Cuts to Research and Development and Stem Education

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, I come to the floor today to talk about a crisis that our country is facing. We all know that our Nation's future strength is directly dependent upon our commitment to a robust science agenda. The cuts to our Nation's science programs in the CR threaten to set our Nation back even as we continue to look forward to our future.

An investment in science is about ensuring our Nation's memories are honored, by investing in dreams that are yet even brighter. As an author of the first bipartisan America COMPETES Act, we responded to many top academic, corporate and business leaders who knew that investments in STEM education is what will ensure that our Nation's future science and engineering leaders will never need to leave our shores in order to obtain a world-class education.

December 2010 was one of our finest hours when, as a Congress, we returned to our triumphant moment of passing the comprehensive, bipartisan America COMPETES Reauthorization Act, to provide our Nation with a roadmap for investing in our global economic competitiveness and our future growth.

Mr. Speaker, our country cannot afford to go backwards by giving up on science and innovation.

An investment in science is about ensuring America's memories are honored by investing in dreams that are even brighter.

We all have a responsibility to preserve this vision in order to help rebuild our economy.

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