America COMPETES Reauthorization Act Of 2010
Floor Speech
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Mr. GORDON of Tennessee. Madam Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
On October 12, 2005, in response to a bipartisan request by the Science and Technology Committee and some of our colleagues in the Senate, the National Academies released the report ``Rising Above the Gathering Storm.'' The distinguished panel, led by Norm Augustine, the former CEO of Lockheed Martin, and which also included Craig Barrett of Intel, the current Secretary of Energy, Steve Chu, and a cast of other distinguished academic and business leaders, painted a very dire picture. The report made clear that without action, the future was bleak for our children and grandchildren. This report was, without question, a call to arms.
The Science and Technology Committee, along with several committees in the Senate, moved forward by turning the ``Gathering Storm'' recommendation into legislative language. The final result was the enactment of the America COMPETES Act of 2007, with the bipartisan support of 365 Members. Moreover, with the leadership of Senators Alexander and Bingaman and 69 Senate cosponsors, the Senate approved the conference report by unanimous consent. Now, after 3 years, we are back to work on reauthorizing the America COMPETES Act.
Since the enactment of America COMPETES, the Science and Technology Committee has held 48 hearings on areas addressed in the bill considered by the House today. Going through regular order, our subcommittee, in a bipartisan process, brought the full committee to a strong body of work. The bill was approved by the Science and Technology Committee on April 28, with a bipartisan vote of 29-8.
I want to thank all of the members of our committee for their work, and more importantly, their contribution to this bill.
Since I became chairman of the committee, it has been my goal for this to be a committee of good ideas and consensus. But more importantly, I have wanted an inclusive process that encouraged members on all sides to bring forward ideas and to discuss them.
I am proud of the process that we've used in bringing this bill to the House, and I believe this is a better bill today because of the hard work of our members. So I thank them for their efforts.
I would also like to thank the majority and minority staffs for the many hours of thoughtful work they have committed to this bill.
Many significant pieces of legislation come before this House. We all know that. But, honestly, I feel strongly that this bill is a big deal and it's important. It's a big deal and important for our country and for this Congress. It's a big deal and an important step in leading our Nation's innovation agenda in the face of growing global competition. It's a big deal and important for the business community, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, and the Business Roundtable, which is why they have been so supportive. It's a big deal and important to our universities and our national labs, and it's a big deal and important to our children and grandchildren so they will not be the first generation of Americans to inherit a standard of living lower than their parents.
If we are to reverse the trend of the last 20 years where our country's technological edge in the world has diminished, we must make the investments necessary today. The statistics speak for themselves. More than 50 percent of our economic growth since World War II can be attributed to the development and adoption of new technologies.
The path is simple. Research and education lead to innovation. Innovation leads to economic development and good-paying jobs and the revenue to pay for more research. And as private firms underinvest in research and development because the returns are too far off in the future, there is a clear and necessary role of government to help our Nation keep pace with the rest of the world.
To quickly summarize, the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010, H.R. 5116, makes investments in science innovation, education to strengthen U.S. scientific economic leadership, supports business, and creates jobs in the short, mid, and long term.
In the short term, Federal programs like the innovative technological Federal loan guarantees addresses the immediate need of small- and medium-sized manufacturers. In the midterm, the bill will strengthen regional economies through programs like the regional innovation clusters.
To ensure its scientific and technological leadership now and long into the future, the bill makes investments in the basic research. The bill includes a reauthorization of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy, ARPA-E. Even before the price of oil hit today's record highs, ``Gathering Storm'' recommended greater energy independence. But as we move to a cleaner, more efficient and more balanced economic portfolio, we should not trade our dependency on foreign oil for a dependency on foreign technology. This is why ARPA-E is so important.
The bill also includes an authorization for Energy Innovation Hubs which will each focus on overcoming a single technological barrier to achieving our national energy innovation goals. The bill will double authorization funding for our basic research programs, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy Office of Science, the labs at the National Institute of Standards and Technology over the next 10 years.
