Providing For Consideration of H.R. 1806, America Competes Reauthorization Act of 2015; Providing For Consideration Of H.R. 2250, Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, 2016; And Providing For Consideration of H.R. 2353, Highway and Transportation Funding Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, our country, as Mr. Kilmer pointed out, is facing an ever-increasing global competition for scientific research. We can't afford to cede the leading edge we have built up in innovation to other countries, but the current level of funding in the underlying COMPETES bill does not provide adequate and constant funding for our basic scientific endeavors.

It cuts energy efficiency and renewable energy by 37 percent, cuts electric grid reliability research by 30 percent, and cuts the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy, or ARPA-E, by 50 percent.

These levels will not maintain strong foundations for basic scientific research and will make it even harder for us to retain young scientists in the United States. The Scripps Institution of Oceanography, a world leader in ocean research, has noted the harmful cuts to the geoscientist program, which is used to improve prediction for events, including earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes, tsunamis, drought, and solar storms. At a time of increasingly extreme weather, we should be investing in research, not cutting it.

Unfortunately, the amendment offered by Mr. Kilmer, Ms. Esty, and me to increase funding by a small but significant 3.5 percent was not even given a chance to have a vote here on the House floor.

I ask my colleagues to oppose this rule and to stand up for America's scientists and our competitiveness.

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