Manufacturing & Technology News articles from February 2006

Manufacturing & Technology News archives from February 2006

NAM finds U.S. innovation engine is shifting offshore.
February 6, 2006... U.S. industry's investment in research and development appears to be languishing. It fell to 63 percent of total domestic R&D in 2003, down from its peak level of 70 percent in 2000, reflecting an annual 1.6 percent drop in real terms over the...

Competitiveness moves onto the national agenda: politicians actuate academies' 'gathering storm' report.
February 6, 2006... The U.S. Senate is jumping on board the competitiveness issue. Nineteen senators have cosponsored legislation aimed at doubling the budget for research in the physical sciences and making the R&D tax credit permanent. The group is being...

DSB to develop technology strategy for military.
February 6, 2006... The Defense Science Board (DSB) will undertake a fundamental review of U.S. defense strategy in light of rapidly changing technological and geo-political circumstances. The 2006 "Summer Study on 21st Century Strategic Technology Vectors" is...

Commerce Dept. convenes cross agency mfg. working group.
February 6, 2006... Representatives from 17 federal agencies have convened an "Interagency Working Group on Manufacturing" aimed at improving the competitiveness of U.S. industry. The group, led by Commerce Department Assistant Secretary for Manufacturing &...

Defense ManTech program gets an unexpected shot in the arm.
February 6, 2006... The Manufacturing Technology Program (ManTech) at the Department of Defense (DOD), which has stagnated for about a decade, has been given a nice boost. The 2006 Defense Appropriations Act (PL 109-148), signed into law on December 30, boosts...

Dell to hire thousands of people in India.
February 6, 2006... Dell Computer has announced plans to hire 5,000 more employees in India, on top of the 10,000 people it has working there now, and will build a new manufacturing plant in a bid to increase its share of the Indian market. The market for...

Counterfeiting becomes a really big business.
February 6, 2006... "A newly released congressional report calls for 'direct and forceful action' by the federal government to halt the distribution of bogus goods," according to an article in Discount Store News. "Product counterfeiting is a rapidly growing...

Rise of Asia means U.S. has no time to balk, says Baucus.
February 6, 2006... Senator Max Baucus (D-Mont.) went to Asia in January after not visiting for 43 years and came back convinced the world has changed and that the United States had better change with it. "Last week, I saw India's future. I saw the future in the...

This might be the year for earmark reform.
February 6, 2006... A proposal by the leadership of the House of Representatives to require that earmarks be identified with the member of Congress requesting them along with a justification for how the money will be spent "would do little to virtually nothing to...

Bill Bonvillian, one of the U.S. Senate's most respected legislative aides, is leaving his position with Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) to take over the Washington office of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.(People On The Move)
February 6, 2006... Bill Bonvillian, one of the U.S. Senate's most respected legislative aides, is leaving his position with Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) to take over the Washington office of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Bonvillian is replacing...

Jim Schollaert, director of industry relations at the Washington, D.C.-based American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition, has left that organization.(People On The Move)
February 6, 2006... Jim Schollaert, director of industry relations at the Washington, D.C.-based American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition, has left that organization. He has started a new firm called Made in USA Strategies. The former chief of the textile...

The International Trade Administration at the Commerce Department has found a replacement for its former leader Grant Aldonas, who left last year to join the Washington law firm of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld.(People On The Move)
February 6, 2006... The International Trade Administration at the Commerce Department has found a replacement for its former leader Grant Aldonas, who left last year to join the Washington law firm of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld. Franklin Lavin was sworn into...

Harris Miller, the outspoken president of the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), has left the organization to pursue "personal interests.".(People On The Move)
February 6, 2006... Harris Miller, the outspoken president of the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), has left the organization to pursue "personal interests." The Arlington, Va.-based group has named Robert Laurence, vice president of public...

The National Center for Advanced Technology (NCAT), run by the Aerospace Industries Association, has a new president: Michael Romanowski, vice president of civil aviation at AIA. Romanowski will keep his current position at AIA.(People On The Move)
February 6, 2006... The National Center for Advanced Technology (NCAT), run by the Aerospace Industries Association, has a new president: Michael Romanowski, vice president of civil aviation at AIA. Romanowski will keep his current position at AIA. NCAT is a...

The American Machine Tool Distributors' Association has a new president.(People On The Move)
February 6, 2006... The American Machine Tool Distributors' Association has a new president. John Healy joins the trade association from his position as CEO of 360Solutions Group, a Washington, D.C.-based logistics and supply chain firm. He replaces Ralph Nappi,...

