Mark Udall: “as a cosponsor of H.R. 4664, I rise in support of this important bill that will put the National Science Foundation on a…”

“as a cosponsor of H.R. 4664, I rise in support of this important bill that will put the National Science Foundation on a track to double its budget in five years. I thank Chairman Boehlert and my colleagues in the Science Committee for their hard work on this bill. I think we all recognize that investing in basic research is critical for a strong economy and national security. In the past 50 years, half of U.S. economic productivity can be attributed to technological innovation and the science that has supported it. Despite this fact, over the last two decades Federal investment in R&D has fallen by one-third as a share of the GDP. This bill will help put us on the right track. Federal investment in science underpins our global competitiveness and our prosperity. NSF-funded research made possible the discovery of the 'ozone hole,' developed the first Web browser, advanced the field of molecular genetics, and funded much of the early research leading to the development of speech activation and recognition technology. Less directly but no less importantly, NSF is often the major source of support for education and training of Ph.D. scientists and engineers, many of whom have gone on to make major private-sector contributions in the development of cell phones, fiber optics, and computer assisted design. NSF provides fully 23% of total Federal support for university research--or nearly half excluding NIH sponsored biomedical research.”