While the Obama Administration’s Export Control Reform Initiative has begun the effort to implement common sense reforms to streamline and improve the nation’s export control system, more needs to be done. In particular, the government should remove outdated U.S. export control restrictions, especially unilateral burdens placed on widely available ICT products or software. For instance, the United States could remove performance-based controls on commercial scalar computers and associated technology, because access to computing power is so widely available that U.S. export controls on commercial computers are no longer effective and undermine U.S. technology competitiveness and national security. The United States could also remove encryption controls on products and components that are, or will be, widely available or deployed, do not contain encryption as their primary function, or are not peculiarly responsible for creating a military- or intelligence-related advantage.

CFIUS is an inter-agency committee authorized to review transactions that could result in control of a U.S. business by a foreign entity (“covered transactions”), in order to determine the effect of such transactions on the national security of the United States. Current CFIUS regulations state that examiners must review covered transactions on a case-by-case basis. But because the threat to both the U.S. defense industrial base and the U.S. industrial base overall is systemic, the CFIUS charter needs to be updated to address the realities of modern-age state capitalism—particularly the threat from SOEs—by allowing reviewers to assess and gauge systemic threats and examine covered transactions in a broader context. Congress should also increase the time period permitted for an initial CFIUS review and also better equip CFIUS with additional personnel and financial resources to support more thorough reviews.

Congress should authorize the Export-Import Bank to go beyond providing export credit financing by leveraging the resources of the Bank to help create domestic manufacturing jobs. In particular, Congress should allow the Bank to use $20 billion in unobligated authority to lend directly to domestic manufacturing companies that are in competition with subsidized foreign competitors (e.g., competitors who receive subsidies in the form of grants, subsidized loans, special tax treatment, beneficial land use, etc.). The loan recipients should be able to demonstrate how the funds would support expanded manufacturing activities and employment in the United States.

In May 2012, President Obama signed Congressional legislation that reauthorized the Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im Bank) for three additional years while raising its lending authority by 40 percent to $140 billion by 2014. While this is an important step in the right direction, the reality is that foreign competitors continue to invest substantially more in their countries’ export credit agencies (ECAs) as a share of GDP than the United States does. For example, in 2010, Brazil and China provided ten times more and Germany, France, and India all provided at least seven times more export credit financing to their exporters as a share of GDP than did the United States. To adequately respond to increasing foreign export credit competition, Congress should raise the Ex-Im Bank’s authorization limit to at least $200 billion.

In 1862, President Lincoln signed the Morrill Act, which created the nation’s system of land grant colleges. Today, we need a new Morrill Act with the federal government supporting the designation of a core of about twenty leading “manufacturing universities.” Universities would receive $50 million a year, plus prioritization of their projects in the awarding of NSF grants.

The U.S. must not squander its advantages in the vast frontier of life sciences. Despite the commitment by Congress to double the budget of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), funding for NIH peaked in 2003 at 0.24 percent of GDP and has fallen to 0.19 percent today. These trends contrast starkly with those in many other countries that have put expanding life science research at the top of their innovation agendas. The Obama Administration should push for an increase in NIH funding by approximately $8 billion dollars per year over the next few years.

ECPA was enacted in 1986 and has not kept pace with the advancement of technology. For example, there are different levels of protection afforded to the privacy of an individual’s data based on where the data is stored and how long the data has been stored. Where possible, the privacy of an individual’s communication should be the same regardless of the type of technology that is used to facilitate this communication.

To more aggressively fund battery innovation, the key barrier to affordable and viable electric vehicles, Congress should shift funding earmarked for the EV federal tax credit and instead boost funding for battery R&D at ARPA-E, the Battery Innovation Hub, and the National Labs.

DOD and DOE signed a memorandum of understanding in the summer of 2010 that laid the groundwork for cooperation on the development of an array of clean energy technologies, including advanced batteries. Firming up this collaboration would be a simple way to ensure both departments’ efforts are productive and aligned. So Congress should officially legislate the collaboration between DOD and DOE so additional funds could be appropriated for their efforts.

To facilitate increased funding, Congress should create a new office of Globalization Strategies within USTR. Within this new office a special unit to address green mercantilist trade practices should be formed so that the U.S. can bring cases whenever its clean energy interests are being hurt through trade rule violations.