Washington, D.C. — Today the Center for American Progress released a packaged set of policy proposals that the Obama administration and Congress can adopt to help the United States retain its economic and innovation leadership and ensure all Americans have the opportunity to prosper and flourish now and well into the 21st century.
Innovation is the engine that drives economic growth in the United States. Economists believe that innovation—new technologies, products, processes, and the industries they create—is responsible for between half and 80 percent of all economic growth. The United States once was the unquestioned global leader in innovation, but our lead is beginning to erode.
Other countries have followed in our footsteps and in some cases gone even further to invest specifically in the interrelated building blocks of a high-performance innovation engine. Our nation now lags others on key metrics such as educational attainment, scientific literacy, research and development, and infrastructure investment.
“Competitiveness is about building an economy that’s fit for the 21st century in a world where we’re competing and trying to win with new competitors each and every day,” said Neera Tanden, President of the Center for American Progress. “It’s also about building an economy that works for everyone, not just the privileged few. Our latest package of proposals delivers on that vision.”
Last week the Obama administration announced a proposal to reorganize federal agencies to create a focus on innovation and competitiveness. The new CAP paper series further explores the idea of government agency reorganization, as well as other building blocks of national competitiveness including a proposed “common application” to streamline the interface for small businesses in need of federal assistance, improvements to federal innovation statistics systems, high-skill workforce development, and university-driven technology innovation.
Read the papers in this series:
Related resources from the Center for American Progress:
To speak with an expert on this topic, contact Katie Peters at 202.741.6285 or [email protected].
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