Jerry Lewis: “Mr. Chairman, both the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Stokes) and I have prepared a very extensive response to this amendment…”

“Mr. Chairman, both the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Stokes) and I have prepared a very extensive response to this amendment but, frankly, because of the pressures of time and otherwise, let me suggest simply that the National Science Foundation is among the committee's and the Congress' very high priorities. We believe that the American government has played a very significant role in productive research efforts. It is rather standard for critics of NSF often to pick a handful of examples of that which they would call excess, and usually those examples, while they have a title that can be used conveniently, do not reflect at all the specific project in terms of its detail. These items funded by NSF come under very serious review. NSF relies on the judgment of over 60,000 independent reviewers, each of whom has expertise in his or her field. Depending on whether by mail or by panel reviews being used, each proposal is reviewed by an average of 4 to 11 experts and ranked on its scientific merit. As of this moment, approximately 1 in 3 proposals are eventually funded even though well over half are considered to have enough merit to deserve funding. It is important for the Members to know that we support strongly this bill in its present form. It is very important that the Members oppose this amendment.”