;
• Precision agriculture; and
• Sensors and sensor networks for defense and homeland security.

Given the impact that nanotechnology is already having on applications for renewable power generation, storage, and transmission, the bill’s broader support for clean-energy research will be welcomed by the Cleantech industry.  The increased emphasis on precision agriculture and sensor networks, in turn, may increase interest in passing the bill among Senate agricultural and defense advocates.  

Senator Kerry’s sponsorship of the bill (along with Senators Mark Pryor (D-AR), Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), and Ron Wyden (D-OR)) is also a positive sign given the challenges the bill will face in reaching a floor vote.  Although not particularly controversial, the bill must compete for Senate floor time with highly contentious climate and health-care legislation, both priorities for the Obama administration and Senate leaders.  As Chair of the Communications, Technology, and the Internet Subcommittee in the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, Kerry could exercise greater sway in moving the bill through the Subcommittee and Committee.  Kerry’s participation on the Senate Finance Committee is also a plus.  As a member of the Finance Committee’s Subcommittees on Health Care (a subcommittee chaired by bill co-sponsor Jay Rockefeller) and Energy, Natural Resources, and Infrastructure, Senator Kerry might be positioned to attach the NNI reauthorization bill to any final Senate health care or climate bill.  Given the NNI reauthorization bill’s focus on clean energy and health care as priority research areas, both bills could be good fits.  Given the importance of nanotechnology to continued innovation in the cleantech and climate management sectors, it would also be good policy. 

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