Douglas Alexander: “in May, Senator Jeff Bingaman and I, with the encouragement of the Senate Energy Committee Chairman, Pete Domenici…”

“in May, Senator Jeff Bingaman and I, with the encouragement of the Senate Energy Committee Chairman, Pete Domenici, asked the National Academies of Sciences and Engineering and the Institute of Medicine the following question: What are the top 10 actions, in priority order, that Federal policymakers could take over the next decade to help the United States keep our advantage in science and technology? That was our question. To answer the question, the academies assembled a distinguished panel of business, government, and university leaders, headed by Norm Augustine, the former chair of Lockheed Martin. The panel also included three Nobel Prize laureates. The panel took our question seriously, and I intend to do everything within my power to take their recommendations seriously. Tomorrow, the Energy Committee will take the first step in that response by holding a hearing to hear from Mr. Augustine and the Academies. It will be the first opportunity Congress will have to hear their answer to our question. This hearing is primarily about brainpower and the relationship of brainpower to good American jobs. The United States produces almost one-third of all the wealth in the world, in terms of gross domestic product but has only 5 percent of the world's population. We are a fortunate country indeed. The Academies explained this phenomenon in this way: . . . as much as 85 percent of measured growth in U.S. income per capita is due to technological change.…”