Commerce Secy. Donald Evans faced questions from Senate Appropria...

questioned why it was necessary to reduce spending on the MEP. Evans said both MEP and ATP were good programs, but not good enough. “It’s a matter of priorities,” he said of the programs. “At some point, you have to draw the line. There’s just a difference of opinion on this,” Evans told Kohl. Evans said one problem with ATP was that despite the fact it worked like a venture capital program, the govt. didn’t get any return on its investment. Senate Appropriations Commerce Subcommittee Chmn. Gregg (R- N.H.) asked Evans whether he had developed any legislative language that would create such a return, to which Evans replied he wasn’t interested in moving in that direction on the program. On another topic, Gregg asked Evans how he intended to handle the backlog of 400,000 patent applications and expressed concern that Evans’ plan was vague. The Bush Administration’s 2004 budget requests an additional $70 million for the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (PTO) for a total of $1.4 billion. Evans told Gregg the additional money for PTO would help with the backlog, as well as a transition to a “paperless” electronic patent filing system. “Many of my constituents have expressed concern about how long it is taking,” Gregg said of the patent backlog. “Some have gotten frustrated and pulled out of the process.” Evans said the govt. was “moving aggressively” toward a more global patent system, citing the need to work more closely with the European Union and Japan. Appropriations Commerce Subcommittee ranking Democrat Hollings (S.C.) expressed concern about the U.S. trade deficit in certain products, including semiconductors. Evans also told the subcommittee that the transition of the Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office (CIAO) from Commerce to the Dept. of Homeland Security had gone smoothly. In a sign of the times, Hollings said he was less worried about programs such as MEP and ATP and asked Evans whether he would do more to help bring countries such as Canada and Mexico into the Iraq war effort.