NIST FY 2012 Budget Signed Into Law

Technology Innovation Program, Baldrige, and proposed AMTech program will receive no appropriated funding

On Nov. 18, 2011, President Obama signed into law the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act of 2012 (P.L. 112-55), which provides fiscal year (FY) 2012 funding for a number of government agencies, including the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

The act provides $750.8 million for NIST overall, compared to $750.1 million in FY 2011. The FY 2012 funding is in three major categories.

Scientific and Technical Research and Services (STRS), the category that includes all of NIST’s in-house research and engineering activities, is funded at $567 million, an increase of almost $70 million over FY 2011. Notably, the Act specifically funds two special initiatives related to computer security, $10 million to establish a National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence and $16.5 million to support the Administration’s National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC) Initiative. NIST manages the NSTIC program office and coordinates interagency activities in this area.

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The Act also calls for total cost of ownership software

The bill also called on the Commerce Department to develop “total
cost of ownership” software to help U.S. companies understand their true cost
of offshoring so they decide to bring more work back home. The timing is perfect. Boston Consulting Group recently reported: Chinese
net unit manufacturing costs are converging on U.S. costs for products to be
sold in the U.S. For the economic trends
to have a rapid impact on the behavior of major U.S. companies, however, the
companies will have to calculate their total cost of offshoring.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

To help these companies make better sourcing decisions the
non-profit Reshoring Initiative, www.reshorenow.org, provides for free a
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) software that helps them calculate the real
offshoring impact on their P&L. Cong
Wolf’s idea to add TCO to the bill came from reading my article in Manufacturing
Engineering Magazine in 2010.

Readers can bring back some manufacturing by asking their
companies to reevaluate offshoring decisions. Suppliers can use the TCO
software to convince their customers to reshore.

You can reach me at harry.moser@comcast.net.