Throughout the committee process, there was a lot of legitimate discussion about Federal deficits. And I agree, we must address the challenges presented by our deficits, but we also must invest in our country's future. I remember Newt Gingrich saying one of his greatest regrets was not doubling the funding for NSF when he put NIH on a doubling path.
During the committee consideration of this bill, we made some significant changes to the bill's authorization levels. But we will maintain a doubling path for our research accounts over the next 10 years. We do so on a slightly less aggressive trajectory.
The bill, as introduced, included authorizations totaling approximately $93 billion over 5 years. The bill we consider today includes authorizations of approximately $84 billion. This represents a 10.3 percent reduction in funding for the introduction of the bill, or a reduction of more than $9.6 billion over 5 years.
This bill provides a stable, sustainable, and achievable set of authorization levels that balance the importance of these investments with the reality of our current budget deficits.
Another important element of the funding roadmap in the bill is certainty. As we know, most successful businesses do not operate in a 1-year timetable. They generate plans years in advance. In fact, many businesses operate using at least a 5-year plan. So as we continue to climb out of the worst economic downturn in a generation, we need a 5-year plan to reinvest in our intellectual capital, our research enterprise, and our workforce training. This becomes even more important when comparing our efforts to other nations.
Our global competitors, most notably China, increase innovation in 5-year windows. They write a 5-year plan, watch its progress, and in year 4, they begin on the next 5-year plan. The time has come for our country to establish a clear path forward with a thoughtful, responsible 5-year plan.
Finally, let me say that more than 50 years ago when DARPA was first created, no one had an idea that the research it would fund would be responsible for creation of the Internet or the proliferation of GPS technologies, but it did. Those innovations started with Federal dollars, as did countless other game-changing technologies.
There is an undeniable relationship between the investment in R&D and the creation of jobs, the creation of companies, and economic growth. But don't just take my word for it. The Joint Economic Committee released a report this week that shows the economic benefits from Federal investment in research.
The Science Coalition, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization of the Nation's leading research universities, released a report this week entitled ``Sparking Economic Growth: How Federally Funded University Research Creates Innovation, New Companies, and Jobs.'' This report tells the stories of 100 companies, including Google, Cisco, SAS, Genentech, Orbital Sciences, Sun Power, Medtronic, and Hewlett-Packard, that were all created based on research funded with Federal dollars.
And, last, there are the sponsors of this important legislation. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Business Roundtable, the National Association of Manufacturers, the Council of Competitiveness, the Task Force of American Innovation, the American Chemical Society, as well as a growing list of over 1,000 major companies, universities, trade associations, and professional organizations, all understanding the benefits to U.S. companies of making a sustained commitment to research and STEM education.
COMPETES is and will continue to be a bipartisan, bicameral effort that every Member of this House can feel ownership of and should take bragging rights on.
I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. GORDON of Tennessee. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of the amendment from my friend, the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Gingrey).
This amendment establishes a Green Chemistry Research program at the National Science Foundation. Dr. Gingrey has been an advocate for this both on the committee as well as now. I commend him for that. The emerging field of green chemistry will contribute significantly to our environmental sustainability while also driving innovation in the chemical industry sector. Green chemistry research will be instrumental in meeting the challenges of protecting human health and the environment, meeting our energy needs, enhancing the national security, and strengthening the economy. I urge my colleagues to support this amendment.
I yield back the balance of my time.
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Mr. GORDON of Tennessee. First, let me compliment Mr. Boccieri and his partners for introducing this good amendment. I want to clear up a matter concerning the duplication, title 5, section 502, page 185 under ``coordination and duplication'': ``To the maximum extent practical, the Secretary shall ensure that the activities carried out under this section are coordinated with and do not duplicate the efforts of other loan guarantee programs within the Federal Government.''
This is a good amendment that will label more small- and medium-sized manufacturers to take advantage of loan guarantee programs for innovation, technologies at the Department of Commerce which, in turn, will mean more jobs for Americans.
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