Setting Standards: We Want to Hear From You

This week President Obama signed the America COMPETES Act, which supports an array of strategies for maintaining America’s leadership in science and technology. Among the Act’s important provisions is one encouraging the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to expand upon its work with the private sector to develop new standards for a range of vital industries such as emergency communications and tracking, green manufacturing, high performance green building construction, and cloud computing.

Technical standards are not the stuff of everyday conversation, but they are crucial to smart development and economic growth. Whether the goal is reducing health care costs, building a clean energy economy, or defending our Nation, standards are essential to ensuring efficiency, economy, and interoperability. And historically, no one has done it better than the United States. The fresh focus on standards in COMPETES—highlighted in part by the creation of the new position of Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology—follows a series of important steps already taken by this Administration. Last year, for example, the National Science and Technology Council—a Cabinet-level interagency council—established a Subcommittee on Standards. This Subcommittee brings together senior government officials to raise the profile of standards among Federal government leaders and improve Federal agency coordination on standards issues.

[Aneesh Chopra is the U.S. Chief Technology Officer. Patrick Gallagher is the Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology]