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Party Platforms Address Technology
By Pamela Becker The balloons and streamers from the Republican and Democratic conventions have been swept away, and the 1996 presidential campaign is in full swing. During the conventions in August, delegates of both parties ratified platforms covering a wide range of issues such as crime, home ownership, and economic prosperity. Also in both party platforms are planks addressing science, engineering, and technology.

In early August, when the two platform committees were meeting to draft their documents, ASME President Richard Goldstein sent a letter urging the presidential candidates to support engineering and technology policies, helping to ensure continued U.S. leadership in engineering and scientific research, education, and technological innovation.

"The structure and goals of America's scientific and engineering systems are undergoing substantial change as a result of a confluence of domestic and international events," Goldstein wrote. "In this new, competitive global marketplace, engineering and technology are more important than ever in ensuring that U.S. industry remains competitive."

Goldstein's letter accompanied a general position paper offering engineering-policy recommendations for each party's presidential platform. The paper, which was approved by ASME's Board of Governors at the Summer Annual Meeting, outlined recommendations in five specific areas: federal research and development; the federal government's role in technology; standards, accreditation, and conformity assessment; education and training; and retirement-income policy.

In their platforms, both political parties address tax policies and how they affect productivity. The technology section of the Democratic National Committee's 1996 platform establishes a relationship between investments in technology to drive economic growth and new jobs. Recognizing the prevailing attitude in Washington to reduce federal spending, the Democratic platform supports government policies that encourage private-sector investment, such as a permanent research-and-development tax credit. Like the Democratic platform, the Republican platform supports policies that encourage private-sector funding for research and development: "We believe that the marketplace, not bureaucrats, can determine which technologies and entrepreneurs best meet the needs of the public." Any federal funding for science programs, according to the GOP program, must emphasize basic research.

The ASME general position paper sent to the platform committees endorses federal policies that promote R&D investments that lead to an expanding economy and to a technologically advanced and competitive industrial base. The ASME paper also supports private- and public-sector investments in technology.

Both parties encourage private-sector funding for
R & D 		Both party platforms also address education and academic research. According to the Democratic platform: "Our system of research colleges and universities is the bedrock of American leadership in science and technology. When we invest in our research institutions we are literally investing in our future by helping to train the next brilliant generation of American scientists and engineers." The Republican platform also supports improved education in science and engineering, underscoring that "American workers must have the knowledge and training to effectively utilize the capabilities of [advanced production technologies]."

Temporary extension of both the R&D tax credit and the tax exclusion for employer-provided educational assistance (Section 127) were included in the minimum-wage/small-business bill signed by President Clinton in late August. Both were temporary extensions, however, and the educational-assistance provision applies only to undergraduate-level education. ASME has supported permanent extension of Section 127 for both graduate- and undergraduate-level education for many years.

Perhaps reflecting the Republican endorsement of basic research, the National Science Foundation, which supports a significant percentage of academic research, has enjoyed modest funding increases in fiscal years 1996 and 1997. Other government organization that support more applied research, such as the departments of Commerce and Energy, have faced critical budget decreases in the same time period.

The Republican party platform calls for reforming government by eliminating the departments of Commerce, Energy, Housing and Urban Development, and Education. The GOP platform committee recommends transferring the Department of Energy's defense concerns to an independent agency under the Defense Department, and farming out other necessary programs to other departments and offices.

The Democratic platform includes a section to protect the environment and blasts the Republican Congress for attempting to "make taxpayers pick up the tab for toxic wastes."

The Republican platform, chastises the Democratic administration for its handling of space policy, adding, "We consider space travel and space science a national priority with virtually unlimited benefits."

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© 1996 by The American Society of Mechanical Engineers