1. Engineers and Public Policy IEEE GRC
April 5, 2019
Russell Harrison
Daniel E Sniezek

2. Outlook for FY2020 Budget
President’s budget requests significant cuts to most R&D budgets (other than DOD and NASA)
Congress will likely ignore, as they have for the past 10 years
House is moving ahead aggressively with hearings and deadlines
Senate is moving slower, as required by the Constitution
But …. This is the easy part
Already hearing whispers … “We are going to do a Continuing Resolution”

3. Note that most of the R&D budgets have done reasonably well over the past few years. Almost all have recovered from cuts we absorbed in

4. Immigration Policy
Not really on Congress’ agenda yet, but we are pushing
Country Cap bill to move in House after DACA and Ag
May? June?
Prospects in Senate are good, but not as good as last year
Some resistance from Iranian, Greek & Romanian groups
High-Skill timing: late spring or summer at the earliest
Bureaucratic reforms?
Light H-1B reforms
Long shot – more green cards

5. Energy Policy – Notable Bills
$3.7 B in loan guarantees for nuclear power
Southern Co. project in Georgia
Last nuclear reactor construction project in the Untied States
Carbon capture bill, USE IT Act introduced by Sen. Barrasso (R-WY)
ARPA-A Reauthorization legislation introduced soon, Rep. E. Bernice Johnson (D-TX)

6. Energy Policy
One of the few areas of bipartisanship left on Capitol Hill
Focus on rural issues, cybersecurity and resilience
Sen. Murkowski (R-AK) and Manchin (D-WV) run the Senate Energy committee and appear to actually be talking to each other
Similar states
Similar interest
They may be able to draft a bipartisan bill

7. Artificial Intelligence
House:
Key legislation has not been introduced yet
Bipartisanship is breaking down
No clear path forward
Senate
Still in information-gathering mode
Senior staff have been put on the issue
More interest in doing “something”
Focus on legal limits placed on AI
Privacy and ethics big

8. Patent Reform
Sen Coons (D-DE) to re-introduce his patent reform bill “soonish.”
Similar to last Congress
Changed to reflect court cases from last year
IEEE-USA expects to endorse
Bill will strengthen property rights for inventors, helping small and independent inventors especially

9. All are welcome and needed!
IEEE-USA 2019 CVD
April 2 & 3
Focused on:
R&D Budget
Internet Bill of Rights
Immigration
65 IEEE Attendees met with nearly 20% of Congress
Next CVD – Late March or Early April 2020
All are welcome and needed!

10. Thanks