• For homeland security R&D:

  • Commit to increase the portion of support that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) devotes to basic research, perhaps by setting targets to be achieved within 5-10 years as the most immediate needs are satisfied.

  • Undertake a comprehensive review to identify opportunities across the entire federal homeland security R&D budget to support increased investments in basic and applied research.

  • On the applied R&D side, search for technologies that can reduce costs or provide ancillary benefits to civil society to ensure a sustainable effort against terrorist threats.

• Conduct a review of the current military and dual-use export-control systems to identify policies that narrowly target exports of concern without needlessly burdening peaceful commerce; strengthen the multilateral cooperation essential to any effective export-control regime; streamline export classification, licensing, and reporting processes; and afford the President the authority and flexibility needed to advance US interests.

• Establish a new framework for coordinating multilateral export controls based on harmonized export-control policies and enhanced defense cooperation with close allies and friends.

• Assess whether the current system of the national laboratories that carry out defense-related research has the structure, personnel, and resources to provide the cutting-edge work and innovation to support national and homeland security R&D needs.

• Create a new National Defense Education Act (NDEA) for the 21st century. The new NDEA would include portable graduate fellowships, institutional traineeships, incentives to create professional science and engineering (S&E) master’s programs, undergraduate loan forgiveness, grants to support new and innovative undergraduate curricula, grants to expand K–12 education outreach, summer training and research opportunities for K–12 teachers, employer S&E and foreign-language educational tax breaks, national laboratory and federal service professional incentives, and additional funds for program evaluation.

With the end of the Cold War, US defense investment, already declining in the wake of the Reagan Administration’s massive buildup, entered the longest period of sustained decline since the end of World War II, with deep cuts in funding for weapons procurement and R&D. September 11 and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have more than restored overall funding levels, but serious concerns remain about the size and even more the mix of the R&D portfolio. In recent years, more and more emphasis has gone to devel-