Union membership holds steady; AFL-CIO boss says good jobs are being 'slaughtered'.
February 6, 2006... Union membership held steady last year at 12.5 percent of all wage and salary workers in the United States, reports the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In the private sector, only 7.8 percent of workers were members of a union last year, as...

Recent reports, resources, analyses.
February 6, 2006... 2004 Joint Association Survey on Drilling Costs says the U.S. oil and natural gas industry spent a record $56.2 billion in 2004 on drilling, up 52 percent from $36.9 billion in 2003, according to the American Petroleum Institute. The industry...

NASA restructures aero.
February 6, 2006... NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD) officially announced a "comprehensive restructuring" of its programs, confirming a tilt toward basic research. NASA Associate Administrator Lisa Porter, who heads up ARMD, says four "key...

MEP: in for another slogging.
February 6, 2006... The Manufacturing Extension Partnership program, which will once again be the target of a substantial budget cut in the President's 2007 budget submission to Congress, is providing the country with billions of dollars worth of benefits,...

Bush boosts budget for science & tech, but skeptics abound.
February 17, 2006... The Bush administration is touting its proposed budget for fiscal year 2007 as the first step in a 10-year plan to "increase investments in R&D, strengthen education, and encourage entrepreneurship and innovation" to the tune of $136 billion...

Panel calls for overhaul of defense acquisition.
February 17, 2006... The way in which the Department of Defense buys weapons needs a "radical" overhaul, according to a major new review of the current acquisition system. The recently released "Defense Acquisition Performance Assessment," which received little...

House democrats continue quest for outsourcing report.
February 17, 2006... Democrats on the House Science Committee are planning to introduce a Resolution of Inquiry asking Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez to send the committee the original draft of a controversial report produced by the Commerce Department's...

Who is to blame for loss of candy production industry?
February 17, 2006... The loss of the U.S. candy industry cannot be blamed on the high cost of sugar, argues the American Sugar Alliance. Candy companies are "fleeing U.S. workers not U.S. sugar prices," says the trade group. But the U.S. Commerce Department...

Justice Dept. to conduct survey on cyber crimes.
February 17, 2006... The Department of Justice will conduct its first ever survey to measure the prevalence and impact of cybercrimes on businesses in the United States. The agency will estimate the number of cyber attacks, frauds and thefts of information and the...

This might be the year for earmark reform.
February 17, 2006... A group of nine senators led by John McCain (R-Ariz.) has introduced legislation to bring an end to the rampant abuse of congressional pork barrel projects. The "Pork Barrel Reduction Act" would require that members of Congress be given notice...

General aviation industry throttles upward.
February 17, 2006... The general aviation industry had a record year in 2005. Shipments of aircraft were up 21 percent over 2004, to 3,580 units, and billings totaled $15.1 billion, a 27.2 percent increase over 2004, according to the General Aviation Manufacturers...

Commerce Dept. Tech shop is slated for oblivion.
February 17, 2006... The Commerce Department's Technology Administration (TA), which White House budget documents called as recently as two years ago "the principal civilian technology agency working with industry to improve U.S. industrial competitiveness," will...

Metrology 'summit' set for Gaithersburg.
February 17, 2006... Manufacturing metrology will be the topic of a three-day "summit" aimed at developing a technology roadmap for interoperability standards. The meeting "is truly in the manufacturing technology community's best interests," says conference...

Pew Center report on global warming raises ire of Sen. Inhofe.
February 17, 2006... A sweeping plan produced by the Pew Center on Global Climate Change to reduce greenhouse gas emissions came in for scathing criticism by the chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. The plan, which calls for a program...

Record trade deficit leads to lots of fuming in Washington.
February 17, 2006... The trade figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau on Friday, February 10, raised a ruckus among politicians worried about the downward spiral. The trade deficit increased by 20 percent in one year to $726 billion. The growth in the deficit...

Machine tool consumption inches up.
February 17, 2006... U.S. consumption of machine tools rose by 8.4 percent last year to $3.08 billion, according to the Association for Manufacturing Technology and the American Machine Tool Distributors' Association. "Regionally, the health of the Central region's...

Donohue from the chamber earns $6.8 million; Sweeney from AFL-CIO: $254,877 Or 27x less.
February 17, 2006... The presidents of Washington trade associations are making a lot more money than they were in previous years, according to the biennial review of compensation for the CEOs of non-profit trade associations, think tanks, labor unions and public...