Political Quotes

“My amendment would increase funding for the Advanced Research Project Agency for Energy, otherwise known as ARPA-E. The bill provides $280 million for ARPA-E, which is $45 million less than the President's request. It also represents less than half of the difference between the committee mark and the President's request, with the increase offset by a reduction in the Department administrative account. At the outset, I want to thank the chairman and ranking member of our subcommittee for the level of funding provided to ARPA-E this year, which is a substantial improvement over last year's House mark which cut the program by 80 percent. However, I think that rather than providing flat funding, we should be stepping up our commitment to a potentially game-changing research program, and that is what my amendment does. This is a very modest investment for an agency whose work is helping to reshape our economy. While the amendment would leave us still short of where the funding should be and where it is in the President's budget, passing it would send a strong signal that there is bipartisan support for this kind of research. Last year, I offered a similar amendment to restore funding to ARPA-E in this fiscal year 2014 Energy and Water Appropriations Act, which was adopted by a bipartisan majority in the House.…”