Action D-2 (Strengthen the R&D Tax Credit) Detailed Analysis: Tax credits vary from year to year. In FY 2005 the R&D tax credit was forecast to cost $5.1 billion. Since the amount of the R&D tax credit in any given year depends on overall corporate profitability and tax liability, as well as on R&D spending decisions, the overall cost cannot be determined precisely in advance. Maintaining the existing R&D tax credit, therefore, is assumed to result in no incremental cost. The proposed doubling of the existing R&D tax credit is assumed to cost about the same as the existing R&D tax credit, but the actual increment could be larger or smaller. In addition, the proposed expansion of the number of companies eligible for the R&D tax credit is not reflected in the $5.1 billion figure as the number of companies who might potentially be involved is unknown.

Action D-3 (Innovation Tax Incentive Study) Detailed Analysis: The proposed studies should be able to be performed within existing budgets.

Action D-4 (Ubiquitous Broadband Internet) Detailed Analysis: The most important steps would not necessarily entail federal outlays.