National Superconductivity and Competitiveness Act of 1988

(House agreed to Senate amendment with amendment under suspension of rules, roll call #457 (353-0))

National Superconductivity and Competitiveness Act of 1988 - Instructs the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) to establish a five-year National Action Plan on Advanced Superconductivity Research and Development. Sets forth the content and scope of the plan. Requires the OSTP, with the National Critical Materials Council, to report details of the plan to specified congressional committees within nine months of this Act's enactment. Requires subsequent annual reports evaluating plan progress and describing Federal expenditures involved with superconductivity.

Directs the Secretary of Energy to conduct a program in superconductivity research and development. Requires a report to the relevant congressional committees, within 180 days of this Act's enactment, on implementation of technology transfer activities under the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980 and related law with respect to superconductivity, and annual reports for the subsequent two years.

Directs the National Institute of Standards and Technology (formerly the National Bureau of Standards) to: (1) promote fundamental research and materials standards to accelerate the use and application of new superconducting materials; and (2) use the Superconductivity Center Focusing on Electronic Applications, located in Boulder, Colorado.

Instructs the National Science Foundation and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to promote research and use existing programs to promote commercial applications of high-temperature superconductors.

Sets out the role of the Department of Defense, directing it to emphasize fundamental research, materials processing, and applications of new superconducting materials in its superconductivity research and development activities and to conduct engineering and operational prototype testing.

Instructs the Director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to augment, as appropriate, basic and applied superconductivity research conducted in other Federal agencies and in industry and to develop criteria for operational prototype testing within the Department of Defense.

Directs the President to establish a program of international cooperation in the conduct of basic research on superconducting materials, including the exchange of basic information and data and the development of international standards for the use and application of superconducting materials.

Requires all Federal departments and agencies to undertake appropriate technology transfer activities in the interest of complementing basic superconductivity research and promoting collaborative arrangements and consortia of industry and business to increase deployment of advanced high-temperature superconductor technology.

Directs the OSTP Director, with the Secretaries of Commerce and of Energy, to identify Federal policies and regulations that impede long-term private sector investment programs to commercialize superconductivity applications.

Redesignates the Los Alamos Neutron Scattering Center as the "Manuel Lijuan, Jr. Neutron Scattering Center."