By Kritika Agarwal
A new “report card” from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute offers mixed grades on the “health, effectiveness, and resilience” of the United States’ national security innovation ecosystem and notes that slow growth in government funding for research and development is partially to blame.
Founded in 1991, the Reagan Institute “is the sole nonprofit organization created by President Reagan charged with advancing his legacy and principles – individual liberty, economic opportunity, freedom and democracy, peace through strength, and national pride.”
According to the institute, the National Security Innovation Base (NSIB) consists of a range of actors (including national security agencies and organizations; research centers and laboratories; universities; traditional defense contractors; and other allies and partners) who work together to ensure that the United States remains the global leader in technological and defense innovation.
Since 2023, the Reagan Institute has been publishing a report card that measures the effectiveness of the NSIB. This year’s report card finds that while “the dynamism of the American private sector remains the engine of U.S. global leadership in innovation,” the country’s “progress toward technological superiority” is being slowed down by problems in the public sector, including “insufficient incentives and bureaucratic hurdles slowing the adoption of new technology,” “sluggish public R&D funding growth,” and “budgetary and appropriations dysfunction” in Washington.
The report finds that the United States faces a critical challenge from China, which is fast catching up and closing “the gap in emerging technologies such as AI, quantum computing, and next-generation wireless connectivity.”
The report card gives the United States an “A-” for “innovation leadership,” a “B+” for its private sector innovation base, a “C” for its public and civil innovation base, and a “C-” for its talent base, i.e. the “pipeline of domestic and foreign-born talent trained and working in NSIB-relevant fields.”
The report card makes several recommendations for improving the NSIB, including encouraging Congress and the Department of Defense to “reduce administrative and regulatory burdens to accelerate fielding new technologies to the warfighter” and to implement “bold reforms to recruitment, retention, and the management of DoD military and civilian personnel to help design a skilled, efficient, and talented workforce of the future.”
The report also recommends that Congress “maximize the benefits of our immigration system” in order to “boost access to the STEM talent and skilled trades required to propel our innovation ecosystem and bolster the defense industrial base.” It specifically suggests that Congress establish an NSIB Green Card Recapture program, which would “‘recapture’ previously unused green cards, including over 100,000 following the COVID-19 pandemic.”
AAU’s Senior Vice President for Government Relations and Public Policy Toby Smith contributed to the report card as a member of the Reagan Institute’s NSIB advisory committee.
Kritika Agarwal is senior editorial officer at AAU.