The bill puts forth a number of enhancements to the 21st Century Nanotechnolgy Research and Development Act of 2003 (S. 189), which established the NNI. The bill has been assigned to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.
The Nanobusiness Alliance issued a statement in support of the bill:
"On behalf of our members, America's nanotechnology businesses, the NanoBusiness Alliance strongly endorses the National Nanotechnology Initiative Amendments Act of 2009 introduced in the Senate yesterday, and also fully supports the recently introduced House version of the NNI Amendments Act. We look forward to working with the House and the Senate to get the reauthorization signed by the President this year."
The text of the legislation is publicly available through the Library of Congress at Thomas.gov. The following amendments are relevant to nanomanufacturing.
Section 7 on Transfer of Nanotechnology is amended to include a subsection on Technology Transfer which, among other things, calls for the establishment of Industry Liaison Groups for all sectors that may benefit from nanotechnology.
Section 8 is amended to include a subsection detailing research areas of national importance. This section lists nanomanufacturing as one area of R&D activity with significant potential to impact national competitiveness.
Section 9 is amended to include a subsection expanding the Nanomanufacturing Program Component in several ways, including following research areas:
- instrumentation and tools for nanomaterial characterization and nanomanufacturing process monitoring
- new processes for scaling up the production of nanomaterials
- improvements in precision measurement, monitoring, manipulation, and manufacture
- nanotechnology production for aerospace informatin and intelligence applications.
