One theme of the hearing was the need for a comprehensive federal strategy to create an environment that is conducive to innovation in the U.S.  According to the witnesses, a comprehensive innovation strategy would include components such as a tax policy amenable to attracting capital, a more efficient process to transition research to commercialization and immigration policies that attract the best and the brightest and keep them in the U.S.    

Breznitz discussed three roles that the government has to play in innovation policy: public financing of private innovation, public production of innovation (i.e. financing of industrial research at non-profit institutions), and facilitation of professional, inter-institutional networks. He also suggested that federal-state partnerships could encourage states to compete in the development of different, experimental and creative policies for innovation and encourage regional collaboration.