For the US to be globally competitive in manufacturing, the up hill climb needed to turn an idea into a safe, manufactured product must be changed to a down hill slide.

To accomplish this, each step from invention to shipping and retailing product must be examined and the cost of effectively meeting all local, state, and federal government standards must be reduced. Today, an inventor in the US can create manufacturing jobs in China faster and easier than he/she can in the US. This is because the time and cost to turn an idea into a new product in China can be measured in weeks and thousands of dollars instead of years and millions of dollars.

The level of efficiency in the US must ultimately exceed that of countries that don't meet US environmental and consumer protections. The CTO should work with states and business develop a baseline "rapid product to market" regulatory platform. He should then work with Commerce to monitor the reduction in time and effort needed to register, patent/trademark/copyright, secure manufacturing permits, perform consumer protection testing, file product registrations, and other regulatory tasks.

Only some of the regulatory hurdles that must be jumped to bring an invention to market should fall under the purview of the CTO. The Dept of Commerce should lead a multi-Departmental effort to address this issue. States that make rapid progress should be awarded prizes.