Maine Governor John Baldacci has nominated one of his senior policy advisors, Jack Cashman, to become Commissioner of the state Department of Economic and Community Development. Cashman formerly served as a Democratic state representative from Old Town.

Cameron Carter is serving as interim president and CEO of Indiana's TechPoint, following Donna Gastevich's resignation to spend more time with her family.

Mike Leavitt of the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory has been appointed the Co-chair of the Federal Laboratories Consortium State and Local Government Committee.

Tom Shea with the Office of Economic Adjustment in the Department of Defense has announced his retirement, effective September 30, 2003.

U.S. Department of Commerce Assistant Secretary Nancy Victory has announced her resignation effective mid-August. Victory led the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which manages the $15.4 million Technology Opportunities Program.

Over the last year, there has been increased public and government attention on issues involving tech-based economic development. For much of the year, Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat has dominated the New York Times bestseller list. A series of reports from the AeA, Council on Competitiveness, and the National Academy of Sciences call for increased action by the federal government.

During his 2006 State of the Union Address, President Bush outlined a decade-long $50 billion American Competitiveness Initiative (ACI) for R&D, education and entrepreneurship. The FY 2007 downpayment on ACI is $5.9 billion, which is accomplished by shuffling priorities within a shrinking federal discretionary budget environment to find $1.3 billion in new funding and $4.6 billion in R&D tax incentives. Specifically, ACI calls for:

Perennially a favorite target for Congressional earmarks, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) budget, at $92.8 billion, is nearly $3 billion below the FY 2006 level of anticipated expenditures. More than three-fourths of the USDA budget outlays for FY 2007 are dedicated to mandatory spending programs such as nutrition assistance, conservation, export promotion and farm commodity programs. The remaining balance of $21.5 billion, $1.7 billion or 7.3 percent less than the FY06 outlay level, is for discretionary programs.

The Administration's FY 2007 $6.138 billion discretionary budget request for the Department of Commerce reflects a 4.23 percent decrease from the FY06 appropriation of $6.410 billion.

The Administration's FY07 budget request for the Department of Defense (DoD) totals $439.3 billion, an increase of 7 percent from FY 2006. However, funding for DoD science and technology decreased 15.9 percent, to a total of $11.1 billion for FY07.

Discussion on competitiveness and innovation take very different tacts between the statehouses and Washington, D.C. Education is the fundamental building block for a skilled workforce and for creating future scientists and engineers. While most states are investing more in education, the Administration's FY07 budget request for the U.S. Department of Education totals $54.41 billion, a 5.5 percent decrease from FY06 total spending of $57.55 billion.

The Administration's FY 2007 budget request for the Department of Energy (DOE) is $23.6 billion, a $5 million decrease from the FY 2006 appropriation. While overall funding for the DOE is virtually flat, the FY07 request includes significant shifts for many offices to reflect the Administration's realignment of energy priorities.

The $698 billion FY 2007 budget request for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) reflects an increase of $58 billion over FY 2006, most of which occurs in mandatory spending programs such as Medicare. Total discretionary spending drops by $1.5  billion.

With the FEMA fiasco related to last summer's hurricanes, it should not be too surprising that much of the agency's discussion of its FY 2007 budget involves ways to improve the nation's preparedness and responsiveness to catastrophic events and natural disasters. Overall, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) budget request for FY07 is $42.7 billion, reflecting a 5.8 percent increase above FY 2006 appropriations.

The Administration's FY 2007 budget request for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is $33.528 billion, a 29.9 percent decrease from the FY 2006 appropriation of $47.826 billion.

The Administration's $16.1 billion FY 2007 budget request for the Department of Interior represents a 1.8 percent decrease from FY 2006. The budget includes $467.5 million for the department's energy programs, a net increase of $43.5 million over FY06. It also includes a $43.2 million initiative to implement the department's top energy priorities -- the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and the president's National Energy Policy.

The Department of Labor’s (DOL) discretionary budget request of $10.9 billion is $600 million less (5.5 percent decrease) than the FY 2006 appropriation. The agency’s payroll, however would increase by 103 full-time equivalent positions, according to the budget overview.

The Administration's FY 2007 budget request of $65.6 billion for the Department of Transportation (DOT) is $135 million higher than the FY 2006 appropriation. DOT's request would be distributed across the department's five key strategic objectives:

• Improve safety (24.3 percent);
• Increase mobility (67.1 percent);

There are only four programs in the Treasury Department that SSTI monitors for the tech-based economic development community. Similar to the Administration's FY 2006 budget request, all are slated for termination or phase out in FY 2007. Congress restored 98.9 percent of the funding in its final FY06 appropriations.

The Administration's FY 2007 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) budget request is $7.3 billion, a 4.07 percent decrease from the FY 2006 appropriation*. The agency's science and technology programs would receive $788.3 million, a 7.86 percent increase over the FY06 appropriation. However, funding for research would decrease by $19.9 million.

The FY 2007 budget request for NASA totals $16.8 billion, a 1 percent increase from FY 2006. Included in the FY07 request is $5.3 billion for the Science Mission Directorate, an increase of 1.5 percent from FY06. However, funding for Aeronautics Research decreased 18.1 percent, totaling $724.4 million for FY07.

The Administration’s FY07 NSF budget request of $6.02 billion reflects an increase of $439 million or 7.9 percent from the FY06 appropriation.

There are three federally established regional commissions and authorities that are dedicated to improving the economic opportunities within specific geographic regions. The Appalachian Regional Commission and the Delta Regional Authority are dependent on annual appropriations. The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), the oldest and largest of the three, generates its budget primarily through power generation revenues. TVA still requires the government to approve or set its annual spending level.

The Administration requests $624 million in FY 2007 funding for the Small Business Administration (SBA). Comparison with FY 2006 is challenging due to the disaster loans added to the SBA's authority in FY06. Tech Daily quotes an SBA official as saying the FY07 request "basically would be a straight-line" comparison to the FY 2006 appropriation.

As the economy struggles, unemployment rates rise to a nine-year high, and manufacturing continues to shed jobs, the Modernization Forum reports the House Commerce, Justice, State and Judiciary (CJS) Appropriations Subcommittee appropriated just $39.6 million for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP). The FY 2004 funding would slash the program's funding from the FY2003 level of $106.6 million, a 63 percent cut.